View allAll Photos Tagged committed
Handsworth Helping Hands is a voluntary group committed to improving the quality of life in Handsworth, Birmingham, UK
www.facebook.com/groups/334430036631024/permalink/1118243...
Dear Brackley Avenue Residents. During the past week or two, Handsworth Helping Hands have been putting up hanging baskets on many of the houses in the area. It is now Brackley Avenue’s turn. On Friday August 12th we will bring everything you need to complete the next stage of the Four Avenues Project – brightening up the street with hanging baskets and planters on house frontages:
•hanging baskets with fibre and plastic liners and large planter pots
•compost and plants
•trowels and watering cans
•brackets, screws and rawlplugs
Many thanks to those of you who have been working with us to resolve problems and improve life for everyone living in Brackley Avenue. We hope you will be able to join us on Friday.
Please ring Lin or Simon on 0121 554 9794 if you have any questions or wish to give your views about the project. You can also let us know if you have any ideas for inclusion in the project.
*** ***
Lovely day. Busy. Nick was kept especially active fixing brackets, as just about every householder wanted a hanging basket. Children and grown-ups set to planting the baskets. During the work, a resident brought us all cakes, biscuits and tea. More work was generated - filling up the van with more litter and heavy objects. Plants were donated by Birmingham City Council park staff in the compound at Handsworth Park.
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on authentic facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The Austrian Air Force in its current form was created in May 1955 by the victorious Allied powers, subject to restrictions on its use of guided missiles. The Austrian State Treaty of 1955 committed Austria to permanent neutrality. Pilot training started out with a four Yak-11 Moose and four Yak-18 Max aircraft donated by the Soviet Union, and Austria purchased further light trainer types under the Military Assistance Program. Until 1960 Austria purchased training and support aircraft under the MAP, but no modern fighter aircraft; the role of a fighter was rather inadequately filled by thirty already outdated Saab 29 Tunnan, bought second-hand from the Swedish Air Force in the early 1960s which equipped two fighter bomber squadrons.
To expand its capabilities and modernize the fleet, Austria purchased from 1970 on a total of 40 Saab 105 lightweight multi-role aircraft from Sweden with the intention to deploy them in trainer, reconnaissance, ground attack and even interception roles. As it became clear in the 1980s that the light sub-sonic aircraft were inadequate for air combat and airspace interdiction, Austria started looking for a more capable aircraft. In 1984, Austria had devised a two-phase solution to its problem: buying 30 interim aircrafts cheaply as a stopgap and then trading them back for a new generation aircraft in the early or mid-Nineties.
International response was quick and manifold: Bristol Aerospace offered initially ex RAF Jaguars to be replaced by Tornado F.3 or even Eurofighters; Saab-Scania offered between 24 and 30 former Royal Swedish Air Force J 35D Draken, followed by Saab J 39 Gripen as future substitutes; General-Electric suggested downgraded F-16/79 or F-16A for phase one and an option for the same aircraft in a more modern variant for phase two; Northrop’s numberF-5E was another alternative for phase one. Dassault was also present with refurbished Mirage III initially, followed by Mirage 2000.
Finding the most suitable option in this mass was not easy, and eventually a surprising deal materialized: In 1985 the contract for the sale of twenty-four Lightning F.56 fighters plus four T.55 trainers was signed by the SPÖ/FPÖ government under Fred Sinowatz. The background: Saudi Arabia had been operating thirty-four F.53 single-seaters and six T.55 trainers since 1967 and was about to retire its fleet, which was still in very good condition and with a reasonable number of flying hours left on many airframes. The aircraft would be refurbished directly at BAe in Great Britain with the option to switch to the Tornado ADV or its successor, the Eurofighter Typhoon, later.
The Lightning F.53 was an export version of the RAF’s F.6, but with a multi-role mission profile in mind that included, beyond the primary interceptor mission with guided missiles or internal guns, the capability to carry out interdiction/ground attacks and reconnaissance missions. To carry a suitable ordnance load, the F.53 featured additional underwing pylons for bombs or unguided rocket pods. Instead of the standard Firestreak/Red Top AAM missile station in the lower front fuselage, two retractable panniers with a total of forty-four unguided 50 mm rockets, which were effective against both ground and aerial targets, could be installed, or, alternatively, two camera packs (one with five cameras and another with a rotating camera mount) was available for tactical photo reconnaissance missions. Overwing hardpoints, adapted from the Lightning F.6, allowed to carry auxiliary fuel tanks to increase range/endurance, additional rocket pods or even retarded bombs.
The Lightning T.55 was also an export variant, a two-seat side-by-side training aircraft, and virtually identical to the T.5, which itself was based on the older F.3 fighter variant, and fully combat-capable.
The Saudi Arabian multi-role F.53s had served in the ground-attack and reconnaissance roles as well as an air defense fighter, with Lightnings of No. 6 Squadron RSAF carrying out ground-attack missions using rockets and bombs during a border dispute with South Yemen between December 1969 and May 1970. Saudi Arabia received Northrop F-5E fighters from 1971, which resulted in the Lightnings relinquishing the ground-attack mission, concentrating on air defense, and to a lesser extent, reconnaissance. Until 1982, Saudi Arabia's Lightnings were mainly operated by 2 and 6 Squadron RSAF (although a few were also used by 13 Squadron RSAF), but when 6 Squadron re-equipped with the F-15 Eagle from 1978 on, all the remaining aircraft were concentrated and operated by 2 Squadron at Tabuk. In 1985, as part of the agreement to sell the Panavia Tornado (both IDS and ADV versions) to the RSAF, the Lightnings were traded in to British Aerospace, returned to Warton for refurbishment and re-sold to Austria.
While the Saudi Arabian Lightnings’ hardware was in very good shape, the Austrian Bundesluftwaffe requested some modifications, including a different missile armament: instead of the maintenance-heavy British Firestreak/Red Top AAMs, the Lightnings were to be armed with simpler, lighter and more economical IR-guided AIM-9 Sidewinder AAMs which were already in the Austrian Air Force’s inventory. Two of these missiles were carried on single launch rails on the lower forward fuselage; an additional pair of Sidewinders could also be carried on the outer underwing stations, for a total of four. The F.53s’ optional retractable unguided rocket panniers were dropped altogether in favor of a permanent avionics bay for the Sidewinders in its place. However, to carry out tactical reconnaissance tasks (formerly executed by J 29Fs with a removable camera pod instead of the portside gun bay), four Austrian Lightnings frequently had one of the optional camera compartments installed, thereby losing the capability to deploy Sidewinders, though.
Among other things, the machines were furthermore upgraded with new bird strike-proof cockpit glazing, avionics were modernized, and several other minor customer requests were adopted, like a 0.6-megacandela night identification light. This spotlight is mounted in the former portside gun bay in front of the cockpit, and an anti-glare panel was added under the windscreen.
The fixed in-flight refueling probe was deleted, as this was not deemed necessary anymore since the Lightnings would exclusively operate within neutral Austria’s borders. The probes could, however, be re-installed, even though the Austrian pilots would not receive on-flight refueling training. The Lightnings' optional 260 imp gal overwing tanks were retained since they were considered to be sufficient for extended subsonic air patrols or eventual ferry flights.
The refurbished Lightnings were re-designated F.56 and delivered in batches of four between 1987 and 1989 to the Austrian Air Force’s 1st and then 2nd Fighter Squadrons, carrying a grey air superiority paint scheme. At that time, the airframes had between 1,550 and 2,800 flight hours and all had a general overhaul behind them. In 1991, the Lightings were joined by eighteen German ex-NVA-LSK MiG-23s, which were transferred to Austrian Air Force's ‘Fliegerwerft B’ at Nittner Air Base, where they'd be overhauled and updated with NATO-compatible equipment. As MiG-23Ö they were exclusively used as interceptors, too.
Shortly after their introduction, the Austrian Lightnings saw their first major use in airspace interdiction starting 1991 during the Yugoslav Wars, when Yugoslav MiG-21 fighters frequently crossed the Austrian border without permission. In one incident on 28 June a MiG-21 penetrated as far as Graz, causing widespread demands for action. Following repeated border crossings by armed aircraft of the Yugoslav People's Army, changes were suggested to the standing orders for aircraft armament.
With more and more practice and frequent interceptions one of the Lightning's basic flaws became apparent: its low range. Even though the Lightning had a phenomenal acceleration and rate of climb, this was only achieved in a relatively clean configuration - intercepting intruders was one thing but escorting them back to the Austrian border or an assigned airfield, as well as standing air patrols, were a different thing. With more tactical experience, the overwing tanks were taken back into service, even though they were so draggy that their range benefit was ultimately zero when the aircraft would use its afterburners during a typical interception mission. Therefore, the Austrian QRA Lightnings were typically operated in pairs: one clean and only lightly armed (typically with the guns and a pair of AIM-9s), to make a quick approach for visual intruder identification and contact, while a second aircraft with extra fuel would follow at high subsonic speed and eventually take over and escort the intruder. Airspace patrol was primarily executed with the MiG-23Ö, because it had a much better endurance, thanks to its VG wings, even though the Floggers had a poor service record, and their maintenance became ever more complicated.
After more experience, the Austrian Lightnings received in 1992 new ALR-45 radar detectors in a fairing on the fin top as well as chaff and flare dispenser systems, and the communication systems were upgraded, too. In 2004 the installation of Garmin 295 moving map navigation devices followed, even though this turned out to be a negligible update: on December 22, 2005, the active service life and thus military use of the Lightnings in general ended, and Austria was the last country to decommission the type, more than 50 years after the first flight of the prototype on August 4, 1954.
The Austrian Lightnings’ planned service period of 10 years was almost doubled, though, due to massive delays with the Eurofighter’s development: In 2002, Austria had already selected the Typhoon as its new “Phase II” air defense aircraft, having beaten the F-16 and the Saab Gripen in competition, and its introduction had been expected to occur from early 2005 on, so that the Lightnings could be gradually phased out. The purchase of 18 Typhoons was agreed on 1 July 2003, but it would take until 12 July 2007 that the first Typhoon would eventually be delivered to Zeltweg Air Base and formally enter service with the Austrian Air Force. This operational gap had to be bridged with twelve F-5E leased from Switzerland for EUR 75 mio., so that Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) duties for the Austrian airspace could be continued.
General characteristics:
Crew: 1
Length: 55 ft 3 in (16.84 m)
Wingspan: 34 ft 10 in (10.62 m)
Height: 19 ft 7 in (5.97 m)
Wing area: 474.5 sq ft (44.08 m²)
Empty weight: 31,068 lb (14,092 kg) with armament and no fuel
Gross weight: 41,076 lb (18,632 kg) with two AIM-9B, cannon, ammunition, and internal fuel
Max takeoff weight: 45,750 lb (20,752 kg)
Powerplant:
2× Rolls-Royce Avon 301R afterburning turbojet engines,
12,690 lbf (56.4 kN) thrust each dry, 16,360 lbf (72.8 kN) with afterburner
Performance:
Maximum speed: Mach 2.27 (1,500 mph+ at 40,000 ft)
Range: 738 nmi (849 mi, 1,367 km)
Combat range: 135 nmi (155 mi, 250 km) supersonic intercept radius
Range: 800 nmi (920 mi, 1,500 km) with internal fuel
1,100 nmi (1,300 mi; 2,000 km) with external overwing tanks
Service ceiling: 60,000 ft (18,000 m)
Zoom ceiling: 70,000 ft (21,000 m)
Rate of climb: 20,000 ft/min (100 m/s) sustained to 30,000 ft (9,100 m)
Zoom climb: 50,000 ft/min
Time to altitude: 2.8 min to 36,000 ft (11,000 m)
Wing loading: 76 lb/sq ft (370 kg/m²) with two AIM-9 and 1/2 fuel
Thrust/weight: 0.78 (1.03 empty)
Armament:
2× 30 mm (1.181 in) ADEN cannon with 120 RPG in the lower fuselage
2× forward fuselage hardpoints for a single AIM-9 Sidewinder AAM each
2× underwing hardpoints for 1.000 lb (454 kg) each
2× overwing pylon stations for 2.000 lb (907 kg each),
typically occupied with 260 imp gal (310 US gal; 1,200 l) ferry tanks
The kit and its assembly:
This was another submission to the “Hunter, Lightning and Canberra” group build at whatifmodellers.com in 2022 and intended as a rather simple build since it was based on an alternate reality plot: the weird story that Austria was offered a revamped fleet of ex-Saudi Arabian Lightnings is true(!), but the decision eventually fell in favor of revamped Saab J 35Ds from Sweden. For this what-if build I used the real historic timeline, replaced the aircraft, and built both story and model around this – and the result became the BAC Lightning F.56 in Austrian Air Force service.
Initially I wanted to use an Airfix BAC Lightning in The Stash™, a really nice model kit and a relatively new mold, but it turned out to be the kit’s F.2A variant. While very similar to the F.6, changing it into a F.53 analogue with the OOB parts turned out to be too complex for my taste. For instance, the F.2A kit lacks the ventral gun bay (it just comes with the auxiliary tank option since the guns are already located in front of the cockpit) and the cable conduits on the lower flanks. Procuring a suitable and priceworthy Airfix F.6 turned out to be impossible, but then I remembered a Hasegawa Lightning F.6 in The Stash™ that I had shot at ev!lbay many moons ago for a laughable price and without a concrete plan. However, this kit is pretty old: it has raised (yet quite fine, less robust than the Matchbox kit) panel lines and even comes with a pilot figure, but also many weak spots like the air intake and the jet exhausts that end in flat walls after some millimeters depth and a very basic cockpit. But for this rather simple what-if project the kit appeared to be a suitable basis, and it would eventually find a good use.
The Hasegawa Lightning was basically built OOB, even though I made some cosmetic amendments like a better seat for the pilot, hydraulic fluid lines on the landing gear made from wire or opening the flat walls inside of the air intake opening and the jet nozzles. Behind the radome, a simple splitter plate was added as well as a recessed bulkhead in front of an implanted Me 262 cockpit tub (the Hasegawa kit just offers a bare floor panel, nothing else!), the afterburners were extended inwards with parts from a Matchbox A.W. Meteor night fighter.
The Red Top AAMs and the in-flight refueling probe were omitted. Instead, I added extra F.53-style forward-swept pylons under the outer wings, scratched from 1.5 mm styrene sheet due to their odd, raked shape, and I added Sidewinder launch rails plus suitable missiles from a Hasegawa air-to-air weapons set to all four stations. After long consideration I also retained the ‘overburger’ tanks, partly because of the unique layout on the Lightning, and also because of operational considerations.
Chaff dispensers were scratched from styrene profiles and placed at the fin’s base. A fairing for the retrofitted radar warning sensor was added to the fin tip, created from 1.5 mm styrene sheet.
Painting and markings:
To reflect the “alternate reality” role of the Lightning I gave the model a livery similar to the Saab J 35Ö that were actually procured: an adaptation of the USAF “Egypt One” scheme, carried primarily by the USAF F-16s. Adapting this simple three-tone camouflage from the flat F-16 to the Draken was easy and straightforward, but applying it to a Lightning with its many vertical surfaces turned out to be a tough challenge. I eventually came up with a paint scheme that reminds of the late RAF low-viz Lightning liveries, which existed in a wide range of patterns and graduations of grey.
The colors were authentic, FS 36118, 36270 and 36375 (using Humbrol 125, 126 and 127), and I decided to emphasize the camouflage of the flanks against the horizon, so that the vertical surfaces and the fin became FS 36270. The undersides of wings, stabilizers and fuselage became FS 36375. The dark FS 36118 was only applied to the upper sides of the wings and the stabilizer, and to a high dorsal section, starting at the wing roots. As a small contrast, the tank area on the spine was painted in light grey, simulating unpainted fiber glass. The radome was painted with a streaky mix of Humbrol 155 and 56.
As usual, the model received a light black ink washing, some post-panel-shading in lighter tones, and, due to the raised panel lines, was very lightly rubbed with graphite. The cockpit interior was painted in medium grey (Revell 47) with an olive drab fabric fairing behind the black pilot seat, which received ejection handles made from thin wire as eye candy. The landing gear and the respective wells were painted in Humbrol 56 (Aluminum Dope).
The decals are a wild mix: The fuselage roundels are actually wing markings from a Hasegawa J 35OE, as well as the huge orange "06" on the wings (I could not resist; they will later be partly obscured by the overwing tanks, but the heck with it!). The roundels on the wings come from a generic TL Modellbau sheet - I found that I needed larger markings than those on the Draken.
Both unit and individual aircraft identifiers are single black DIN font digits, also from TL Modellbau. The unit badges on the fin are authentic, even though from an earlier era: they came from an Austrian J 29 of Fliegerregiment 2 from a PrintScale sheet, and all stencils were taken from the OOB low-viz RAF markings sheet, plus four small warning triangles for the underwing pylons.
A ‘what-if’ model in the purest sense, since this model depicts what could really have been: ex Saudi-Arabian export BAC Lightnings over the Austrian Alps! However, refurbished Saab J 35D Draken made the race (and later followed by the Eurofighter Typhoon at ‘Stage 2’), so that this Lightning remains fictional. It does not look bad in the ‘Egypt One’ paint scheme, though, better than expected!
There's a shit ton of Kremlin propaganda about the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact on social media (including many variations of the list in the above screenshot) which seeks to portray the infamous pact between the Nazis and Soviets as being essentially no different from all the other treaties in the list, which - surprise, surprise - is not the case. It's just another Russian lie.
To illustrate this, let's compare the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with the Polish-German Non-Aggression Treaty of 26th January 1934, which for some strange reason is referred to here as the "Hitler-Pilsudsko Pact" (sic).
The Polish-German non-aggression treaty is often used by mindless vatniks and tankies to portray interwar Poland as "pro-German" in a dishonest attempt to excuse the Soviet Union's subsequent collaboration with Nazi Germany at Poland's expense and the war crimes that the USSR committed against the Polish people as a direct result of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (ie "let's blame the victim - they got what they deserved").
Stalin's apologists routinely do the same to other victims of the pact, as well as victims of Soviet tyranny in general, because in their delusional fantasy world it was perfectly fine for the Soviet Union to invade, occupy and terrorise other countries. Obviously, when Hitler or western imperialists did stuff like that - it was bad, but when the Soviets did it - it was good.
And if you were one of the millions of men, women and children who were robbed, gang-raped, imprisoned, sent to the gulags, tortured, starved to death, executed or ethnically cleansed by Stalin's henchmen - the Kremlin's shills and useful idiots will either deny it happened, or blame it on somebody else or - if there's no way of doing that - they'll just say that you deserved it. Because they also frequently try to dishonestly portray all Stalin's victims - or anybody who opposed Soviet tyranny - as fascists and/or Nazis.
And as a lot of people are very ignorant about the history of central and eastern Europe (or only seem to see it from the perspective of the so-called "great powers") this kind of bullshit is widely believed, even though it's blatant historical revisionism.
Interwar Poland was very aware that it was sandwiched between two aggressive neighbours who wouldn't hesitate to wipe "the bastard child of the Versailles treaty" off the map if they got the chance. As such, Poland signed non-aggression treaties with both the USSR and Nazi Germany in an attempt to normalise relations and reduce tensions that existed along their borders. In the aftermath of the Polish-Soviet War and Treaty Of Riga, Polish statesman Józef Piłsudski initially believed that the more immediate threat was from the Soviet Union, because prior to the rise of the Nazis, Germany was a million miles away from the force it would eventually become by the end of the 1930s (Germany only seriously re-armed after Piłsudski’s death in 1935).
Russian disinfo generally avoids any mention of the fact that Poland signed a non-aggression treaty with the Soviet Union first, in 1932 (and this treaty was subsequently re-confirmed in 1938). The treaty with Germany two years later was simply a continuation of the same policy of trying to maintain peaceful co-existence with Poland's neighbours.
Piłsudski was deeply concerned about the emergence of Hitlerism, although disputes over the free port of Danzig (Gdańsk) were already ongoing before Hitler came to power. Poland had retained the right to formally welcome foreign ships into the port, but in 1932 the Danzig Senate kept delaying the renewal of the requisite agreement. Piłsudski used the planned visit of three British warships for a show of strength and they were duly welcomed into Danzig by the Polish destroyer Wicher, after he'd made it clear that the ship had instructions to open fire on the nearest government building if the local German authorities intervened. The incident annoyed the League of Nations but successfully secured the renewal of the agreement sought by Poland.
Immediately after Hitler came to power Piłsudski made a similar gesture, by assigning 120 more Polish troops to Westerplatte (on 6th March 1933) - and again the Germans acquiesced.
According to some accounts (by Jan Karski and Norman Davies for example), Piłsudski actually suggested a pre-emptive attack on Germany to the French government in 1933, with the aim of removing Hitler from power, but his proposal was rejected by the French.
Poland was also alarmed by Italy's plan to cut "minor" nations out of European settlements, which would be determined by the four "major" powers — Britain, France, Germany and Italy - and could have potentially included decisions about Danzig and the "Polish Corridor" to the Baltic sea.
These are the events that prompted Poland to seek a non-aggression treaty with Germany in 1934 - and after signing it, Polish Foreign Minister Józef Beck travelled to Moscow to reassure the Soviets that the Polish-German declaration did not affect the 1932 Soviet-Polish Treaty of Non-Aggression in any way, and offered to extend the treaty to ten years.
It's perfectly understandable why a country in Poland's position would enter into such agreements in an attempt to safeguard its security. Furthermore, a non-aggression treaty is not an alliance, and these treaties did not make Poland "pro-Soviet" or "pro-German". Poland's 1934 agreement with Germany had no secret protocol or ulterior motive, and any comparison with the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact is completely false.
One of the more ludicrous claims made by Kremlin propagandists is that Poland tried to form an alliance with the Nazis to attack the USSR. However, this is yet another Russian lie.
When Hermann Goering visited Poland in January 1935, he sounded out the Polish government about a possible anti-Soviet alliance but the idea was promptly dismissed. In February 1937 Goering again visited Warsaw to suggest that Poland align itself with Germany against the Soviet Union. Beck turned him down. When German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop came to Warsaw in January 1939, Beck informed him that Poland would not agree to German demands (made since 1938) for the return of Danzig to the Reich and an extraterritorial highway to East Prussia, and would also not join the Anti-Comintern Pact against the Soviet Union. In a speech to the Reichstag on 28th April 1939, Hitler denounced Germany's non-aggression treaty with Poland. Beck responded in a speech to the Polish parliament on 5th May 1939, making it clear that he refused to be intimidated.
In reality, it was Germany that tried to persuade Poland to enter into an anti-Soviet alliance, and after Poland declined, the Nazis then turned to the Soviet Union and negotiated the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which was presented to the world as a simple non-aggression treaty, but was really a plan to carve up Europe between Germany and the USSR - involving the mutual invasion and partition of Poland, a free hand for Hitler to attack Western Europe and for Stalin to annex the Baltic states, Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, and to attack Finland.
And funnily enough, that's exactly what actually happened....
TL;DR - Russian propagandists are lying as usual.
The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union led directly to the outbreak of the Second World War, and all its tragic consequences, almost immediately after the pact was signed on 23rd August 1939.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Non-Aggression_between_Ge...
The signatories were the foreign ministers of the two countries, Vyacheslav Molotov and Joachim von Ribbentrop - hence its name.
A week later on 1st September, Nazi Germany attacked Poland from the west and just over two weeks after that, the USSR attacked Poland from the east (which is another topic that the Kremlin simply can't stop lying about)....
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Poland
www.flickr.com/photos/stillunusual/52386755378
What also makes the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact different from the other treaties listed in the screenshot above, is that it was just one step in a continuum of Nazi-Soviet collaboration that lasted until June 1941, and was well documented in the numerous diplomatic communications between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union throughout this period. After the Second World War, the relevant documents that had been stored in the archives of the German Foreign Office were translated into English and published in a book called "Nazi-Soviet Relations 1939-41". The complete collection can now be found online.
www.ibiblio.org/pha/nsr/nsr-preface.html
There was actually a sickening prelude to Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, ie the dismissal by Stalin of his staunchly anti-fascist foreign minister Litvinov (who also happened to be Jewish), and his replacement by the more Nazi-friendly Molotov (who was told to purge the ministry of Jews) in order to facilitate negotiations between the two tyrannies.
This change was received favourably by the Nazis, and after Molotov took over from Litvinov, Stalin immediately sounded them out to see if this would make it easier to do business, as shown by this quote from the German Foreign Office Memorandum dated 5th May 1939: "Astakhov touched upon the dismissal of Litvinov and tried without asking direct questions to learn whether this event would cause a change in our position toward the Soviet Union. He stressed very much the great importance of the personality of Molotov, who was by no means a specialist in foreign policy, but who would have all the greater importance for the future Soviet foreign policy"....
The pact was signed on the basis that: "there exist no real conflicts of interest between Germany and the USSR. The living spaces of Germany and the USSR touch each other, but in their natural requirements do not conflict" (as stated in a telegram from Ribbentrop to the German ambassador in the Soviet Union on 14th August 1939).
It had seven articles....
ARTICLE I
Both High Contracting Parties obligate themselves to desist from any act of violence, any aggressive action, and any attack on each other, either individually or jointly with other powers.
ARTICLE II
Should one of the High Contracting Parties become the object of belligerent action by a third power, the other High Contracting Party shall in no manner lend its support to this third power.
ARTICLE III
The Governments of the two High Contracting Parties shall in the future maintain continual contact with one another for the purpose of consultation in order to exchange information on problems affecting their common interests.
ARTICLE IV
Neither of the two High Contracting Parties shall participate in any grouping of powers whatsoever that is directly or indirectly aimed at the other party.
ARTICLE V
Should disputes or conflicts arise between the High Contracting Parties over problems of one kind or another, both parties shall settle these disputes or conflicts exclusively through friendly exchange of opinion or, if necessary, through the establishment of arbitration commissions.
ARTICLE VI
The present treaty is concluded for a period of ten years, with the proviso that, in so far as one of the High Contracting Parties does not denounce it one year prior to the expiration of this period, the validity of this treaty shall automatically be extended for another five years.
ARTICLE VII
The present treaty shall be ratified within the shortest possible time. The ratifications shall be exchanged in Berlin. The agreement shall enter into force as soon as it is signed.
However, the above articles were just a cover story for the secret protocol between the Nazis and Soviets, which defined their mutually agreed "spheres of influence", ie the territories that each of the signatories could invade without having to worry about retaliation from the other.
SECRET ADDITIONAL PROTOCOL
On the occasion of the signature of the Non-aggression Pact between the German Reich and the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics the undersigned plenipotentiaries of each of the two parties discussed in strictly confidential conversations the question of the boundary of their respective spheres of influence in Eastern Europe. These conversations led to the following conclusions:
1. In the event of a territorial and political rearrangement in the areas belonging to the Baltic States (Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), the northern boundary of Lithuania shall represent the boundary of the spheres of influence of Germany and the USSR. In this connection the interest of Lithuania in the Vilna area is recognized by each party.
2. In the event of a territorial and political rearrangement of the areas belonging to the Polish state the spheres of influence of Germany and the USSR shall be bounded approximately by the line of the rivers Narew, Vistula, and San. The question of whether the interests of both parties make desirable the maintenance of an independent Polish state and how such a state should be bounded can only be definitely determined in the course of further political developments. In any event both Governments will resolve this question by means of a friendly agreement.
3. With regard to Southeastern Europe attention is called by the Soviet side to its interest in Bessarabia. The German side declares its complete political disinterestedness in these areas.
4. This protocol shall be treated by both parties as strictly secret.
It's interesting to note that the protocol already includes a provisional agreement about the future border between Nazi Germany and the USSR "in the event of a territorial and political rearrangement of the areas belonging to the Polish state" and it's also fascinating to read through Nazi Germany's diplomatic records of the negotiations between the Nazis and Soviets to define all the "spheres of influence" that Hitler and Stalin eventually agreed on.
www.ibiblio.org/pha/nsr/nsr-02.html
These negotiations clearly demonstrate that when the Kremlin subsequently made the ludicrous claim that the Soviet invasion of Poland was some kind of spontaneous rescue mission to protect the Belarusians and Ukrainians living in the east of the country, it was just another gratuitous lie.
Further negotiations after the pact was signed also led to minor alterations in the "spheres of influence".
TL;DR - Russian propagandists are lying as usual.
Soviet military and economic cooperation with Germany actually dated back to the Treaty of Rapallo in 1922, although it was initially discouraged by Hitler after coming to power.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Rapallo,_1922
However, from August 1939 onwards the USSR provided Hitler with a great deal of much needed economic and military support, which ironically also helped the Germans in their preparations to launch Operation Barbarossa in June 1941.
During their mutual invasion of Poland, the Nazis and Soviets issued a joint declaration on 18th September 1939 to justify their actions.
On 20th September, Nazi and Soviet military leaders discussed coordinating the actions of the Wehrmacht and Red Army.
www.flickr.com/photos/stillunusual/54795737145
www.flickr.com/photos/stillunusual/54795404531
www.flickr.com/photos/stillunusual/54795737150
On 22nd September, a Nazi–Soviet military parade took place in Brest-Litovsk (in Polish: Brześć nad Bugiem or Brześć Litewski).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German%E2%80%93Soviet_military_para...
A Friendship and Border treaty was signed by Nazi Germany and the USSR on 28th September 1939, along with a secret protocol establishing the border between the two countries. Three additional protocols were added to the agreement, the third of which stated that: "Both parties will tolerate no Polish agitation in their territories which affects the territories of the other party. They will suppress in their territories all beginnings of such agitation and inform each other concerning suitable measures for this purpose".
The signing of the treaty was accompanied by an announcement stating that both parties wanted an end to the war between Germany, Britain and France - and that if Britain and France refused to stop the war "....the Governments of Germany and of the USSR shall engage in mutual consultations with regard to necessary measures".
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German-Soviet_Boundary_and_Friendsh...
According to Molotov: "....it is not only absurd, it is criminal to wage a war to 'smash Hitlerism' under the false slogan of a war for democracy".
At a session of the Supreme Soviet on 31st October, he bragged about the USSR's military partnership with Germany: "....it was proved enough for Poland to be dealt one swift blow, first by the German army and then by the Red Army, to wipe out all remains of this monstrous bastard offspring of the Versailles Treaty".
The USSR and Germany implemented parallel policies of suppressing resistance in occupied Poland and destroying the Polish elites in their respective areas of occupation. The Soviet NKVD and Nazi Gestapo coordinated their actions on many issues, including prisoner exchanges. Between 1939 and 1941 the NKVD delivered to the Gestapo over 4000 Jews and German communists who had taken refuge in Soviet held territory.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestapo-NKVD_Conferences
Hitler then proceeded to invade the other countries in his agreed "sphere of influence" while Stalin did the same in his agreed "sphere of influence"....
An important factor in Hitler's successes in the west was that he didn't have to watch his back following his alliance with the USSR, which gave him a free hand to mobilise all the forces at his disposal to rapidly conquer the countries of Western Europe.
And in June 1940, while the Germans were marching into Paris, the Soviet Union was simultaneously annexing the Baltic states (although they did find time to send congratulations to their Nazi allies).
The Soviets also provided all manner of assistance to the Nazis during their military campaigns in the west, and while Germany was fighting Britain and France, Stalin was not only calling them "criminals" and "imperialists" for opposing Hitler, but he was also helping his Nazi allies to break Britain's blockade by supplying Germany with raw materials. Provision was made for the supply from the USSR of a million tons of grain for cattle, 900000 tons of mineral oil, 100000 tons of cotton, 500000 tons of phosphates, 100000 tons of chrome ore, 500000 tons of iron ore, 300000 tons of scrap iron and pig iron, and numerous other commodities vital to the German war effort.
In the summer and autumn of 1940, when Polish pilots were defending the skies over Britain from the Luftwaffe (after escaping to the west following the Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland), the German pilots were flying on fuel supplied by their Soviet allies.
More details here....
Nazi–Soviet economic relations (1934–1941)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi%E2%80%93Soviet_economic_relations
The Nazi–Soviet Commercial Agreement (1939)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German%E2%80%93Soviet_Commercial_Ag...
The Nazi–Soviet Commercial Agreement (1940)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German%E2%80%93Soviet_Commercial_Ag...
The Nazi–Soviet Border and Commercial Agreement (1941)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German%e2%80%93Soviet_Border_and_Co...
The USSR also furnished Germany with military cooperation far beyond that which the United States was giving to Great Britain during this time. The Soviets actually allowed Germany a naval base on Soviet territory near Murmansk, which proved valuable for U-boats operating in the North Sea, and played an important role in helping to supply Hitler's invasion of Norway.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basis_Nord
German ships such as the liner "Bremen" found refuge at Murmansk, as did a succession of blockade breaking vessels - and measures violating international law were adopted by the Soviet authorities to allow the Germans to escape with a captured American merchant ship, City Of Flint (which had been carrying a cargo of tractors, grain and fruit to Britain). German auxiliary cruisers were also equipped at Murmansk for raids on British shipping. The Soviets helped a German raiding cruiser, Schiff 45, to make its way through the ice around Siberia to the pacific, where it subsequently captured or sank 64000 tons of allied shipping.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_auxiliary_cruiser_Komet
In this and other ways the Soviet Union lent enormous assistance to the otherwise vulnerable German Navy.
Stalin actually requested the USSR's membership of the tri-partite Axis agreement as a full member, and negotiations took place over several months from 1940-41 but never reached fruition. He was "visibly pleased" at the idea and irritated when it didn't happen, although the USSR did sign a neutrality pact with Japan in April 1941.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German%E2%80%93Soviet_Axis_talks
These negotiations are also documented in the archives of the German Foreign Office.
www.ibiblio.org/pha/nsr/nsr-06.html
When they were published after the war Stalin was so embarrassed that he went to the trouble of publishing a book full of reality-denying nonsense about how he was just playing a game of bluff with the Axis powers, and didn't mean any of it - but then again, he would say that wouldn't he?
From 1939 to 1941, the friendship between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union was promoted to the Soviet people in state propaganda - even that which was aimed at children.
www.tumblr.com/stillunusual/696491665705385984/pionerskay...
And as well as indoctrinating the citizens of the USSR with pro-Nazi and anti-western messaging, Stalin also ordered communist parties throughout the world to stop all agitation against Hitler's regime and to follow suit.
For example, the newspaper published by the Communist Party of Great Britain (which was then known as the "Daily Worker" but later changed its name to "Morning Star") began the war supporting resistance to the Nazis, but then rapidly changed its tune and began shilling for Hitler under orders from Moscow - and continued to do so even as German bombs were dropping all over the UK. Ironically, on 16th April 1941, the Daily Worker's London office was destroyed by fire caused by German bombing....
By this stage publication had already been suspended by the Home Secretary, Herbert Morrison, for contravening Defence Regulation 2D, which made it an offence to "systematically publish matter calculated to foment opposition to the prosecution of the war".
FUN FACT: Jeremy Corbyn's mother Naomi was an enthusiastic seller of the Daily Worker at the time....
Stalin was simping for the Nazis for two whole years before Hitler turned on his former ally - taking an unprepared Stalin completely by surprise and forcing him to execute the "great patriotic u-turn" and join the alliance against the Nazis out of sheer desperation.
TL;DR - Russian propagandists are lying as usual.
It's easy to see what motivated Stalin to agree to a pact between the world's only communist state and a fascist state.
Neither Germany nor the USSR recognised the Versailles treaty, Stalin's personal animus towards Poland was well known and when Hitler offered him an opportunity to destroy Poland he jumped at it (there may also have been an element of desiring revenge for defeat in the Polish-Soviet war two decades earlier, especially as Stalin's incompetence had played a role in that defeat). Dividing continental Europe into mutually agreed spheres of influence also suited both countries to an extent that made ideology irrelevant.
Two years later, when Hitler broke the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and launched Operation Barbarossa, Stalin refused to believe initial reports that Germany was invading his country, just as he'd previously refused to believe credible intelligence that Germany was preparing an invasion (these preparations had been monitored and even filmed by the Polish resistance, and having seen footage smuggled out of occupied Poland by Polish SOE agent Krystyna Skarbek, Winston Churchill personally warned Stalin about the imminent invasion, but the Soviet dictator stupidly brushed him off). Stalin's immediate response to Hitler's attack on the USSR was to run away and hide in his dacha in a state of panic because he didn't have a clue what to do.
He eventually re-emerged eleven days later to deliver a radio address to the Soviet people, in which he claimed that he agreed to the pact because he'd always known that a German invasion was inevitable and that it had "secured our country peace for a year and a half and the opportunity of preparing our forces to repulse fascist Germany should she risk an attack on our country despite the pact. This was a definite advantage for us and a disadvantage for fascist Germany".
This was a laughable claim, given that the German invaders were cutting through the completely unprepared and disorganised Red Army like a knife through butter at the time.
Although the Soviets had made some half-hearted attempts at building fortifications in the territory they'd gained via the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, nothing much had actually been accomplished and all this territory was rapidly overrun by the Germans. The obvious fact that the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact resulted in Germany and the USSR having shared borders, which made it easier for the Germans to invade, didn't seem to occur to Stalin.
The huge economic and military aid that the USSR had provided to the Nazis, which helped them to expand and build up their war machine in preparation for the invasion also seems to have slipped his mind. And he also forgot about the fact that he'd been pumping out pro-Nazi, anti-western propaganda for the previous two years....
Stalin was clearly upset about being betrayed, but felt that Hitler would pay for his treachery with the damage it would do to Germany's public image: ...."What has fascist Germany gained and what has she lost by perfidiously tearing up the pact and attacking the USSR? She has gained a certain advantageous position for her troops for a short period of time, but she has lost politically by exposing herself in the eyes of the entire world as a bloodthirsty aggressor"....
This is also laughable.
Stalin was very happy to tear up treaties when it suited him - like the eight treaties he threw out of the window when the Soviet Union invaded Poland in 1939 as allies of the Nazis:
1. The Peace Treaty between Poland, Russia and the Ukraine signed in Riga on 18th March 1921, in which the eastern frontier of Poland was defined.
2. The Protocol between Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Rumania and the USSR regarding renunciation of war as an instrument of national policy, signed in Moscow on 9th February 1929.
3. The Non-Aggression Treaty between Poland and the USSR signed in Moscow on 25th July 1932.
4. The Convention for the Definition of Aggression signed in London on 3rd July 1933, signed by Estonia, Latvia, Rumania, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and the USSR.
5. The Protocol signed in Moscow on 5th May 1934 between Poland and the USSR, extending until 31st December 1945, the Non-Aggression Treaty of July 25th 1932.
6. The agreement resulting from the notes exchanged in Moscow on 10th September 1934 between the Polish government and the Soviet government, in connection with the entry of the USSR into the League of Nations. This agreement emphasised that the relations between the countries would, in every respect, continue on the basis of all existing agreements between them, including the Treaty of Non-Aggression and the Convention for the Definition of Aggression.
7. The Covenant of the League of Nations, to which the USSR acceded on 17th September 1934.
8. The joint Communique issued in Moscow on 26th November 1938, by the Polish and Soviet governments, which confirmed that relations between them were, and would continue to be, based on all the existing agreements, including the Non-Aggression Treaty dated 25th July 1932, and extended on 5th May 1934.
Stalin had also exposed himself as a bloodthirsty aggressor since signing the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. In a speech by Winston Churchill broadcast in January 1940 (while the Soviet attack on Finland was ongoing), he made it clear that he viewed the Nazis and Soviets as opposite sides of the same barbaric coin: ...."Everyone can see how communism rots the soul of a nation; how it makes it abject and hungry in peace, and proves it base and abominable in war....if at any time Britain and France, wearying of the struggle, were to make a shameful peace, nothing would remain for the smaller states of Europe, with their shipping and their possessions, but to be divided between the opposite, though similar, barbarisms of Nazidom and Bolshevism"....
The Soviet Union continued to deny the existence of the secret protocol of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact almost until its dying day, as well as denying all the other well documented examples of Nazi-Soviet collaboration that took place between 1939 and 1941, and the numerous Soviet war crimes that are directly attributable to the pact, such as the Katyń massacre, which was carried out by the NKVD in 1940, and the deportation of hundreds of thousands of Polish and Baltic citizens to the gulags.
However, another fun fact that Kremlin trolls rarely mention is that in December 1989, a couple of years before the USSR was finally flushed down the toilet of history, its highest body, the Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union, adopted a resolution denouncing the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact which finally condemned the secret protocol and accused Stalin and Molotov of "treacherous collusion" with the Nazis.
But even after that had happened, the Soviet Union and its successor state, Russia, were very reluctant to undo some of the consequences of the pact that still remained. For example, when the Baltic states declared independence, it took Russia until August 1994 to finally withdraw all its troops from their territories, after enormous international pressure was exerted on Moscow.
Under the iron grip of Vladimir Putin, Russia has tried to justify the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with lame propaganda (like the above list of pacts signed with Nazi Germany) that doesn't actually hold any water.
Another of the never-ending revisionist lies that the Kremlin's stooges promote is the ridiculous claim that Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were never occupied by the Soviet Union. Russia also continues to occupy part of Moldova to this day....
TL;DR - Russian propagandists are lying as usual.
In summary, there are two fundamental differences between the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and the other treaties in the screenshot.
1. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact contained a secret agreement to divide Europe into Nazi and Soviet spheres of influence that led directly to the immediate outbreak of the Second World War, after which the Nazis and Soviets both committed appalling war crimes in the countries they invaded as a direct result of the pact.
2. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was also the first step in a continuum of collaboration between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union that lasted for the next two years.
It's not rocket science is it?
Democracy / anti dictatorship demonstration, Ratchadmanoen Avenue.
- - - - - -
Facebook user behind viral ‘lost faith’ shirt committed to psychiatric hospital
13 Jul 2020 - Prachatai
Tiwagorn Withiton, a Facebook user who went viral for posting a picture of himself wearing a shirt printed with “I lost faith in the monarchy,” was forcibly taken by police officers and admitted to the Khon Kaen Rajanagarindra Psychiatric Hospital last Thursday (9 July).
Tiwagorn’s mother said that she was summoned by a high-ranking police officer and a psychiatrist and asked to give her consent to have her son admitted to the hospital, telling her that he will only get worse if left as he is. Since the family agreed that this would be the best course of action for Tiwagorn, she gave her consent.
She said that around 10 police and hospital vehicles came to their house around 19.00 pm on Thursday (9 July). She did not see Tiwagorn being taken away, but another family member said that a group of police officers and nurses went into the house, but Tiwagorn refused to be taken and was carried out by a group of 6 officers.
This family member was in the same vehicle as Tiwagorn as he was taken to hospital, and said that the officers tied Tiwagorn’s hands with a piece of cloth and gave him an injection in both arms.
Tiwagorn’s mother said that after Tiwagorn was taken away in an ambulance, police officers searched the house and took Tiwagorn’s computer and smart phone. They also took photos of these belongings before taking them, and made his mother sign a document, the content of which is unknown.
Tiwagorn told Prachatai he is currently safe. However, one of his family members said that officers from the Khon Kaen Provincial Police Station stay with him around the clock while he is in hospital, and that they check the ID of every visitor and keep watch at all time when Tiwagorn’s family visit him.
According to the 2008 Mental Health Act, Tiwagorn has to be diagnosed within 30 days of his admission, and if a charge is filed against him, a psychiatrist has to assess and notify the inquiry official whether Tiwagorn is capable of defending the case within 45 days.
Tiwagorn previously went viral for posting a picture of himself on his Facebook profile page wearing a shirt which said “I lost faith in the monarchy.” As a result, he was summoned by the authorities who asked him to stop wearing the shirt. However, he continued to wear the shirt and posted about wearing it in public. He also published a post explaining that losing faith does not mean that he wants to abolish the monarchy.
He was among those who joined the Red Shirt protests in 2009 – 2010. His family said that he experienced stress and depression following the 2014 military coup and that they have asked him to consult a psychiatrist.
Tiwagorn’s last Facebook post before he was taken to the hospital said that he was visited by 6 medical personnel and an officer from Internal Security Operations Command, who asked him questions to assess his mental health. He said that the conversation lasted around 30 minutes, and that he told the psychiatric official that “I well understand that it is political to have to make people think I’m insane. I won’t hold it against the officials if there is a diagnosis that I’m insane, because I take it that they have to follow orders.”
GOVERNOR TOMBLIN DELIVERS STATE OF THE STATE ADDRESS
Address highlights top priorities and key pieces of legislation
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (January 13, 2016) - Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin today delivered the 2016 State of the State Address in the House Chamber at the State Capitol Complex.
Gov. Tomblin's remarks included an overview of new programs and initiatives related to his top priorities as governor, as well as a number of new pieces of legislation he plans to introduce during the 2016 Legislative Session.
Since becoming governor in November 2010, Gov. Tomblin has focused on issues such as workforce development, combatting substance abuse, responsible fiscal policies and job creation. Following are highlights from the State of the State speech and other legislative initiatives of Gov. Tomblin.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Gov. Tomblin has worked to create a positive business climate now and for decades to come, and he remains committed to working with business and industry leaders from a variety of industries to create new investments and bring jobs to West Virginia. Companies from across the nation and around the world are noticing the changes the state has made, and nationally and internationally recognized companies - including Macy's Amazon, Quad Graphics, Hino Motors, Diamond Electric, Toyota and Procter and Gamble - have chosen to locate, expand and invest in West Virginia.
Tonight, Gov. Tomblin added another company to the list of those that have committed to West Virginia. During the address, Gov. Tomblin announced polymer additive manufacturer Addivant has decided to stay and expand operations in Morgantown, saving nearly 100 jobs and adding at least $12 million in new investments and additional opportunities for employment.
While these large investments are a vital part of West Virginia's long-term success, Gov. Tomblin is also committed to ensuring small business owners have a chance to excel and grow. Tonight, Gov. Tomblin introduced the Self-Employment Assistance Act, designed to make it easier for unemployed West Virginians to get the help they need to open a business. The act allows entrepreneurs to continue receiving unemployment benefits while establishing their new business. This helps owners reinvest in their new venture and employees, while also providing a steady source of financial support for their families.
WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
In working to bring new investments and create jobs, Gov. Tomblin has also made it a top priority to ensure these jobs are filled by skilled and well-trained West Virginians. With the help of his Workforce Planning Council, Gov. Tomblin has established new workforce development programs and strengthened existing initiatives to meet the needs of business and industry operating here. The state has received more than $40 million in federal grant funding to support Workforce West Virginia operations across the state, helping coal miners, their families, and those who have exhausted their unemployment benefits find careers in growing industries.
Through a collaborative partnership among business, industry, education and labor leaders, Gov. Tomblin has established a new Regional Job Matching Database, an online source for both educational program listings and employment opportunities available close to people's homes. This database will help match students with training programs in critical needs areas and connect them with employers seeking those same skills.
In addition, Gov. Tomblin also plans to introduce legislation that will expand the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources' (WVDHHR) Temporary Assistance to Need Families (TANF) pilot program. Through a partnership with the WVDHHR and Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College, the pilot program was designed to help West Virginians already receiving TANF benefits enroll in college courses, get access to financial aid and work with advisors to begin a new career path to support themselves and their families. With this program expansion, more West Virginians will receive the help and support they need to become productive, successful members of their local communities.
STRENGTHENING SOUTHERN WEST VIRGINIA
Gov. Tomblin has dedicated much of his public service to supporting West Virginia's coal miners and their families. In recent years, both the state and nation have experienced unprecedented downturns in this industry, adversely affecting local operations and devastating the lives of many hardworking West Virginians.
Tonight, Gov. Tomblin highlighted ongoing efforts to support and strengthen all those affected by the downturn in the coal industry. The state has submitted an application to the National Disaster Resilience Competition (NDRC), seeking more than $140 million in funding from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. This competition has the potential to help Boone, Lincoln, Logan, Mingo, McDowell and Wyoming counties adjust, adapt and advance their communities. If successful, funding will be allocated to help repair and rebuild aging infrastructure, promote land use planning and hazard reduction efforts and stimulate housing and economic development in the region.
Gov. Tomblin tonight also announced plans to develop of the largest industrial site in West Virginia history - the former Hobet surface mine in Boone and Lincoln counties. At 12,000 acres, this property is large enough to fit every major economic development project in recent history - with thousands of acres left over. The state is working in partnership with local landowners, Marshall University, West Virginia University and the Virginia Conservation Legacy Fund to find ways to re-develop this site and diversify southern West Virginia's economy.
ENERGY
In working to ensure West Virginia's energy sector is strong and diverse, Gov. Tomblin has also worked hard to support development of West Virginia's abundant Marcellus, Utica and Rogersville shale formations. Tonight, Gov. Tomblin stressed the need to create the processing and pipeline infrastructure necessary to ensure this industry's continued growth now and for years to come, highlighting major investment projects such as the Columbia Gas Mountaineer Xpress pipeline.
Gov. Tomblin also announced that while the Department of Environmental Protection continues to work on a feasibility study related to the state's Clean Power Plan Submission, it's likely that plan will include items such as reforestation and replacement of boilers to improve the efficiency of existing coal-fired power plans.
TACKLING SUBSTANCE ABUSE
Gov. Tomblin has made combatting the state's substance abuse epidemic a top priority of his administration. As communities and families across West Virginia continue to battle substance abuse from a number of fronts, Gov. Tomblin has invested a significant amount of time and funding to strengthen community-based treatment options and programs to give those struggling hope and get them on the road to recovery.
Tonight, Gov. Tomblin introduced legislation to support ongoing substance abuse efforts. He announced new licensing requirements for Suboxone and Methadone clinics, requiring medication-assisted treatment facilities to provide comprehensive therapies in coordination with medication to help to treat the root causes behind addictions, rather than simply supplying a short-term fix.
In addition, Gov. Tomblin introduced legislation to expand the Opioid Antagonist Act of 2015, making opioid antagonists, such as Narcan, available to any West Virginian without a prescription. This new legislation requires pharmacists to train those who receive this drug on how to administer opioid antagonists and helps the state track those receiving Narcan to help better focus state resources in areas hardest hit by opioid overdoses.
JUVENILE JUSTICE
Gov. Tomblin's juvenile justice reforms have also made a significant impact on our state's youth, as he has worked to improve outcomes for those currently in the juvenile justice system and provide early-intervention care to at-risk students to keep them in the classroom and out of the courtroom. During his address, Gov. Tomblin touted the success of 2015's Juvenile Justice Reform, specifically highlighting positive results of the truancy diversion program.
He also announced the Division of Juvenile Services has reduced the number of kids being sent to out-of-home placements by more than one-third and reduced the number of detention beds by more than 40 percent. So far the state has saved $6 million, and the Division of Juvenile Services is confident West Virginia can double that savings in coming years.
EDUCATION
Ensuring students remain in the classroom for 180 days of learning is just one of Gov. Tomblin's education priorities, as he is equally committed to ensuring West Virginia's education system stands ready to provide students with the thorough and efficient education they deserve. In addition, they should receive new learning opportunities that supply the skills and hands-on experience they need achieve long-term success in West Virginia.
To improve upon West Virginia's educational offerings, Gov. Tomblin has created the Innovation in Education Grant Program, which will not only supply students with special skills and hands-on training, but will also give them the opportunity to compete among their peers on a national and world-wide scale. This new program is designed to reward teachers and schools in West Virginia for innovation and creativity in the classroom. The reallocation of $2.8 million in existing West Virginia Department of Education money will support new classroom offerings that are designed to help students develop and gain these skills in high-demand fields, such as science, technology, engineering, math and entrepreneurship.
FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY
Throughout his administration, Gov. Tomblin has made sure to enact and uphold fiscally responsible policies. He understands the state is experiencing significant budget challenges, but remains committed to making difficult choices now that will help ensure West Virginia has a bright future now and for years to come.
Gov. Tomblin tonight introduced legislation to pay off West Virginia's old workers' compensation debt more than a decade ahead of schedule. This also will remove additional severance taxes on coal and natural gas industries earlier than anticipated, providing much-needed relief for energy businesses struggling with low prices.
In helping to ensure West Virginia's tax base is both stable and diverse, Gov. Tomblin tonight also proposed raising the state's tobacco tax by 45 cents to a total of $1 a pack. This increase will not only help discourage West Virginians from smoking or using tobacco products, it will also provide $71.5 million annually to support health-related costs. $43 million of this revenue will help fund PEIA, ensuring public employees do not see the dramatic benefit reductions initially proposed.
Gov. Tomblin also proposed legislation to eliminate a sale tax exemption that will bring our state's telecommunications tax in line with 41 other states across the country. This legislation will place the same 6 percent sales tax on cell phone and phone line usage and generate $60 million annually.
With these proposed changes, the 2017 budget Gov. Tomblin presented uses no money from the state's Rainy Day Fund and in fact predicts surpluses beginning in 2019.
Gov. Tomblin will also introduce the following pieces of legislation:
Workforce Innovation & Opportunity Act (WIOA) Reporting Update
Updates current West Virginia code to reflect 2014 federal law for compliance and continuation of federal funding from the U.S. Department of Labor.
Authorizes information sharing by Workforce West Virginia with the state agencies responsible for vocational rehabilitation, employment and training to better align the workforce system with education and economic development in an effort to create a collective response to economic and labor market challenges on the national, state and local levels.
West Virginia Workforce Development Board Updates
Updates the composition of the West Virginia Workforce Investment Council and changes its name to the West Virginia Workforce Development Board to comply with WIOA.
Borrowing from Rainy Day for Unemployment Compensation Fund
Authorizes borrowing in amount up to $25 million to provide additional funds for unemployment compensation.
Controlled Substances Monitoring Program (CSMP) Update Bill:
Requires practitioners (doctors, pharmacists and others) to register for the CSMP to obtain or renew a license.
Creates an administrative fine of $1,000 for failure to register for the CSMP, as well as an administrative fine of $500 for failure to access the CSMP as required.
Certificate of Need Exemption for Out-Patient Behavioral Health Community-Based Services
Exempts community-based behavioral health care facilities, programs or services from the certificate of need process contained in W.Va. Code 16-2D-1 et seq.
811 - One Call System
Makes underground pipelines of 4" in diameter and greater subject to "call before you dig" reporting if not otherwise required by state or federal law. Applies to gas, oil or any hazardous substance pipelines.
Membership in 811 requires an entity to provide mapping data indicating where their underground pipelines are located and to respond within the specified time periods when notified by the 811 administrator and be able to mark its underground pipes.
15 Minutes Rule
Requires that drilling, production and pipeline activities are subject to the state's 15-minute emergency notification law (WV Code 15-5B-3a (b)(1)).
Provisions apply to emergency events that involve a death or serious injuries, unplanned ignitions, fires or explosions and similar serious emergency events (confirmed emergencies) at drilling, production and pipeline sites.
Notification must be provided within 15 minutes to the West Virginia Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management and include preliminary information regarding the nature and extent of the emergency event, any existence or non-existence of threats to public health, substances involved or released and designated principal contact information.
Transportation Network Company Bill (TNC) - Uber/Lyft
Authorizes TNCs to operate in West Virginia by obtaining a permit from DMV.
Requires automobile insurance and uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage.
Requires a zero tolerance for drug and alcohol policy.
Requires TNCs to have a nondiscrimination policy and comply with nondiscrimination laws.
Office of Coalfield Community Development Bill
Continues the Office of Coalfield Community Development in Commerce (previously in Division of Energy)
Air Ambulance Bill
Provides air transportation or related emergency or treatment services providers operating in West Virginia from collecting more for service from PEIA covered persons than the currently allowable Medicare reimbursement rate.
Repeal Behavioral Health Severance & Privilege Tax
Eliminates the behavioral health severance and privilege tax and limits the sales tax exemption on durable medical goods to those purchased for home use only.
The change is believed to be revenue neutral and will help ensure continued federal matching funds for Medicaid and Medicare.
Reduce Required Annual Severance Tax Deposit to Infrastructure Bond Fund
Reduces the amount of severance tax proceeds deposited into the West Virginia Infrastructure General Obligation Debt Service Fund for payment of debt service on such bonds from $22.5 million annually to an amount equal to annual debt service, not to exceed $22.25 million annually.
Personal Income Tax update
Updates the Personal Income Tax code to be in compliance with federal tax laws
CNIT Update & Revised Filing Date
Updates the Corporate Net Income Tax code to be in compliance with federal tax laws.
Intermodal
Terminates funding of the Special Railroad and Intermodal Enhancement Fund beginning January 1, 2016. The source of funding is corporate net income taxes.
Racetrack and Historic Hotel Modernization Funds Cessation
Ends the Licensed Racetrack Modernization Fund and Historic Hotel Modernization Fund and moves all funds currently in such funds to the General Revenue Fund.
Cessation of Deposit into Road Fund from Sales Tax for FY2016
Eliminates for fiscal year 2016 the deposit of sales tax proceeds into the State Road Fund from sales of construction and maintenance materials acquired by a second party for use in the construction or maintenance of a highway project.
Such sales tax proceeds will be deposited into the General Revenue Fund in lieu of the State Road Fund.
State Aid Formula Changes
Eliminates the Growth County School Facilities Act, which allowed growth county boards of education to designate general fund revenues from new construction (increasing property taxes) for placement in a growth county school facilities act fund.
Adjusts the formulas for the foundation allowance for both professional educators and service personnel.
Adjusts and eliminates certain adjustments to the foundation allowance for transportation costs (increasing bus life from 12 to 15 years and mileage from 180,000 to 225,000 miles).
Adjusts the calculation for the foundation allowance to improve instructional programs.
Eliminates certain restrictions in the computation of the local share applicable to growth county schools.
Infrastructure Fund Excess Lottery Deposit Reduction
Decreases the annual deposit of Excess Lottery revenues to the Infrastructure Fund from $40 million to $30 million for fiscal year 2017.
Increases the percentage of funds that may be disbursed from the Infrastructure Fund in the form of grants from 20% to 50% for fiscal year 2017.
SBA Deposit Reduction
Decreases for fiscal year 2017 the annual deposit of sales tax proceeds into the School Building Authority's School Major Improvement Fund from $5 million to $4 million (was reduced for FY16 to $3 million).
Decreases for fiscal year 2017 the School Building Authority's School Construction Fund from $27,216,996 to $24,216,996 (was reduced for FY16 to $21,216,996).
Photos available for media use. All photos should be attributed “Photo courtesy of Office of the Governor.”
PRESIDIO OF MONTEREY, Calif. -- The COVID-19 pandemic has created many operational challenges for the military. However, service members, DoD civilians and military families across the globe have adapted to overcome the challenges to stay ready and support the whole-of-government response.
While many service members and DoD civilians who work at the Presidio of Monterey and Defense Language Institute are teleworking – essential employees report to work daily to carry on the mission. Employees are strictly following CDC and DoD guidance of social distancing and face coverings to protect themselves and those around them.
The health and safety of all employees, regardless if they are essential employees or teleworking, is the command’s highest priority.
Our service members and DoD civilians are committed to mission success and remain trained and ready to defend the nation.
Photo by Joseph Kumzak, Presidio of Monterey Public Affairs
Still committed to the clutter-clearing mission around here...although progress quickly gets off-track as forgotten treasures are discovered along the way.
My little guy is pretty stoked by the latest - a rather heavy and mysterious bag that revealed a shockingly large collection of Fantastic Four comics. We were pretty surprised to discover they were even in our basement; therein lies the need for our mission - how do we not know this stuff is down there?
82:366
Gautama Buddha, also known as Siddhārtha Gautama, Shakyamuni, or simply the Buddha, was a sage on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. He is believed to have lived and taught mostly in northeastern India sometime between the sixth and fourth centuries BCE.
The word Buddha means "awakened one" or "the enlightened one". "Buddha" is also used as a title for the first awakened being in a Yuga era. In most Buddhist traditions, Siddhartha Gautama is regarded as the Supreme Buddha (Pali sammāsambuddha, Sanskrit samyaksaṃbuddha) of the present age. Gautama taught a Middle Way between sensual indulgence and the severe asceticism found in the śramaṇa movement common in his region. He later taught throughout regions of eastern India such as Magadha and Kosala.
Gautama is the primary figure in Buddhism and accounts of his life, discourses, and monastic rules are believed by Buddhists to have been summarized after his death and memorized by his followers. Various collections of teachings attributed to him were passed down by oral tradition and first committed to writing about 400 years later.
CONTENTS
HISTORICAL SIDDHARTA GAUTAMA
Scholars are hesitant to make unqualified claims about the historical facts of the Buddha's life. Most accept that he lived, taught and founded a monastic order during the Mahajanapada era during the reign of Bimbisara, the ruler of the Magadha empire, and died during the early years of the reign of Ajasattu, who was the successor of Bimbisara, thus making him a younger contemporary of Mahavira, the Jain tirthankara. Apart from the Vedic Brahmins, the Buddha's lifetime coincided with the flourishing of other influential śramaṇa schools of thoughts like Ājīvika, Cārvāka, Jainism, and Ajñana. It was also the age of influential thinkers like Mahavira, Pūraṇa Kassapa , Makkhali Gosāla, Ajita Kesakambalī, Pakudha Kaccāyana, and Sañjaya Belaṭṭhaputta, whose viewpoints the Buddha most certainly must have been acquainted with and influenced by. Indeed, Sariputta and Moggallāna, two of the foremost disciples of the Buddha, were formerly the foremost disciples of Sañjaya Belaṭṭhaputta, the skeptic. There is also evidence to suggest that the two masters, Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta, were indeed historical figures and they most probably taught Buddha two different forms of meditative techniques. While the general sequence of "birth, maturity, renunciation, search, awakening and liberation, teaching, death" is widely accepted, there is less consensus on the veracity of many details contained in traditional biographies.
The times of Gautama's birth and death are uncertain. Most historians in the early 20th century dated his lifetime as circa 563 BCE to 483 BCE. More recently his death is dated later, between 411 and 400 BCE, while at a symposium on this question held in 1988, the majority of those who presented definite opinions gave dates within 20 years either side of 400 BCE for the Buddha's death. These alternative chronologies, however, have not yet been accepted by all historians.
The evidence of the early texts suggests that Siddhārtha Gautama was born into the Shakya clan, a community that was on the periphery, both geographically and culturally, of the northeastern Indian subcontinent in the 5th century BCE. It was either a small republic, in which case his father was an elected chieftain, or an oligarchy, in which case his father was an oligarch. According to the Buddhist tradition, Gautama was born in Lumbini, nowadays in modern-day Nepal, and raised in the Shakya capital of Kapilavastu, which may have been in either present day Tilaurakot, Nepal or Piprahwa, India. He obtained his enlightenment in Bodh Gaya, gave his first sermon in Sarnath, and died in Kushinagar.
No written records about Gautama have been found from his lifetime or some centuries thereafter. One Edict of Asoka, who reigned from circa 269 BCE to 232 BCE, commemorates the Emperor's pilgrimage to the Buddha's birthplace in Lumbini. Another one of his edicts mentions several Dhamma texts, establishing the existence of a written Buddhist tradition at least by the time of the Maurya era and which may be the precursors of the Pāli Canon. The oldest surviving Buddhist manuscripts are the Gandhāran Buddhist texts, reported to have been found in or around Haḍḍa near Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan and now preserved in the British Library. They are written in the Gāndhārī language using the Kharosthi script on twenty-seven birch bark manuscripts and date from the first century BCE to the third century CE.
TRADITIONAL BIOGRAPHIES
BIOGRAPHICAL SOURCES
The sources for the life of Siddhārtha Gautama are a variety of different, and sometimes conflicting, traditional biographies. These include the Buddhacarita, Lalitavistara Sūtra, Mahāvastu, and the Nidānakathā. Of these, the Buddhacarita is the earliest full biography, an epic poem written by the poet Aśvaghoṣa, and dating around the beginning of the 2nd century CE. The Lalitavistara Sūtra is the next oldest biography, a Mahāyāna/Sarvāstivāda biography dating to the 3rd century CE. The Mahāvastu from the Mahāsāṃghika Lokottaravāda tradition is another major biography, composed incrementally until perhaps the 4th century CE. The Dharmaguptaka biography of the Buddha is the most exhaustive, and is entitled the Abhiniṣkramaṇa Sūtra, and various Chinese translations of this date between the 3rd and 6th century CE. The Nidānakathā is from the Theravada tradition in Sri Lanka and was composed in the 5th century by Buddhaghoṣa.
From canonical sources, the Jataka tales, the Mahapadana Sutta (DN 14), and the Achariyabhuta Sutta (MN 123) which include selective accounts that may be older, but are not full biographies. The Jātakas retell previous lives of Gautama as a bodhisattva, and the first collection of these can be dated among the earliest Buddhist texts. The Mahāpadāna Sutta and Achariyabhuta Sutta both recount miraculous events surrounding Gautama's birth, such as the bodhisattva's descent from the Tuṣita Heaven into his mother's womb.
NATURE OF TRADITIONAL DEPICTIONS
In the earliest Buddhists texts, the nikāyas and āgamas, the Buddha is not depicted as possessing omniscience (sabbaññu) nor is he depicted as being an eternal transcendent (lokottara) being. According to Bhikkhu Analayo, ideas of the Buddha's omniscience (along with an increasing tendency to deify him and his biography) are found only later, in the Mahayana sutras and later Pali commentaries or texts such as the Mahāvastu. In the Sandaka Sutta, the Buddha's disciple Ananda outlines an argument against the claims of teachers who say they are all knowing while in the Tevijjavacchagotta Sutta the Buddha himself states that he has never made a claim to being omniscient, instead he claimed to have the "higher knowledges" (abhijñā). The earliest biographical material from the Pali Nikayas focuses on the Buddha's life as a śramaṇa, his search for enlightenment under various teachers such as Alara Kalama and his forty five year career as a teacher.
Traditional biographies of Gautama generally include numerous miracles, omens, and supernatural events. The character of the Buddha in these traditional biographies is often that of a fully transcendent (Skt. lokottara) and perfected being who is unencumbered by the mundane world. In the Mahāvastu, over the course of many lives, Gautama is said to have developed supra-mundane abilities including: a painless birth conceived without intercourse; no need for sleep, food, medicine, or bathing, although engaging in such "in conformity with the world"; omniscience, and the ability to "suppress karma". Nevertheless, some of the more ordinary details of his life have been gathered from these traditional sources. In modern times there has been an attempt to form a secular understanding of Siddhārtha Gautama's life by omitting the traditional supernatural elements of his early biographies.
Andrew Skilton writes that the Buddha was never historically regarded by Buddhist traditions as being merely human:
It is important to stress that, despite modern Theravada teachings to the contrary (often a sop to skeptical Western pupils), he was never seen as being merely human. For instance, he is often described as having the thirty-two major and eighty minor marks or signs of a mahāpuruṣa, "superman"; the Buddha himself denied that he was either a man or a god; and in the Mahāparinibbāna Sutta he states that he could live for an aeon were he asked to do so.The ancient Indians were generally unconcerned with chronologies, being more focused on philosophy. Buddhist texts reflect this tendency, providing a clearer picture of what Gautama may have taught than of the dates of the events in his life. These texts contain descriptions of the culture and daily life of ancient India which can be corroborated from the Jain scriptures, and make the Buddha's time the earliest period in Indian history for which significant accounts exist. British author Karen Armstrong writes that although there is very little information that can be considered historically sound, we can be reasonably confident that Siddhārtha Gautama did exist as a historical figure. Michael Carrithers goes a bit further by stating that the most general outline of "birth, maturity, renunciation, search, awakening and liberation, teaching, death" must be true.
BIOGRAPHY
CONCEPTION AND BIRTH
The Buddhist tradition regards Lumbini, in present-day Nepal to be the birthplace of the Buddha. He grew up in Kapilavastu. The exact site of ancient Kapilavastu is unknown. It may have been either Piprahwa, Uttar Pradesh, present-day India, or Tilaurakot, present-day Nepal. Both places belonged to the Sakya territory, and are located only 15 miles apart from each other.
Gautama was born as a Kshatriya, the son of Śuddhodana, "an elected chief of the Shakya clan", whose capital was Kapilavastu, and who were later annexed by the growing Kingdom of Kosala during the Buddha's lifetime. Gautama was the family name. His mother, Maya (Māyādevī), Suddhodana's wife, was a Koliyan princess. Legend has it that, on the night Siddhartha was conceived, Queen Maya dreamt that a white elephant with six white tusks entered her right side, and ten months later Siddhartha was born. As was the Shakya tradition, when his mother Queen Maya became pregnant, she left Kapilvastu for her father's kingdom to give birth. However, her son is said to have been born on the way, at Lumbini, in a garden beneath a sal tree.
The day of the Buddha's birth is widely celebrated in Theravada countries as Vesak. Buddha's Birthday is called Buddha Purnima in Nepal and India as he is believed to have been born on a full moon day. Various sources hold that the Buddha's mother died at his birth, a few days or seven days later. The infant was given the name Siddhartha (Pāli: Siddhattha), meaning "he who achieves his aim". During the birth celebrations, the hermit seer Asita journeyed from his mountain abode and announced that the child would either become a great king (chakravartin) or a great sadhu. By traditional account, this occurred after Siddhartha placed his feet in Asita's hair and Asita examined the birthmarks. Suddhodana held a naming ceremony on the fifth day, and invited eight Brahmin scholars to read the future. All gave a dual prediction that the baby would either become a great king or a great holy man. Kondañña, the youngest, and later to be the first arhat other than the Buddha, was reputed to be the only one who unequivocally predicted that Siddhartha would become a Buddha.
While later tradition and legend characterized Śuddhodana as a hereditary monarch, the descendant of the Suryavansha (Solar dynasty) of Ikṣvāku (Pāli: Okkāka), many scholars think that Śuddhodana was the elected chief of a tribal confederacy.
Early texts suggest that Gautama was not familiar with the dominant religious teachings of his time until he left on his religious quest, which is said to have been motivated by existential concern for the human condition. The state of the Shakya clan was not a monarchy, and seems to have been structured either as an oligarchy, or as a form of republic. The more egalitarian gana-sangha form of government, as a political alternative to the strongly hierarchical kingdoms, may have influenced the development of the śramanic Jain and Buddhist sanghas, where monarchies tended toward Vedic Brahmanism.
EARLY LIFE AND MARRIAGE
Siddhartha was brought up by his mother's younger sister, Maha Pajapati. By tradition, he is said to have been destined by birth to the life of a prince, and had three palaces (for seasonal occupation) built for him. Although more recent scholarship doubts this status, his father, said to be King Śuddhodana, wishing for his son to be a great king, is said to have shielded him from religious teachings and from knowledge of human suffering.
When he reached the age of 16, his father reputedly arranged his marriage to a cousin of the same age named Yaśodharā (Pāli: Yasodharā). According to the traditional account, she gave birth to a son, named Rāhula. Siddhartha is said to have spent 29 years as a prince in Kapilavastu. Although his father ensured that Siddhartha was provided with everything he could want or need, Buddhist scriptures say that the future Buddha felt that material wealth was not life's ultimate goal.
RENUNCIATION AND ASCETIC LIFE
At the age of 29, the popular biography continues, Siddhartha left his palace to meet his subjects. Despite his father's efforts to hide from him the sick, aged and suffering, Siddhartha was said to have seen an old man. When his charioteer Channa explained to him that all people grew old, the prince went on further trips beyond the palace. On these he encountered a diseased man, a decaying corpse, and an ascetic. These depressed him, and he initially strove to overcome aging, sickness, and death by living the life of an ascetic.
Accompanied by Channa and riding his horse Kanthaka, Gautama quit his palace for the life of a mendicant. It's said that, "the horse's hooves were muffled by the gods" to prevent guards from knowing of his departure.
Gautama initially went to Rajagaha and began his ascetic life by begging for alms in the street. After King Bimbisara's men recognised Siddhartha and the king learned of his quest, Bimbisara offered Siddhartha the throne. Siddhartha rejected the offer, but promised to visit his kingdom of Magadha first, upon attaining enlightenment.
He left Rajagaha and practised under two hermit teachers of yogic meditation. After mastering the teachings of Alara Kalama (Skr. Ārāḍa Kālāma), he was asked by Kalama to succeed him. However, Gautama felt unsatisfied by the practice, and moved on to become a student of yoga with Udaka Ramaputta (Skr. Udraka Rāmaputra). With him he achieved high levels of meditative consciousness, and was again asked to succeed his teacher. But, once more, he was not satisfied, and again moved on.
Siddhartha and a group of five companions led by Kaundinya are then said to have set out to take their austerities even further. They tried to find enlightenment through deprivation of worldly goods, including food, practising self-mortification. After nearly starving himself to death by restricting his food intake to around a leaf or nut per day, he collapsed in a river while bathing and almost drowned. Siddhartha was rescued by a village girl named Sujata and she gave him some payasam (a pudding made from milk and jaggery) after which Siddhartha got back some energy. Siddhartha began to reconsider his path. Then, he remembered a moment in childhood in which he had been watching his father start the season's ploughing. He attained a concentrated and focused state that was blissful and refreshing, the jhāna.
AWAKENING
According to the early Buddhist texts, after realizing that meditative dhyana was the right path to awakening, but that extreme asceticism didn't work, Gautama discovered what Buddhists call the Middle Way - a path of moderation away from the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification, or the Noble Eightfold Path, as was identified and described by the Buddha in his first discourse, the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta. In a famous incident, after becoming starved and weakened, he is said to have accepted milk and rice pudding from a village girl named Sujata. Such was his emaciated appearance that she wrongly believed him to be a spirit that had granted her a wish.
Following this incident, Gautama was famously seated under a pipal tree - now known as the Bodhi tree - in Bodh Gaya, India, when he vowed never to arise until he had found the truth. Kaundinya and four other companions, believing that he had abandoned his search and become undisciplined, left. After a reputed 49 days of meditation, at the age of 35, he is said to have attained Enlightenment. According to some traditions, this occurred in approximately the fifth lunar month, while, according to others, it was in the twelfth month. From that time, Gautama was known to his followers as the Buddha or "Awakened One" ("Buddha" is also sometimes translated as "The Enlightened One").
According to Buddhism, at the time of his awakening he realized complete insight into the cause of suffering, and the steps necessary to eliminate it. These discoveries became known as the "Four Noble Truths", which are at the heart of Buddhist teaching. Through mastery of these truths, a state of supreme liberation, or Nirvana, is believed to be possible for any being. The Buddha described Nirvāna as the perfect peace of a mind that's free from ignorance, greed, hatred and other afflictive states, or "defilements" (kilesas). Nirvana is also regarded as the "end of the world", in that no personal identity or boundaries of the mind remain. In such a state, a being is said to possess the Ten Characteristics, belonging to every Buddha.
According to a story in the Āyācana Sutta (Samyutta Nikaya VI.1) - a scripture found in the Pāli and other canons - immediately after his awakening, the Buddha debated whether or not he should teach the Dharma to others. He was concerned that humans were so overpowered by ignorance, greed and hatred that they could never recognise the path, which is subtle, deep and hard to grasp. However, in the story, Brahmā Sahampati convinced him, arguing that at least some will understand it. The Buddha relented, and agreed to teach.
FORMATION OF THE SANGHA
After his awakening, the Buddha met Taphussa and Bhallika — two merchant brothers from the city of Balkh in what is currently Afghanistan - who became his first lay disciples. It is said that each was given hairs from his head, which are now claimed to be enshrined as relics in the Shwe Dagon Temple in Rangoon, Burma. The Buddha intended to visit Asita, and his former teachers, Alara Kalama and Udaka Ramaputta, to explain his findings, but they had already died.
He then travelled to the Deer Park near Varanasi (Benares) in northern India, where he set in motion what Buddhists call the Wheel of Dharma by delivering his first sermon to the five companions with whom he had sought enlightenment. Together with him, they formed the first saṅgha: the company of Buddhist monks.
All five become arahants, and within the first two months, with the conversion of Yasa and fifty four of his friends, the number of such arahants is said to have grown to 60. The conversion of three brothers named Kassapa followed, with their reputed 200, 300 and 500 disciples, respectively. This swelled the sangha to more than 1,000.
TRAVELS AND TEACHING
For the remaining 45 years of his life, the Buddha is said to have traveled in the Gangetic Plain, in what is now Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and southern Nepal, teaching a diverse range of people: from nobles to servants, murderers such as Angulimala, and cannibals such as Alavaka. Although the Buddha's language remains unknown, it's likely that he taught in one or more of a variety of closely related Middle Indo-Aryan dialects, of which Pali may be a standardization.
The sangha traveled through the subcontinent, expounding the dharma. This continued throughout the year, except during the four months of the Vāsanā rainy season when ascetics of all religions rarely traveled. One reason was that it was more difficult to do so without causing harm to animal life. At this time of year, the sangha would retreat to monasteries, public parks or forests, where people would come to them.
The first vassana was spent at Varanasi when the sangha was formed. After this, the Buddha kept a promise to travel to Rajagaha, capital of Magadha, to visit King Bimbisara. During this visit, Sariputta and Maudgalyayana were converted by Assaji, one of the first five disciples, after which they were to become the Buddha's two foremost followers. The Buddha spent the next three seasons at Veluvana Bamboo Grove monastery in Rajagaha, capital of Magadha.
Upon hearing of his son's awakening, Suddhodana sent, over a period, ten delegations to ask him to return to Kapilavastu. On the first nine occasions, the delegates failed to deliver the message, and instead joined the sangha to become arahants. The tenth delegation, led by Kaludayi, a childhood friend of Gautama's (who also became an arahant), however, delivered the message.
Now two years after his awakening, the Buddha agreed to return, and made a two-month journey by foot to Kapilavastu, teaching the dharma as he went. At his return, the royal palace prepared a midday meal, but the sangha was making an alms round in Kapilavastu. Hearing this, Suddhodana approached his son, the Buddha, saying:
"Ours is the warrior lineage of Mahamassata, and not a single warrior has gone seeking alms."
The Buddha is said to have replied:
"That is not the custom of your royal lineage. But it is the custom of my Buddha lineage. Several thousands of Buddhas have gone by seeking alms."
Buddhist texts say that Suddhodana invited the sangha into the palace for the meal, followed by a dharma talk. After this he is said to have become a sotapanna. During the visit, many members of the royal family joined the sangha. The Buddha's cousins Ananda and Anuruddha became two of his five chief disciples. At the age of seven, his son Rahula also joined, and became one of his ten chief disciples. His half-brother Nanda also joined and became an arahant.
Of the Buddha's disciples, Sariputta, Maudgalyayana, Mahakasyapa, Ananda and Anuruddha are believed to have been the five closest to him. His ten foremost disciples were reputedly completed by the quintet of Upali, Subhoti, Rahula, Mahakaccana and Punna.
In the fifth vassana, the Buddha was staying at Mahavana near Vesali when he heard news of the impending death of his father. He is said to have gone to Suddhodana and taught the dharma, after which his father became an arahant.The king's death and cremation was to inspire the creation of an order of nuns. Buddhist texts record that the Buddha was reluctant to ordain women. His foster mother Maha Pajapati, for example, approached him, asking to join the sangha, but he refused. Maha Pajapati, however, was so intent on the path of awakening that she led a group of royal Sakyan and Koliyan ladies, which followed the sangha on a long journey to Rajagaha. In time, after Ananda championed their cause, the Buddha is said to have reconsidered and, five years after the formation of the sangha, agreed to the ordination of women as nuns. He reasoned that males and females had an equal capacity for awakening. But he gave women additional rules (Vinaya) to follow.
MAHAPARINIRVANA
According to the Mahaparinibbana Sutta of the Pali canon, at the age of 80, the Buddha announced that he would soon reach Parinirvana, or the final deathless state, and abandon his earthly body. After this, the Buddha ate his last meal, which he had received as an offering from a blacksmith named Cunda. Falling violently ill, Buddha instructed his attendant Ānanda to convince Cunda that the meal eaten at his place had nothing to do with his passing and that his meal would be a source of the greatest merit as it provided the last meal for a Buddha. Mettanando and Von Hinüber argue that the Buddha died of mesenteric infarction, a symptom of old age, rather than food poisoning. The precise contents of the Buddha's final meal are not clear, due to variant scriptural traditions and ambiguity over the translation of certain significant terms; the Theravada tradition generally believes that the Buddha was offered some kind of pork, while the Mahayana tradition believes that the Buddha consumed some sort of truffle or other mushroom. These may reflect the different traditional views on Buddhist vegetarianism and the precepts for monks and nuns.
Waley suggests that Theravadin's would take suukaramaddava (the contents of the Buddha's last meal), which can translate as pig-soft, to mean soft flesh of a pig. However, he also states that pig-soft could mean "pig's soft-food", that is, after Neumann, a soft food favoured by pigs, assumed to be a truffle. He argues (also after Neumann) that as Pali Buddhism was developed in an area remote to the Buddha's death, the existence of other plants with suukara- (pig) as part of their names and that "(p)lant names tend to be local and dialectical" could easily indicate that suukaramaddava was a type of plant whose local name was unknown to those in the Pali regions. Specifically, local writers knew more about their flora than Theravadin commentator Buddhaghosa who lived hundreds of years and kilometres remote in time and space from the events described. Unaware of an alternate meaning and with no Theravadin prohibition against eating animal flesh, Theravadins would not have questioned the Buddha eating meat and interpreted the term accordingly.
Ananda protested the Buddha's decision to enter Parinirvana in the abandoned jungles of Kuśināra (present-day Kushinagar, India) of the Malla kingdom. The Buddha, however, is said to have reminded Ananda how Kushinara was a land once ruled by a righteous wheel-turning king that resounded with joy:
44. Kusavati, Ananda, resounded unceasingly day and night with ten sounds - the trumpeting of elephants, the neighing of horses, the rattling of chariots, the beating of drums and tabours, music and song, cheers, the clapping of hands, and cries of "Eat, drink, and be merry!"
The Buddha then asked all the attendant Bhikkhus to clarify any doubts or questions they had. They had none. According to Buddhist scriptures, he then finally entered Parinirvana. The Buddha's final words are reported to have been: "All composite things (Saṅkhāra) are perishable. Strive for your own liberation with diligence" (Pali: 'vayadhammā saṅkhārā appamādena sampādethā'). His body was cremated and the relics were placed in monuments or stupas, some of which are believed to have survived until the present. For example, The Temple of the Tooth or "Dalada Maligawa" in Sri Lanka is the place where what some believe to be the relic of the right tooth of Buddha is kept at present.
According to the Pāli historical chronicles of Sri Lanka, the Dīpavaṃsa and Mahāvaṃsa, the coronation of Emperor Aśoka (Pāli: Asoka) is 218 years after the death of the Buddha. According to two textual records in Chinese (十八部論 and 部執異論), the coronation of Emperor Aśoka is 116 years after the death of the Buddha. Therefore, the time of Buddha's passing is either 486 BCE according to Theravāda record or 383 BCE according to Mahayana record. However, the actual date traditionally accepted as the date of the Buddha's death in Theravāda countries is 544 or 545 BCE, because the reign of Emperor Aśoka was traditionally reckoned to be about 60 years earlier than current estimates. In Burmese Buddhist tradition, the date of the Buddha's death is 13 May 544 BCE. whereas in Thai tradition it is 11 March 545 BCE.
At his death, the Buddha is famously believed to have told his disciples to follow no leader. Mahakasyapa was chosen by the sangha to be the chairman of the First Buddhist Council, with the two chief disciples Maudgalyayana and Sariputta having died before the Buddha.
While in the Buddha's days he was addressed by the very respected titles Buddha, Shākyamuni, Shākyasimha, Bhante and Bho, he was known after his parinirvana as Arihant, Bhagavā/Bhagavat/Bhagwān, Mahāvira, Jina/Jinendra, Sāstr, Sugata, and most popularly in scriptures as Tathāgata.
BUDDHA AND VEDAS
Buddha's teachings deny the authority of the Vedas and consequently [at least atheistic] Buddhism is generally viewed as a nāstika school (heterodox, literally "It is not so") from the perspective of orthodox Hinduism.
RELICS
After his death, Buddha's cremation relics were divided amongst 8 royal families and his disciples; centuries later they would be enshrined by King Ashoka into 84,000 stupas. Many supernatural legends surround the history of alleged relics as they accompanied the spread of Buddhism and gave legitimacy to rulers.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
An extensive and colorful physical description of the Buddha has been laid down in scriptures. A kshatriya by birth, he had military training in his upbringing, and by Shakyan tradition was required to pass tests to demonstrate his worthiness as a warrior in order to marry. He had a strong enough body to be noticed by one of the kings and was asked to join his army as a general. He is also believed by Buddhists to have "the 32 Signs of the Great Man".
The Brahmin Sonadanda described him as "handsome, good-looking, and pleasing to the eye, with a most beautiful complexion. He has a godlike form and countenance, he is by no means unattractive." (D, I:115)
"It is wonderful, truly marvellous, how serene is the good Gotama's appearance, how clear and radiant his complexion, just as the golden jujube in autumn is clear and radiant, just as a palm-tree fruit just loosened from the stalk is clear and radiant, just as an adornment of red gold wrought in a crucible by a skilled goldsmith, deftly beaten and laid on a yellow-cloth shines, blazes and glitters, even so, the good Gotama's senses are calmed, his complexion is clear and radiant." (A, I:181)
A disciple named Vakkali, who later became an arahant, was so obsessed by the Buddha's physical presence that the Buddha is said to have felt impelled to tell him to desist, and to have reminded him that he should know the Buddha through the Dhamma and not through physical appearances.
Although there are no extant representations of the Buddha in human form until around the 1st century CE (see Buddhist art), descriptions of the physical characteristics of fully enlightened buddhas are attributed to the Buddha in the Digha Nikaya's Lakkhaṇa Sutta (D, I:142). In addition, the Buddha's physical appearance is described by Yasodhara to their son Rahula upon the Buddha's first post-Enlightenment return to his former princely palace in the non-canonical Pali devotional hymn, Narasīha Gāthā ("The Lion of Men").
Among the 32 main characteristics it is mentioned that Buddha has blue eyes.
NINE VIRTUES
Recollection of nine virtues attributed to the Buddha is a common Buddhist meditation and devotional practice called Buddhānusmṛti. The nine virtues are also among the 40 Buddhist meditation subjects. The nine virtues of the Buddha appear throughout the Tipitaka, and include:
- Buddho – Awakened
- Sammasambuddho – Perfectly self-awakened
- Vijja-carana-sampano – Endowed with higher knowledge and ideal conduct.
- Sugato – Well-gone or Well-spoken.
- Lokavidu – Wise in the knowledge of the many worlds.
- Anuttaro Purisa-damma-sarathi – Unexcelled trainer of untrained people.
- Satthadeva-Manussanam – Teacher of gods and humans.
- Bhagavathi – The Blessed one
- Araham – Worthy of homage. An Arahant is "one with taints destroyed, who has lived the holy life, done what had to be done, laid down the burden, reached the true goal, destroyed the fetters of being, and is completely liberated through final knowledge."
TEACHINGS
TRACING THE OLDEST TEACHINGS
Information of the oldest teachings may be obtained by analysis of the oldest texts. One method to obtain information on the oldest core of Buddhism is to compare the oldest extant versions of the Theravadin Pali Canon and other texts. The reliability of these sources, and the possibility to draw out a core of oldest teachings, is a matter of dispute. According to Vetter, inconsistencies remain, and other methods must be applied to resolve those inconsistencies.
According to Schmithausen, three positions held by scholars of Buddhism can be distinguished:
"Stress on the fundamental homogeneity and substantial authenticity of at least a considerable part of the Nikayic materials;"
"Scepticism with regard to the possibility of retrieving the doctrine of earliest Buddhism;"
"Cautious optimism in this respect."
DHYANA AND INSIGHT
A core problem in the study of early Buddhism is the relation between dhyana and insight. Schmithausen, in his often-cited article On some Aspects of Descriptions or Theories of 'Liberating Insight' and 'Enlightenment' in Early Buddhism notes that the mention of the four noble truths as constituting "liberating insight", which is attained after mastering the Rupa Jhanas, is a later addition to texts such as Majjhima Nikaya 36
CORE TEACHINGS
According to Tilmann Vetter, the core of earliest Buddhism is the practice of dhyāna. Bronkhorst agrees that dhyana was a Buddhist invention, whereas Norman notes that "the Buddha's way to release [...] was by means of meditative practices." Discriminating insight into transiency as a separate path to liberation was a later development.
According to the Mahāsaccakasutta, from the fourth jhana the Buddha gained bodhi. Yet, it is not clear what he was awakened to. "Liberating insight" is a later addition to this text, and reflects a later development and understanding in early Buddhism. The mentioning of the four truths as constituting "liberating insight" introduces a logical problem, since the four truths depict a linear path of practice, the knowledge of which is in itself not depicted as being liberating:
[T]hey do not teach that one is released by knowing the four noble truths, but by practicing the fourth noble truth, the eightfold path, which culminates in right samadhi.
Although "Nibbāna" (Sanskrit: Nirvāna) is the common term for the desired goal of this practice, many other terms can be found throughout the Nikayas, which are not specified.
According to Vetter, the description of the Buddhist path may initially have been as simple as the term "the middle way". In time, this short description was elaborated, resulting in the description of the eightfold path.
According to both Bronkhorst and Anderson, the four truths became a substitution for prajna, or "liberating insight", in the suttas in those texts where "liberating insight" was preceded by the four jhanas. According to Bronkhorst, the four truths may not have been formulated in earliest Buddhism, and did not serve in earliest Buddhism as a description of "liberating insight". Gotama's teachings may have been personal, "adjusted to the need of each person."
The three marks of existence may reflect Upanishadic or other influences. K.R. Norman supposes that these terms were already in use at the Buddha's time, and were familiar to his listeners.
The Brahma-vihara was in origin probably a brahmanic term; but its usage may have been common to the Sramana traditions.
LATER DEVELOPMENTS
In time, "liberating insight" became an essential feature of the Buddhist tradition. The following teachings, which are commonly seen as essential to Buddhism, are later formulations which form part of the explanatory framework of this "liberating insight":
- The Four Noble Truths: that suffering is an ingrained part of existence; that the origin of suffering is craving for sensuality, acquisition of identity, and fear of annihilation; that suffering can be ended; and that following the Noble Eightfold Path is the means to accomplish this;
- The Noble Eightfold Path: right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration;
- Dependent origination: the mind creates suffering as a natural product of a complex process.
OTHER RELIGIONS
Some Hindus regard Gautama as the 9th avatar of Vishnu. The Buddha is also regarded as a prophet by the Ahmadiyya Muslims and a Manifestation of God in the Bahá'í Faith. Some early Chinese Taoist-Buddhists thought the Buddha to be a reincarnation of Lao Tzu.
The Christian Saint Josaphat is based on the Buddha. The name comes from the Sanskrit Bodhisattva via Arabic Būdhasaf and Georgian Iodasaph. The only story in which St. Josaphat appears, Barlaam and Josaphat, is based on the life of the Buddha. Josaphat was included in earlier editions of the Roman Martyrology (feast day 27 November) — though not in the Roman Missal — and in the Eastern Orthodox Church liturgical calendar (26 August).
Disciples of the Cao Đài religion worship the Buddha as a major religious teacher. His image can be found in both their Holy See and on the home altar. He is revealed during communication with Divine Beings as son of their Supreme Being (God the Father) together with other major religious teachers and founders like Jesus, Laozi, and Confucius.
In the ancient Gnostic sect of Manichaeism the Buddha is listed among the prophets who preached the word of God before Mani.
WIKIPEDIA
(for further information and pictures please go to the end of page and by clicking on the link they are availabe!)
The Church of St. Othmar
Previous buildings | Today's Construction | Tour | Exterior | Timeline | Calendar
550-year anniversary | History on construction time | Wikipedia
Construction of the Othmar church
560 years ago
On 13th May 1454, the Monday after the feast of St. Pancras, the building of the late Gothic St. Othmar church was begun. Thereon reports the following inscription above the main entrance of the church.
Laying the foundation stone of St. Othmar
The 550-year anniversary was on 13th May 2004 celebrated in a festive vespers followed by a festive academy.
View of the main altar
You can approach a church as historically interested person, as art-historically committed tourist or as a believer. One will see different things.
The historically interested will impress on the Othmar Church in Mödling that since more than 1000 years at this point on the slope of the Calendar mountain (Kalenderberg) (= bare hithe - kahle Lände) are standing churches and that the current construction the seventh church in an unbroken sequence on this place is. He will think of the destruction of the Roman church in 1252 by the Hungarians and the horrors of the Turkish wars in 1529 and 1683.
Tourists who are interested in art and art history, see the in 1454-1523 built late Gothic hall church, the Baroque interior, the neo-Gothic windows and Stations of the Cross and the testimonies of contemporary art in the sanctuary.
For the believer the Othmarkiche makes the impression of a ship that has gone halfway between level and height at anchor to accommodate the people. Twelve pillars - the Twelve Apostles - wear its vaults. The base has a level.
This church is not a castle - defiant, dark and unwelcoming. Its bow goes into the distance. As Noah's Ark it gives refuge and security. It stands on this earth. Yet it has walls. But their higher regions are translucent, are light. The glory of heaven is guessable.
Two of the windows are of particular importance: the window in the east as the window of the creation and resurrection, and the window in the West as the window of the sunset, the Last Judgment. The world stands between Jesus' resurrection and his second coming. Every visit to the church, every church service to the community becomes an invocation to deal with God's creation and creatures that way that you don't need to fear his judgment.
The previous buildings
Mödling is ancient settlement with hilltop settlements of the Neolithic on the Jennyberg and the Hallstatt period on the Frauenberg as well as on the Calendar mountain (Calendar mountain culture).
Archaeological excavations in 1982 have shown that at the site of the present Othmar church since the 9th Century at least six predecessor buildings have been located.
More information about the predecessors ...
The present building
Start of construction 1454
As an inscription above the main entrance says, was on 13 May 1454, one year after completion of the hospital church, the construction of the present Othmar church started. It was the Monday after the feast of St. Pancras, whose feast on 12th May is observed. Pancras was the patron of the castle chapels of the castle Mödling and the castle Liechtenstein.
The 550-year anniversary of this laying of the cornerstone on 13th May 2004 was celebrated.
The dimensions of the church are for a market town that had at the time of the laying of the cornerstone 250 (mainly built of wood) Houses, huge: 54 m long, 23 m wide and 18 m high, the ridge height is 37 m. As a building material was, as for the St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, Sarmatsandstein (Cerithiensandstein) used, a rough, deficient in fossils sandstone, which was born as a deposit of Neogene Sea at the edge of the Vienna Basin.
Pastor Hinderbach and Pius II
1449-1465 was Johannes Hinderbach pastor of St. Othmar (in some sources he is called Johann Hinderbach). He planned and thus began the construction of Othmar church. He was a diplomat, ambassador and secretary of Emperor Frederick III. at the court in Wiener Neustadt, together with Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini (Enea Silvio de' Piccolomini), who was good friends with Hinderbach. It is likely that Aeneas Silvius a few times was in Mödling on visit and was well informed about the plans of the new church.
In the tenure of Hinderbach also falls the presentation of the Mödlinger coat of arms by Frederick III.
Aeneas Silvius was for some years pastor in Laa an der Thaya (Lower Austria), 1458 he was elected Pope and took the name Pius II. He built from 1459 the cathedral of Pienza in the form of a hall church, which at that time was unusual for Italy. Models were hall churches in Austria, possibly the Othmar church under construction, however, this is historically not proven. Due to time constraints Aeneas Silvius may have seen from the Othmar church not more than the blueprints and the foundation walls.
Hinderbach and Aeneas Silvius were followers of the for the Gothic spirit characteristic attitude of mind of the light mysticism. A hall church is a suitable design to implement this principle: light-irradiated, large stained glass windows instead of walls painted with images that are prevalent in the Romanesque style.
In Him (Jesus) was life, and the life was the light of men.
And the light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it.
The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world.
(Jn 1, 4 to 5.9)
1465-1486 was Hinderbach Bishop of Trent. Perhaps the Othmar church was originally planned as a bishop's church, but this is historically not proven. Hinderbach created one of the most important collections of music of the 15th Century, the so-called Trent codices.
For more information, in a speech by Dr. Gebhard König here ....
Completion 1523-1525
The year date 1499 on a buttress in the parish garden likely shows the toping-off ceremony, the year date 1509 on the north-eastern crossing pier, the completion of the vault.
After 69-year construction period (corresponding to the age of the saint Othmar), the church was completed in 1523. The above-mentioned Cathedral of Pienza, however, was already completed in 1462.
The progress has been hampered by numerous wars and confusions. In that time, the civil war between the Habsburg Emperor Friedrich III . and his brother, Archduke Albrecht VI. (until his death in 1463) and the conquest of Lower Austria by the Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus I., who resided in Vienna from 1485, falls.
1525 the church was consecrated (year date above the organ).
Destruction 1529
In fall of 1529, six years after the end of construction, the church was destroyed by the hordes of Kassim Beg during the first Turkish siege. The collapsing roof penetrated the vault and the vault of the lower church. Likewise, the Burg (castle) Mödling was destroyed, which was not rebuilt since then.
According to the report of a parish visitation in 1544 was the kürchen (church) and pfarrhof (vicarage) sambt (along with) the gantzen Marckt Mödling (whole market) as well as the umbliegenden (adjoining) fleckhen (hamlets) of the 29th year verwüst (devastated) by the türkhen (Turks) in Grundt (to the ground) and burned.
The grooves and the rectangular holes in the central pillars on which they wanted attach figure niches with pinnacle baldachins and Kapitellsockeln (capital bases) as with the pilasters, therefore, remained to this day empty. At the times when the Othmar church was not usable, the hospital church served as a parish church.
From the interior decoration of the church from the time before the destruction of 1529 today only three items are present: the tabernacle, the head of the crucified and an embroidered image of Mary, which is today at the votive altar.
To 1540 begins on the eastern slope of the Anninger (small mountain) a pine to grow that later became famous under the name width pine (Breite Föhre).
Reconstruction to 1690
Rötelinschriften (red chalk epigraphs) next to the entrance, the south transept and north aisle next to the organ parapet indicate that work has been done on the church in 1556 again.
After 1555 the Peace of Augsburg had approved the principle that the ruler could determine the religious denomination of the subjects, reinforced Emperor Ferdinand I the Counter-Reformation to the recatholicization of the country. 1556 Ferdinand issued the so-called gift letter (Gabebrief). With this document he gave the community all possessions owned by the parish (church buildings, forests, vineyards, fields). He imposed the condition that instead of an Evangelical preacher a Catholic priest was responsible for the pastoral care again and that Mödling became Catholic. Still today the municipality bears the building cost for the ecclesiastical buildings (Othmar church, hospital church, Karner, rectory, sacristan apartment) and has a say in the appointment of a new pastor.
A son of Ferdinand I, Emperor Maximilian II, the famous castle Neugebäude had built.
One reason for the lengthy reconstruction of the church might have been the Reformation (1517 were the 95 theses of Martin Luther published) and the decline in the number of Catholics. Pastor Georg Müller from 1527 is first Protestant minister in Mödling, sometimes up to three Evangelical pastors in Mödling are active .
Mödling in 1560 among the 18 richest cities and markets in the country is in sixth place. 1576 there is again a Catholic priest. Of him it is said that he had not a good life in the market. The population flows to the Protestant clergies of the surrounding residences, and again and again come Protestant preachers to Mödling.
1582 the church possesses a shallow makeshift roof over a cross barrel vault, the vault is still preserved today. (However, the church in the plan of the Burgfrieden (civil peace) and the District Court market Mödling is represented by 1610 without a roof and called Old deserted churche. Alongside the Karner is shown with pointed conical roof.)
Still in 1605 is reported on the parish that most part is not Catholic and does run after foreign cure of souls.
In the course of the Counter-Reformation cardinal Melchior Khlesl in a decree calls for donations for the reconstruction of the church:
The with big heavy expenses respectable built God house of Mödling under Gebürg (mountain), then as such anno 1523 with all belonging to the city even built up, it is at once it in 6 years afterwards by the erbfeundt (hereditary friend) as he with all of his power invaded the land and besieged the city of Vienna, put on fire and and along with all churches ornat burned down.
Khlesl was originally Protestant, then converted, influential politician, since 1598 bishop of Vienna, 1615 the first Cardinal in Vienna, he died in 1630, tomb in saint Stephen's cathedral.
However, 1618 is also the beginning of the Thirty Years' War, whereby the construction progress was further delayed.
One hundred years after the destruction of the church, it is still worked on the restoration. 1629 a citizen of Salzburg donates the Märbelsteinpflaster (Salzburg marble) for the sanctuary. The top step in front of the high altar is still made of old stones, the difference with the 1982 renewed stones is clearly visible. A commemorative plaque to the donator from Salzburg is located on the right column at the high altar:
Almighty God in praise, of St. Mary Mother of God in honor, has Florianus Ursprunger, citizen and Gastgeb (host) of Salzburg of present choir the Märbelpflastersteine handed on anno 1629.
A lightning strike shattered the windows and the tracery in 1643: here the weather has beaten in the main church, and both the windows and outmost grids anything shattered. 20 years later is reported a Corpus Christi Brotherhood, to which belongs one third of the population of Mödling.
In a report in 1664 six altars in the Othmar church (and one in the Pantaleon chapel) are enumerated by name. The church may have been thus completed for the most part.
1679 the pleague in Mödling breaks out.
1683 destruction and reconstruction
On 12th and 13th July 1683 suffers Mödling the conquest by the troops of Kara Mustafa. The church is partly destroyed and the vault is damaged.
The population is almost entirely eradicated. Many had sought in the crypt and the Karner (charnel house) refuge and were killed as a plate in front of the church reports. It is believed that, of the approximately 2000 inhabitants, only about 10% have survived, who had hidden in the woods.
After 1683 follows the rapid reconstruction of the church under Marktrichter (equivalent to mayor) Wolfgang Ignaz Viechtl, his home with a commemorative plaque stands on Liberty Square. As can be seen on the board, was Viechtl a miller (on the Fischermühle), so he on the outside of the west wall at high altitude had attached two millstones (see external view).
On 1st September 1688 is the vault restored, the executive master mason Brand for it receives according to Council minutes 1/4 bucket of wine (equivalent to approximately 14 liters). In 1690 the church was inclusively roof and truss restored (year date above the organ).
Baroquisation 18th century
The victory over the Turks initiates the second phase of the history of Othmar church. It is made in Baroque style (1690-1760). The windows are bricked up, the light mysticism of the Gothic becomes less important. The pulpit and seven baroque altars are built (see the high altar, Nepomuk altar, Anne altar, weekday chapel, votive altar). 1727 an organ is built. The hall of the Children of God turns into the throne room of the Heavenly Majesty.
Neo-Gothic restoration from 1875 to 1897.
The elevation of Mödling in 1875 as a city under Mayor Joseph Schöffel induces to a major renovation (1875 - 1897). They want the church according to the zeitgeist (spirit of the times) rebuilt in the neo-Gothic style. To do this, on 6th February 1875 at the request of Mayor Joseph Schöffel a church restoration club is founded.
The in the Baroque period bricked-up windows are laid open. This can be seen clearly on the frescoes on the Anne altar in the south transept. The grave stones lying in the soil are placed on the wall.
The figure niches and canopies on the pillars were replaced (except right behind the high altar). At Anne altar there are for unknown reasons no figure niches.
1904, a second gate is broken. The main entrance is getting a new stem, the in 1773 built Cross chapel is removed.
Renovation 1982 to May 1983
The renovation of 1982 restores the hall church (year date above the organ). The by the transept indicated cross in the ground plan of the church is satisfied that the Baroque interior in this cross takes the place of the stigmata. The liturgical ideas of Second Vatican Council are realized in works of contemporary art (folk altar and ambo).
Supplements
In 2008, the heating system was renewed.
Karner and church
Karner and church of the rest of St. John
Inscription on the laying of foundation stone 1454
Glass window
The glass window bears the inscription
Church restoration Club = 1895
Inscription 1499 (topping-off ceremony)
Buttresses in the garden
Inscription 1509 (vault completion)
Red chalk inscription 1558
Plan in 1610, Karner and Old deserted church
Commemorating plaque 1629
Commemorating plaque to the donor of the Märbelsteinpflaster 1629
Märbelsteinstufe (stone step) 1629 at the High Altar
Engraving after Merian 1649
St. Othmar and Karner
Engraving after Matthäus Merian 1649
Saints in figure niches
Lonely St. Anna - all other figure niches (they stem from the construction period 1454-1523) are empty or do not exist.
Choir stalls detail and consecration cross
Ceiling painting Holy Ghost Hole (1700 - 1750)
Consecration Cross: Twelve Apostle or consecration crosses are in the Othmar church, at those in 1525 at the fair were done prayers
Column
Twelve octagonal central pillars carry the vault
St. Anthony at a column
Under a moody Highland sky, two kilted contenders square off in the ancient art of Scottish Backhold wrestling. One in scarlet, one in hunter’s plaid—barefoot, braced, and waiting for the referee’s call.
It’s not just strength that counts here—it’s strategy, stance, and how well you can grip without flashing the crowd.
At Inveraray, tradition isn't just worn—it's wrestled for.
Inveraray Highland Games 2024
Stagecoach have committed 50 buses to the Open Championship at Muirfield. Large fields are used as car parks and Stagecoach provide the shuttle service to Muirfield . In addition Drem Station car park becomes a bus station for the week of the event. The operation seems to run very smoothly with all the Stagecoach staff in good spirits and even the odd barbecue set up for lunch ( a few of the drivers had singed eyebrows) Stagecoach seem to rise to these occasions and the old Olympians sounded great even the scruffy ones. Well done Stagecoach .
This weekend, we have committed to remembering the sacrifice, the loss, and also the bravery of all those who have answered the call to war, and have given their lives in the process. We no longer remember just the First and Second World Wars - we also think about Iraq, Afghanistan, and the many conflicts that have come and gone inbetween. To find the courage, and the strength to be willing to put your life on the line for someone else is an act of heroism - and it represents a kind of person that we should all aspire to be. Thank you, both to our service personnel who have left us and those still with us, for your commitment to our nations so that we can live in the peace and prosperity we do today.
Gautama Buddha, also known as Siddhārtha Gautama, Shakyamuni, or simply the Buddha, was a sage on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. He is believed to have lived and taught mostly in northeastern India sometime between the sixth and fourth centuries BCE.
The word Buddha means "awakened one" or "the enlightened one". "Buddha" is also used as a title for the first awakened being in a Yuga era. In most Buddhist traditions, Siddhartha Gautama is regarded as the Supreme Buddha (Pali sammāsambuddha, Sanskrit samyaksaṃbuddha) of the present age. Gautama taught a Middle Way between sensual indulgence and the severe asceticism found in the śramaṇa movement common in his region. He later taught throughout regions of eastern India such as Magadha and Kosala.
Gautama is the primary figure in Buddhism and accounts of his life, discourses, and monastic rules are believed by Buddhists to have been summarized after his death and memorized by his followers. Various collections of teachings attributed to him were passed down by oral tradition and first committed to writing about 400 years later.
CONTENTS
HISTORICAL SIDDHARTA GAUTAMA
Scholars are hesitant to make unqualified claims about the historical facts of the Buddha's life. Most accept that he lived, taught and founded a monastic order during the Mahajanapada era during the reign of Bimbisara, the ruler of the Magadha empire, and died during the early years of the reign of Ajasattu, who was the successor of Bimbisara, thus making him a younger contemporary of Mahavira, the Jain tirthankara. Apart from the Vedic Brahmins, the Buddha's lifetime coincided with the flourishing of other influential śramaṇa schools of thoughts like Ājīvika, Cārvāka, Jainism, and Ajñana. It was also the age of influential thinkers like Mahavira, Pūraṇa Kassapa , Makkhali Gosāla, Ajita Kesakambalī, Pakudha Kaccāyana, and Sañjaya Belaṭṭhaputta, whose viewpoints the Buddha most certainly must have been acquainted with and influenced by. Indeed, Sariputta and Moggallāna, two of the foremost disciples of the Buddha, were formerly the foremost disciples of Sañjaya Belaṭṭhaputta, the skeptic. There is also evidence to suggest that the two masters, Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta, were indeed historical figures and they most probably taught Buddha two different forms of meditative techniques. While the general sequence of "birth, maturity, renunciation, search, awakening and liberation, teaching, death" is widely accepted, there is less consensus on the veracity of many details contained in traditional biographies.
The times of Gautama's birth and death are uncertain. Most historians in the early 20th century dated his lifetime as circa 563 BCE to 483 BCE. More recently his death is dated later, between 411 and 400 BCE, while at a symposium on this question held in 1988, the majority of those who presented definite opinions gave dates within 20 years either side of 400 BCE for the Buddha's death. These alternative chronologies, however, have not yet been accepted by all historians.
The evidence of the early texts suggests that Siddhārtha Gautama was born into the Shakya clan, a community that was on the periphery, both geographically and culturally, of the northeastern Indian subcontinent in the 5th century BCE. It was either a small republic, in which case his father was an elected chieftain, or an oligarchy, in which case his father was an oligarch. According to the Buddhist tradition, Gautama was born in Lumbini, nowadays in modern-day Nepal, and raised in the Shakya capital of Kapilavastu, which may have been in either present day Tilaurakot, Nepal or Piprahwa, India. He obtained his enlightenment in Bodh Gaya, gave his first sermon in Sarnath, and died in Kushinagar.
No written records about Gautama have been found from his lifetime or some centuries thereafter. One Edict of Asoka, who reigned from circa 269 BCE to 232 BCE, commemorates the Emperor's pilgrimage to the Buddha's birthplace in Lumbini. Another one of his edicts mentions several Dhamma texts, establishing the existence of a written Buddhist tradition at least by the time of the Maurya era and which may be the precursors of the Pāli Canon. The oldest surviving Buddhist manuscripts are the Gandhāran Buddhist texts, reported to have been found in or around Haḍḍa near Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan and now preserved in the British Library. They are written in the Gāndhārī language using the Kharosthi script on twenty-seven birch bark manuscripts and date from the first century BCE to the third century CE.
TRADITIONAL BIOGRAPHIES
BIOGRAPHICAL SOURCES
The sources for the life of Siddhārtha Gautama are a variety of different, and sometimes conflicting, traditional biographies. These include the Buddhacarita, Lalitavistara Sūtra, Mahāvastu, and the Nidānakathā. Of these, the Buddhacarita is the earliest full biography, an epic poem written by the poet Aśvaghoṣa, and dating around the beginning of the 2nd century CE. The Lalitavistara Sūtra is the next oldest biography, a Mahāyāna/Sarvāstivāda biography dating to the 3rd century CE. The Mahāvastu from the Mahāsāṃghika Lokottaravāda tradition is another major biography, composed incrementally until perhaps the 4th century CE. The Dharmaguptaka biography of the Buddha is the most exhaustive, and is entitled the Abhiniṣkramaṇa Sūtra, and various Chinese translations of this date between the 3rd and 6th century CE. The Nidānakathā is from the Theravada tradition in Sri Lanka and was composed in the 5th century by Buddhaghoṣa.
From canonical sources, the Jataka tales, the Mahapadana Sutta (DN 14), and the Achariyabhuta Sutta (MN 123) which include selective accounts that may be older, but are not full biographies. The Jātakas retell previous lives of Gautama as a bodhisattva, and the first collection of these can be dated among the earliest Buddhist texts. The Mahāpadāna Sutta and Achariyabhuta Sutta both recount miraculous events surrounding Gautama's birth, such as the bodhisattva's descent from the Tuṣita Heaven into his mother's womb.
NATURE OF TRADITIONAL DEPICTIONS
In the earliest Buddhists texts, the nikāyas and āgamas, the Buddha is not depicted as possessing omniscience (sabbaññu) nor is he depicted as being an eternal transcendent (lokottara) being. According to Bhikkhu Analayo, ideas of the Buddha's omniscience (along with an increasing tendency to deify him and his biography) are found only later, in the Mahayana sutras and later Pali commentaries or texts such as the Mahāvastu. In the Sandaka Sutta, the Buddha's disciple Ananda outlines an argument against the claims of teachers who say they are all knowing while in the Tevijjavacchagotta Sutta the Buddha himself states that he has never made a claim to being omniscient, instead he claimed to have the "higher knowledges" (abhijñā). The earliest biographical material from the Pali Nikayas focuses on the Buddha's life as a śramaṇa, his search for enlightenment under various teachers such as Alara Kalama and his forty five year career as a teacher.
Traditional biographies of Gautama generally include numerous miracles, omens, and supernatural events. The character of the Buddha in these traditional biographies is often that of a fully transcendent (Skt. lokottara) and perfected being who is unencumbered by the mundane world. In the Mahāvastu, over the course of many lives, Gautama is said to have developed supra-mundane abilities including: a painless birth conceived without intercourse; no need for sleep, food, medicine, or bathing, although engaging in such "in conformity with the world"; omniscience, and the ability to "suppress karma". Nevertheless, some of the more ordinary details of his life have been gathered from these traditional sources. In modern times there has been an attempt to form a secular understanding of Siddhārtha Gautama's life by omitting the traditional supernatural elements of his early biographies.
Andrew Skilton writes that the Buddha was never historically regarded by Buddhist traditions as being merely human:
It is important to stress that, despite modern Theravada teachings to the contrary (often a sop to skeptical Western pupils), he was never seen as being merely human. For instance, he is often described as having the thirty-two major and eighty minor marks or signs of a mahāpuruṣa, "superman"; the Buddha himself denied that he was either a man or a god; and in the Mahāparinibbāna Sutta he states that he could live for an aeon were he asked to do so.The ancient Indians were generally unconcerned with chronologies, being more focused on philosophy. Buddhist texts reflect this tendency, providing a clearer picture of what Gautama may have taught than of the dates of the events in his life. These texts contain descriptions of the culture and daily life of ancient India which can be corroborated from the Jain scriptures, and make the Buddha's time the earliest period in Indian history for which significant accounts exist. British author Karen Armstrong writes that although there is very little information that can be considered historically sound, we can be reasonably confident that Siddhārtha Gautama did exist as a historical figure. Michael Carrithers goes a bit further by stating that the most general outline of "birth, maturity, renunciation, search, awakening and liberation, teaching, death" must be true.
BIOGRAPHY
CONCEPTION AND BIRTH
The Buddhist tradition regards Lumbini, in present-day Nepal to be the birthplace of the Buddha. He grew up in Kapilavastu. The exact site of ancient Kapilavastu is unknown. It may have been either Piprahwa, Uttar Pradesh, present-day India, or Tilaurakot, present-day Nepal. Both places belonged to the Sakya territory, and are located only 15 miles apart from each other.
Gautama was born as a Kshatriya, the son of Śuddhodana, "an elected chief of the Shakya clan", whose capital was Kapilavastu, and who were later annexed by the growing Kingdom of Kosala during the Buddha's lifetime. Gautama was the family name. His mother, Maya (Māyādevī), Suddhodana's wife, was a Koliyan princess. Legend has it that, on the night Siddhartha was conceived, Queen Maya dreamt that a white elephant with six white tusks entered her right side, and ten months later Siddhartha was born. As was the Shakya tradition, when his mother Queen Maya became pregnant, she left Kapilvastu for her father's kingdom to give birth. However, her son is said to have been born on the way, at Lumbini, in a garden beneath a sal tree.
The day of the Buddha's birth is widely celebrated in Theravada countries as Vesak. Buddha's Birthday is called Buddha Purnima in Nepal and India as he is believed to have been born on a full moon day. Various sources hold that the Buddha's mother died at his birth, a few days or seven days later. The infant was given the name Siddhartha (Pāli: Siddhattha), meaning "he who achieves his aim". During the birth celebrations, the hermit seer Asita journeyed from his mountain abode and announced that the child would either become a great king (chakravartin) or a great sadhu. By traditional account, this occurred after Siddhartha placed his feet in Asita's hair and Asita examined the birthmarks. Suddhodana held a naming ceremony on the fifth day, and invited eight Brahmin scholars to read the future. All gave a dual prediction that the baby would either become a great king or a great holy man. Kondañña, the youngest, and later to be the first arhat other than the Buddha, was reputed to be the only one who unequivocally predicted that Siddhartha would become a Buddha.
While later tradition and legend characterized Śuddhodana as a hereditary monarch, the descendant of the Suryavansha (Solar dynasty) of Ikṣvāku (Pāli: Okkāka), many scholars think that Śuddhodana was the elected chief of a tribal confederacy.
Early texts suggest that Gautama was not familiar with the dominant religious teachings of his time until he left on his religious quest, which is said to have been motivated by existential concern for the human condition. The state of the Shakya clan was not a monarchy, and seems to have been structured either as an oligarchy, or as a form of republic. The more egalitarian gana-sangha form of government, as a political alternative to the strongly hierarchical kingdoms, may have influenced the development of the śramanic Jain and Buddhist sanghas, where monarchies tended toward Vedic Brahmanism.
EARLY LIFE AND MARRIAGE
Siddhartha was brought up by his mother's younger sister, Maha Pajapati. By tradition, he is said to have been destined by birth to the life of a prince, and had three palaces (for seasonal occupation) built for him. Although more recent scholarship doubts this status, his father, said to be King Śuddhodana, wishing for his son to be a great king, is said to have shielded him from religious teachings and from knowledge of human suffering.
When he reached the age of 16, his father reputedly arranged his marriage to a cousin of the same age named Yaśodharā (Pāli: Yasodharā). According to the traditional account, she gave birth to a son, named Rāhula. Siddhartha is said to have spent 29 years as a prince in Kapilavastu. Although his father ensured that Siddhartha was provided with everything he could want or need, Buddhist scriptures say that the future Buddha felt that material wealth was not life's ultimate goal.
RENUNCIATION AND ASCETIC LIFE
At the age of 29, the popular biography continues, Siddhartha left his palace to meet his subjects. Despite his father's efforts to hide from him the sick, aged and suffering, Siddhartha was said to have seen an old man. When his charioteer Channa explained to him that all people grew old, the prince went on further trips beyond the palace. On these he encountered a diseased man, a decaying corpse, and an ascetic. These depressed him, and he initially strove to overcome aging, sickness, and death by living the life of an ascetic.
Accompanied by Channa and riding his horse Kanthaka, Gautama quit his palace for the life of a mendicant. It's said that, "the horse's hooves were muffled by the gods" to prevent guards from knowing of his departure.
Gautama initially went to Rajagaha and began his ascetic life by begging for alms in the street. After King Bimbisara's men recognised Siddhartha and the king learned of his quest, Bimbisara offered Siddhartha the throne. Siddhartha rejected the offer, but promised to visit his kingdom of Magadha first, upon attaining enlightenment.
He left Rajagaha and practised under two hermit teachers of yogic meditation. After mastering the teachings of Alara Kalama (Skr. Ārāḍa Kālāma), he was asked by Kalama to succeed him. However, Gautama felt unsatisfied by the practice, and moved on to become a student of yoga with Udaka Ramaputta (Skr. Udraka Rāmaputra). With him he achieved high levels of meditative consciousness, and was again asked to succeed his teacher. But, once more, he was not satisfied, and again moved on.
Siddhartha and a group of five companions led by Kaundinya are then said to have set out to take their austerities even further. They tried to find enlightenment through deprivation of worldly goods, including food, practising self-mortification. After nearly starving himself to death by restricting his food intake to around a leaf or nut per day, he collapsed in a river while bathing and almost drowned. Siddhartha was rescued by a village girl named Sujata and she gave him some payasam (a pudding made from milk and jaggery) after which Siddhartha got back some energy. Siddhartha began to reconsider his path. Then, he remembered a moment in childhood in which he had been watching his father start the season's ploughing. He attained a concentrated and focused state that was blissful and refreshing, the jhāna.
AWAKENING
According to the early Buddhist texts, after realizing that meditative dhyana was the right path to awakening, but that extreme asceticism didn't work, Gautama discovered what Buddhists call the Middle Way - a path of moderation away from the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification, or the Noble Eightfold Path, as was identified and described by the Buddha in his first discourse, the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta. In a famous incident, after becoming starved and weakened, he is said to have accepted milk and rice pudding from a village girl named Sujata. Such was his emaciated appearance that she wrongly believed him to be a spirit that had granted her a wish.
Following this incident, Gautama was famously seated under a pipal tree - now known as the Bodhi tree - in Bodh Gaya, India, when he vowed never to arise until he had found the truth. Kaundinya and four other companions, believing that he had abandoned his search and become undisciplined, left. After a reputed 49 days of meditation, at the age of 35, he is said to have attained Enlightenment. According to some traditions, this occurred in approximately the fifth lunar month, while, according to others, it was in the twelfth month. From that time, Gautama was known to his followers as the Buddha or "Awakened One" ("Buddha" is also sometimes translated as "The Enlightened One").
According to Buddhism, at the time of his awakening he realized complete insight into the cause of suffering, and the steps necessary to eliminate it. These discoveries became known as the "Four Noble Truths", which are at the heart of Buddhist teaching. Through mastery of these truths, a state of supreme liberation, or Nirvana, is believed to be possible for any being. The Buddha described Nirvāna as the perfect peace of a mind that's free from ignorance, greed, hatred and other afflictive states, or "defilements" (kilesas). Nirvana is also regarded as the "end of the world", in that no personal identity or boundaries of the mind remain. In such a state, a being is said to possess the Ten Characteristics, belonging to every Buddha.
According to a story in the Āyācana Sutta (Samyutta Nikaya VI.1) - a scripture found in the Pāli and other canons - immediately after his awakening, the Buddha debated whether or not he should teach the Dharma to others. He was concerned that humans were so overpowered by ignorance, greed and hatred that they could never recognise the path, which is subtle, deep and hard to grasp. However, in the story, Brahmā Sahampati convinced him, arguing that at least some will understand it. The Buddha relented, and agreed to teach.
FORMATION OF THE SANGHA
After his awakening, the Buddha met Taphussa and Bhallika — two merchant brothers from the city of Balkh in what is currently Afghanistan - who became his first lay disciples. It is said that each was given hairs from his head, which are now claimed to be enshrined as relics in the Shwe Dagon Temple in Rangoon, Burma. The Buddha intended to visit Asita, and his former teachers, Alara Kalama and Udaka Ramaputta, to explain his findings, but they had already died.
He then travelled to the Deer Park near Varanasi (Benares) in northern India, where he set in motion what Buddhists call the Wheel of Dharma by delivering his first sermon to the five companions with whom he had sought enlightenment. Together with him, they formed the first saṅgha: the company of Buddhist monks.
All five become arahants, and within the first two months, with the conversion of Yasa and fifty four of his friends, the number of such arahants is said to have grown to 60. The conversion of three brothers named Kassapa followed, with their reputed 200, 300 and 500 disciples, respectively. This swelled the sangha to more than 1,000.
TRAVELS AND TEACHING
For the remaining 45 years of his life, the Buddha is said to have traveled in the Gangetic Plain, in what is now Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and southern Nepal, teaching a diverse range of people: from nobles to servants, murderers such as Angulimala, and cannibals such as Alavaka. Although the Buddha's language remains unknown, it's likely that he taught in one or more of a variety of closely related Middle Indo-Aryan dialects, of which Pali may be a standardization.
The sangha traveled through the subcontinent, expounding the dharma. This continued throughout the year, except during the four months of the Vāsanā rainy season when ascetics of all religions rarely traveled. One reason was that it was more difficult to do so without causing harm to animal life. At this time of year, the sangha would retreat to monasteries, public parks or forests, where people would come to them.
The first vassana was spent at Varanasi when the sangha was formed. After this, the Buddha kept a promise to travel to Rajagaha, capital of Magadha, to visit King Bimbisara. During this visit, Sariputta and Maudgalyayana were converted by Assaji, one of the first five disciples, after which they were to become the Buddha's two foremost followers. The Buddha spent the next three seasons at Veluvana Bamboo Grove monastery in Rajagaha, capital of Magadha.
Upon hearing of his son's awakening, Suddhodana sent, over a period, ten delegations to ask him to return to Kapilavastu. On the first nine occasions, the delegates failed to deliver the message, and instead joined the sangha to become arahants. The tenth delegation, led by Kaludayi, a childhood friend of Gautama's (who also became an arahant), however, delivered the message.
Now two years after his awakening, the Buddha agreed to return, and made a two-month journey by foot to Kapilavastu, teaching the dharma as he went. At his return, the royal palace prepared a midday meal, but the sangha was making an alms round in Kapilavastu. Hearing this, Suddhodana approached his son, the Buddha, saying:
"Ours is the warrior lineage of Mahamassata, and not a single warrior has gone seeking alms."
The Buddha is said to have replied:
"That is not the custom of your royal lineage. But it is the custom of my Buddha lineage. Several thousands of Buddhas have gone by seeking alms."
Buddhist texts say that Suddhodana invited the sangha into the palace for the meal, followed by a dharma talk. After this he is said to have become a sotapanna. During the visit, many members of the royal family joined the sangha. The Buddha's cousins Ananda and Anuruddha became two of his five chief disciples. At the age of seven, his son Rahula also joined, and became one of his ten chief disciples. His half-brother Nanda also joined and became an arahant.
Of the Buddha's disciples, Sariputta, Maudgalyayana, Mahakasyapa, Ananda and Anuruddha are believed to have been the five closest to him. His ten foremost disciples were reputedly completed by the quintet of Upali, Subhoti, Rahula, Mahakaccana and Punna.
In the fifth vassana, the Buddha was staying at Mahavana near Vesali when he heard news of the impending death of his father. He is said to have gone to Suddhodana and taught the dharma, after which his father became an arahant.The king's death and cremation was to inspire the creation of an order of nuns. Buddhist texts record that the Buddha was reluctant to ordain women. His foster mother Maha Pajapati, for example, approached him, asking to join the sangha, but he refused. Maha Pajapati, however, was so intent on the path of awakening that she led a group of royal Sakyan and Koliyan ladies, which followed the sangha on a long journey to Rajagaha. In time, after Ananda championed their cause, the Buddha is said to have reconsidered and, five years after the formation of the sangha, agreed to the ordination of women as nuns. He reasoned that males and females had an equal capacity for awakening. But he gave women additional rules (Vinaya) to follow.
MAHAPARINIRVANA
According to the Mahaparinibbana Sutta of the Pali canon, at the age of 80, the Buddha announced that he would soon reach Parinirvana, or the final deathless state, and abandon his earthly body. After this, the Buddha ate his last meal, which he had received as an offering from a blacksmith named Cunda. Falling violently ill, Buddha instructed his attendant Ānanda to convince Cunda that the meal eaten at his place had nothing to do with his passing and that his meal would be a source of the greatest merit as it provided the last meal for a Buddha. Mettanando and Von Hinüber argue that the Buddha died of mesenteric infarction, a symptom of old age, rather than food poisoning. The precise contents of the Buddha's final meal are not clear, due to variant scriptural traditions and ambiguity over the translation of certain significant terms; the Theravada tradition generally believes that the Buddha was offered some kind of pork, while the Mahayana tradition believes that the Buddha consumed some sort of truffle or other mushroom. These may reflect the different traditional views on Buddhist vegetarianism and the precepts for monks and nuns.
Waley suggests that Theravadin's would take suukaramaddava (the contents of the Buddha's last meal), which can translate as pig-soft, to mean soft flesh of a pig. However, he also states that pig-soft could mean "pig's soft-food", that is, after Neumann, a soft food favoured by pigs, assumed to be a truffle. He argues (also after Neumann) that as Pali Buddhism was developed in an area remote to the Buddha's death, the existence of other plants with suukara- (pig) as part of their names and that "(p)lant names tend to be local and dialectical" could easily indicate that suukaramaddava was a type of plant whose local name was unknown to those in the Pali regions. Specifically, local writers knew more about their flora than Theravadin commentator Buddhaghosa who lived hundreds of years and kilometres remote in time and space from the events described. Unaware of an alternate meaning and with no Theravadin prohibition against eating animal flesh, Theravadins would not have questioned the Buddha eating meat and interpreted the term accordingly.
Ananda protested the Buddha's decision to enter Parinirvana in the abandoned jungles of Kuśināra (present-day Kushinagar, India) of the Malla kingdom. The Buddha, however, is said to have reminded Ananda how Kushinara was a land once ruled by a righteous wheel-turning king that resounded with joy:
44. Kusavati, Ananda, resounded unceasingly day and night with ten sounds - the trumpeting of elephants, the neighing of horses, the rattling of chariots, the beating of drums and tabours, music and song, cheers, the clapping of hands, and cries of "Eat, drink, and be merry!"
The Buddha then asked all the attendant Bhikkhus to clarify any doubts or questions they had. They had none. According to Buddhist scriptures, he then finally entered Parinirvana. The Buddha's final words are reported to have been: "All composite things (Saṅkhāra) are perishable. Strive for your own liberation with diligence" (Pali: 'vayadhammā saṅkhārā appamādena sampādethā'). His body was cremated and the relics were placed in monuments or stupas, some of which are believed to have survived until the present. For example, The Temple of the Tooth or "Dalada Maligawa" in Sri Lanka is the place where what some believe to be the relic of the right tooth of Buddha is kept at present.
According to the Pāli historical chronicles of Sri Lanka, the Dīpavaṃsa and Mahāvaṃsa, the coronation of Emperor Aśoka (Pāli: Asoka) is 218 years after the death of the Buddha. According to two textual records in Chinese (十八部論 and 部執異論), the coronation of Emperor Aśoka is 116 years after the death of the Buddha. Therefore, the time of Buddha's passing is either 486 BCE according to Theravāda record or 383 BCE according to Mahayana record. However, the actual date traditionally accepted as the date of the Buddha's death in Theravāda countries is 544 or 545 BCE, because the reign of Emperor Aśoka was traditionally reckoned to be about 60 years earlier than current estimates. In Burmese Buddhist tradition, the date of the Buddha's death is 13 May 544 BCE. whereas in Thai tradition it is 11 March 545 BCE.
At his death, the Buddha is famously believed to have told his disciples to follow no leader. Mahakasyapa was chosen by the sangha to be the chairman of the First Buddhist Council, with the two chief disciples Maudgalyayana and Sariputta having died before the Buddha.
While in the Buddha's days he was addressed by the very respected titles Buddha, Shākyamuni, Shākyasimha, Bhante and Bho, he was known after his parinirvana as Arihant, Bhagavā/Bhagavat/Bhagwān, Mahāvira, Jina/Jinendra, Sāstr, Sugata, and most popularly in scriptures as Tathāgata.
BUDDHA AND VEDAS
Buddha's teachings deny the authority of the Vedas and consequently [at least atheistic] Buddhism is generally viewed as a nāstika school (heterodox, literally "It is not so") from the perspective of orthodox Hinduism.
RELICS
After his death, Buddha's cremation relics were divided amongst 8 royal families and his disciples; centuries later they would be enshrined by King Ashoka into 84,000 stupas. Many supernatural legends surround the history of alleged relics as they accompanied the spread of Buddhism and gave legitimacy to rulers.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
An extensive and colorful physical description of the Buddha has been laid down in scriptures. A kshatriya by birth, he had military training in his upbringing, and by Shakyan tradition was required to pass tests to demonstrate his worthiness as a warrior in order to marry. He had a strong enough body to be noticed by one of the kings and was asked to join his army as a general. He is also believed by Buddhists to have "the 32 Signs of the Great Man".
The Brahmin Sonadanda described him as "handsome, good-looking, and pleasing to the eye, with a most beautiful complexion. He has a godlike form and countenance, he is by no means unattractive." (D, I:115)
"It is wonderful, truly marvellous, how serene is the good Gotama's appearance, how clear and radiant his complexion, just as the golden jujube in autumn is clear and radiant, just as a palm-tree fruit just loosened from the stalk is clear and radiant, just as an adornment of red gold wrought in a crucible by a skilled goldsmith, deftly beaten and laid on a yellow-cloth shines, blazes and glitters, even so, the good Gotama's senses are calmed, his complexion is clear and radiant." (A, I:181)
A disciple named Vakkali, who later became an arahant, was so obsessed by the Buddha's physical presence that the Buddha is said to have felt impelled to tell him to desist, and to have reminded him that he should know the Buddha through the Dhamma and not through physical appearances.
Although there are no extant representations of the Buddha in human form until around the 1st century CE (see Buddhist art), descriptions of the physical characteristics of fully enlightened buddhas are attributed to the Buddha in the Digha Nikaya's Lakkhaṇa Sutta (D, I:142). In addition, the Buddha's physical appearance is described by Yasodhara to their son Rahula upon the Buddha's first post-Enlightenment return to his former princely palace in the non-canonical Pali devotional hymn, Narasīha Gāthā ("The Lion of Men").
Among the 32 main characteristics it is mentioned that Buddha has blue eyes.
NINE VIRTUES
Recollection of nine virtues attributed to the Buddha is a common Buddhist meditation and devotional practice called Buddhānusmṛti. The nine virtues are also among the 40 Buddhist meditation subjects. The nine virtues of the Buddha appear throughout the Tipitaka, and include:
- Buddho – Awakened
- Sammasambuddho – Perfectly self-awakened
- Vijja-carana-sampano – Endowed with higher knowledge and ideal conduct.
- Sugato – Well-gone or Well-spoken.
- Lokavidu – Wise in the knowledge of the many worlds.
- Anuttaro Purisa-damma-sarathi – Unexcelled trainer of untrained people.
- Satthadeva-Manussanam – Teacher of gods and humans.
- Bhagavathi – The Blessed one
- Araham – Worthy of homage. An Arahant is "one with taints destroyed, who has lived the holy life, done what had to be done, laid down the burden, reached the true goal, destroyed the fetters of being, and is completely liberated through final knowledge."
TEACHINGS
TRACING THE OLDEST TEACHINGS
Information of the oldest teachings may be obtained by analysis of the oldest texts. One method to obtain information on the oldest core of Buddhism is to compare the oldest extant versions of the Theravadin Pali Canon and other texts. The reliability of these sources, and the possibility to draw out a core of oldest teachings, is a matter of dispute. According to Vetter, inconsistencies remain, and other methods must be applied to resolve those inconsistencies.
According to Schmithausen, three positions held by scholars of Buddhism can be distinguished:
"Stress on the fundamental homogeneity and substantial authenticity of at least a considerable part of the Nikayic materials;"
"Scepticism with regard to the possibility of retrieving the doctrine of earliest Buddhism;"
"Cautious optimism in this respect."
DHYANA AND INSIGHT
A core problem in the study of early Buddhism is the relation between dhyana and insight. Schmithausen, in his often-cited article On some Aspects of Descriptions or Theories of 'Liberating Insight' and 'Enlightenment' in Early Buddhism notes that the mention of the four noble truths as constituting "liberating insight", which is attained after mastering the Rupa Jhanas, is a later addition to texts such as Majjhima Nikaya 36
CORE TEACHINGS
According to Tilmann Vetter, the core of earliest Buddhism is the practice of dhyāna. Bronkhorst agrees that dhyana was a Buddhist invention, whereas Norman notes that "the Buddha's way to release [...] was by means of meditative practices." Discriminating insight into transiency as a separate path to liberation was a later development.
According to the Mahāsaccakasutta, from the fourth jhana the Buddha gained bodhi. Yet, it is not clear what he was awakened to. "Liberating insight" is a later addition to this text, and reflects a later development and understanding in early Buddhism. The mentioning of the four truths as constituting "liberating insight" introduces a logical problem, since the four truths depict a linear path of practice, the knowledge of which is in itself not depicted as being liberating:
[T]hey do not teach that one is released by knowing the four noble truths, but by practicing the fourth noble truth, the eightfold path, which culminates in right samadhi.
Although "Nibbāna" (Sanskrit: Nirvāna) is the common term for the desired goal of this practice, many other terms can be found throughout the Nikayas, which are not specified.
According to Vetter, the description of the Buddhist path may initially have been as simple as the term "the middle way". In time, this short description was elaborated, resulting in the description of the eightfold path.
According to both Bronkhorst and Anderson, the four truths became a substitution for prajna, or "liberating insight", in the suttas in those texts where "liberating insight" was preceded by the four jhanas. According to Bronkhorst, the four truths may not have been formulated in earliest Buddhism, and did not serve in earliest Buddhism as a description of "liberating insight". Gotama's teachings may have been personal, "adjusted to the need of each person."
The three marks of existence may reflect Upanishadic or other influences. K.R. Norman supposes that these terms were already in use at the Buddha's time, and were familiar to his listeners.
The Brahma-vihara was in origin probably a brahmanic term; but its usage may have been common to the Sramana traditions.
LATER DEVELOPMENTS
In time, "liberating insight" became an essential feature of the Buddhist tradition. The following teachings, which are commonly seen as essential to Buddhism, are later formulations which form part of the explanatory framework of this "liberating insight":
- The Four Noble Truths: that suffering is an ingrained part of existence; that the origin of suffering is craving for sensuality, acquisition of identity, and fear of annihilation; that suffering can be ended; and that following the Noble Eightfold Path is the means to accomplish this;
- The Noble Eightfold Path: right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration;
- Dependent origination: the mind creates suffering as a natural product of a complex process.
OTHER RELIGIONS
Some Hindus regard Gautama as the 9th avatar of Vishnu. The Buddha is also regarded as a prophet by the Ahmadiyya Muslims and a Manifestation of God in the Bahá'í Faith. Some early Chinese Taoist-Buddhists thought the Buddha to be a reincarnation of Lao Tzu.
The Christian Saint Josaphat is based on the Buddha. The name comes from the Sanskrit Bodhisattva via Arabic Būdhasaf and Georgian Iodasaph. The only story in which St. Josaphat appears, Barlaam and Josaphat, is based on the life of the Buddha. Josaphat was included in earlier editions of the Roman Martyrology (feast day 27 November) — though not in the Roman Missal — and in the Eastern Orthodox Church liturgical calendar (26 August).
Disciples of the Cao Đài religion worship the Buddha as a major religious teacher. His image can be found in both their Holy See and on the home altar. He is revealed during communication with Divine Beings as son of their Supreme Being (God the Father) together with other major religious teachers and founders like Jesus, Laozi, and Confucius.
In the ancient Gnostic sect of Manichaeism the Buddha is listed among the prophets who preached the word of God before Mani.
WIKIPEDIA
Just before sunset, every day when the tide is high enough, teenagers of Stonetown, Zanzibar flock to the harbor and show off their style. This image was captured at 18mm (digital) and flash bumped up to +1.
Gautama Buddha, also known as Siddhārtha Gautama, Shakyamuni, or simply the Buddha, was a sage on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. He is believed to have lived and taught mostly in northeastern India sometime between the sixth and fourth centuries BCE.
The word Buddha means "awakened one" or "the enlightened one". "Buddha" is also used as a title for the first awakened being in a Yuga era. In most Buddhist traditions, Siddhartha Gautama is regarded as the Supreme Buddha (Pali sammāsambuddha, Sanskrit samyaksaṃbuddha) of the present age. Gautama taught a Middle Way between sensual indulgence and the severe asceticism found in the śramaṇa movement common in his region. He later taught throughout regions of eastern India such as Magadha and Kosala.
Gautama is the primary figure in Buddhism and accounts of his life, discourses, and monastic rules are believed by Buddhists to have been summarized after his death and memorized by his followers. Various collections of teachings attributed to him were passed down by oral tradition and first committed to writing about 400 years later.
CONTENTS
HISTORICAL SIDDHARTA GAUTAMA
Scholars are hesitant to make unqualified claims about the historical facts of the Buddha's life. Most accept that he lived, taught and founded a monastic order during the Mahajanapada era during the reign of Bimbisara, the ruler of the Magadha empire, and died during the early years of the reign of Ajasattu, who was the successor of Bimbisara, thus making him a younger contemporary of Mahavira, the Jain tirthankara. Apart from the Vedic Brahmins, the Buddha's lifetime coincided with the flourishing of other influential śramaṇa schools of thoughts like Ājīvika, Cārvāka, Jainism, and Ajñana. It was also the age of influential thinkers like Mahavira, Pūraṇa Kassapa , Makkhali Gosāla, Ajita Kesakambalī, Pakudha Kaccāyana, and Sañjaya Belaṭṭhaputta, whose viewpoints the Buddha most certainly must have been acquainted with and influenced by. Indeed, Sariputta and Moggallāna, two of the foremost disciples of the Buddha, were formerly the foremost disciples of Sañjaya Belaṭṭhaputta, the skeptic. There is also evidence to suggest that the two masters, Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta, were indeed historical figures and they most probably taught Buddha two different forms of meditative techniques. While the general sequence of "birth, maturity, renunciation, search, awakening and liberation, teaching, death" is widely accepted, there is less consensus on the veracity of many details contained in traditional biographies.
The times of Gautama's birth and death are uncertain. Most historians in the early 20th century dated his lifetime as circa 563 BCE to 483 BCE. More recently his death is dated later, between 411 and 400 BCE, while at a symposium on this question held in 1988, the majority of those who presented definite opinions gave dates within 20 years either side of 400 BCE for the Buddha's death. These alternative chronologies, however, have not yet been accepted by all historians.
The evidence of the early texts suggests that Siddhārtha Gautama was born into the Shakya clan, a community that was on the periphery, both geographically and culturally, of the northeastern Indian subcontinent in the 5th century BCE. It was either a small republic, in which case his father was an elected chieftain, or an oligarchy, in which case his father was an oligarch. According to the Buddhist tradition, Gautama was born in Lumbini, nowadays in modern-day Nepal, and raised in the Shakya capital of Kapilavastu, which may have been in either present day Tilaurakot, Nepal or Piprahwa, India. He obtained his enlightenment in Bodh Gaya, gave his first sermon in Sarnath, and died in Kushinagar.
No written records about Gautama have been found from his lifetime or some centuries thereafter. One Edict of Asoka, who reigned from circa 269 BCE to 232 BCE, commemorates the Emperor's pilgrimage to the Buddha's birthplace in Lumbini. Another one of his edicts mentions several Dhamma texts, establishing the existence of a written Buddhist tradition at least by the time of the Maurya era and which may be the precursors of the Pāli Canon. The oldest surviving Buddhist manuscripts are the Gandhāran Buddhist texts, reported to have been found in or around Haḍḍa near Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan and now preserved in the British Library. They are written in the Gāndhārī language using the Kharosthi script on twenty-seven birch bark manuscripts and date from the first century BCE to the third century CE.
TRADITIONAL BIOGRAPHIES
BIOGRAPHICAL SOURCES
The sources for the life of Siddhārtha Gautama are a variety of different, and sometimes conflicting, traditional biographies. These include the Buddhacarita, Lalitavistara Sūtra, Mahāvastu, and the Nidānakathā. Of these, the Buddhacarita is the earliest full biography, an epic poem written by the poet Aśvaghoṣa, and dating around the beginning of the 2nd century CE. The Lalitavistara Sūtra is the next oldest biography, a Mahāyāna/Sarvāstivāda biography dating to the 3rd century CE. The Mahāvastu from the Mahāsāṃghika Lokottaravāda tradition is another major biography, composed incrementally until perhaps the 4th century CE. The Dharmaguptaka biography of the Buddha is the most exhaustive, and is entitled the Abhiniṣkramaṇa Sūtra, and various Chinese translations of this date between the 3rd and 6th century CE. The Nidānakathā is from the Theravada tradition in Sri Lanka and was composed in the 5th century by Buddhaghoṣa.
From canonical sources, the Jataka tales, the Mahapadana Sutta (DN 14), and the Achariyabhuta Sutta (MN 123) which include selective accounts that may be older, but are not full biographies. The Jātakas retell previous lives of Gautama as a bodhisattva, and the first collection of these can be dated among the earliest Buddhist texts. The Mahāpadāna Sutta and Achariyabhuta Sutta both recount miraculous events surrounding Gautama's birth, such as the bodhisattva's descent from the Tuṣita Heaven into his mother's womb.
NATURE OF TRADITIONAL DEPICTIONS
In the earliest Buddhists texts, the nikāyas and āgamas, the Buddha is not depicted as possessing omniscience (sabbaññu) nor is he depicted as being an eternal transcendent (lokottara) being. According to Bhikkhu Analayo, ideas of the Buddha's omniscience (along with an increasing tendency to deify him and his biography) are found only later, in the Mahayana sutras and later Pali commentaries or texts such as the Mahāvastu. In the Sandaka Sutta, the Buddha's disciple Ananda outlines an argument against the claims of teachers who say they are all knowing while in the Tevijjavacchagotta Sutta the Buddha himself states that he has never made a claim to being omniscient, instead he claimed to have the "higher knowledges" (abhijñā). The earliest biographical material from the Pali Nikayas focuses on the Buddha's life as a śramaṇa, his search for enlightenment under various teachers such as Alara Kalama and his forty five year career as a teacher.
Traditional biographies of Gautama generally include numerous miracles, omens, and supernatural events. The character of the Buddha in these traditional biographies is often that of a fully transcendent (Skt. lokottara) and perfected being who is unencumbered by the mundane world. In the Mahāvastu, over the course of many lives, Gautama is said to have developed supra-mundane abilities including: a painless birth conceived without intercourse; no need for sleep, food, medicine, or bathing, although engaging in such "in conformity with the world"; omniscience, and the ability to "suppress karma". Nevertheless, some of the more ordinary details of his life have been gathered from these traditional sources. In modern times there has been an attempt to form a secular understanding of Siddhārtha Gautama's life by omitting the traditional supernatural elements of his early biographies.
Andrew Skilton writes that the Buddha was never historically regarded by Buddhist traditions as being merely human:
It is important to stress that, despite modern Theravada teachings to the contrary (often a sop to skeptical Western pupils), he was never seen as being merely human. For instance, he is often described as having the thirty-two major and eighty minor marks or signs of a mahāpuruṣa, "superman"; the Buddha himself denied that he was either a man or a god; and in the Mahāparinibbāna Sutta he states that he could live for an aeon were he asked to do so.The ancient Indians were generally unconcerned with chronologies, being more focused on philosophy. Buddhist texts reflect this tendency, providing a clearer picture of what Gautama may have taught than of the dates of the events in his life. These texts contain descriptions of the culture and daily life of ancient India which can be corroborated from the Jain scriptures, and make the Buddha's time the earliest period in Indian history for which significant accounts exist. British author Karen Armstrong writes that although there is very little information that can be considered historically sound, we can be reasonably confident that Siddhārtha Gautama did exist as a historical figure. Michael Carrithers goes a bit further by stating that the most general outline of "birth, maturity, renunciation, search, awakening and liberation, teaching, death" must be true.
BIOGRAPHY
CONCEPTION AND BIRTH
The Buddhist tradition regards Lumbini, in present-day Nepal to be the birthplace of the Buddha. He grew up in Kapilavastu. The exact site of ancient Kapilavastu is unknown. It may have been either Piprahwa, Uttar Pradesh, present-day India, or Tilaurakot, present-day Nepal. Both places belonged to the Sakya territory, and are located only 15 miles apart from each other.
Gautama was born as a Kshatriya, the son of Śuddhodana, "an elected chief of the Shakya clan", whose capital was Kapilavastu, and who were later annexed by the growing Kingdom of Kosala during the Buddha's lifetime. Gautama was the family name. His mother, Maya (Māyādevī), Suddhodana's wife, was a Koliyan princess. Legend has it that, on the night Siddhartha was conceived, Queen Maya dreamt that a white elephant with six white tusks entered her right side, and ten months later Siddhartha was born. As was the Shakya tradition, when his mother Queen Maya became pregnant, she left Kapilvastu for her father's kingdom to give birth. However, her son is said to have been born on the way, at Lumbini, in a garden beneath a sal tree.
The day of the Buddha's birth is widely celebrated in Theravada countries as Vesak. Buddha's Birthday is called Buddha Purnima in Nepal and India as he is believed to have been born on a full moon day. Various sources hold that the Buddha's mother died at his birth, a few days or seven days later. The infant was given the name Siddhartha (Pāli: Siddhattha), meaning "he who achieves his aim". During the birth celebrations, the hermit seer Asita journeyed from his mountain abode and announced that the child would either become a great king (chakravartin) or a great sadhu. By traditional account, this occurred after Siddhartha placed his feet in Asita's hair and Asita examined the birthmarks. Suddhodana held a naming ceremony on the fifth day, and invited eight Brahmin scholars to read the future. All gave a dual prediction that the baby would either become a great king or a great holy man. Kondañña, the youngest, and later to be the first arhat other than the Buddha, was reputed to be the only one who unequivocally predicted that Siddhartha would become a Buddha.
While later tradition and legend characterized Śuddhodana as a hereditary monarch, the descendant of the Suryavansha (Solar dynasty) of Ikṣvāku (Pāli: Okkāka), many scholars think that Śuddhodana was the elected chief of a tribal confederacy.
Early texts suggest that Gautama was not familiar with the dominant religious teachings of his time until he left on his religious quest, which is said to have been motivated by existential concern for the human condition. The state of the Shakya clan was not a monarchy, and seems to have been structured either as an oligarchy, or as a form of republic. The more egalitarian gana-sangha form of government, as a political alternative to the strongly hierarchical kingdoms, may have influenced the development of the śramanic Jain and Buddhist sanghas, where monarchies tended toward Vedic Brahmanism.
EARLY LIFE AND MARRIAGE
Siddhartha was brought up by his mother's younger sister, Maha Pajapati. By tradition, he is said to have been destined by birth to the life of a prince, and had three palaces (for seasonal occupation) built for him. Although more recent scholarship doubts this status, his father, said to be King Śuddhodana, wishing for his son to be a great king, is said to have shielded him from religious teachings and from knowledge of human suffering.
When he reached the age of 16, his father reputedly arranged his marriage to a cousin of the same age named Yaśodharā (Pāli: Yasodharā). According to the traditional account, she gave birth to a son, named Rāhula. Siddhartha is said to have spent 29 years as a prince in Kapilavastu. Although his father ensured that Siddhartha was provided with everything he could want or need, Buddhist scriptures say that the future Buddha felt that material wealth was not life's ultimate goal.
RENUNCIATION AND ASCETIC LIFE
At the age of 29, the popular biography continues, Siddhartha left his palace to meet his subjects. Despite his father's efforts to hide from him the sick, aged and suffering, Siddhartha was said to have seen an old man. When his charioteer Channa explained to him that all people grew old, the prince went on further trips beyond the palace. On these he encountered a diseased man, a decaying corpse, and an ascetic. These depressed him, and he initially strove to overcome aging, sickness, and death by living the life of an ascetic.
Accompanied by Channa and riding his horse Kanthaka, Gautama quit his palace for the life of a mendicant. It's said that, "the horse's hooves were muffled by the gods" to prevent guards from knowing of his departure.
Gautama initially went to Rajagaha and began his ascetic life by begging for alms in the street. After King Bimbisara's men recognised Siddhartha and the king learned of his quest, Bimbisara offered Siddhartha the throne. Siddhartha rejected the offer, but promised to visit his kingdom of Magadha first, upon attaining enlightenment.
He left Rajagaha and practised under two hermit teachers of yogic meditation. After mastering the teachings of Alara Kalama (Skr. Ārāḍa Kālāma), he was asked by Kalama to succeed him. However, Gautama felt unsatisfied by the practice, and moved on to become a student of yoga with Udaka Ramaputta (Skr. Udraka Rāmaputra). With him he achieved high levels of meditative consciousness, and was again asked to succeed his teacher. But, once more, he was not satisfied, and again moved on.
Siddhartha and a group of five companions led by Kaundinya are then said to have set out to take their austerities even further. They tried to find enlightenment through deprivation of worldly goods, including food, practising self-mortification. After nearly starving himself to death by restricting his food intake to around a leaf or nut per day, he collapsed in a river while bathing and almost drowned. Siddhartha was rescued by a village girl named Sujata and she gave him some payasam (a pudding made from milk and jaggery) after which Siddhartha got back some energy. Siddhartha began to reconsider his path. Then, he remembered a moment in childhood in which he had been watching his father start the season's ploughing. He attained a concentrated and focused state that was blissful and refreshing, the jhāna.
AWAKENING
According to the early Buddhist texts, after realizing that meditative dhyana was the right path to awakening, but that extreme asceticism didn't work, Gautama discovered what Buddhists call the Middle Way - a path of moderation away from the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification, or the Noble Eightfold Path, as was identified and described by the Buddha in his first discourse, the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta. In a famous incident, after becoming starved and weakened, he is said to have accepted milk and rice pudding from a village girl named Sujata. Such was his emaciated appearance that she wrongly believed him to be a spirit that had granted her a wish.
Following this incident, Gautama was famously seated under a pipal tree - now known as the Bodhi tree - in Bodh Gaya, India, when he vowed never to arise until he had found the truth. Kaundinya and four other companions, believing that he had abandoned his search and become undisciplined, left. After a reputed 49 days of meditation, at the age of 35, he is said to have attained Enlightenment. According to some traditions, this occurred in approximately the fifth lunar month, while, according to others, it was in the twelfth month. From that time, Gautama was known to his followers as the Buddha or "Awakened One" ("Buddha" is also sometimes translated as "The Enlightened One").
According to Buddhism, at the time of his awakening he realized complete insight into the cause of suffering, and the steps necessary to eliminate it. These discoveries became known as the "Four Noble Truths", which are at the heart of Buddhist teaching. Through mastery of these truths, a state of supreme liberation, or Nirvana, is believed to be possible for any being. The Buddha described Nirvāna as the perfect peace of a mind that's free from ignorance, greed, hatred and other afflictive states, or "defilements" (kilesas). Nirvana is also regarded as the "end of the world", in that no personal identity or boundaries of the mind remain. In such a state, a being is said to possess the Ten Characteristics, belonging to every Buddha.
According to a story in the Āyācana Sutta (Samyutta Nikaya VI.1) - a scripture found in the Pāli and other canons - immediately after his awakening, the Buddha debated whether or not he should teach the Dharma to others. He was concerned that humans were so overpowered by ignorance, greed and hatred that they could never recognise the path, which is subtle, deep and hard to grasp. However, in the story, Brahmā Sahampati convinced him, arguing that at least some will understand it. The Buddha relented, and agreed to teach.
FORMATION OF THE SANGHA
After his awakening, the Buddha met Taphussa and Bhallika — two merchant brothers from the city of Balkh in what is currently Afghanistan - who became his first lay disciples. It is said that each was given hairs from his head, which are now claimed to be enshrined as relics in the Shwe Dagon Temple in Rangoon, Burma. The Buddha intended to visit Asita, and his former teachers, Alara Kalama and Udaka Ramaputta, to explain his findings, but they had already died.
He then travelled to the Deer Park near Varanasi (Benares) in northern India, where he set in motion what Buddhists call the Wheel of Dharma by delivering his first sermon to the five companions with whom he had sought enlightenment. Together with him, they formed the first saṅgha: the company of Buddhist monks.
All five become arahants, and within the first two months, with the conversion of Yasa and fifty four of his friends, the number of such arahants is said to have grown to 60. The conversion of three brothers named Kassapa followed, with their reputed 200, 300 and 500 disciples, respectively. This swelled the sangha to more than 1,000.
TRAVELS AND TEACHING
For the remaining 45 years of his life, the Buddha is said to have traveled in the Gangetic Plain, in what is now Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and southern Nepal, teaching a diverse range of people: from nobles to servants, murderers such as Angulimala, and cannibals such as Alavaka. Although the Buddha's language remains unknown, it's likely that he taught in one or more of a variety of closely related Middle Indo-Aryan dialects, of which Pali may be a standardization.
The sangha traveled through the subcontinent, expounding the dharma. This continued throughout the year, except during the four months of the Vāsanā rainy season when ascetics of all religions rarely traveled. One reason was that it was more difficult to do so without causing harm to animal life. At this time of year, the sangha would retreat to monasteries, public parks or forests, where people would come to them.
The first vassana was spent at Varanasi when the sangha was formed. After this, the Buddha kept a promise to travel to Rajagaha, capital of Magadha, to visit King Bimbisara. During this visit, Sariputta and Maudgalyayana were converted by Assaji, one of the first five disciples, after which they were to become the Buddha's two foremost followers. The Buddha spent the next three seasons at Veluvana Bamboo Grove monastery in Rajagaha, capital of Magadha.
Upon hearing of his son's awakening, Suddhodana sent, over a period, ten delegations to ask him to return to Kapilavastu. On the first nine occasions, the delegates failed to deliver the message, and instead joined the sangha to become arahants. The tenth delegation, led by Kaludayi, a childhood friend of Gautama's (who also became an arahant), however, delivered the message.
Now two years after his awakening, the Buddha agreed to return, and made a two-month journey by foot to Kapilavastu, teaching the dharma as he went. At his return, the royal palace prepared a midday meal, but the sangha was making an alms round in Kapilavastu. Hearing this, Suddhodana approached his son, the Buddha, saying:
"Ours is the warrior lineage of Mahamassata, and not a single warrior has gone seeking alms."
The Buddha is said to have replied:
"That is not the custom of your royal lineage. But it is the custom of my Buddha lineage. Several thousands of Buddhas have gone by seeking alms."
Buddhist texts say that Suddhodana invited the sangha into the palace for the meal, followed by a dharma talk. After this he is said to have become a sotapanna. During the visit, many members of the royal family joined the sangha. The Buddha's cousins Ananda and Anuruddha became two of his five chief disciples. At the age of seven, his son Rahula also joined, and became one of his ten chief disciples. His half-brother Nanda also joined and became an arahant.
Of the Buddha's disciples, Sariputta, Maudgalyayana, Mahakasyapa, Ananda and Anuruddha are believed to have been the five closest to him. His ten foremost disciples were reputedly completed by the quintet of Upali, Subhoti, Rahula, Mahakaccana and Punna.
In the fifth vassana, the Buddha was staying at Mahavana near Vesali when he heard news of the impending death of his father. He is said to have gone to Suddhodana and taught the dharma, after which his father became an arahant.The king's death and cremation was to inspire the creation of an order of nuns. Buddhist texts record that the Buddha was reluctant to ordain women. His foster mother Maha Pajapati, for example, approached him, asking to join the sangha, but he refused. Maha Pajapati, however, was so intent on the path of awakening that she led a group of royal Sakyan and Koliyan ladies, which followed the sangha on a long journey to Rajagaha. In time, after Ananda championed their cause, the Buddha is said to have reconsidered and, five years after the formation of the sangha, agreed to the ordination of women as nuns. He reasoned that males and females had an equal capacity for awakening. But he gave women additional rules (Vinaya) to follow.
MAHAPARINIRVANA
According to the Mahaparinibbana Sutta of the Pali canon, at the age of 80, the Buddha announced that he would soon reach Parinirvana, or the final deathless state, and abandon his earthly body. After this, the Buddha ate his last meal, which he had received as an offering from a blacksmith named Cunda. Falling violently ill, Buddha instructed his attendant Ānanda to convince Cunda that the meal eaten at his place had nothing to do with his passing and that his meal would be a source of the greatest merit as it provided the last meal for a Buddha. Mettanando and Von Hinüber argue that the Buddha died of mesenteric infarction, a symptom of old age, rather than food poisoning. The precise contents of the Buddha's final meal are not clear, due to variant scriptural traditions and ambiguity over the translation of certain significant terms; the Theravada tradition generally believes that the Buddha was offered some kind of pork, while the Mahayana tradition believes that the Buddha consumed some sort of truffle or other mushroom. These may reflect the different traditional views on Buddhist vegetarianism and the precepts for monks and nuns.
Waley suggests that Theravadin's would take suukaramaddava (the contents of the Buddha's last meal), which can translate as pig-soft, to mean soft flesh of a pig. However, he also states that pig-soft could mean "pig's soft-food", that is, after Neumann, a soft food favoured by pigs, assumed to be a truffle. He argues (also after Neumann) that as Pali Buddhism was developed in an area remote to the Buddha's death, the existence of other plants with suukara- (pig) as part of their names and that "(p)lant names tend to be local and dialectical" could easily indicate that suukaramaddava was a type of plant whose local name was unknown to those in the Pali regions. Specifically, local writers knew more about their flora than Theravadin commentator Buddhaghosa who lived hundreds of years and kilometres remote in time and space from the events described. Unaware of an alternate meaning and with no Theravadin prohibition against eating animal flesh, Theravadins would not have questioned the Buddha eating meat and interpreted the term accordingly.
Ananda protested the Buddha's decision to enter Parinirvana in the abandoned jungles of Kuśināra (present-day Kushinagar, India) of the Malla kingdom. The Buddha, however, is said to have reminded Ananda how Kushinara was a land once ruled by a righteous wheel-turning king that resounded with joy:
44. Kusavati, Ananda, resounded unceasingly day and night with ten sounds - the trumpeting of elephants, the neighing of horses, the rattling of chariots, the beating of drums and tabours, music and song, cheers, the clapping of hands, and cries of "Eat, drink, and be merry!"
The Buddha then asked all the attendant Bhikkhus to clarify any doubts or questions they had. They had none. According to Buddhist scriptures, he then finally entered Parinirvana. The Buddha's final words are reported to have been: "All composite things (Saṅkhāra) are perishable. Strive for your own liberation with diligence" (Pali: 'vayadhammā saṅkhārā appamādena sampādethā'). His body was cremated and the relics were placed in monuments or stupas, some of which are believed to have survived until the present. For example, The Temple of the Tooth or "Dalada Maligawa" in Sri Lanka is the place where what some believe to be the relic of the right tooth of Buddha is kept at present.
According to the Pāli historical chronicles of Sri Lanka, the Dīpavaṃsa and Mahāvaṃsa, the coronation of Emperor Aśoka (Pāli: Asoka) is 218 years after the death of the Buddha. According to two textual records in Chinese (十八部論 and 部執異論), the coronation of Emperor Aśoka is 116 years after the death of the Buddha. Therefore, the time of Buddha's passing is either 486 BCE according to Theravāda record or 383 BCE according to Mahayana record. However, the actual date traditionally accepted as the date of the Buddha's death in Theravāda countries is 544 or 545 BCE, because the reign of Emperor Aśoka was traditionally reckoned to be about 60 years earlier than current estimates. In Burmese Buddhist tradition, the date of the Buddha's death is 13 May 544 BCE. whereas in Thai tradition it is 11 March 545 BCE.
At his death, the Buddha is famously believed to have told his disciples to follow no leader. Mahakasyapa was chosen by the sangha to be the chairman of the First Buddhist Council, with the two chief disciples Maudgalyayana and Sariputta having died before the Buddha.
While in the Buddha's days he was addressed by the very respected titles Buddha, Shākyamuni, Shākyasimha, Bhante and Bho, he was known after his parinirvana as Arihant, Bhagavā/Bhagavat/Bhagwān, Mahāvira, Jina/Jinendra, Sāstr, Sugata, and most popularly in scriptures as Tathāgata.
BUDDHA AND VEDAS
Buddha's teachings deny the authority of the Vedas and consequently [at least atheistic] Buddhism is generally viewed as a nāstika school (heterodox, literally "It is not so") from the perspective of orthodox Hinduism.
RELICS
After his death, Buddha's cremation relics were divided amongst 8 royal families and his disciples; centuries later they would be enshrined by King Ashoka into 84,000 stupas. Many supernatural legends surround the history of alleged relics as they accompanied the spread of Buddhism and gave legitimacy to rulers.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
An extensive and colorful physical description of the Buddha has been laid down in scriptures. A kshatriya by birth, he had military training in his upbringing, and by Shakyan tradition was required to pass tests to demonstrate his worthiness as a warrior in order to marry. He had a strong enough body to be noticed by one of the kings and was asked to join his army as a general. He is also believed by Buddhists to have "the 32 Signs of the Great Man".
The Brahmin Sonadanda described him as "handsome, good-looking, and pleasing to the eye, with a most beautiful complexion. He has a godlike form and countenance, he is by no means unattractive." (D, I:115)
"It is wonderful, truly marvellous, how serene is the good Gotama's appearance, how clear and radiant his complexion, just as the golden jujube in autumn is clear and radiant, just as a palm-tree fruit just loosened from the stalk is clear and radiant, just as an adornment of red gold wrought in a crucible by a skilled goldsmith, deftly beaten and laid on a yellow-cloth shines, blazes and glitters, even so, the good Gotama's senses are calmed, his complexion is clear and radiant." (A, I:181)
A disciple named Vakkali, who later became an arahant, was so obsessed by the Buddha's physical presence that the Buddha is said to have felt impelled to tell him to desist, and to have reminded him that he should know the Buddha through the Dhamma and not through physical appearances.
Although there are no extant representations of the Buddha in human form until around the 1st century CE (see Buddhist art), descriptions of the physical characteristics of fully enlightened buddhas are attributed to the Buddha in the Digha Nikaya's Lakkhaṇa Sutta (D, I:142). In addition, the Buddha's physical appearance is described by Yasodhara to their son Rahula upon the Buddha's first post-Enlightenment return to his former princely palace in the non-canonical Pali devotional hymn, Narasīha Gāthā ("The Lion of Men").
Among the 32 main characteristics it is mentioned that Buddha has blue eyes.
NINE VIRTUES
Recollection of nine virtues attributed to the Buddha is a common Buddhist meditation and devotional practice called Buddhānusmṛti. The nine virtues are also among the 40 Buddhist meditation subjects. The nine virtues of the Buddha appear throughout the Tipitaka, and include:
- Buddho – Awakened
- Sammasambuddho – Perfectly self-awakened
- Vijja-carana-sampano – Endowed with higher knowledge and ideal conduct.
- Sugato – Well-gone or Well-spoken.
- Lokavidu – Wise in the knowledge of the many worlds.
- Anuttaro Purisa-damma-sarathi – Unexcelled trainer of untrained people.
- Satthadeva-Manussanam – Teacher of gods and humans.
- Bhagavathi – The Blessed one
- Araham – Worthy of homage. An Arahant is "one with taints destroyed, who has lived the holy life, done what had to be done, laid down the burden, reached the true goal, destroyed the fetters of being, and is completely liberated through final knowledge."
TEACHINGS
TRACING THE OLDEST TEACHINGS
Information of the oldest teachings may be obtained by analysis of the oldest texts. One method to obtain information on the oldest core of Buddhism is to compare the oldest extant versions of the Theravadin Pali Canon and other texts. The reliability of these sources, and the possibility to draw out a core of oldest teachings, is a matter of dispute. According to Vetter, inconsistencies remain, and other methods must be applied to resolve those inconsistencies.
According to Schmithausen, three positions held by scholars of Buddhism can be distinguished:
"Stress on the fundamental homogeneity and substantial authenticity of at least a considerable part of the Nikayic materials;"
"Scepticism with regard to the possibility of retrieving the doctrine of earliest Buddhism;"
"Cautious optimism in this respect."
DHYANA AND INSIGHT
A core problem in the study of early Buddhism is the relation between dhyana and insight. Schmithausen, in his often-cited article On some Aspects of Descriptions or Theories of 'Liberating Insight' and 'Enlightenment' in Early Buddhism notes that the mention of the four noble truths as constituting "liberating insight", which is attained after mastering the Rupa Jhanas, is a later addition to texts such as Majjhima Nikaya 36
CORE TEACHINGS
According to Tilmann Vetter, the core of earliest Buddhism is the practice of dhyāna. Bronkhorst agrees that dhyana was a Buddhist invention, whereas Norman notes that "the Buddha's way to release [...] was by means of meditative practices." Discriminating insight into transiency as a separate path to liberation was a later development.
According to the Mahāsaccakasutta, from the fourth jhana the Buddha gained bodhi. Yet, it is not clear what he was awakened to. "Liberating insight" is a later addition to this text, and reflects a later development and understanding in early Buddhism. The mentioning of the four truths as constituting "liberating insight" introduces a logical problem, since the four truths depict a linear path of practice, the knowledge of which is in itself not depicted as being liberating:
[T]hey do not teach that one is released by knowing the four noble truths, but by practicing the fourth noble truth, the eightfold path, which culminates in right samadhi.
Although "Nibbāna" (Sanskrit: Nirvāna) is the common term for the desired goal of this practice, many other terms can be found throughout the Nikayas, which are not specified.
According to Vetter, the description of the Buddhist path may initially have been as simple as the term "the middle way". In time, this short description was elaborated, resulting in the description of the eightfold path.
According to both Bronkhorst and Anderson, the four truths became a substitution for prajna, or "liberating insight", in the suttas in those texts where "liberating insight" was preceded by the four jhanas. According to Bronkhorst, the four truths may not have been formulated in earliest Buddhism, and did not serve in earliest Buddhism as a description of "liberating insight". Gotama's teachings may have been personal, "adjusted to the need of each person."
The three marks of existence may reflect Upanishadic or other influences. K.R. Norman supposes that these terms were already in use at the Buddha's time, and were familiar to his listeners.
The Brahma-vihara was in origin probably a brahmanic term; but its usage may have been common to the Sramana traditions.
LATER DEVELOPMENTS
In time, "liberating insight" became an essential feature of the Buddhist tradition. The following teachings, which are commonly seen as essential to Buddhism, are later formulations which form part of the explanatory framework of this "liberating insight":
- The Four Noble Truths: that suffering is an ingrained part of existence; that the origin of suffering is craving for sensuality, acquisition of identity, and fear of annihilation; that suffering can be ended; and that following the Noble Eightfold Path is the means to accomplish this;
- The Noble Eightfold Path: right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration;
- Dependent origination: the mind creates suffering as a natural product of a complex process.
OTHER RELIGIONS
Some Hindus regard Gautama as the 9th avatar of Vishnu. The Buddha is also regarded as a prophet by the Ahmadiyya Muslims and a Manifestation of God in the Bahá'í Faith. Some early Chinese Taoist-Buddhists thought the Buddha to be a reincarnation of Lao Tzu.
The Christian Saint Josaphat is based on the Buddha. The name comes from the Sanskrit Bodhisattva via Arabic Būdhasaf and Georgian Iodasaph. The only story in which St. Josaphat appears, Barlaam and Josaphat, is based on the life of the Buddha. Josaphat was included in earlier editions of the Roman Martyrology (feast day 27 November) — though not in the Roman Missal — and in the Eastern Orthodox Church liturgical calendar (26 August).
Disciples of the Cao Đài religion worship the Buddha as a major religious teacher. His image can be found in both their Holy See and on the home altar. He is revealed during communication with Divine Beings as son of their Supreme Being (God the Father) together with other major religious teachers and founders like Jesus, Laozi, and Confucius.
In the ancient Gnostic sect of Manichaeism the Buddha is listed among the prophets who preached the word of God before Mani.
WIKIPEDIA
I'm committed to using my feet to get me here and there. Growing up we didn't have a car and I walked everywhere. In highschool, I pocketed the bus money and walked the five mile round trip. Last walk was on Monday - to downtown and back - just over an hour. Then my cold hit and I don't feel much like walking or anything else.
The fence around my yard has too many escape hatches so I block the bottom level of my deck with Lulu's pen so she can have a teeny bit of freedom outdoors.
I'm playing with my iPhone and the MagicHour app.
Silver Three Pence Coin - Minted 1916
George 5th was King, Herbert Asquith was Prime Minister until succeeded by David Lloyd-George in December. Britain was heavily committed to a war, largely going badly, most wasteful of human life.
1 January – the Royal Army Medical Corps carries out the first successful blood transfusion using blood that has been stored and cooled.
9 January – World War I: Battle of Gallipoli: last British troops evacuated from Gallipoli, as the Ottoman Empire prevails over a joint British and French operation to capture Istanbul.
27 January – conscription introduced by the Military Service Act; applies to unmarried men aged 18–41 from 2 March and to married men in the same age bracket from April/May; it does not extend to Ireland.
1 February – night-long German Zeppelin raid on the West Midlands of England, claiming at least 35 lives; Tipton suffers the heaviest losses, with 14 fatalities.
1 March – transfer of the National Library of Wales at Aberystwyth into its purpose-built premises is completed.
4 March – third war budget raises income tax to five shillings in the pound.
10 March – Sir Hubert Parry writes the choral setting of William Blake's poem "And did those feet in ancient time", which becomes known as "Jerusalem" (first performed 28 March at the Queen's Hall, London).
22 March – marriage of J. R. R. Tolkien and Edith Bratt at St. Mary Immaculate Roman Catholic Church, Warwick. They will serve as the inspiration for his fictional characters Beren and Lúthien.
25 March – Military Medal instituted as a military decoration for personnel of the British Army and other services below commissioned rank, for bravery in battle on land.
28 March – severe blizzard across the east midlands.
1/2–5/6 April – nightly German Navy airship raids on England.
2 April – munitions factory explosion at Uplees near Faversham, Kent, kills 108 men.
7 April – Garrick Theatre fire, Hereford: 8 young girls appearing in an amateur benefit evening performance for soldiers are killed when their costumes catch fire.
24–30 April – Easter Rising in Ireland: Members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood proclaim an Irish Republic and the Irish Volunteers and Irish Citizen Army occupy the General Post Office and other buildings in Dublin before surrendering to the British Army.
24 April–19 May – Voyage of the James Caird, an open boat journey from Elephant Island in the South Shetland Islands to South Georgia in the southern Atlantic Ocean (800 nautical miles (1,500 km; 920 mi)) undertaken by Sir Ernest Shackleton and five companions to obtain rescue for the main body of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (left under command of Frank Wild) following the loss of its ship Endurance.
25 April – German battlecruisers and Zeppelins bombard Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth.
27 April – Gas attack at Hulluch in France: 47th Brigade, 16th (Irish) Division, decimated in one of the most heavily concentrated gas attacks of the war.
29 April – Siege of Kut ends with the surrender of British Indian Army forces to the Ottoman Empire at Kut-al-Amara on the Tigris in Basra Vilayet during the Mesopotamian campaign.
2 May – eight German Zeppelins raid the east coast of England.
16 May – the UK and France conclude the secret Sykes–Picot Agreement, which is to divide Arab areas of the Ottoman Empire, following the conclusion of the war, into French and British spheres of influence.
21 May – daylight saving time introduced.
31 May–1 June – Battle of Jutland between the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet in the North Sea, World War I's only large-scale clash of battleships. The result is tactically inconclusive but British dominance of the North Sea is maintained. Prince Albert is present as an officer.
5 June – HMS Hampshire sinks having hit a mine off Orkney with Lord Kitchener aboard. 737 lives, including Kitchener, were lost.
12 June – Whit Monday bank holiday abandoned (rescheduled to 8 August but subsequently abandoned altogether).
1 July–18 November – Battle of the Somme: More than one million soldiers die; with 57,470 British Empire casualties on the first day, 19,240 of them killed, the British Army's bloodiest day; the Accrington Pals battalion is effectively wiped out in the first few minutes. The immediate result is tactically inconclusive.
25 July – North of Scotland Special Military Area declared, restricting access by non-residents to everywhere north of the Great Glen. Other areas so designated this year are the Isle of Sheppey (7 September), Newhaven (22 September), Harwich (27 September), Dover (6 October) and Spurn.
27 July – English civilian ferry captain Charles Fryatt is executed at Bruges after a German court-martial condemns him for attempting to ram a U-boat in 1915.
3 August – the musical comedy Chu Chin Chow, written, produced, directed and starring Oscar Asche, with music by Frederic Norton, premières at His Majesty's Theatre in London. It will run for five years and a total of 2,238 performances (more than twice as many as any previous musical), a record that will stand for nearly forty years.
7 August – August bank holiday abandoned.
10 August – the official documentary propaganda film The Battle of the Somme is premièred in London. In the first six weeks of general release (from 20 August) 20 million people view it.
21–24 August – Low Moor Explosion: A series of explosions at a munitions factory in Bradford kills 40 people and injures over 100.
2 September – William Leefe-Robinson becomes the first pilot to shoot down a German airship over Britain.
15–22 September – Battle of Flers–Courcelette in France: British advance. The battle is significant for the first use of the tank in warfare. The Prime Minister's son, Raymond Asquith, is killed in action.
24 September – following a bombing raid on east London, German Zeppelin LZ76 carrying military number L 33 makes a forced landing at Little Wigborough in Essex; its crew are the only armed enemy personnel to set foot in England during the War.
6 October – a British Army Order removes the requirement for soldiers to wear moustaches.
26–27 October – first Battle of Dover Strait: German torpedo boats attack the Dover Barrage.
27 October – life-boat William and Emma from Salcombe Lifeboat Station capsizes on service off the south Devon coast with the loss of all 13 crew.
21 November – hospital ship HMHS Britannic, designed as the third Olympic-class ocean liner for White Star Line, sinks in the Kea Channel of the Aegean Sea after hitting a mine. 30 lives are lost and, at 48,158 gross register tons, she is the largest ship lost during the War.
28 November – first bombing of central London by a fixed-wing aircraft when a German LVG C.II biplane drops 6 bombs near Victoria station.
5 December – Asquith resigns; on 6 December Lloyd George is invited to succeed him as Prime Minister, which he does on 7 December.
11 December – Lloyd George establishes a War Cabinet; Lord Derby succeeds him as War Minister; Ministry of Labour formed.
22 December – the Sopwith Camel biplane fighter aircraft makes its maiden flight at Brooklands.
31 December – Douglas Haig promoted to Field marshal.
Well I am again asked to photogragh these people in concert. For this set I set my camera to manual f3, 1/40-1/60. I had a Canon 430 EXII flash with a diffuser on top pointed upwards. As always and comment or constructive criticism welcome and appreciated.
PS It was a great show!
PPS for another view please visit this set by James MacKenzie. His work is awesome! Enjoy! www.flickr.com/photos/77486205@N05/sets/72157640757457464...
Gautama Buddha, also known as Siddhārtha Gautama, Shakyamuni, or simply the Buddha, was a sage on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. He is believed to have lived and taught mostly in northeastern India sometime between the sixth and fourth centuries BCE.
The word Buddha means "awakened one" or "the enlightened one". "Buddha" is also used as a title for the first awakened being in a Yuga era. In most Buddhist traditions, Siddhartha Gautama is regarded as the Supreme Buddha (Pali sammāsambuddha, Sanskrit samyaksaṃbuddha) of the present age. Gautama taught a Middle Way between sensual indulgence and the severe asceticism found in the śramaṇa movement common in his region. He later taught throughout regions of eastern India such as Magadha and Kosala.
Gautama is the primary figure in Buddhism and accounts of his life, discourses, and monastic rules are believed by Buddhists to have been summarized after his death and memorized by his followers. Various collections of teachings attributed to him were passed down by oral tradition and first committed to writing about 400 years later.
CONTENTS
HISTORICAL SIDDHARTA GAUTAMA
Scholars are hesitant to make unqualified claims about the historical facts of the Buddha's life. Most accept that he lived, taught and founded a monastic order during the Mahajanapada era during the reign of Bimbisara, the ruler of the Magadha empire, and died during the early years of the reign of Ajasattu, who was the successor of Bimbisara, thus making him a younger contemporary of Mahavira, the Jain tirthankara. Apart from the Vedic Brahmins, the Buddha's lifetime coincided with the flourishing of other influential śramaṇa schools of thoughts like Ājīvika, Cārvāka, Jainism, and Ajñana. It was also the age of influential thinkers like Mahavira, Pūraṇa Kassapa , Makkhali Gosāla, Ajita Kesakambalī, Pakudha Kaccāyana, and Sañjaya Belaṭṭhaputta, whose viewpoints the Buddha most certainly must have been acquainted with and influenced by. Indeed, Sariputta and Moggallāna, two of the foremost disciples of the Buddha, were formerly the foremost disciples of Sañjaya Belaṭṭhaputta, the skeptic. There is also evidence to suggest that the two masters, Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta, were indeed historical figures and they most probably taught Buddha two different forms of meditative techniques. While the general sequence of "birth, maturity, renunciation, search, awakening and liberation, teaching, death" is widely accepted, there is less consensus on the veracity of many details contained in traditional biographies.
The times of Gautama's birth and death are uncertain. Most historians in the early 20th century dated his lifetime as circa 563 BCE to 483 BCE. More recently his death is dated later, between 411 and 400 BCE, while at a symposium on this question held in 1988, the majority of those who presented definite opinions gave dates within 20 years either side of 400 BCE for the Buddha's death. These alternative chronologies, however, have not yet been accepted by all historians.
The evidence of the early texts suggests that Siddhārtha Gautama was born into the Shakya clan, a community that was on the periphery, both geographically and culturally, of the northeastern Indian subcontinent in the 5th century BCE. It was either a small republic, in which case his father was an elected chieftain, or an oligarchy, in which case his father was an oligarch. According to the Buddhist tradition, Gautama was born in Lumbini, nowadays in modern-day Nepal, and raised in the Shakya capital of Kapilavastu, which may have been in either present day Tilaurakot, Nepal or Piprahwa, India. He obtained his enlightenment in Bodh Gaya, gave his first sermon in Sarnath, and died in Kushinagar.
No written records about Gautama have been found from his lifetime or some centuries thereafter. One Edict of Asoka, who reigned from circa 269 BCE to 232 BCE, commemorates the Emperor's pilgrimage to the Buddha's birthplace in Lumbini. Another one of his edicts mentions several Dhamma texts, establishing the existence of a written Buddhist tradition at least by the time of the Maurya era and which may be the precursors of the Pāli Canon. The oldest surviving Buddhist manuscripts are the Gandhāran Buddhist texts, reported to have been found in or around Haḍḍa near Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan and now preserved in the British Library. They are written in the Gāndhārī language using the Kharosthi script on twenty-seven birch bark manuscripts and date from the first century BCE to the third century CE.
TRADITIONAL BIOGRAPHIES
BIOGRAPHICAL SOURCES
The sources for the life of Siddhārtha Gautama are a variety of different, and sometimes conflicting, traditional biographies. These include the Buddhacarita, Lalitavistara Sūtra, Mahāvastu, and the Nidānakathā. Of these, the Buddhacarita is the earliest full biography, an epic poem written by the poet Aśvaghoṣa, and dating around the beginning of the 2nd century CE. The Lalitavistara Sūtra is the next oldest biography, a Mahāyāna/Sarvāstivāda biography dating to the 3rd century CE. The Mahāvastu from the Mahāsāṃghika Lokottaravāda tradition is another major biography, composed incrementally until perhaps the 4th century CE. The Dharmaguptaka biography of the Buddha is the most exhaustive, and is entitled the Abhiniṣkramaṇa Sūtra, and various Chinese translations of this date between the 3rd and 6th century CE. The Nidānakathā is from the Theravada tradition in Sri Lanka and was composed in the 5th century by Buddhaghoṣa.
From canonical sources, the Jataka tales, the Mahapadana Sutta (DN 14), and the Achariyabhuta Sutta (MN 123) which include selective accounts that may be older, but are not full biographies. The Jātakas retell previous lives of Gautama as a bodhisattva, and the first collection of these can be dated among the earliest Buddhist texts. The Mahāpadāna Sutta and Achariyabhuta Sutta both recount miraculous events surrounding Gautama's birth, such as the bodhisattva's descent from the Tuṣita Heaven into his mother's womb.
NATURE OF TRADITIONAL DEPICTIONS
In the earliest Buddhists texts, the nikāyas and āgamas, the Buddha is not depicted as possessing omniscience (sabbaññu) nor is he depicted as being an eternal transcendent (lokottara) being. According to Bhikkhu Analayo, ideas of the Buddha's omniscience (along with an increasing tendency to deify him and his biography) are found only later, in the Mahayana sutras and later Pali commentaries or texts such as the Mahāvastu. In the Sandaka Sutta, the Buddha's disciple Ananda outlines an argument against the claims of teachers who say they are all knowing while in the Tevijjavacchagotta Sutta the Buddha himself states that he has never made a claim to being omniscient, instead he claimed to have the "higher knowledges" (abhijñā). The earliest biographical material from the Pali Nikayas focuses on the Buddha's life as a śramaṇa, his search for enlightenment under various teachers such as Alara Kalama and his forty five year career as a teacher.
Traditional biographies of Gautama generally include numerous miracles, omens, and supernatural events. The character of the Buddha in these traditional biographies is often that of a fully transcendent (Skt. lokottara) and perfected being who is unencumbered by the mundane world. In the Mahāvastu, over the course of many lives, Gautama is said to have developed supra-mundane abilities including: a painless birth conceived without intercourse; no need for sleep, food, medicine, or bathing, although engaging in such "in conformity with the world"; omniscience, and the ability to "suppress karma". Nevertheless, some of the more ordinary details of his life have been gathered from these traditional sources. In modern times there has been an attempt to form a secular understanding of Siddhārtha Gautama's life by omitting the traditional supernatural elements of his early biographies.
Andrew Skilton writes that the Buddha was never historically regarded by Buddhist traditions as being merely human:
It is important to stress that, despite modern Theravada teachings to the contrary (often a sop to skeptical Western pupils), he was never seen as being merely human. For instance, he is often described as having the thirty-two major and eighty minor marks or signs of a mahāpuruṣa, "superman"; the Buddha himself denied that he was either a man or a god; and in the Mahāparinibbāna Sutta he states that he could live for an aeon were he asked to do so.The ancient Indians were generally unconcerned with chronologies, being more focused on philosophy. Buddhist texts reflect this tendency, providing a clearer picture of what Gautama may have taught than of the dates of the events in his life. These texts contain descriptions of the culture and daily life of ancient India which can be corroborated from the Jain scriptures, and make the Buddha's time the earliest period in Indian history for which significant accounts exist. British author Karen Armstrong writes that although there is very little information that can be considered historically sound, we can be reasonably confident that Siddhārtha Gautama did exist as a historical figure. Michael Carrithers goes a bit further by stating that the most general outline of "birth, maturity, renunciation, search, awakening and liberation, teaching, death" must be true.
BIOGRAPHY
CONCEPTION AND BIRTH
The Buddhist tradition regards Lumbini, in present-day Nepal to be the birthplace of the Buddha. He grew up in Kapilavastu. The exact site of ancient Kapilavastu is unknown. It may have been either Piprahwa, Uttar Pradesh, present-day India, or Tilaurakot, present-day Nepal. Both places belonged to the Sakya territory, and are located only 15 miles apart from each other.
Gautama was born as a Kshatriya, the son of Śuddhodana, "an elected chief of the Shakya clan", whose capital was Kapilavastu, and who were later annexed by the growing Kingdom of Kosala during the Buddha's lifetime. Gautama was the family name. His mother, Maya (Māyādevī), Suddhodana's wife, was a Koliyan princess. Legend has it that, on the night Siddhartha was conceived, Queen Maya dreamt that a white elephant with six white tusks entered her right side, and ten months later Siddhartha was born. As was the Shakya tradition, when his mother Queen Maya became pregnant, she left Kapilvastu for her father's kingdom to give birth. However, her son is said to have been born on the way, at Lumbini, in a garden beneath a sal tree.
The day of the Buddha's birth is widely celebrated in Theravada countries as Vesak. Buddha's Birthday is called Buddha Purnima in Nepal and India as he is believed to have been born on a full moon day. Various sources hold that the Buddha's mother died at his birth, a few days or seven days later. The infant was given the name Siddhartha (Pāli: Siddhattha), meaning "he who achieves his aim". During the birth celebrations, the hermit seer Asita journeyed from his mountain abode and announced that the child would either become a great king (chakravartin) or a great sadhu. By traditional account, this occurred after Siddhartha placed his feet in Asita's hair and Asita examined the birthmarks. Suddhodana held a naming ceremony on the fifth day, and invited eight Brahmin scholars to read the future. All gave a dual prediction that the baby would either become a great king or a great holy man. Kondañña, the youngest, and later to be the first arhat other than the Buddha, was reputed to be the only one who unequivocally predicted that Siddhartha would become a Buddha.
While later tradition and legend characterized Śuddhodana as a hereditary monarch, the descendant of the Suryavansha (Solar dynasty) of Ikṣvāku (Pāli: Okkāka), many scholars think that Śuddhodana was the elected chief of a tribal confederacy.
Early texts suggest that Gautama was not familiar with the dominant religious teachings of his time until he left on his religious quest, which is said to have been motivated by existential concern for the human condition. The state of the Shakya clan was not a monarchy, and seems to have been structured either as an oligarchy, or as a form of republic. The more egalitarian gana-sangha form of government, as a political alternative to the strongly hierarchical kingdoms, may have influenced the development of the śramanic Jain and Buddhist sanghas, where monarchies tended toward Vedic Brahmanism.
EARLY LIFE AND MARRIAGE
Siddhartha was brought up by his mother's younger sister, Maha Pajapati. By tradition, he is said to have been destined by birth to the life of a prince, and had three palaces (for seasonal occupation) built for him. Although more recent scholarship doubts this status, his father, said to be King Śuddhodana, wishing for his son to be a great king, is said to have shielded him from religious teachings and from knowledge of human suffering.
When he reached the age of 16, his father reputedly arranged his marriage to a cousin of the same age named Yaśodharā (Pāli: Yasodharā). According to the traditional account, she gave birth to a son, named Rāhula. Siddhartha is said to have spent 29 years as a prince in Kapilavastu. Although his father ensured that Siddhartha was provided with everything he could want or need, Buddhist scriptures say that the future Buddha felt that material wealth was not life's ultimate goal.
RENUNCIATION AND ASCETIC LIFE
At the age of 29, the popular biography continues, Siddhartha left his palace to meet his subjects. Despite his father's efforts to hide from him the sick, aged and suffering, Siddhartha was said to have seen an old man. When his charioteer Channa explained to him that all people grew old, the prince went on further trips beyond the palace. On these he encountered a diseased man, a decaying corpse, and an ascetic. These depressed him, and he initially strove to overcome aging, sickness, and death by living the life of an ascetic.
Accompanied by Channa and riding his horse Kanthaka, Gautama quit his palace for the life of a mendicant. It's said that, "the horse's hooves were muffled by the gods" to prevent guards from knowing of his departure.
Gautama initially went to Rajagaha and began his ascetic life by begging for alms in the street. After King Bimbisara's men recognised Siddhartha and the king learned of his quest, Bimbisara offered Siddhartha the throne. Siddhartha rejected the offer, but promised to visit his kingdom of Magadha first, upon attaining enlightenment.
He left Rajagaha and practised under two hermit teachers of yogic meditation. After mastering the teachings of Alara Kalama (Skr. Ārāḍa Kālāma), he was asked by Kalama to succeed him. However, Gautama felt unsatisfied by the practice, and moved on to become a student of yoga with Udaka Ramaputta (Skr. Udraka Rāmaputra). With him he achieved high levels of meditative consciousness, and was again asked to succeed his teacher. But, once more, he was not satisfied, and again moved on.
Siddhartha and a group of five companions led by Kaundinya are then said to have set out to take their austerities even further. They tried to find enlightenment through deprivation of worldly goods, including food, practising self-mortification. After nearly starving himself to death by restricting his food intake to around a leaf or nut per day, he collapsed in a river while bathing and almost drowned. Siddhartha was rescued by a village girl named Sujata and she gave him some payasam (a pudding made from milk and jaggery) after which Siddhartha got back some energy. Siddhartha began to reconsider his path. Then, he remembered a moment in childhood in which he had been watching his father start the season's ploughing. He attained a concentrated and focused state that was blissful and refreshing, the jhāna.
AWAKENING
According to the early Buddhist texts, after realizing that meditative dhyana was the right path to awakening, but that extreme asceticism didn't work, Gautama discovered what Buddhists call the Middle Way - a path of moderation away from the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification, or the Noble Eightfold Path, as was identified and described by the Buddha in his first discourse, the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta. In a famous incident, after becoming starved and weakened, he is said to have accepted milk and rice pudding from a village girl named Sujata. Such was his emaciated appearance that she wrongly believed him to be a spirit that had granted her a wish.
Following this incident, Gautama was famously seated under a pipal tree - now known as the Bodhi tree - in Bodh Gaya, India, when he vowed never to arise until he had found the truth. Kaundinya and four other companions, believing that he had abandoned his search and become undisciplined, left. After a reputed 49 days of meditation, at the age of 35, he is said to have attained Enlightenment. According to some traditions, this occurred in approximately the fifth lunar month, while, according to others, it was in the twelfth month. From that time, Gautama was known to his followers as the Buddha or "Awakened One" ("Buddha" is also sometimes translated as "The Enlightened One").
According to Buddhism, at the time of his awakening he realized complete insight into the cause of suffering, and the steps necessary to eliminate it. These discoveries became known as the "Four Noble Truths", which are at the heart of Buddhist teaching. Through mastery of these truths, a state of supreme liberation, or Nirvana, is believed to be possible for any being. The Buddha described Nirvāna as the perfect peace of a mind that's free from ignorance, greed, hatred and other afflictive states, or "defilements" (kilesas). Nirvana is also regarded as the "end of the world", in that no personal identity or boundaries of the mind remain. In such a state, a being is said to possess the Ten Characteristics, belonging to every Buddha.
According to a story in the Āyācana Sutta (Samyutta Nikaya VI.1) - a scripture found in the Pāli and other canons - immediately after his awakening, the Buddha debated whether or not he should teach the Dharma to others. He was concerned that humans were so overpowered by ignorance, greed and hatred that they could never recognise the path, which is subtle, deep and hard to grasp. However, in the story, Brahmā Sahampati convinced him, arguing that at least some will understand it. The Buddha relented, and agreed to teach.
FORMATION OF THE SANGHA
After his awakening, the Buddha met Taphussa and Bhallika — two merchant brothers from the city of Balkh in what is currently Afghanistan - who became his first lay disciples. It is said that each was given hairs from his head, which are now claimed to be enshrined as relics in the Shwe Dagon Temple in Rangoon, Burma. The Buddha intended to visit Asita, and his former teachers, Alara Kalama and Udaka Ramaputta, to explain his findings, but they had already died.
He then travelled to the Deer Park near Varanasi (Benares) in northern India, where he set in motion what Buddhists call the Wheel of Dharma by delivering his first sermon to the five companions with whom he had sought enlightenment. Together with him, they formed the first saṅgha: the company of Buddhist monks.
All five become arahants, and within the first two months, with the conversion of Yasa and fifty four of his friends, the number of such arahants is said to have grown to 60. The conversion of three brothers named Kassapa followed, with their reputed 200, 300 and 500 disciples, respectively. This swelled the sangha to more than 1,000.
TRAVELS AND TEACHING
For the remaining 45 years of his life, the Buddha is said to have traveled in the Gangetic Plain, in what is now Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and southern Nepal, teaching a diverse range of people: from nobles to servants, murderers such as Angulimala, and cannibals such as Alavaka. Although the Buddha's language remains unknown, it's likely that he taught in one or more of a variety of closely related Middle Indo-Aryan dialects, of which Pali may be a standardization.
The sangha traveled through the subcontinent, expounding the dharma. This continued throughout the year, except during the four months of the Vāsanā rainy season when ascetics of all religions rarely traveled. One reason was that it was more difficult to do so without causing harm to animal life. At this time of year, the sangha would retreat to monasteries, public parks or forests, where people would come to them.
The first vassana was spent at Varanasi when the sangha was formed. After this, the Buddha kept a promise to travel to Rajagaha, capital of Magadha, to visit King Bimbisara. During this visit, Sariputta and Maudgalyayana were converted by Assaji, one of the first five disciples, after which they were to become the Buddha's two foremost followers. The Buddha spent the next three seasons at Veluvana Bamboo Grove monastery in Rajagaha, capital of Magadha.
Upon hearing of his son's awakening, Suddhodana sent, over a period, ten delegations to ask him to return to Kapilavastu. On the first nine occasions, the delegates failed to deliver the message, and instead joined the sangha to become arahants. The tenth delegation, led by Kaludayi, a childhood friend of Gautama's (who also became an arahant), however, delivered the message.
Now two years after his awakening, the Buddha agreed to return, and made a two-month journey by foot to Kapilavastu, teaching the dharma as he went. At his return, the royal palace prepared a midday meal, but the sangha was making an alms round in Kapilavastu. Hearing this, Suddhodana approached his son, the Buddha, saying:
"Ours is the warrior lineage of Mahamassata, and not a single warrior has gone seeking alms."
The Buddha is said to have replied:
"That is not the custom of your royal lineage. But it is the custom of my Buddha lineage. Several thousands of Buddhas have gone by seeking alms."
Buddhist texts say that Suddhodana invited the sangha into the palace for the meal, followed by a dharma talk. After this he is said to have become a sotapanna. During the visit, many members of the royal family joined the sangha. The Buddha's cousins Ananda and Anuruddha became two of his five chief disciples. At the age of seven, his son Rahula also joined, and became one of his ten chief disciples. His half-brother Nanda also joined and became an arahant.
Of the Buddha's disciples, Sariputta, Maudgalyayana, Mahakasyapa, Ananda and Anuruddha are believed to have been the five closest to him. His ten foremost disciples were reputedly completed by the quintet of Upali, Subhoti, Rahula, Mahakaccana and Punna.
In the fifth vassana, the Buddha was staying at Mahavana near Vesali when he heard news of the impending death of his father. He is said to have gone to Suddhodana and taught the dharma, after which his father became an arahant.The king's death and cremation was to inspire the creation of an order of nuns. Buddhist texts record that the Buddha was reluctant to ordain women. His foster mother Maha Pajapati, for example, approached him, asking to join the sangha, but he refused. Maha Pajapati, however, was so intent on the path of awakening that she led a group of royal Sakyan and Koliyan ladies, which followed the sangha on a long journey to Rajagaha. In time, after Ananda championed their cause, the Buddha is said to have reconsidered and, five years after the formation of the sangha, agreed to the ordination of women as nuns. He reasoned that males and females had an equal capacity for awakening. But he gave women additional rules (Vinaya) to follow.
MAHAPARINIRVANA
According to the Mahaparinibbana Sutta of the Pali canon, at the age of 80, the Buddha announced that he would soon reach Parinirvana, or the final deathless state, and abandon his earthly body. After this, the Buddha ate his last meal, which he had received as an offering from a blacksmith named Cunda. Falling violently ill, Buddha instructed his attendant Ānanda to convince Cunda that the meal eaten at his place had nothing to do with his passing and that his meal would be a source of the greatest merit as it provided the last meal for a Buddha. Mettanando and Von Hinüber argue that the Buddha died of mesenteric infarction, a symptom of old age, rather than food poisoning. The precise contents of the Buddha's final meal are not clear, due to variant scriptural traditions and ambiguity over the translation of certain significant terms; the Theravada tradition generally believes that the Buddha was offered some kind of pork, while the Mahayana tradition believes that the Buddha consumed some sort of truffle or other mushroom. These may reflect the different traditional views on Buddhist vegetarianism and the precepts for monks and nuns.
Waley suggests that Theravadin's would take suukaramaddava (the contents of the Buddha's last meal), which can translate as pig-soft, to mean soft flesh of a pig. However, he also states that pig-soft could mean "pig's soft-food", that is, after Neumann, a soft food favoured by pigs, assumed to be a truffle. He argues (also after Neumann) that as Pali Buddhism was developed in an area remote to the Buddha's death, the existence of other plants with suukara- (pig) as part of their names and that "(p)lant names tend to be local and dialectical" could easily indicate that suukaramaddava was a type of plant whose local name was unknown to those in the Pali regions. Specifically, local writers knew more about their flora than Theravadin commentator Buddhaghosa who lived hundreds of years and kilometres remote in time and space from the events described. Unaware of an alternate meaning and with no Theravadin prohibition against eating animal flesh, Theravadins would not have questioned the Buddha eating meat and interpreted the term accordingly.
Ananda protested the Buddha's decision to enter Parinirvana in the abandoned jungles of Kuśināra (present-day Kushinagar, India) of the Malla kingdom. The Buddha, however, is said to have reminded Ananda how Kushinara was a land once ruled by a righteous wheel-turning king that resounded with joy:
44. Kusavati, Ananda, resounded unceasingly day and night with ten sounds - the trumpeting of elephants, the neighing of horses, the rattling of chariots, the beating of drums and tabours, music and song, cheers, the clapping of hands, and cries of "Eat, drink, and be merry!"
The Buddha then asked all the attendant Bhikkhus to clarify any doubts or questions they had. They had none. According to Buddhist scriptures, he then finally entered Parinirvana. The Buddha's final words are reported to have been: "All composite things (Saṅkhāra) are perishable. Strive for your own liberation with diligence" (Pali: 'vayadhammā saṅkhārā appamādena sampādethā'). His body was cremated and the relics were placed in monuments or stupas, some of which are believed to have survived until the present. For example, The Temple of the Tooth or "Dalada Maligawa" in Sri Lanka is the place where what some believe to be the relic of the right tooth of Buddha is kept at present.
According to the Pāli historical chronicles of Sri Lanka, the Dīpavaṃsa and Mahāvaṃsa, the coronation of Emperor Aśoka (Pāli: Asoka) is 218 years after the death of the Buddha. According to two textual records in Chinese (十八部論 and 部執異論), the coronation of Emperor Aśoka is 116 years after the death of the Buddha. Therefore, the time of Buddha's passing is either 486 BCE according to Theravāda record or 383 BCE according to Mahayana record. However, the actual date traditionally accepted as the date of the Buddha's death in Theravāda countries is 544 or 545 BCE, because the reign of Emperor Aśoka was traditionally reckoned to be about 60 years earlier than current estimates. In Burmese Buddhist tradition, the date of the Buddha's death is 13 May 544 BCE. whereas in Thai tradition it is 11 March 545 BCE.
At his death, the Buddha is famously believed to have told his disciples to follow no leader. Mahakasyapa was chosen by the sangha to be the chairman of the First Buddhist Council, with the two chief disciples Maudgalyayana and Sariputta having died before the Buddha.
While in the Buddha's days he was addressed by the very respected titles Buddha, Shākyamuni, Shākyasimha, Bhante and Bho, he was known after his parinirvana as Arihant, Bhagavā/Bhagavat/Bhagwān, Mahāvira, Jina/Jinendra, Sāstr, Sugata, and most popularly in scriptures as Tathāgata.
BUDDHA AND VEDAS
Buddha's teachings deny the authority of the Vedas and consequently [at least atheistic] Buddhism is generally viewed as a nāstika school (heterodox, literally "It is not so") from the perspective of orthodox Hinduism.
RELICS
After his death, Buddha's cremation relics were divided amongst 8 royal families and his disciples; centuries later they would be enshrined by King Ashoka into 84,000 stupas. Many supernatural legends surround the history of alleged relics as they accompanied the spread of Buddhism and gave legitimacy to rulers.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
An extensive and colorful physical description of the Buddha has been laid down in scriptures. A kshatriya by birth, he had military training in his upbringing, and by Shakyan tradition was required to pass tests to demonstrate his worthiness as a warrior in order to marry. He had a strong enough body to be noticed by one of the kings and was asked to join his army as a general. He is also believed by Buddhists to have "the 32 Signs of the Great Man".
The Brahmin Sonadanda described him as "handsome, good-looking, and pleasing to the eye, with a most beautiful complexion. He has a godlike form and countenance, he is by no means unattractive." (D, I:115)
"It is wonderful, truly marvellous, how serene is the good Gotama's appearance, how clear and radiant his complexion, just as the golden jujube in autumn is clear and radiant, just as a palm-tree fruit just loosened from the stalk is clear and radiant, just as an adornment of red gold wrought in a crucible by a skilled goldsmith, deftly beaten and laid on a yellow-cloth shines, blazes and glitters, even so, the good Gotama's senses are calmed, his complexion is clear and radiant." (A, I:181)
A disciple named Vakkali, who later became an arahant, was so obsessed by the Buddha's physical presence that the Buddha is said to have felt impelled to tell him to desist, and to have reminded him that he should know the Buddha through the Dhamma and not through physical appearances.
Although there are no extant representations of the Buddha in human form until around the 1st century CE (see Buddhist art), descriptions of the physical characteristics of fully enlightened buddhas are attributed to the Buddha in the Digha Nikaya's Lakkhaṇa Sutta (D, I:142). In addition, the Buddha's physical appearance is described by Yasodhara to their son Rahula upon the Buddha's first post-Enlightenment return to his former princely palace in the non-canonical Pali devotional hymn, Narasīha Gāthā ("The Lion of Men").
Among the 32 main characteristics it is mentioned that Buddha has blue eyes.
NINE VIRTUES
Recollection of nine virtues attributed to the Buddha is a common Buddhist meditation and devotional practice called Buddhānusmṛti. The nine virtues are also among the 40 Buddhist meditation subjects. The nine virtues of the Buddha appear throughout the Tipitaka, and include:
- Buddho – Awakened
- Sammasambuddho – Perfectly self-awakened
- Vijja-carana-sampano – Endowed with higher knowledge and ideal conduct.
- Sugato – Well-gone or Well-spoken.
- Lokavidu – Wise in the knowledge of the many worlds.
- Anuttaro Purisa-damma-sarathi – Unexcelled trainer of untrained people.
- Satthadeva-Manussanam – Teacher of gods and humans.
- Bhagavathi – The Blessed one
- Araham – Worthy of homage. An Arahant is "one with taints destroyed, who has lived the holy life, done what had to be done, laid down the burden, reached the true goal, destroyed the fetters of being, and is completely liberated through final knowledge."
TEACHINGS
TRACING THE OLDEST TEACHINGS
Information of the oldest teachings may be obtained by analysis of the oldest texts. One method to obtain information on the oldest core of Buddhism is to compare the oldest extant versions of the Theravadin Pali Canon and other texts. The reliability of these sources, and the possibility to draw out a core of oldest teachings, is a matter of dispute. According to Vetter, inconsistencies remain, and other methods must be applied to resolve those inconsistencies.
According to Schmithausen, three positions held by scholars of Buddhism can be distinguished:
"Stress on the fundamental homogeneity and substantial authenticity of at least a considerable part of the Nikayic materials;"
"Scepticism with regard to the possibility of retrieving the doctrine of earliest Buddhism;"
"Cautious optimism in this respect."
DHYANA AND INSIGHT
A core problem in the study of early Buddhism is the relation between dhyana and insight. Schmithausen, in his often-cited article On some Aspects of Descriptions or Theories of 'Liberating Insight' and 'Enlightenment' in Early Buddhism notes that the mention of the four noble truths as constituting "liberating insight", which is attained after mastering the Rupa Jhanas, is a later addition to texts such as Majjhima Nikaya 36
CORE TEACHINGS
According to Tilmann Vetter, the core of earliest Buddhism is the practice of dhyāna. Bronkhorst agrees that dhyana was a Buddhist invention, whereas Norman notes that "the Buddha's way to release [...] was by means of meditative practices." Discriminating insight into transiency as a separate path to liberation was a later development.
According to the Mahāsaccakasutta, from the fourth jhana the Buddha gained bodhi. Yet, it is not clear what he was awakened to. "Liberating insight" is a later addition to this text, and reflects a later development and understanding in early Buddhism. The mentioning of the four truths as constituting "liberating insight" introduces a logical problem, since the four truths depict a linear path of practice, the knowledge of which is in itself not depicted as being liberating:
[T]hey do not teach that one is released by knowing the four noble truths, but by practicing the fourth noble truth, the eightfold path, which culminates in right samadhi.
Although "Nibbāna" (Sanskrit: Nirvāna) is the common term for the desired goal of this practice, many other terms can be found throughout the Nikayas, which are not specified.
According to Vetter, the description of the Buddhist path may initially have been as simple as the term "the middle way". In time, this short description was elaborated, resulting in the description of the eightfold path.
According to both Bronkhorst and Anderson, the four truths became a substitution for prajna, or "liberating insight", in the suttas in those texts where "liberating insight" was preceded by the four jhanas. According to Bronkhorst, the four truths may not have been formulated in earliest Buddhism, and did not serve in earliest Buddhism as a description of "liberating insight". Gotama's teachings may have been personal, "adjusted to the need of each person."
The three marks of existence may reflect Upanishadic or other influences. K.R. Norman supposes that these terms were already in use at the Buddha's time, and were familiar to his listeners.
The Brahma-vihara was in origin probably a brahmanic term; but its usage may have been common to the Sramana traditions.
LATER DEVELOPMENTS
In time, "liberating insight" became an essential feature of the Buddhist tradition. The following teachings, which are commonly seen as essential to Buddhism, are later formulations which form part of the explanatory framework of this "liberating insight":
- The Four Noble Truths: that suffering is an ingrained part of existence; that the origin of suffering is craving for sensuality, acquisition of identity, and fear of annihilation; that suffering can be ended; and that following the Noble Eightfold Path is the means to accomplish this;
- The Noble Eightfold Path: right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration;
- Dependent origination: the mind creates suffering as a natural product of a complex process.
OTHER RELIGIONS
Some Hindus regard Gautama as the 9th avatar of Vishnu. The Buddha is also regarded as a prophet by the Ahmadiyya Muslims and a Manifestation of God in the Bahá'í Faith. Some early Chinese Taoist-Buddhists thought the Buddha to be a reincarnation of Lao Tzu.
The Christian Saint Josaphat is based on the Buddha. The name comes from the Sanskrit Bodhisattva via Arabic Būdhasaf and Georgian Iodasaph. The only story in which St. Josaphat appears, Barlaam and Josaphat, is based on the life of the Buddha. Josaphat was included in earlier editions of the Roman Martyrology (feast day 27 November) — though not in the Roman Missal — and in the Eastern Orthodox Church liturgical calendar (26 August).
Disciples of the Cao Đài religion worship the Buddha as a major religious teacher. His image can be found in both their Holy See and on the home altar. He is revealed during communication with Divine Beings as son of their Supreme Being (God the Father) together with other major religious teachers and founders like Jesus, Laozi, and Confucius.
In the ancient Gnostic sect of Manichaeism the Buddha is listed among the prophets who preached the word of God before Mani.
WIKIPEDIA
Monolithic sand stone statue of Buddha in the reclining pose - 6.1 m long
__________________________________________
Gautama Buddha, also known as Siddhārtha Gautama, Shakyamuni, or simply the Buddha, was a sage on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. He is believed to have lived and taught mostly in northeastern India sometime between the sixth and fourth centuries BCE.
The word Buddha means "awakened one" or "the enlightened one". "Buddha" is also used as a title for the first awakened being in a Yuga era. In most Buddhist traditions, Siddhartha Gautama is regarded as the Supreme Buddha (Pali sammāsambuddha, Sanskrit samyaksaṃbuddha) of the present age. Gautama taught a Middle Way between sensual indulgence and the severe asceticism found in the śramaṇa movement common in his region. He later taught throughout regions of eastern India such as Magadha and Kosala.
Gautama is the primary figure in Buddhism and accounts of his life, discourses, and monastic rules are believed by Buddhists to have been summarized after his death and memorized by his followers. Various collections of teachings attributed to him were passed down by oral tradition and first committed to writing about 400 years later.
CONTENTS
HISTORICAL SIDDHARTA GAUTAMA
Scholars are hesitant to make unqualified claims about the historical facts of the Buddha's life. Most accept that he lived, taught and founded a monastic order during the Mahajanapada era during the reign of Bimbisara, the ruler of the Magadha empire, and died during the early years of the reign of Ajasattu, who was the successor of Bimbisara, thus making him a younger contemporary of Mahavira, the Jain tirthankara. Apart from the Vedic Brahmins, the Buddha's lifetime coincided with the flourishing of other influential śramaṇa schools of thoughts like Ājīvika, Cārvāka, Jainism, and Ajñana. It was also the age of influential thinkers like Mahavira, Pūraṇa Kassapa , Makkhali Gosāla, Ajita Kesakambalī, Pakudha Kaccāyana, and Sañjaya Belaṭṭhaputta, whose viewpoints the Buddha most certainly must have been acquainted with and influenced by. Indeed, Sariputta and Moggallāna, two of the foremost disciples of the Buddha, were formerly the foremost disciples of Sañjaya Belaṭṭhaputta, the skeptic. There is also evidence to suggest that the two masters, Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta, were indeed historical figures and they most probably taught Buddha two different forms of meditative techniques. While the general sequence of "birth, maturity, renunciation, search, awakening and liberation, teaching, death" is widely accepted, there is less consensus on the veracity of many details contained in traditional biographies.
The times of Gautama's birth and death are uncertain. Most historians in the early 20th century dated his lifetime as circa 563 BCE to 483 BCE. More recently his death is dated later, between 411 and 400 BCE, while at a symposium on this question held in 1988, the majority of those who presented definite opinions gave dates within 20 years either side of 400 BCE for the Buddha's death. These alternative chronologies, however, have not yet been accepted by all historians.
The evidence of the early texts suggests that Siddhārtha Gautama was born into the Shakya clan, a community that was on the periphery, both geographically and culturally, of the northeastern Indian subcontinent in the 5th century BCE. It was either a small republic, in which case his father was an elected chieftain, or an oligarchy, in which case his father was an oligarch. According to the Buddhist tradition, Gautama was born in Lumbini, nowadays in modern-day Nepal, and raised in the Shakya capital of Kapilavastu, which may have been in either present day Tilaurakot, Nepal or Piprahwa, India. He obtained his enlightenment in Bodh Gaya, gave his first sermon in Sarnath, and died in Kushinagar.
No written records about Gautama have been found from his lifetime or some centuries thereafter. One Edict of Asoka, who reigned from circa 269 BCE to 232 BCE, commemorates the Emperor's pilgrimage to the Buddha's birthplace in Lumbini. Another one of his edicts mentions several Dhamma texts, establishing the existence of a written Buddhist tradition at least by the time of the Maurya era and which may be the precursors of the Pāli Canon. The oldest surviving Buddhist manuscripts are the Gandhāran Buddhist texts, reported to have been found in or around Haḍḍa near Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan and now preserved in the British Library. They are written in the Gāndhārī language using the Kharosthi script on twenty-seven birch bark manuscripts and date from the first century BCE to the third century CE.
TRADITIONAL BIOGRAPHIES
BIOGRAPHICAL SOURCES
The sources for the life of Siddhārtha Gautama are a variety of different, and sometimes conflicting, traditional biographies. These include the Buddhacarita, Lalitavistara Sūtra, Mahāvastu, and the Nidānakathā. Of these, the Buddhacarita is the earliest full biography, an epic poem written by the poet Aśvaghoṣa, and dating around the beginning of the 2nd century CE. The Lalitavistara Sūtra is the next oldest biography, a Mahāyāna/Sarvāstivāda biography dating to the 3rd century CE. The Mahāvastu from the Mahāsāṃghika Lokottaravāda tradition is another major biography, composed incrementally until perhaps the 4th century CE. The Dharmaguptaka biography of the Buddha is the most exhaustive, and is entitled the Abhiniṣkramaṇa Sūtra, and various Chinese translations of this date between the 3rd and 6th century CE. The Nidānakathā is from the Theravada tradition in Sri Lanka and was composed in the 5th century by Buddhaghoṣa.
From canonical sources, the Jataka tales, the Mahapadana Sutta (DN 14), and the Achariyabhuta Sutta (MN 123) which include selective accounts that may be older, but are not full biographies. The Jātakas retell previous lives of Gautama as a bodhisattva, and the first collection of these can be dated among the earliest Buddhist texts. The Mahāpadāna Sutta and Achariyabhuta Sutta both recount miraculous events surrounding Gautama's birth, such as the bodhisattva's descent from the Tuṣita Heaven into his mother's womb.
NATURE OF TRADITIONAL DEPICTIONS
In the earliest Buddhists texts, the nikāyas and āgamas, the Buddha is not depicted as possessing omniscience (sabbaññu) nor is he depicted as being an eternal transcendent (lokottara) being. According to Bhikkhu Analayo, ideas of the Buddha's omniscience (along with an increasing tendency to deify him and his biography) are found only later, in the Mahayana sutras and later Pali commentaries or texts such as the Mahāvastu. In the Sandaka Sutta, the Buddha's disciple Ananda outlines an argument against the claims of teachers who say they are all knowing while in the Tevijjavacchagotta Sutta the Buddha himself states that he has never made a claim to being omniscient, instead he claimed to have the "higher knowledges" (abhijñā). The earliest biographical material from the Pali Nikayas focuses on the Buddha's life as a śramaṇa, his search for enlightenment under various teachers such as Alara Kalama and his forty five year career as a teacher.
Traditional biographies of Gautama generally include numerous miracles, omens, and supernatural events. The character of the Buddha in these traditional biographies is often that of a fully transcendent (Skt. lokottara) and perfected being who is unencumbered by the mundane world. In the Mahāvastu, over the course of many lives, Gautama is said to have developed supra-mundane abilities including: a painless birth conceived without intercourse; no need for sleep, food, medicine, or bathing, although engaging in such "in conformity with the world"; omniscience, and the ability to "suppress karma". Nevertheless, some of the more ordinary details of his life have been gathered from these traditional sources. In modern times there has been an attempt to form a secular understanding of Siddhārtha Gautama's life by omitting the traditional supernatural elements of his early biographies.
Andrew Skilton writes that the Buddha was never historically regarded by Buddhist traditions as being merely human:
It is important to stress that, despite modern Theravada teachings to the contrary (often a sop to skeptical Western pupils), he was never seen as being merely human. For instance, he is often described as having the thirty-two major and eighty minor marks or signs of a mahāpuruṣa, "superman"; the Buddha himself denied that he was either a man or a god; and in the Mahāparinibbāna Sutta he states that he could live for an aeon were he asked to do so.The ancient Indians were generally unconcerned with chronologies, being more focused on philosophy. Buddhist texts reflect this tendency, providing a clearer picture of what Gautama may have taught than of the dates of the events in his life. These texts contain descriptions of the culture and daily life of ancient India which can be corroborated from the Jain scriptures, and make the Buddha's time the earliest period in Indian history for which significant accounts exist. British author Karen Armstrong writes that although there is very little information that can be considered historically sound, we can be reasonably confident that Siddhārtha Gautama did exist as a historical figure. Michael Carrithers goes a bit further by stating that the most general outline of "birth, maturity, renunciation, search, awakening and liberation, teaching, death" must be true.
BIOGRAPHY
CONCEPTION AND BIRTH
The Buddhist tradition regards Lumbini, in present-day Nepal to be the birthplace of the Buddha. He grew up in Kapilavastu. The exact site of ancient Kapilavastu is unknown. It may have been either Piprahwa, Uttar Pradesh, present-day India, or Tilaurakot, present-day Nepal. Both places belonged to the Sakya territory, and are located only 15 miles apart from each other.
Gautama was born as a Kshatriya, the son of Śuddhodana, "an elected chief of the Shakya clan", whose capital was Kapilavastu, and who were later annexed by the growing Kingdom of Kosala during the Buddha's lifetime. Gautama was the family name. His mother, Maya (Māyādevī), Suddhodana's wife, was a Koliyan princess. Legend has it that, on the night Siddhartha was conceived, Queen Maya dreamt that a white elephant with six white tusks entered her right side, and ten months later Siddhartha was born. As was the Shakya tradition, when his mother Queen Maya became pregnant, she left Kapilvastu for her father's kingdom to give birth. However, her son is said to have been born on the way, at Lumbini, in a garden beneath a sal tree.
The day of the Buddha's birth is widely celebrated in Theravada countries as Vesak. Buddha's Birthday is called Buddha Purnima in Nepal and India as he is believed to have been born on a full moon day. Various sources hold that the Buddha's mother died at his birth, a few days or seven days later. The infant was given the name Siddhartha (Pāli: Siddhattha), meaning "he who achieves his aim". During the birth celebrations, the hermit seer Asita journeyed from his mountain abode and announced that the child would either become a great king (chakravartin) or a great sadhu. By traditional account, this occurred after Siddhartha placed his feet in Asita's hair and Asita examined the birthmarks. Suddhodana held a naming ceremony on the fifth day, and invited eight Brahmin scholars to read the future. All gave a dual prediction that the baby would either become a great king or a great holy man. Kondañña, the youngest, and later to be the first arhat other than the Buddha, was reputed to be the only one who unequivocally predicted that Siddhartha would become a Buddha.
While later tradition and legend characterized Śuddhodana as a hereditary monarch, the descendant of the Suryavansha (Solar dynasty) of Ikṣvāku (Pāli: Okkāka), many scholars think that Śuddhodana was the elected chief of a tribal confederacy.
Early texts suggest that Gautama was not familiar with the dominant religious teachings of his time until he left on his religious quest, which is said to have been motivated by existential concern for the human condition. The state of the Shakya clan was not a monarchy, and seems to have been structured either as an oligarchy, or as a form of republic. The more egalitarian gana-sangha form of government, as a political alternative to the strongly hierarchical kingdoms, may have influenced the development of the śramanic Jain and Buddhist sanghas, where monarchies tended toward Vedic Brahmanism.
EARLY LIFE AND MARRIAGE
Siddhartha was brought up by his mother's younger sister, Maha Pajapati. By tradition, he is said to have been destined by birth to the life of a prince, and had three palaces (for seasonal occupation) built for him. Although more recent scholarship doubts this status, his father, said to be King Śuddhodana, wishing for his son to be a great king, is said to have shielded him from religious teachings and from knowledge of human suffering.
When he reached the age of 16, his father reputedly arranged his marriage to a cousin of the same age named Yaśodharā (Pāli: Yasodharā). According to the traditional account, she gave birth to a son, named Rāhula. Siddhartha is said to have spent 29 years as a prince in Kapilavastu. Although his father ensured that Siddhartha was provided with everything he could want or need, Buddhist scriptures say that the future Buddha felt that material wealth was not life's ultimate goal.
RENUNCIATION AND ASCETIC LIFE
At the age of 29, the popular biography continues, Siddhartha left his palace to meet his subjects. Despite his father's efforts to hide from him the sick, aged and suffering, Siddhartha was said to have seen an old man. When his charioteer Channa explained to him that all people grew old, the prince went on further trips beyond the palace. On these he encountered a diseased man, a decaying corpse, and an ascetic. These depressed him, and he initially strove to overcome aging, sickness, and death by living the life of an ascetic.
Accompanied by Channa and riding his horse Kanthaka, Gautama quit his palace for the life of a mendicant. It's said that, "the horse's hooves were muffled by the gods" to prevent guards from knowing of his departure.
Gautama initially went to Rajagaha and began his ascetic life by begging for alms in the street. After King Bimbisara's men recognised Siddhartha and the king learned of his quest, Bimbisara offered Siddhartha the throne. Siddhartha rejected the offer, but promised to visit his kingdom of Magadha first, upon attaining enlightenment.
He left Rajagaha and practised under two hermit teachers of yogic meditation. After mastering the teachings of Alara Kalama (Skr. Ārāḍa Kālāma), he was asked by Kalama to succeed him. However, Gautama felt unsatisfied by the practice, and moved on to become a student of yoga with Udaka Ramaputta (Skr. Udraka Rāmaputra). With him he achieved high levels of meditative consciousness, and was again asked to succeed his teacher. But, once more, he was not satisfied, and again moved on.
Siddhartha and a group of five companions led by Kaundinya are then said to have set out to take their austerities even further. They tried to find enlightenment through deprivation of worldly goods, including food, practising self-mortification. After nearly starving himself to death by restricting his food intake to around a leaf or nut per day, he collapsed in a river while bathing and almost drowned. Siddhartha was rescued by a village girl named Sujata and she gave him some payasam (a pudding made from milk and jaggery) after which Siddhartha got back some energy. Siddhartha began to reconsider his path. Then, he remembered a moment in childhood in which he had been watching his father start the season's ploughing. He attained a concentrated and focused state that was blissful and refreshing, the jhāna.
AWAKENING
According to the early Buddhist texts, after realizing that meditative dhyana was the right path to awakening, but that extreme asceticism didn't work, Gautama discovered what Buddhists call the Middle Way - a path of moderation away from the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification, or the Noble Eightfold Path, as was identified and described by the Buddha in his first discourse, the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta. In a famous incident, after becoming starved and weakened, he is said to have accepted milk and rice pudding from a village girl named Sujata. Such was his emaciated appearance that she wrongly believed him to be a spirit that had granted her a wish.
Following this incident, Gautama was famously seated under a pipal tree - now known as the Bodhi tree - in Bodh Gaya, India, when he vowed never to arise until he had found the truth. Kaundinya and four other companions, believing that he had abandoned his search and become undisciplined, left. After a reputed 49 days of meditation, at the age of 35, he is said to have attained Enlightenment. According to some traditions, this occurred in approximately the fifth lunar month, while, according to others, it was in the twelfth month. From that time, Gautama was known to his followers as the Buddha or "Awakened One" ("Buddha" is also sometimes translated as "The Enlightened One").
According to Buddhism, at the time of his awakening he realized complete insight into the cause of suffering, and the steps necessary to eliminate it. These discoveries became known as the "Four Noble Truths", which are at the heart of Buddhist teaching. Through mastery of these truths, a state of supreme liberation, or Nirvana, is believed to be possible for any being. The Buddha described Nirvāna as the perfect peace of a mind that's free from ignorance, greed, hatred and other afflictive states, or "defilements" (kilesas). Nirvana is also regarded as the "end of the world", in that no personal identity or boundaries of the mind remain. In such a state, a being is said to possess the Ten Characteristics, belonging to every Buddha.
According to a story in the Āyācana Sutta (Samyutta Nikaya VI.1) - a scripture found in the Pāli and other canons - immediately after his awakening, the Buddha debated whether or not he should teach the Dharma to others. He was concerned that humans were so overpowered by ignorance, greed and hatred that they could never recognise the path, which is subtle, deep and hard to grasp. However, in the story, Brahmā Sahampati convinced him, arguing that at least some will understand it. The Buddha relented, and agreed to teach.
FORMATION OF THE SANGHA
After his awakening, the Buddha met Taphussa and Bhallika — two merchant brothers from the city of Balkh in what is currently Afghanistan - who became his first lay disciples. It is said that each was given hairs from his head, which are now claimed to be enshrined as relics in the Shwe Dagon Temple in Rangoon, Burma. The Buddha intended to visit Asita, and his former teachers, Alara Kalama and Udaka Ramaputta, to explain his findings, but they had already died.
He then travelled to the Deer Park near Varanasi (Benares) in northern India, where he set in motion what Buddhists call the Wheel of Dharma by delivering his first sermon to the five companions with whom he had sought enlightenment. Together with him, they formed the first saṅgha: the company of Buddhist monks.
All five become arahants, and within the first two months, with the conversion of Yasa and fifty four of his friends, the number of such arahants is said to have grown to 60. The conversion of three brothers named Kassapa followed, with their reputed 200, 300 and 500 disciples, respectively. This swelled the sangha to more than 1,000.
TRAVELS AND TEACHING
For the remaining 45 years of his life, the Buddha is said to have traveled in the Gangetic Plain, in what is now Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and southern Nepal, teaching a diverse range of people: from nobles to servants, murderers such as Angulimala, and cannibals such as Alavaka. Although the Buddha's language remains unknown, it's likely that he taught in one or more of a variety of closely related Middle Indo-Aryan dialects, of which Pali may be a standardization.
The sangha traveled through the subcontinent, expounding the dharma. This continued throughout the year, except during the four months of the Vāsanā rainy season when ascetics of all religions rarely traveled. One reason was that it was more difficult to do so without causing harm to animal life. At this time of year, the sangha would retreat to monasteries, public parks or forests, where people would come to them.
The first vassana was spent at Varanasi when the sangha was formed. After this, the Buddha kept a promise to travel to Rajagaha, capital of Magadha, to visit King Bimbisara. During this visit, Sariputta and Maudgalyayana were converted by Assaji, one of the first five disciples, after which they were to become the Buddha's two foremost followers. The Buddha spent the next three seasons at Veluvana Bamboo Grove monastery in Rajagaha, capital of Magadha.
Upon hearing of his son's awakening, Suddhodana sent, over a period, ten delegations to ask him to return to Kapilavastu. On the first nine occasions, the delegates failed to deliver the message, and instead joined the sangha to become arahants. The tenth delegation, led by Kaludayi, a childhood friend of Gautama's (who also became an arahant), however, delivered the message.
Now two years after his awakening, the Buddha agreed to return, and made a two-month journey by foot to Kapilavastu, teaching the dharma as he went. At his return, the royal palace prepared a midday meal, but the sangha was making an alms round in Kapilavastu. Hearing this, Suddhodana approached his son, the Buddha, saying:
"Ours is the warrior lineage of Mahamassata, and not a single warrior has gone seeking alms."
The Buddha is said to have replied:
"That is not the custom of your royal lineage. But it is the custom of my Buddha lineage. Several thousands of Buddhas have gone by seeking alms."
Buddhist texts say that Suddhodana invited the sangha into the palace for the meal, followed by a dharma talk. After this he is said to have become a sotapanna. During the visit, many members of the royal family joined the sangha. The Buddha's cousins Ananda and Anuruddha became two of his five chief disciples. At the age of seven, his son Rahula also joined, and became one of his ten chief disciples. His half-brother Nanda also joined and became an arahant.
Of the Buddha's disciples, Sariputta, Maudgalyayana, Mahakasyapa, Ananda and Anuruddha are believed to have been the five closest to him. His ten foremost disciples were reputedly completed by the quintet of Upali, Subhoti, Rahula, Mahakaccana and Punna.
In the fifth vassana, the Buddha was staying at Mahavana near Vesali when he heard news of the impending death of his father. He is said to have gone to Suddhodana and taught the dharma, after which his father became an arahant.The king's death and cremation was to inspire the creation of an order of nuns. Buddhist texts record that the Buddha was reluctant to ordain women. His foster mother Maha Pajapati, for example, approached him, asking to join the sangha, but he refused. Maha Pajapati, however, was so intent on the path of awakening that she led a group of royal Sakyan and Koliyan ladies, which followed the sangha on a long journey to Rajagaha. In time, after Ananda championed their cause, the Buddha is said to have reconsidered and, five years after the formation of the sangha, agreed to the ordination of women as nuns. He reasoned that males and females had an equal capacity for awakening. But he gave women additional rules (Vinaya) to follow.
MAHAPARINIRVANA
According to the Mahaparinibbana Sutta of the Pali canon, at the age of 80, the Buddha announced that he would soon reach Parinirvana, or the final deathless state, and abandon his earthly body. After this, the Buddha ate his last meal, which he had received as an offering from a blacksmith named Cunda. Falling violently ill, Buddha instructed his attendant Ānanda to convince Cunda that the meal eaten at his place had nothing to do with his passing and that his meal would be a source of the greatest merit as it provided the last meal for a Buddha. Mettanando and Von Hinüber argue that the Buddha died of mesenteric infarction, a symptom of old age, rather than food poisoning. The precise contents of the Buddha's final meal are not clear, due to variant scriptural traditions and ambiguity over the translation of certain significant terms; the Theravada tradition generally believes that the Buddha was offered some kind of pork, while the Mahayana tradition believes that the Buddha consumed some sort of truffle or other mushroom. These may reflect the different traditional views on Buddhist vegetarianism and the precepts for monks and nuns.
Waley suggests that Theravadin's would take suukaramaddava (the contents of the Buddha's last meal), which can translate as pig-soft, to mean soft flesh of a pig. However, he also states that pig-soft could mean "pig's soft-food", that is, after Neumann, a soft food favoured by pigs, assumed to be a truffle. He argues (also after Neumann) that as Pali Buddhism was developed in an area remote to the Buddha's death, the existence of other plants with suukara- (pig) as part of their names and that "(p)lant names tend to be local and dialectical" could easily indicate that suukaramaddava was a type of plant whose local name was unknown to those in the Pali regions. Specifically, local writers knew more about their flora than Theravadin commentator Buddhaghosa who lived hundreds of years and kilometres remote in time and space from the events described. Unaware of an alternate meaning and with no Theravadin prohibition against eating animal flesh, Theravadins would not have questioned the Buddha eating meat and interpreted the term accordingly.
Ananda protested the Buddha's decision to enter Parinirvana in the abandoned jungles of Kuśināra (present-day Kushinagar, India) of the Malla kingdom. The Buddha, however, is said to have reminded Ananda how Kushinara was a land once ruled by a righteous wheel-turning king that resounded with joy:
44. Kusavati, Ananda, resounded unceasingly day and night with ten sounds - the trumpeting of elephants, the neighing of horses, the rattling of chariots, the beating of drums and tabours, music and song, cheers, the clapping of hands, and cries of "Eat, drink, and be merry!"
The Buddha then asked all the attendant Bhikkhus to clarify any doubts or questions they had. They had none. According to Buddhist scriptures, he then finally entered Parinirvana. The Buddha's final words are reported to have been: "All composite things (Saṅkhāra) are perishable. Strive for your own liberation with diligence" (Pali: 'vayadhammā saṅkhārā appamādena sampādethā'). His body was cremated and the relics were placed in monuments or stupas, some of which are believed to have survived until the present. For example, The Temple of the Tooth or "Dalada Maligawa" in Sri Lanka is the place where what some believe to be the relic of the right tooth of Buddha is kept at present.
According to the Pāli historical chronicles of Sri Lanka, the Dīpavaṃsa and Mahāvaṃsa, the coronation of Emperor Aśoka (Pāli: Asoka) is 218 years after the death of the Buddha. According to two textual records in Chinese (十八部論 and 部執異論), the coronation of Emperor Aśoka is 116 years after the death of the Buddha. Therefore, the time of Buddha's passing is either 486 BCE according to Theravāda record or 383 BCE according to Mahayana record. However, the actual date traditionally accepted as the date of the Buddha's death in Theravāda countries is 544 or 545 BCE, because the reign of Emperor Aśoka was traditionally reckoned to be about 60 years earlier than current estimates. In Burmese Buddhist tradition, the date of the Buddha's death is 13 May 544 BCE. whereas in Thai tradition it is 11 March 545 BCE.
At his death, the Buddha is famously believed to have told his disciples to follow no leader. Mahakasyapa was chosen by the sangha to be the chairman of the First Buddhist Council, with the two chief disciples Maudgalyayana and Sariputta having died before the Buddha.
While in the Buddha's days he was addressed by the very respected titles Buddha, Shākyamuni, Shākyasimha, Bhante and Bho, he was known after his parinirvana as Arihant, Bhagavā/Bhagavat/Bhagwān, Mahāvira, Jina/Jinendra, Sāstr, Sugata, and most popularly in scriptures as Tathāgata.
BUDDHA AND VEDAS
Buddha's teachings deny the authority of the Vedas and consequently [at least atheistic] Buddhism is generally viewed as a nāstika school (heterodox, literally "It is not so") from the perspective of orthodox Hinduism.
RELICS
After his death, Buddha's cremation relics were divided amongst 8 royal families and his disciples; centuries later they would be enshrined by King Ashoka into 84,000 stupas. Many supernatural legends surround the history of alleged relics as they accompanied the spread of Buddhism and gave legitimacy to rulers.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
An extensive and colorful physical description of the Buddha has been laid down in scriptures. A kshatriya by birth, he had military training in his upbringing, and by Shakyan tradition was required to pass tests to demonstrate his worthiness as a warrior in order to marry. He had a strong enough body to be noticed by one of the kings and was asked to join his army as a general. He is also believed by Buddhists to have "the 32 Signs of the Great Man".
The Brahmin Sonadanda described him as "handsome, good-looking, and pleasing to the eye, with a most beautiful complexion. He has a godlike form and countenance, he is by no means unattractive." (D, I:115)
"It is wonderful, truly marvellous, how serene is the good Gotama's appearance, how clear and radiant his complexion, just as the golden jujube in autumn is clear and radiant, just as a palm-tree fruit just loosened from the stalk is clear and radiant, just as an adornment of red gold wrought in a crucible by a skilled goldsmith, deftly beaten and laid on a yellow-cloth shines, blazes and glitters, even so, the good Gotama's senses are calmed, his complexion is clear and radiant." (A, I:181)
A disciple named Vakkali, who later became an arahant, was so obsessed by the Buddha's physical presence that the Buddha is said to have felt impelled to tell him to desist, and to have reminded him that he should know the Buddha through the Dhamma and not through physical appearances.
Although there are no extant representations of the Buddha in human form until around the 1st century CE (see Buddhist art), descriptions of the physical characteristics of fully enlightened buddhas are attributed to the Buddha in the Digha Nikaya's Lakkhaṇa Sutta (D, I:142). In addition, the Buddha's physical appearance is described by Yasodhara to their son Rahula upon the Buddha's first post-Enlightenment return to his former princely palace in the non-canonical Pali devotional hymn, Narasīha Gāthā ("The Lion of Men").
Among the 32 main characteristics it is mentioned that Buddha has blue eyes.
NINE VIRTUES
Recollection of nine virtues attributed to the Buddha is a common Buddhist meditation and devotional practice called Buddhānusmṛti. The nine virtues are also among the 40 Buddhist meditation subjects. The nine virtues of the Buddha appear throughout the Tipitaka, and include:
- Buddho – Awakened
- Sammasambuddho – Perfectly self-awakened
- Vijja-carana-sampano – Endowed with higher knowledge and ideal conduct.
- Sugato – Well-gone or Well-spoken.
- Lokavidu – Wise in the knowledge of the many worlds.
- Anuttaro Purisa-damma-sarathi – Unexcelled trainer of untrained people.
- Satthadeva-Manussanam – Teacher of gods and humans.
- Bhagavathi – The Blessed one
- Araham – Worthy of homage. An Arahant is "one with taints destroyed, who has lived the holy life, done what had to be done, laid down the burden, reached the true goal, destroyed the fetters of being, and is completely liberated through final knowledge."
TEACHINGS
TRACING THE OLDEST TEACHINGS
Information of the oldest teachings may be obtained by analysis of the oldest texts. One method to obtain information on the oldest core of Buddhism is to compare the oldest extant versions of the Theravadin Pali Canon and other texts. The reliability of these sources, and the possibility to draw out a core of oldest teachings, is a matter of dispute. According to Vetter, inconsistencies remain, and other methods must be applied to resolve those inconsistencies.
According to Schmithausen, three positions held by scholars of Buddhism can be distinguished:
"Stress on the fundamental homogeneity and substantial authenticity of at least a considerable part of the Nikayic materials;"
"Scepticism with regard to the possibility of retrieving the doctrine of earliest Buddhism;"
"Cautious optimism in this respect."
DHYANA AND INSIGHT
A core problem in the study of early Buddhism is the relation between dhyana and insight. Schmithausen, in his often-cited article On some Aspects of Descriptions or Theories of 'Liberating Insight' and 'Enlightenment' in Early Buddhism notes that the mention of the four noble truths as constituting "liberating insight", which is attained after mastering the Rupa Jhanas, is a later addition to texts such as Majjhima Nikaya 36
CORE TEACHINGS
According to Tilmann Vetter, the core of earliest Buddhism is the practice of dhyāna. Bronkhorst agrees that dhyana was a Buddhist invention, whereas Norman notes that "the Buddha's way to release [...] was by means of meditative practices." Discriminating insight into transiency as a separate path to liberation was a later development.
According to the Mahāsaccakasutta, from the fourth jhana the Buddha gained bodhi. Yet, it is not clear what he was awakened to. "Liberating insight" is a later addition to this text, and reflects a later development and understanding in early Buddhism. The mentioning of the four truths as constituting "liberating insight" introduces a logical problem, since the four truths depict a linear path of practice, the knowledge of which is in itself not depicted as being liberating:
[T]hey do not teach that one is released by knowing the four noble truths, but by practicing the fourth noble truth, the eightfold path, which culminates in right samadhi.
Although "Nibbāna" (Sanskrit: Nirvāna) is the common term for the desired goal of this practice, many other terms can be found throughout the Nikayas, which are not specified.
According to Vetter, the description of the Buddhist path may initially have been as simple as the term "the middle way". In time, this short description was elaborated, resulting in the description of the eightfold path.
According to both Bronkhorst and Anderson, the four truths became a substitution for prajna, or "liberating insight", in the suttas in those texts where "liberating insight" was preceded by the four jhanas. According to Bronkhorst, the four truths may not have been formulated in earliest Buddhism, and did not serve in earliest Buddhism as a description of "liberating insight". Gotama's teachings may have been personal, "adjusted to the need of each person."
The three marks of existence may reflect Upanishadic or other influences. K.R. Norman supposes that these terms were already in use at the Buddha's time, and were familiar to his listeners.
The Brahma-vihara was in origin probably a brahmanic term; but its usage may have been common to the Sramana traditions.
LATER DEVELOPMENTS
In time, "liberating insight" became an essential feature of the Buddhist tradition. The following teachings, which are commonly seen as essential to Buddhism, are later formulations which form part of the explanatory framework of this "liberating insight":
- The Four Noble Truths: that suffering is an ingrained part of existence; that the origin of suffering is craving for sensuality, acquisition of identity, and fear of annihilation; that suffering can be ended; and that following the Noble Eightfold Path is the means to accomplish this;
- The Noble Eightfold Path: right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration;
- Dependent origination: the mind creates suffering as a natural product of a complex process.
OTHER RELIGIONS
Some Hindus regard Gautama as the 9th avatar of Vishnu. The Buddha is also regarded as a prophet by the Ahmadiyya Muslims and a Manifestation of God in the Bahá'í Faith. Some early Chinese Taoist-Buddhists thought the Buddha to be a reincarnation of Lao Tzu.
The Christian Saint Josaphat is based on the Buddha. The name comes from the Sanskrit Bodhisattva via Arabic Būdhasaf and Georgian Iodasaph. The only story in which St. Josaphat appears, Barlaam and Josaphat, is based on the life of the Buddha. Josaphat was included in earlier editions of the Roman Martyrology (feast day 27 November) — though not in the Roman Missal — and in the Eastern Orthodox Church liturgical calendar (26 August).
Disciples of the Cao Đài religion worship the Buddha as a major religious teacher. His image can be found in both their Holy See and on the home altar. He is revealed during communication with Divine Beings as son of their Supreme Being (God the Father) together with other major religious teachers and founders like Jesus, Laozi, and Confucius.
In the ancient Gnostic sect of Manichaeism the Buddha is listed among the prophets who preached the word of God before Mani.
WIKIPEDIA
Same image as earlier, only this time in blue. I made this image first, then decided I wanted it to be some other color than blue. But now, here it is. There is something compelling about blue. A number of studies have been done about the psychological impact of colors, and a google search will turn up a many of them. Here is one bit I pulled of the web:
Blue is the overwhelming "favorite color." Blue is seen as trustworthy, dependable and committed. The color of sky and the ocean, blue is perceived as a constant in our lives. As the collective color of the spirit, it invokes rest and can cause the body to produce chemicals that are calming; however not all blues are serene and sedate. Electric or brilliant blues become dynamic and dramatic, an engaging color that expresses exhilaration. Some shades or the overuse of blue may come across as cold or uncaring. Blue is the least "gender specific" color, having equal appeal to both men and women.
How the color blue effects us physically and mentally
* Calming and sedate
* Cooling
* Aids intuition
Is blue addictive? Is there a reason I had to post this version? It is in control? I feel better now that I posted it. I am calm and sedate. I am in a good place. Me and the blue image.
Something came out of my mind this weekend that urge me to try this inverse studio setup from my previous studio work "Matrix Effect". I know they are not exactly the same result/position because it's harder to do this way and I only have very little space to maneuver and control the glass to position at the center of the black cloth/fabric to get the dark field effect. I will try it again whenever I get a chance in the future :). Thank You for looking. Hope you like it.
Strobist Info: 1 Vivitar 285hv inside westcott apollo 28" softbox directly from the back of the glass and block the center with black fabric to create the dark field effect. 1 Pentax AF540FGZ gel(blue) from bottom of the glass.
St Baldricks Brevard at The Avenue Viera by commercial photographer Rich Johnson of Spectacle Photo. Dedicated to the St. Baldrick's Foundation Events on the Space Coast of FL and raising awareness for Childhood Cancer. The St. Baldrick's Foundation is a volunteer-driven charity committed to funding the most promising research to find cures for childhood cancers and give survivors long and healthy lives.
Radio Caroline is a British radio station founded in 1964 by Ronan O'Rahilly initially to circumvent the record companies' control of popular music broadcasting in the United Kingdom and the BBC's radio broadcasting monopoly. Unlicensed by any government for most of its early life, it was a pirate radio station that never actually became illegal, although after the Marine Offences Act (1967) it became illegal for a British subject to associate with it.
The Radio Caroline name was used to broadcast from international waters, using five different ships of three different owners, from 1964 to 1990, and via satellite from 1998 to 2013. Since 19 August 2000, Radio Caroline has also broadcast 24 hours a day via the internet and by the occasional restricted service licence. Currently they also broadcast on DAB radio in certain areas of the UK: these services are part of the Ofcom small-scale DAB+ trials. Caroline can be heard on DAB+ in Aldershot, Birmingham, Brighton, Glasgow, Norwich, London Portsmouth and Woking.
In May 2017 Ofcom awarded the station an AM community licence to broadcast to Suffolk and north Essex; full-time AM (medium wave) broadcasting, via a previously redundant BBC World Service transmitter mast at Orford Ness, commenced on 22 December 2017. Nowadays, it broadcast all around the UK via DAB.
Radio Caroline broadcasts music from the 1960s to contemporary, with an emphasis on album-oriented rock (AOR) and "new" music from "carefully selected albums". On 1 January 2016, a second channel was launched called Caroline Flashback, playing pop music from the late 1950s to the early 1980s.
Radio Caroline was begun by Irish musician manager and businessman Ronan O'Rahilly. O'Rahilly failed to obtain airplay on Radio Luxembourg for Georgie Fame's records because it was committed to sponsored programmes promoting major record labels; EMI, Decca, Pye and Philips.
Encouraged by Scandinavian and Dutch pirates, in February 1964 O'Rahilly obtained the 702-ton former Danish passenger ferry, Fredericia, which was converted into a radio ship at the Irish port of Greenore, owned by O'Rahilly's father. At the same time, Allan Crawford's Project Atlanta was equipping the MV Mi Amigo at Greenore, where the two competed to be the first on air.
Financial backing for the venture came from six investors, including John Sheffield, chairman of Norcross, Carl "Jimmy" Ross of Ross Foods, Jocelyn Stevens of Queen magazine, with which Radio Caroline shared its first office. O'Rahilly named the station after Caroline Kennedy, daughter of U.S. President John F. Kennedy On a fund-raising trip to the US, O'Rahilly reportedly saw a Life magazine photograph of Kennedy and his children in the Oval Office that served as the inspiration for the name "Caroline Radio". In an extant photo, Caroline Kennedy and her brother, John F. Kennedy Jr., are apparently dancing in the Oval Office as their father looks on, an activity which O'Rahilly reportedly interpreted as a playful disruption of government.
First transmissions
The Fredericia was renamed MV Caroline and anchored off Felixstowe, where it began test transmissions on Friday, 27 March 1964. On Saturday, 28 March, it began regular broadcasting at noon on 197.3 metres/1520 kHz (announced as 199 metres) with the opening conducted by Simon Dee.[10] The first programme, which was pre-recorded, was hosted by Chris Moore. Radio Caroline's first musical theme was Jimmy McGriff's "Round Midnight", a jazz standard co-composed by Thelonious Monk. In March 1964, The Fortunes recorded Caroline, which became the station's theme. Round Midnight was confined to close down on Radio Caroline North after The World Tomorrow. The station's slogan was Your all-day music station, and it initially broadcast from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., seven days a week.
Radio Caroline announced a wavelength of 199 metres, rhyming with the name, but was actually broadcasting on 197.3 metres (1520 kHz). Stations in the UK announced the wavelength in metres, and radios at that time were tuned using an analogue dial. The absence of precise digital readouts allowed for some leeway between the precise transmission frequency and the channel announced on the air. The Dutch offshore station Radio Veronica was on 192 metres (1562 kHz) and Radio Atlanta broadcast on 201 (1493 kHz).
Radio Caroline's transmission output was almost 20 kW, achieved by linking two 10 kW Continental Electronics transmitters. Broadcasting hours were 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. to avoid competition from Radio Luxembourg. After its close-down, the station returned at 8 p.m. and continued until after midnight. This was to avoid competition with popular television programmes. Most of Radio Caroline's pop music programmes were targeted at housewives, and some later programming was aimed at children. Without serious competition, Radio Caroline gained a regular daytime audience of some 10 million.
Merger with Radio Atlanta
On 2 July 1964, Radio Atlanta and Radio Caroline's companies, Project Atlanta and Planet Productions., announced the stations were to merge, with Crawford and O'Rahilly as joint managing directors. Radio Atlanta closed at 8 p.m. that day. It was renamed Radio Caroline South and MV Mi Amigo remained off Frinton-on-Sea while MV Caroline broadcast as Radio Caroline North. MV Caroline sailed from Felixstowe to the Isle of Man, broadcasting as she went. The only broadcast staff on board were Tom Lodge and Jerry Leighton. MV Caroline arrived at her new anchorage on the southern tip of the Bahama Bank, Ramsey Bay, on 6 July 1964,[11] at a position formerly occupied by the Bahama Bank Lightship. The two stations were able to cover most of the British Isles. Later, some programmes were pre-recorded on land and broadcast simultaneously from both ships.
In October 1965, O'Rahilly bought Crawford's interest in the MV Mi Amigo and engaged Tom Lodge from Radio Caroline North to make programme changes and regain the audience from Radio London. Lodge hired new DJs and introduced free-form programming which, by August 1966, had succeeded, creating an audience of 23 million.
When the US-backed Radio London arrived off the coast of England, there was an unsuccessful attempt to merge its sales operation with that of Caroline before Radio London started transmissions.[citation needed]. The new station introduced British audiences to slick American-style top 40 radio with electronic jingles produced by Dallas-based PAMS – and was an immediate success.
Broadcasting personnel
Radio Caroline's first programme, on 28 March 1964, was presented by Chris Moore.[12] Presenters Tony Blackburn, Roger Gale, Mike Allen, Ray Teret, Roger Day, Simon Dee, Tony Prince, Spangles Muldoon, Keith Skues, Johnnie Walker, Robbie Dale, Dave Lee Travis, Tommy Vance, Tom Edwards, Paul Noble, Bob Stewart and Andy Archer became well known. Some DJs from the USA and Commonwealth countries, such as Graham Webb, Emperor Rosko, Steve Young, Keith Hampshire, Colin Nicol and Norman St John, were also heard. DJ Jack Spector, of the WMCA "Good Guys" in New York, regularly recorded for Radio Caroline. Syndicated shows from the US and recorded religious programmes were also broadcast. BBC Radio 2 newsreader Colin Berry and Classic FM's Nick Bailey started their careers reading the news on Radio Caroline South.
In mid-September 1965, the crew and DJs on MV Mi Amigo were joined for the weekend by 1960s pop singer Sylvan Whittingham, who visited the ship to promote her single "We Don't Belong". Whittingham was unable to leave on the tender when a storm arose. The only singer to stay overnight, she helped present programmes, make jingles, and close the station at night.
Mi Amigo runs aground
On 20 January 1966, the MV Mi Amigo lost its anchor in a storm, drifted and ran aground on the beach at Frinton-on-Sea. The crew and broadcasting staff were rescued unharmed, but the ship's hull was damaged and repairs were carried out at Zaandam, Netherlands. Between 31 January and 1 May, Radio Caroline South broadcast from the vessel Cheeta II, owned by Britt Wadner of Swedish offshore station Radio Syd, which was off the air because of pack ice in the Baltic Sea.[5] The Cheeta II was equipped for FM broadcasting, so it was fitted with the 10 kW transmitter from the Mi Amigo, feeding a makeshift antenna. The resulting signal was low-powered, but ensured that Caroline South's advertising revenue would continue.
The Mi Amigo returned to its Frinton-on-Sea anchorage with a redesigned antenna and a new 50 kW transmitter and attempted to resume broadcasting on 18 April, nominally on 259 metres to enable the same jingles as Radio Caroline North on 1169 kHz to be used, but actually 252 metres. The transmitter was initially too powerful for the antenna insulators. On 27 April, the Mi Amigo was fully operational.
Radio Caroline South's 259 metres signal was now near those of Radio London on 266m (1133 kHz) and the BBC's Light Programme on 247m (1214 kHz). Radio Caroline North subsequently moved to 257m (1169 kHz) but also called it 259.
Radio City affair
In October 1965, negotiations began for Radio Caroline to take over Radio City, which broadcast from Shivering Sands Army Fort, a Second World War marine fort off the Kent[5] coast. One of Radio Caroline's directors, Major Oliver Smedley, formerly of Radio Atlanta, entered a partnership with Radio City's owner, pop group manager Reginald Calvert and installed a more powerful transmitter on the fort. However, according to Gerry Bishop's book Offshore Radio this transmitter was antiquated and failed to work. Smedley later withdrew from the deal.
On 20 June 1966, Smedley boarded the Shivering Sands Fort with 10 workmen to repossess a transmitter that he had supplied, but had not been paid for. The next day, Calvert visited Smedley's home in Saffron Walden, Essex, to demand the departure of the raiders and the return of vital transmitter parts. During a violent struggle, Calvert was shot dead. Smedley's men occupied the fort until 22 June.
Smedley was charged with Calvert's murder on 18 July, but this was reduced to a charge of manslaughter. Smedley's trial opened on 11 October at Chemlsford Assizes, where the jury acquitted him.
legal ownership.
In 1967, the UK Government enacted the Marine, &c., Broadcasting (Offences) Act 1967, outlawing advertising on or supplying an unlicensed offshore radio station from the UK. In an earlier House of Commons debate (in June 1966), the government had claimed that the pirate ships were a danger because of radio frequency interference to emergency shipping channels, and to overseas radio stations and the pirates were paying no royalties to artists, composers or record companies. Furthermore, it was stated that the pirates' use of wavelengths also broke international agreements.[15] The Manx parliament, the Tynwald, attempted to exclude the North ship from the legislation, appealing to the European Court on the legality of the act being applied to the Isle of Man. Two (Radio 270 and Radio London) of the remaining four UK based offshore stations closed, but the two Caroline ships continued with their supply operation moved to the Netherlands, which did not outlaw unlicensed ship based broadcasting until 1974.
When Marine &c. Broadcasting Offences Act become law on 14 August 1967, Radio Caroline was renamed Radio Caroline International. Six weeks later, the BBC introduced its new national pop station Radio 1, modelled largely on the successful offshore station Radio London, and employed many of the ex-pirate DJs. The BBC Light, Third, and Home programmes became Radios 2, 3 and 4 respectively.
On 3 March 1968, the radio ships Mi Amigo and Caroline, were boarded and seized before the day's broadcasting began. They were towed to Amsterdam by a salvage company to secure unpaid bills for servicing by the Dutch tender company Wijsmuller Transport
Because of the rise of land based pirate stations after the MOA became law - Usually stations run from bedrooms or outdoor sheds with small wattage transmitters - At least two stations broadcast using the Caroline name, one based in Dublin. These broadcasts took place between 1970 and 1973.
On 24 March 1970, a radio ship named Mebo II anchored off the east coast of England during the UK general election campaign, broadcasting as Radio North Sea International (RNI). RNI operated on medium wave, short wave and FM. Its medium wave transmission was jammed by the UK authorities and on 13 June, RNI changed its name to Radio Caroline International with co-operation from Ronan O'Rahilly. Radio Caroline lobbied against the Labour Party, for the Conservative Party and for the introduction of licensed commercial radio in the United Kingdom. Following the election, RNI resumed its original name but jamming continued under the newly elected Conservative government.[18] It was not until RNI returned to its original anchorage off the Netherlands that the jamming ceased.
Caroline Television
News stories appeared in Europe announcing the start of Caroline Television from two Super Constellation aircraft using Stratovision technology. One would circle over the North Sea in international air space near the United Kingdom, while the other remained on standby. Presentations were made to US advertising agencies. These stories continued and included co-operation by a former member of the Beatles and a sign-on date of 1 July; the station failed to appear.
It was later shown to be a publicity stunt.
1974–1978
In 1972, MV Mi Amigo was bought for her scrap value at auction by enthusiast Gerard van Dam, who intended to use her as a free radio museum. O'Rahilly promised financial backing if van Dam could return the ship to broadcasting condition.[22] The ship anchored off the Dutch coastal resort of Scheveningen and was serviced and operated from the Netherlands. That autumn various tests, consisting of continuous music, were made on 259 metres. The station restarted just before Christmas as Radio 199 but soon became Radio Caroline, with a Top 40 format. DJs Chris Cary, broadcasting as Spangles Muldoon (who was also station manager), Roger 'Twiggy' Day, Andy Archer, Paul Alexander, Steve England, Johnny Jason and Peter Chicago (real name Peter Murtha) manned the station.
In late 1972, Radio Caroline had money problems. On 28 December, unpaid crew cut the Mi Amigo's generator fuel line and departed. Later that day, the Dutch Royal Navy returned the crew and fighting broke out on board. Two days later, Mi Amigo was towed to IJmuiden and seized because of unpaid bills. Because of the Christmas holidays, no solicitors were available to issue a writ and the ship lay in Amsterdam harbour until O'Rahilly arranged for it to be towed back to sea. The ship was further delayed by hull damage and repaired before writs could be issued.
Between 11 and 20 April 1973, the ship broadcast for Radio Veronica while its ship, the Norderney, was aground. Because of a law that allows pirates in distress to come ashore without arrest, the running aground had no consequences for the crew. During summer 1973, it broadcast separate stations in English and Dutch simultaneously, on 389 m / 773 kHz and 252 m (announced as 259) / 1187 kHz. Two aerials and twin transmitters were used for about six weeks until the aerial mast failed. To accommodate the second aerial, a second short mast, just in front of the bridge, was employed as the other end for the main mast.
Radio Atlantis and Radio Seagull
Around this time, O'Rahilly decided Caroline should adopt an album format similar to FM progressive rock stations in the USA, an audience not catered for in Europe. This service was Radio Seagull and broadcast live during the evening.
Since Radio Caroline could not find enough advertising, it shared its nominal 259 metre wavelength (actually 1187 kHz or 253 metres) with Dutch-language pop stations. The first was a Belgian station called Radio Atlantis, owned by Belgian businessman Adriaan van Landschoot. Programmes were recorded on land and broadcast between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. Rough weather sometimes prevented tapes from arriving and old programmes had to be repeated. Later in 1973, when the contract with Radio Caroline ended, the crew of Radio Atlantis moved to their own ship, the MV Jeanine.
Radio Seagull became Radio Caroline on 23 February 1974, retaining the album format. Throughout most of the 1970s, Radio Caroline could be heard only at night, calling itself "Europe's first and only album station".
Radio Mi Amigo
Another Belgian station, Radio Mi Amigo International, launched on 1 January 1974; it was run by Belgian businessman and Suzy Waffles owner Sylvain Tack. The station's offices and studios were in Brakel, Belgium, but moved to Castell-Platja d'Aro, Costa Brava, Spain in March 1975 after a raid by Belgian police. Here they produced programmes for Dutch-speaking holidaymakers, mostly Europop, Top 40, MOR and Dutch language popular music presented by Belgian, Dutch and occasionally English DJs with frequent commercials. Because commercial radio was prohibited in Belgium, Radio Mi Amigo had little competition from the former BRT State Radio and TV (today VRT Flemisch State radio and TV) and became very popular in Belgium, the Netherlands and the UK. For the first years, advertising on the station was in demand. When Radio Veronica closed in 1974, some presenters moved to Radio Mi Amigo.
Loving Awareness
Caroline's album format meant that, although the station served a gap in the market, its audience was smaller than in the 1960s. Caroline also promoted O'Rahilly's concept of Loving Awareness (LA), a far-eastern philosophy of love and peace. Some DJs were embarrassed but some were fascinated by the challenge of an abstract concept. Disc jockey Tony Allan developed a following, combining Loving Awareness with a professional style, humanity, knowledge of music and rich radio voice.[citation needed]
In 1974, O'Rahilly set up a pop group called The Loving Awareness Band, comprising John Turnbull (guitar) and Mick Gallagher (keyboards) both formerly of Skip Bifferty and two session musicians, Norman Watt-Roy (bass) and Charlie Charles (drums). In 1976, The Loving Awareness Band released their only album, Loving Awareness on More Love Records (ML001), a label set up by O'Rahilly. The album was reissued on CD on Ross Records, c.1992, and in a "30th Anniversary Edition" with bonus material on SMC Records in 2005. The band broke up in 1977; Watt-Roy and Charles played on Ian Dury's New Boots and Panties!! album, and Turnbull and Gallagher joined them on the Stiff's tour, becoming The Blockheads.
Dutch legislation
The Dutch government banned unlicensed offshore radio on 1 September 1974. Radio Caroline continued, moving its headquarters and servicing operation to Spain. On 30 August 1974 Mi Amigo moved from the Dutch coast to the Knock Deep Channel, approximately 12 miles (19 km) from the British coast. After 31 August, shows for Radio Mi Amigo were delivered on cassettes rather than reel-to-reel tapes. Beginning in 1975, the cassettes were transported from Playa d'Aro on the Europa Bus service, which carried people from Amsterdam to Madrid at low prices. The tapes were picked up in Belgium at a bus stop, taken to a small sports plane and dropped in the sea close to the radio ship. The Mi Amigo "Top 50" tapes were flown over by helicopter to get them on board more quickly.
On 1 September, a small motor launch had difficulties in rough seas. Radio Caroline broadcast appeals for help, giving the ship's position as 51°41′N 1°35′E. A coastguard vessel escorted the launch back to shore, but the authorities were unhappy that Caroline listeners had jammed the emergency switchboards.
The Mi Amigo was tendered clandestinely from Britain, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Tenders and boat owners were warned, and some were prosecuted for ferrying staff and provisions to the ship. Belgium had outlawed offshore radio in 1962 and prosecuted advertisers, cutting the station's revenue. Belgian courts sentenced Tack and some DJs to fines and jail in absentia, although the prison terms were later cancelled.
Wavelength changes
The two stations experimented with different frequencies. After a short test on 773 kHz in late 1975, in May 1976, Radio Caroline began a daytime service on 1562 kHz (192 m) using a 10 kW transmitter, while its overnight service continued to share the 50 kW transmitter with Radio Mi Amigo's daytime programming on 1187 kHz (253 metres, announced as 259).
In December 1976, Radio Mi Amigo moved to 1562 kHz on the 50 kW transmitter, leaving Caroline on 1187 kHz 24 hours a day on the 10 kW. Radio Caroline had greater night-time interference, and it was decided to move Caroline to a new frequency. On 3 March 1977, Caroline closed, announcing that it would return six days later on 319 metres. To allow Radio Mi Amigo to continue broadcasting by day, the engineering work for Caroline's move had to be carried out over six nights, after the 50 kW transmitter was switched off.
Caroline returned on 9 March 1977 on 953 kHz, actually 315 metres but announced as 319. This gave reasonable reception by day but strong heterodyne interference at night because the transmitter crystal was off-channel. In July Caroline moved to the adjacent channel, 962 kHz (312 metres but still called 319) and reception in the UK improved. Meanwhile, Radio Mi Amigo had interference on 1562 kHz and changed to 1412 kHz (212 m).
Finally, Radio Mi Amigo moved to 962 kHz on 1 December. Due to generator trouble, the two services could no longer be broadcast simultaneously and Radio Caroline again broadcast at night with both stations using the 50 kW transmitter and Radio Caroline began to receive more mail from the continent. At times, a 10 kW transmitter was used to save fuel and relieve the generators. The 10 kW transmitters could run on the Henschel generator beside the two main MAN units and also a Cummins unit on the aft deck behind the wheelhouse.
In late 1977, Radio Caroline began sponsored evangelical programmes, and music programmes began at 9 p.m. On 20 October 1978, technical and financial problems put the Mi Amigo off the air. Unhappy at the loss of advertising, Radio Mi Amigo terminated its contract with Caroline in November 1978 and broadcast from its own ship, the MV Magdalena later that year, but this was short-lived. Broadcasting was in Dutch and English by day and in English at night, although for the first few months broadcasting finished at 10 p.m. On 19 January 1979, the ageing ship took in water and a lifeboat was called to rescue the crew members. Radio Caroline returned to the air on 15 April 1979. The first record played was Fool (If You Think It's Over), by Chris Rea, dedicated to the British Home Office. During this period each night transmission of Radio Caroline started with Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft by the progressive Rock Band Klaatu, issued in 1976 on their album 3:47 E.S.T.
Mi Amigo sinks
Just after midnight GMT on 20 March 1980, the Mi Amigo foundered in a storm after losing its anchor and drifting. It began taking in water and the crew was rescued by lifeboat.[5] The generator was left running but the pumps could not manage and the vessel sank 10 minutes later. Three British nationals, a Dutchman and their canary (named Wilson after the former Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson) were rescued. The last broadcast from the Mi Amigo was by Stevie Gordon and Tom Anderson
(Gordon): Well, we're sorry to tell you that due to the severe weather conditions and the fact that we are shipping quite a lot of water, we are closing down, and the crew are at this stage leaving the ship. Obviously, we hope to be back with you as soon as possible, but just for the moment we would like to say goodbye.
(Anderson): It's not a very good occasion really, we have to hurry this because the lifeboat is standing by. We're not leaving and disappearing, we're going onto the lifeboat hoping that the pumps can take it; if they can, we'll be back, if not, well, we really don't like to say it.
(Gordon): I think we'll be back in one way or another.
(Anderson): Yeah. I think so.
(Gordon): For the moment from all of us, goodbye and God bless.
The crew of the Sheerness lifeboat Helen Turnbull were commended for the rescue of broadcasters Tom Anderson, Stevie Gordon, Nick Richards and Hans Verlaan from Mi Amigo while it was sinking in the Black Deep near Long Sand Bank. Having to manoeuvre the lifeboat alongside the stricken vessel 13 times in high seas and a north-easterly gale earned Coxswain Charles Bowry an RNLI silver medal. Each of his crew was awarded The Thanks of the Institution on vellum.
The Mi Amigo's 160-foot (49 m) mast remained erect for six years.
The station restarted in August 1983 from a new radio ship, the MV Ross Revenge, an ex-North Sea factory fishing trawler used during the Anglo-Icelandic Cod War by Ross Fisheries.[32] It had an antenna system radiating from a 300-foot (91 m) high mast, the tallest on any ship in the world. It left Spain, with an incomplete studio, to avoid legal entanglements. Radio Caroline began to broadcast from the ship on 19 August 1983, with unwanted mechanical sounds on speech. The station was opened by DJ Tom Anderson, who had said "goodbye" from the sinking Mi Amigo in 1980.
The Ross Revenge was larger than Mi Amigo and with more elaborate transmitting equipment: in 1983, two 5 kW RCA transmitters and a RCA 50 kW unit. One 5 kW transmitter was initially not serviceable. When Radio Monique hired the main transmitter, spare parts were taken from a fourth transmitter to convert the 5 kW into a 10 kW unit, the RCA 5 and 10 kW transmitters having similar designs.[34] The remaining 5 kW transmitter was later converted for short wave use.
O'Rahilly wanted Radio Caroline to become an oldies station. He was opposed by some DJs and crew who had worked on the Mi Amigo and the album format stayed along with presenters such as Andy Archer, Samantha Dubois, Grant Benson, Robin Ross and Simon Barrett. Officially, Radio Caroline was managed from offices in North America, with advertising from the US and Canada. In practice, day-to-day servicing was carried from France and the UK.
From the anchorage in the Knock Deep the Mi Amigo's mast could be seen on the horizon. Four studios were on board, enabling other services. Radio Caroline tried several frequencies, among them 963, 576, 585 (briefly), 558 (after Laser 558 closed) and later 819 kHz. European medium wave channels had been reallocated to multiples of nine. In the evenings on 963, some alternative music programmes were tried, including the reggae "Jamming 963", and in 1986 and early 1987, a progressive and indie rock programme called Caroline Overdrive hosted by Kevin Turner, Mark Matthews, Peter Phillips, Mick Williams (a.k.a. Ray Clark) and Rob Charles.
On 9 August 1985, an official vessel anchored 150 yards from the Ross Revenge. The UK Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) put a permanent watch on movements around the Ross Revenge and the MV Communicator, Laser 558's ship. On 3 September 1985 at 00:00 hours the Dioptric Surveyor departed in a storm.
Radio Monique
Main article: Radio Monique
From December 1984 the Ross Revenge broadcast Radio Monique, recorded and live Dutch-language programmes of a Dutch music radio production company using the 50 kW transmitter during daytime. They were pop and Europop aimed at the mainstream Dutch audience. Radio Monique was popular throughout Benelux.
In the evenings, Radio Caroline transmitted Dutch and American religious evangelist broadcasters such as Johan Maasbach and Roy Masters on medium wave, and later on short wave, under the name Viewpoint 963/819, or World Mission Radio (WMR) on short wave.
In November 1985, the competing offshore station, Laser 558, closed after electrical problems and Caroline moved from 576 kHz to Laser's 558 kHz frequency, with a Top 40 music format similar to Laser's under the name Caroline 558. When Laser returned as Laser Hot Hits, it used Caroline's former and inferior frequency of 576 kHz.
Mast collapse
In 1987, the Territorial Sea Act[35] extended the UK maritime limit from three to 12 nautical miles (22 km). To remain in international waters, the ship moved to a new, less-sheltered anchorage. Initially this was a minor inconvenience as the 300-foot (91 m) mast was thought sturdy enough. However, in October 1987 a massive storm hit southern England, causing deaths and severe damage. MV Ross Revenge weathered the storm in the North Sea.
The following day, Caroline was one of few stations in the South East still broadcasting. However, the storm had weakened the mast, which collapsed in another storm later. Caroline returned to the air using a makeshift aerial with a less powerful signal. This was replaced by a twin-mast T-antenna. For several months only one transmitter could be used, leading to the loss of the income-generating Radio Monique, although a substitute Dutch daytime service, Radio 558 (later Radio 819), was eventually established.
1989 Anglo-Dutch raid
During mid-August 1989, authorities in several European countries carried out co-ordinated raids on houses, recording studios and offices believed to be used by Caroline. On 18 August, a British government chartered ship pulled up alongside the Ross Revenge and asked to board to "discuss the future" of the Ross Revenge and the stations operating from it. This request, and one to stop transmissions on 819 kHz, was refused. A request to stop broadcasting on short wave 6.215 MHz was complied with, and after several hours the government ship returned to port.
The following day James Murphy, an investigator for the UK Office of the Official Solicitor, acting for the Department of Trade and Industry, joined colleagues and counterparts from the Netherlands Radio Regulatory Authority to execute an armed raid on the Ross Revenge in which equipment was damaged or confiscated.
Part of the raid was broadcast live before officials disabled the transmitters. Dutch nationals were arrested and returned to the Netherlands, together with most of the broadcasting equipment. Non-Dutch staff were given the option of staying on the ship or returning to the Netherlands – most chose to stay on board. Caroline claimed boarding the ship and removal or destruction of equipment was piracy. The Dutch claimed the ship's Panamanian registration had lapsed in 1987 and it was not under legal protection from any country and that its transmissions breached international regulations which since 1982 had prohibited broadcasting from outside national territories. Several years later some of the seized items were returned to the station.
In 1990 the UK government amended the 1967 anti-offshore law to allow the boarding and silencing of stations in international waters if their signals could be received in the UK, even if their vessels were foreign registered and operated. Lord Annan, author of the 1977 Report of the Committee on the Future of Broadcasting, spoke in defence of Radio Caroline in the House of Lords at report stage on the Broadcasting Act 1990, saying "Why break a butterfly upon the wheel?" In a 1995 article for the pressure group Charter88, Steve McGann commented:
"Whether Caroline was right to maintain her defiance for so many years is irrelevant. Her story illustrates how uniquely dangerous government regards an independent voice transmitted over unrestricted airwaves and to what ends it will go to silence it."
This legislation remains in force.
1990–1991: After the raid
On 1 October 1989, Radio Caroline restarted broadcasting from the Ross Revenge using makeshift equipment and low power, to retain the 558 kHz frequency. Engineer Peter Chicago had hidden transmitter parts during the raid and retuned one 5 kW transmitter, previously used on short-wave, to 558 kHz. Over the following months, Caroline's signal quality improved as transmitting valves were donated and programming returned to normal.
In June 1990, Spectrum Radio, a new multi-ethnic community radio station in London, was officially allocated 558 kHz. Caroline caused more interference to Spectrum than vice versa. Caroline broadcast regular apologies to Spectrum listeners but refused to vacate the channel. Spectrum threatened to sue the Radio Authority, which then allowed Spectrum to temporarily broadcast on 990 kHz alongside 558 kHz. Eventually, Caroline left 558 kHz and moved to 819 kHz. On 5 November 1990, lack of fuel and supplies forced the station to cease. The final song was Pilot of the Airwaves by Charlie Dore.
Although most broadcasting staff left at that time, some remained for a year as caretakers while funding and equipment were sought. The station tried to obtain a licence from a developing country,[ hoping it might offer protection from the new provisions in the 1990 Broadcasting Act which came into force on 31 December that year.
In November 1991, the ship lost its anchor in a storm and drifted on to the Goodwin Sands in the Channel. The crew was rescued by a RAF helicopter. The Ross Revenge was salvaged and brought into harbour in Dover, ending 27 years of Radio Caroline's unlicensed offshore career.
1991–present: Licensed Support Group era
Since 1991, the Ross Revenge has been maintained by enthusiasts called the Radio Caroline Support Group, originally the Ross Revenge Support Group. From 2007, the ship was docked at Tilbury, where a volunteer crew repaired and maintained it. The ship has working radio studios, from which both Caroline and BBC Essex have broadcast. On 31 July 2014 the ship was moved to the Blackwater Estuary in Essex.
Former offshore broadcasters who continue on the station are: Roger Mathews, Nigel Harris, Martin Fisher, Marc Jacobs, Johnny Lewis, Doug Wood, Dave Foster, Cliff Osbourne, Chris Pearson, Bob Lawrence, Jeremy Chartham and Ad Roberts.[43] Evangelical programmes and sponsored specialist music are broadcast. During Easter 2008, the station broadcast live for three days from the Ross Revenge, featuring presenters who had worked on the Mi Amigo in the late 1970s: Roger Mathews, Mike Stevens, Bob Lawrence, Brian Martin, Martin Fisher, Cliff Osbourne, Jeremy Chartham, Marc Jacobs, Ad Roberts, Dick Verheul and Kees Borrell.
Restricted service licences
Radio Caroline was off the air for most of the 1990s, except for occasional low-power broadcasts of one month. Some of these licensed 28-day restricted service licence (RSL) broadcasts took place from the Ross Revenge during the 1990s, with the ship anchored off Clacton, in London's Canary Wharf, Southend Pier and off the Isle of Sheppey in Kent.
On 1 October 2001 at one minute past midnight, Caroline returned on 1503 kHz from the LV (Light Vessel) 18 in Harwich harbour. This two-day broadcast featured Phil Mitchell, Paul Dennis, Colin Lamb, John Patrick, Barry James, Steve Cisco and Clive Boutell.[44] The LV 18 would later be used by the BBC for BBC Pirate Radio Essex broadcasts.
Another RSL broadcast ran from 7 August until 3 September 2004, with the ship moored at the cruise liner terminal jetty at Tilbury in Essex. It commemorated the 40th anniversary of Radio Caroline and promoted the station's legal internet and satellite programmes. The medium wave frequency was 235 metres (1278 kHz) and programmes were sent through ISDN landline to Maidstone and via the internet and broadcast on satellite. The supermarket chain Asda and English Heritage were among the backers.
The station has subsequently broadcast on 531 kHz AM from the Ross Revenge during some bank holiday weekends, beginning on 28–31 August 2009 and also within a few days of the 50th anniversary of the ship's first voyage.
Satellite and internet broadcasting
Using land-based studios leased in Kent[46] in the late 1990s, the station began broadcasting via satellites Astra 19.2°E and Eutelsat 28A, covering western Europe. These analogue transmissions ended and a full digital service from Astra 28.2°E started in February 2003.
In 2002, Caroline began on WorldSpace satellite radio, continuing until Worldspace went bankrupt and re-organised its operations in 2008. On 12 June 2006, the station bought an EPG slot on Sky channel 0199.[48] This ended on 1 July 2011 after a failure to renegotiate costs with Sky and deciding not pursue a Freesat EPG slot.[49] Surveys in 2008 and 2010 showed a small percentage listened via Sky, and that satellite listening had dropped by 9% since 2008, while online listening had increased by around 40%. Radio Caroline continued on satellite but required manual tuning.
During 2013, a survey showed a continued move from satellite reception and growth in internet listening. Following negotiations with the service provider, satellite transmissions ended at midnight on 30 September 2013. Programmes were still heard on satellite until the provider replaced the signal with a 1 kHz tone on the morning of 1 October 2013. Internet streaming of Radio Caroline programmes continued.
The Radio Caroline "album" station has been streamed on the internet for many years, accessible via the station's website, with more streams on various devices.[41] Dedicated apps for listening via Apple IOS[50] and Android[51] devices are also available. In 2011 Radio Caroline joined Radioplayer UK, an internet service formed by the BBC, Global Radio and the Guardian Media Group that supplies a live feed of UK radio stations to across the world.
From 4 May 2015, Radio Caroline has a 24-hour "Flashback" webstream carrying "oldies" music and jingles.
Via Manx Radio
Since September 2015, Radio Caroline has been broadcasting 'live' for one weekend each month[54] as "Radio Caroline North" (with original DJs and a mixed sixties, seventies and eighties music content and jingles) from its former home the MV Ross Revenge on the Blackwater Estuary in Essex, via Manx Radio's 1368 kHz 20 kW transmitter on the Isle of Man.[
Radio Caroline at 50 years (1964–2014)
From 31 March to 27 April 2014, a Caroline North tribute station, based on the Planet Lightship berthed in the Albert Dock complex on Liverpool's waterfront, broadcast locally on 87.7FM and on the internet. Programmes were presented by current and former DJs from the BBC, ILR, Ireland, Luxembourg, offshore and land-based pirate stations, and other international and freelance backgrounds, including Tony Prince and Emperor Rosko. Original 1960s Caroline North jingles were interspersed with generic Radio Caroline ones. The station played a wide selection of music from when Caroline started in the 1960s, but also included music from the 70s and 80s and early 90s to widen the audience profile. The four-week event was funded through on-air local business commercials.[citation needed]
Medium wave campaign
In December 2010, Chatham and Aylesford MP Tracey Crouch presented an Early Day Motion to the House of Commons calling for Ofcom to allow Radio Caroline to broadcast as a licensed medium wave station to its "traditional heartland of the south east".
The full text of the EDM is:
That this House expresses its disappointment that, having pioneered commercial radio in the UK and for the past decade being a fully licensed broadcaster, Radio Caroline, a cornerstone of British radio history, has been denied by OFCOM the opportunity to secure a medium wave frequency from which to broadcast; regrets that as a result its devoted listeners are confined to listening to Radio Caroline via the internet and unable to enjoy its musical offerings in transit; and calls on OFCOM to exhaust all avenues in making the provisions available for Radio Caroline to celebrate its 50th birthday in 2014 by broadcasting on a medium wave frequency which, it appears, is unwanted by both BBC and commercial operators as a broadcast platform."[56]
In May 2017, Ofcom awarded the station a community licence to broadcast to Suffolk and north Essex on 648 kHz with a power of 1 kW.[3][57] On 11 November 2017, test transmissions commenced from an omni-directional mast (formerly used by the BBC World Service) at Orford Ness, Suffolk.
Commercial programming commenced at noon on Friday 22 December 2017, with a signal that could be heard as far afield as Southampton, Birmingham and Glasgow.
International operations
The Netherlands
In January 2002, a Dutch Caroline fan called Sietse Brouwer launched a Netherlands-based Radio Caroline in Harlingen, broadcasting on the northern Netherlands cable networks and largely independent of UK Caroline. Brouwer intended to obtain an AM frequency from the Netherlands authorities in 2003 when its medium wave frequencies were reallocated. However, Dutch Caroline failed to secure a high power AM frequency and the cable network service was discontinued because of lack of funds. The Dutch Radio Caroline then changed its name to Radio Waddenzee for daytime Dutch and German language, and Radio Seagull for nighttime English language broadcasts, and now broadcasts on 1602 kHz every day and on the internet, presenting a progressive rock format. From November 2009, Radio Seagull can be heard periodically on 558 kHz in London.
Spain
In Spain, a station broadcast during the summer 2009 on 102.7 MHz in the Costa Blanca from studios in Benidorm. The station had some success but stopped broadcasting due to lack of funding. Broadcasters included Tony Christian, Pawl "Hound Dog" Shanley, Dave Fox, Simon West, Dale Richardson and Peter D.
Ireland
Radio Caroline is broadcast in the Republic of Ireland on channel 927 on the UPC Ireland cable service in the main cities of Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Waterford and Cappoquin, and the County Waterford towns of Lismore and Tallow.
New Zealand
In Timaru, an NZBC station, originally 3XC, later 3ZC, broadcast as Radio Caroline until 1995. The name was taken from Caroline Bay, a popular recreation area nearby.
In Palmerston, Radio Caroline International, based in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, acquired an AM commercial broadcasting licence in 2008, and was seeking wavelengths in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. Daytime programming was leased to a community radio service called Puketapu Radio on 756 kHz.
ROMA ARCHEOLOGICA & RESTAURO ARCHITETTURA 2022. Aggiornamento, Maggio 2022. “Roma, gli scavi Danesi nel Foro di Cesare: 3000 anni di nuove testimonianze archeologiche alla luce.” Testo in Danese e Inglese; in: The Past / London (17/05/2022) & The Carlsbergfondet, Denmark [with additional Facebook & You-Tube links] (18/05/2022). Anche Foto di: “Roma, Il Foro di Cesare” in: and.lezzi / Instagram (18/05/2022).
Foto: Roma - Il Foro di Cesare, I Fori Imperiali & Via dei Fori Imperiali; in: and.lezzi / Instagram (18/05/2022).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52084141678
1). ROMA - Scavare il Foro di Cesare: tremila anni di vita quotidiana a Roma.
The Past / London (17/05/2022).
Riassunto - Fresche tracce di vita urbana di quasi tre millenni stanno venendo alla luce nel centro di Roma. Nuovi scavi italo-danesi hanno portato alla luce molto di più del progetto monumentale del forum di Cesare. Scavando attraverso strati archeologici, viaggiando indietro nel tempo dalle costruzioni di Mussolini degli anni '30, Jan Kindberg Jacobsen, Eva Mortensen, Claudio Parisi Presicce e Rubina Raja districano la complessa stratigrafia urbana della Città Eterna.
Foto: The Past / London (17/05/2022)
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52084363139
ROME - Digging Caesar’s Forum: three thousand years of daily life in Rome. The Past / London (17/05/2022).
Abstract - Fresh traces of urban life spanning almost three millennia are coming to light in central Rome. New Danish-Italian excavations have uncovered far more than Caesar’s monumental forum project. Delving through archaeological layers, while travelling back in time from Mussolini’s 1930s constructions, Jan Kindberg Jacobsen, Eva Mortensen, Claudio Parisi Presicce, and Rubina Raja disentangle the complex urban stratigraphy of the Eternal City.
Foto: The Past / London (17/05/2022)
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52084142673
For some years, the buzzing sound of mechanical digging has been emanating from a green-screen enclosure standing beside Rome’s monumental avenue, the Via dei Fori Imperiali. This is because an excavation site lies entrenched between the broad avenue and the adjacent portion of Caesar’s Forum, which is open to the public as part of an archaeological park. There, in the south-eastern section of the complex, heavy mechanical excavators and trucks operate alongside archaeologists, conservators, geologists, and radiocarbon specialists, who are committed to figuring out what was going on here in the past. Inside the enclosure, two trenches are cordoned off with plastic fences that proclaim there are ‘lavori in corso’: works in progress. Sure enough, our team has reached deep into the archaeological layers, revealing an incredible amount of new knowledge about the long history of Rome.
Foto: The Past / London (17/05/2022)
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52084119366
This work is taking place in the heart of the city. The Roman Forum lies close at hand, while the remains of the imperial fora established by the emperors Augustus (reigned 27 BC to AD 14), Nerva (reigned 96-98), and Trajan (reigned 98-117) are visible on the far side of the Via dei Fori Imperiali. Over the recent winter months, trowels and buckets were stowed away, and the Bobcat excavator rested, surrendering the site to restoration specialists and architects. Meanwhile, the archaeologists, finds specialists, and soil scientists headed indoors to study the excavated material and process a wealth of samples. Together, their findings can lead us from the 20th century AD back to the 6th century BC.
Clean up first, then demolish
Our journey starts on 28 October 1932, when the Via dei Fori Imperiali, which today leads people from Piazza Venezia to the Colosseum, was inaugurated by Benito Mussolini. Back then it was called the Via dell’Impero, a parade street that simultaneously celebrated the ideology of the fascist regime and physically connected it to Rome’s ancient and glorious past.
Foto: The Past / London (17/05/2022)
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52084142693
The street cut through the late Republican Forum of Caesar and all of the imperial fora. When this new thoroughfare was first planned, though, most of the Roman-era remains were obscured beneath a densely inhabited residential area known as the Alessandrino Quarter. Its housing blocks were razed together with five churches, causing about a thousand families to be evicted and rehomed in newly built neighbourhoods on the outskirts of Rome. Once exposed, most of Caesar’s Forum was excavated, alongside portions of the other fora. Speed was the defining quality of this work, though. After just a year and a half of demolition and excavation, the centre of Rome lay transformed. Afterwards, its appearance before this intervention by the fascist regime was soon largely forgotten, with most modern visitors never realising that the ruins looked radically different less than a century ago. Fortunately for us, the area currently being excavated in Caesar’s Forum was not dug out at that time. Neither was it overbuilt by the parade street, because Mussolini needed a turning space for his grandiloquent parades.
Foto: Our excavations revealed remains of a residential unit that was once home to the Alessandrino Quarter’s last inhabitants.
The Past / London (17/05/2022).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52084142723
The Alessandrino Quarter had a long pedigree. It was first established in the second half of the 16th century, meaning that its three- to four-storey high housing blocks had accommodated part of Rome’s fast-growing population for over three centuries. While it has always been possible to get a sense of the Alessandrino Quarter from photographs, historic maps, and written sources, prior to our excavations very little was known about the material culture of daily life. Indeed, even then it has not always been easy to bring its former inhabitants into sharp focus. Not only did they take their possessions with them when they vacated their homes, but they also scrupulously swept the floors – even though the buildings were about to be torn down. This compulsion for cleanliness was not just a matter of pride. Instead, it can be explained by a pending inspection from the state architects, who were brought in to make precise measurements of the apartments. This was important for the families, in order for them to receive the correct compensation from the state, after being forced to leave their homes.
Foto: Various different types of floors were found in the Alessandrino Quarter building complex. Here we see pebble flooring (right), hexagonal cementine tiles (centre bottom), and rectangular tiles with a geometric decoration (centre top). A toilet once occupied the hole in the upper left-hand corner. The Past / London (17/05/2022).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52084618495
Naturally, such sprucing up did not extend to hidden spaces like underground sewers and channels, allowing traces of the last inhabitants to survive there. Systematic excavation and recording of these spaces is granting an insight into the residents’ domestic activities, social standing, and even their diet. Pieces of jewellery and shirt buttons made of bone probably entered the sewers accidentally when washing clothes, whereas plates, forks, and glasses must have come from one or more kitchens above. Animal bones, mostly from pigs, alongside the many mussel shells and chicken eggs found, tell us about the dietary habits of the inhabitants. In addition, the excavations allow us to understand the practical manner in which the buildings were demolished and the rubble discarded – often packed into sewers or used to level off cellars. We even found tools and personal belongings of the workmen who carried out the demolition.
Foto: Furthest down in the large trench, the granite columns from the eastern portico of Caesar’s Forum were uncovered together with architectural elements and statue bases in marble. Below them are the openings of the draining channels that directed the water away from the central square of the forum. The Past / London (17/05/2022).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52084363259
The remains of some rooms in the housing blocks were also preserved. Here, the floors are of interest, as, far from being uniform, different materials were employed and different patterns created. These allow us to chart shifts in architectural fashions and the impact of modernisation over the course of three centuries. From these floors emerges a narrative whereby Renaissance houses were rebuilt during the second half of the 19th century to install modern commodities, including electricity and flushable toilets. While we lack small finds from the rooms, the floors are still a great help when it comes to deducing what these spaces were used for. After all, the different demands of domestic living quarters, kitchens, and laundries often result in distinctive flooring.
Contagion
Though the thorough clean-up makes it difficult to peek into the daily lives of those living on top of Caesar’s Forum in the first three decades of the 20th century, finds from the Alessandrino Quarter do bring us closer to some earlier residents. One such discovery was made in 2021. Objects recovered from a short stretch of sewer testify to one or more infectious diseases spreading through the area in the second half of the 16th century – that is at just the time housing blocks were first sprouting in what was then Rome’s newest neighbourhood.
Foto: The Past / London (17/05/2022)
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52084142743
The sewer contained numerous intact and broken vessels, including fragments of around 30 uroscopy flasks. Such receptacles were used by medics from the medieval period through to the 18th century in order to study the colour, smell, consistency, and even taste of human urine when diagnosing a range of diseases. Today, we view uroscopy as essentially a pseudoscience, but in the 16th century it was a cornerstone of many medical practices. Small, intact terracotta containers found in the sewer also offer an insight into healing, as they were used to hold various types of medicine during the Renaissance. At first sight, the numerous broken plates also recovered from the conduit seem a less obvious fit with healthcare. When we examined the plates more closely, though, it became apparent that they had been discarded intact. Why? During this period, it was well understood that some diseases could be caught by touching objects handled by the infected. One solution was simply to throw away patients’ possessions when they died. Sure enough, traces of this approach have been found associated with hospitals in Italy.
Foto: The Past / London (17/05/2022)
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52084142753
It is interesting to ponder how material suited to a hospital-style setting ended up in a residential sewer. If a hospital had existed in the excavation area we would know about it from the written sources, but they are silent on the matter. However, it is possible that the objects had been transported some distance from a hospital in central Rome, before being chucked into the sewer. An overview of the material should give a sense of the number of patients concerned. If we allow for one plate per patient, then the belongings of 23 deceased individuals were dumped in the sewer. An additional, poignant, detail is provided by the presence of at least two terracotta figure toys, indicating that one or more of the victims were children.
Foto: The Past / London (17/05/2022)
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52084142758
Farming central Rome
Moving further back through time brings us to the era before the Alessandrino Quarter developed. Archaeologically, this period was marked by a thick mud layer, which fits neatly with the contemporary name for the area: i Pantani or ‘the swamp’. The origins of this expanse of boggy ground can be traced to the breakdown of earlier drainage systems. Back in the Roman period, water from the entire forum area drained directly into the River Tiber via the large Cloaca Maxima sewer. By the 10th century AD, though, this sewer was no longer being properly maintained. Eventually it became blocked, leaving the area at the mercy of the elements. It would not have taken long for living conditions to suffer. Our mud deposit accumulated between the 11th and 15th centuries, and may well contain valuable information about how the people of medieval Rome interacted with their changing environment. Micromorphological analyses and radiocarbon dating hold the promise of further clarifying this story, as well as the speed with which the area silted up in the centuries leading up to the construction of the Alessandrino Quarter in the 16th century.
Foto: The Past / London (17/05/2022)
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52083088117
Below this thick, informative mud lay a very different version of central Rome: an area of vegetable gardens, orchards, vineyards, and small farm houses. Excavations conducted in the southern part of Caesar’s Forum between 1998 and 2000 had already revealed that a peasant society developed in the heart of the ancient city. Badly preserved and poorly built farmhouse walls and floors were also detected in the new excavations. These medieval farms are called domus terrinee, with each house consisting of a single room. Reused architectural elements from earlier periods are a common feature of these humble dwellings, leaving column parts and marble blocks, so-called spolia, randomly jutting from the walls.
Foto: The Past / London (17/05/2022)
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52084142778
Another layer of muddy soil emerged below the medieval farmhouses. Here, too, there was evidence for the reuse of fine architecture from the Roman Imperial period: heaps of marble had been chopped up into football-size pieces, most likely in preparation for burning in lime-kilns. The quicklime this produced could be slaked with water and used as building material, allowing the marble of the imperial fora to live on in a very different guise among the constructions of Late Antique Rome. Fortunately, the fragments we found avoided this fate, telling us not only about an important episode of recycling, but also providing an example of the sumptuous marble decorations that once graced the fora.
Splendours of Caesar
Before the end of the 2021 season, our excavations in the main trench along the Via dei Fori Imperiali reached Caesar’s Forum. In Antiquity, this was known as the Forum Julium, and Gaius Julius Caesar took care to site it next to the Roman Forum – the great public space at the heart of civic life, where speakers’ platforms, stores, markets, administrative buildings, and temples could be found. To put it another way, by initiating his grand forum project, Caesar radically reimagined the fabric of urban life in Rome.
Foto: The Past / London (17/05/2022)
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52084618515
He pleased as well as vexed with his investment, which according to the ancient authors was the most expensive land-acquisition and building project of its time. One reason why the plot commanded such a high price was that it contained the residences of socialite Romans. Their homes were duly demolished, and the ground levelled as part of the forum project. This created a space covering approximately 100m by 50m, which was paved with slabs of travertine stone. It was enclosed by three porticoes, formed of granite columns rising from marble steps. A bronze equestrian statue of Caesar took pride of place in the centre of the forum, while the northern end of the square was dominated by a temple of Venus Genetrix, which stood on a 6m-high podium. This choice of deity allowed Caesar to advertise his divine ancestry: Venus was the mother of the Trojan hero Aeneas, whose son Julus (also known as Ascanius) was claimed as an ancestor by the Julian family.
Foto: The Past / London (17/05/2022)
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52084363244
Construction work on the forum began in 52 BC, with Caesar inaugurating it in 46 BC, even though the complex was still unfinished. As it transpired, Caesar did not live long enough to see the full splendour of his building project. Instead, his adoptive son Octavian – later Emperor Augustus – brought the building project to fruition and also made a few tweaks to the original architectural plans. These amendments were geared towards making the forum even more grandiose than Caesar had originally conceived. The end result was a new meeting place for the people of Rome. Here was a public space where business could be conducted, love affairs could unfold, friends could meet, and the Romans could gaze in awe at the magnificence of their hometown. Above all, it rammed home the message that Caesar was in charge as sole ruler of the vast Roman Empire.
So far, our excavations have unearthed tumbled granite columns from the forum’s eastern portico, as well as statue bases. Drainage channels have also come to light, with one dating to Caesar’s time, while another was installed during Trajan’s reign, providing a sense of how the forum was maintained over a century after its inauguration. Such measures ensured that heavy rain could drain towards the Cloaca Maxima, some 100m to the south.
Our spring campaign will reveal more about this late-Republican tour de force and its restoration under Trajan. We are also hoping these investigations might answer a long-standing mystery concerning the complex: how it connected to the famous Forum of Augustus. These two fora shared an adjoining wall, but to this day it remains unclear whether this contained a passage permitting movement between the two. Caesar’s Forum itself could be entered on either side of the Temple of Venus Genetrix, while there was also a connecting passage to the Roman Forum. So, were the ancient Romans able to walk dry-shod all the way from the Roman Forum to the Forum of Augustus? With the new excavations, the entire width of Caesar’s Forum will be exposed for the first time, shedding more light on movement in the heart of ancient Rome.
Rearranging the landscape
In 2021, we also opened a smaller trench closer to the paved forum square. In this part of the excavation, the stratigraphy ‘jumps’ from the Middle Ages directly back to the archaic period, long before the heyday of Republican and Imperial Rome. The archaeological layers belonging to the centuries in between, including the era of Caesar’s Forum, are gone. This loss can be traced back to the inhabitants of the medieval domus terrinee, who exposed the area to rough treatment by digging down to reach the fertile soil below. One side effect of their handiwork is that this modest – but crucial – trench has allowed us to reach far deeper into the past of ancient Rome.
Whereas the Middle Ages’ peasant society really let this part of the site have it, the architects and workers that built Caesar’s Forum adopted a softer touch. When the complex was built, the ground had to be levelled, and this meant that in places, especially the north-eastern part of the forum, 3-4m of ground needed removing. Where our trench lay in the south-eastern part of the site, though, the remains of the archaic period were left largely untouched by Caesar’s grand development.
Thanks to this, the floor level and some walls of a 6th-century BC building still survived in the archaic levels. The area was once again residential in nature at this point in time, with earlier excavations in the vicinity revealing more houses, as well as wells and a street. It is clear from the quality of the material that people from the upper echelons of society resided here during the archaic period. Even so, the most striking finds from our new excavations belong to the funerary rather than to the domestic sphere. This is due to the discovery of four children buried in the first half of the 6th century BC.
Foto: The Past / London (17/05/2022)
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52084363274
Three of the children were entombed in storage jars known as ollae. Their graves were fashioned by pushing together two of these squat, belly-rounded jars, with the body of the child placed inside. Another grave was found under one of the olla graves. It contained an inhumed child, who had died at the age of three or four. On top of each olla grave was a little pile of material that included, among other things, tile fragments. Rather than being grave markers, these miniature mounds were probably placed there to provide protection – perhaps so that animals could not dig through the earth to reach the graves.
Although the dead were usually destined for cemeteries established outside towns, it is not uncommon to find infants buried in houses. Even so, it is unique for so many to be bunched together from the same period. Inevitably, it raises the question of whether we are dealing with victims of a disease or some other catastrophic event. We expect the upcoming analyses of the graves and the bodies in 2022, together with further excavations in the area, to shed more light on this.
Rise of Rome
We have now delved through cultural layers reaching back roughly 2,600 years in time. But Rome’s story does not stop there. Earlier excavations in Caesar’s Forum have found traces of even more ancient activity: in the 11th and 10th centuries BC, a necropolis occupied the site, while before that, from the 13th to the 11th centuries BC, handmade impasto pottery, postholes (probably from a hut), wheel tracks, and evidence for the area being carefully levelled speak of settlement activity.
As we reach the spring of 2022, the buzzing sound of excavations is once again to be heard behind the green-screen enclosure. It brings the promise that this year our dig might reach the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age layers, thus shedding light on the origins of Rome. Whatever the results, we can be confident that a longue durée narrative about daily life in the heart of Rome will continue to be revealed through the excavation of a small patch of land hidden away beneath Mussolini’s parade-street turning space for almost a century.
FURTHER INFORMATION
The excavations at Caesar’s Forum are undertaken as a collaboration between Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali, the Danish Institute in Rome, and the Centre for Urban Network Evolutions (Aarhus University). The project is funded by the Carlsberg Foundation and Aarhus University Research Foundation. Further support comes from the Danish National Research Foundation under the grant DNRF119 – Centre for Urban Network Evolutions. Project publications include, among others:
T A Hass & R Raja (eds.) (2021) Caesar’s Past and Posterity’s Caesar, Rome Studies 1. Turnhout: Brepols.
J K Jacobsen, G Murro, C P Presicce, R Raja & S G Saxkjær (2020) ‘Practicing Urban Archaeology in a Modern City: the Alessandrino Quarter of Rome’, Journal of Field Archaeology 46.1: 36–51.
J K Jacobsen, G Murro, C P Presicce, R Raja, S G Saxkjær & M Vitti (2021) ‘High-Definition Urban Narratives from Central Rome: virtual reconstructions of the past and the new Caesar’s Forum excavations’, Journal of Urban Archaeology 3, 65–86.
Project webpage: cas.au.dk/en/cfp
UrbNet webpage: urbnet.au.dk
ALL IMAGES: Sovrintendenza Capitolina and The Caesar’s Forum Project, unless otherwise stated.
Fonte / source, foto:
--- The Past / London (17/05/2022)
the-past.com/feature/digging-caesars-forum-three-thousand...
Fonte / source, foto:
--- Roma - Il Foro di Cesare, I Fori Imperiali & Via dei Fori Imperiali; in: and.lezzi / Instagram (18/05/2022).
www.instagram.com/p/CdtiUcWsmNX/
Foto: The Carlsbergfondet, Denmark (18/05/2022).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52083086827
2). ROME - Børnegrave, luksusglas og kloaker gravet frem af jorden under Cæsars Forum i Rom. (18/05/2022). The Carlsbergfondet, Denmark (18/05/2022).
En lang række enestående genstande gravet frem af jorden under Cæsars Forum kaster nyt lys over Roms fortid fra Antikken og helt op i 1900-tallet. Foreløbig er der fundet alt fra tallerkener, lysekroner, legetøj og medicinflasker til granitsøjler og dræningskanaler. De kommende måneder vil flere nye områder blive genstand for omfattende undersøgelser, der vil kaste yderligere lys over liv og skikke i Roms fortid.
Foto: The Carlsbergfondet, Denmark / You-Tube (18/05/2022).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52083086877
2.1). ROMA - Tombe di bambini, vetri di lusso e fogne scavate nel terreno durante il Foro di Cesare a Roma
. The Carlsbergfondet, Denmark (18/05/2022).
** Nota: Di seguito è riportato un estratto dell'articolo in lingua danese originale tradotto in italiano e inglese. **
Un gran numero di oggetti unici scavati nel terreno durante il Foro di Cesare gettano nuova luce sul passato di Roma dall'antichità e fino al XX secolo. Finora è stato trovato di tutto, da piatti, lampadari, giocattoli e bottiglie di medicinali a colonne di granito e canali di drenaggio. Nei prossimi mesi alcune nuove aree saranno oggetto di approfonditi studi che faranno luce sulla vita e sui costumi del passato di Roma.
Foto: The Carlsbergfondet, Denmark (18/05/2022).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52084119251
2.2). ROME - Children's tombs, luxury glass and sewers dug out of the ground during Caesar's Forum in Rome
. The Carlsbergfondet, Denmark (18/05/2022).
** Note: Below is an extract of the original Danish language article translated in Italiano and English. **
A large number of unique objects excavated from the ground during Caesar's Forum shed new light on Rome's past from antiquity and all the way up to the 20th century. So far, everything from plates, chandeliers, toys and medicine bottles to granite columns and drainage channels have been found. In the coming months, several new areas will be the subject of extensive studies that will shed further light on the life and customs of Rome's past.
A large number of unique objects excavated from the ground during Caesar's Forum shed new light on Rome's past from antiquity and all the way up to the 20th century. So far, everything from plates, chandeliers, toys and medicine bottles to granite columns and drainage channels have been found. In the coming months, several new areas will be the subject of extensive studies that will shed further light on the lives and customs of Rome's past.
Since 2019, Danish and Italian archaeologists, with support from the Carlsberg Foundation and the Aarhus University Research Foundation, have carried out an extensive archaeological excavation of one of Rome's five representative forums from Antiquity, Caesar's Forum. From the Danish side, the excavation is led by Ph.D. Jan Kindberg Jacobsen affiliated with the Danish Institute in Rome and professor and center manager Rubina Raja from the Center for Urban Network Evolutions (UrbNet) at Aarhus University.
One of the areas that archaeologists have been investigating is the so-called Alessandrino neighborhood, which was laid out in the second half of the 16th century and existed until the early 1930s, when it was demolished on order from? Benito Mussolini (Prime Minister of Italy from 1922 to 1943).
Excavation with a high degree of detail
The excavation of Caesar's Forum has also resulted in new finds from the Middle Ages in the 9th and 10th centuries, possibly during this period Rome had been in disrepair for several centuries. Caesar's Forum no longer functioned as a 'forum', and agriculture was instead moved within the city walls. At the Caesar's Forum itself, farms had been built and fields laid out.
“In the period April to July 2021, we excavated the remains of one of these farms. The excavation has given an insight into the architectural expressions of the farms, the material culture associated with the farms, the agricultural system and the farmers' changes of the landscape ”.
Jan Kindberg Jacobsen summarizes that the excavation of Caesar's Forum is generally the most scientifically advanced excavation carried out so far in central Rome:
“The finely detailed excavation technique, new registration methods and a large number of scientific methods, which we have used in the work at Cæsars Forum, have made it possible to get right down to the last detail. With this, we have been able to describe the long cultural development as a unified history, where the earliest and most recent finds are treated within the same methodological and interpretive framework. This task has been undertaken by UrbNet at Aarhus University, which has leading specialists in the field of science - partly under the auspices of the center and partly through UrbNet's enormous international research network ”.
Foto: The Carlsbergfondet, Denmark / You-Tube (18/05/2022).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52084361974
Until July 1, archaeologists continue the excavation in the area where the children's graves were found.
“We have expanded the excavation area and are now on our way down. However, we are still two meters above the level where we found the graves, so more than 1000 years of cultural layers still need to be excavated and recorded. We anticipate that the archaeological excavations will be completed in the summer of 2023, ”concludes Jan Kindberg Jacobsen.
Fonte / source:
--- The Carlsbergfondet, Denmark (18/05/2022).
www.carlsbergfondet.dk/da/Nyheder/Nyt-fra-fondet/Nyheder/...
Foto: The Carlsbergfondet, Denmark / You-Tube (18/05/2022)
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52084617270
3). ROM - Dr. Jan Kindberg Jacobsen & Opsigtsvækkende fund: Tre børnegrave i et beboelsesområde er dukket op under udgravningen af Cæsars Forum. The Carlsbergfondet, Denmark / Facebook (18/05/2022).
Foto: The Carlsbergfondet, Denmark (18/05/2022).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52084142663
ROME - Three children's graves in a residential area have emerged during the excavation of Caesar's Forum.
During excavations in Rome, archaeologists have come across three vases that were close to each other. It turned out to be coffins, as each vase contained the skeleton of a child aged 1-2. The tombs date from the Archaic period between 700 and 600 BC, and the find is very unusual. Usually, the dead were not buried in the areas where the Romans themselves lived.
Foto: The Carlsbergfondet, Denmark / You-Tube (18/05/2022).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52084361984
Fonte / source:
--- The Carlsbergfondet, Denmark / Facebook (18/05/2022).
3.1). ROM - Dr. Jan Kindberg Jacobsen & Tre børnegrave i et beboelsesområde er dukket op under udgravningen af Cæsars Forum = ROME - Three children's graves in a residential area have emerged during the excavation of Caesar's Forum. The Carlsbergfondet, Denmark / You-Tube (18/05/2022) [3:01].
Video: Three children’s graves in a residential area have emerged during the excavation of Caesar’s Forum. The Carlsbergfondet, Denmark / You-Tube (18/05/2022).
www.youtube.com/watch?v=P93VZdLyzeU
During the excavation in Rome, archaeologists came across three vases that lay close together. It turned out to be coffins, as each vase contained the skeleton of a child aged 1-2 years. The tombs are from archaic times between 700 and 600 BCE, and the find is very unusual.
Foto: The Carlsbergfondet, Denmark / You-Tube (18/05/2022).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52084141628
For usually the dead were not buried in the areas where the Romans themselves lived. "When they have nevertheless been located within the settlement, it is probably due to the fact that children at that time were not considered to be 'real' people until they reached a certain age.
Foto: The Carlsbergfondet, Denmark / You-Tube (18/05/2022).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52084361989
This is because at that time there was a very high infant mortality rate, and they therefore waited to be considered members of society until they had reached a certain age, ”says excavation leader Jan Kindberg.
Foto: The Carlsbergfondet, Denmark / You-Tube (18/05/2022).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52083086842
Archaeologists are now studying the tombs in more detail. to become wiser, why the three tombs are located in a residential area. Here the archaeologists work with 2-3 theories, which you can hear more about in the video.
Foto: The Carlsbergfondet, Denmark / You-Tube (18/05/2022).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52084362014
Fonte / source, foto & video:
--- The Carlsbergfondet, Denmark / You-Tube (18/05/2022) [3:01].
Foto: The Carlsbergfondet, Denmark / You-Tube (18/05/2022).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52084118186
S.v.,
Foto: Il Foro di Cesare e gli scavi; in: ROMA | THREAD STORICO ARCHEOLOGICO / Skyscraper City # 944 (12/03/2022).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/52020804396
--- ROMA ARCHEOLOGICA & RESTAURO ARCHITETTURA 2022. #NatalediRoma Update: Rome, the Forum of Caesar Excavations, April 2022; and Dr. Rubina Raja, “Excavating the Untouched History of Rome;” in: Arrhus, University of Denmark (28 Feb. 2022). And New On-Site Excavation Photographs (12 March & 16 April, 2022); in: Rome: Skyscraper City (21/04/2022). S.v., Roma, Scavo e Valorizzazione nel Foro di Cesare (04/2022); in: Foto di Francesco Campanini / Facebook (15/04/2022). wp.me/pbMWvy-2CR
We enhance quality of life and contribute to a healthier future, by offering healthier products and by helping families to eat and drink better and move more. We have developed 'Nestlé for Healthier Kids' to bring together all our efforts that support parents and caregivers. This includes research, product formulation, education and lifestyle services.
Bruno committed the most heinous of sins in the doggy world, he did a run by tackle of Eva while she was taking a poop in the corner of the yard. After she recovered from her surprise, she tracked him down, grabbed an ear and dropped him to the ground unceremoniously then proceeded to bite his butt. I think he deserved it.
PRESIDIO OF MONTEREY, Calif. -- The COVID-19 pandemic has created many operational challenges for the military. However, service members, DoD civilians and military families across the globe have adapted to overcome the challenges to stay ready and support the whole-of-government response.
While many service members and DoD civilians who work at the Presidio of Monterey and Defense Language Institute are teleworking – essential employees report to work daily to carry on the mission. Employees are strictly following CDC and DoD guidance of social distancing and face coverings to protect themselves and those around them.
The health and safety of all employees, regardless if they are essential employees or teleworking, is the command’s highest priority.
Our service members and DoD civilians are committed to mission success and remain trained and ready to defend the nation.
Photo by Joseph Kumzak, Presidio of Monterey Public Affairs
St Baldricks Brevard at The Avenue Viera by commercial photographer Rich Johnson of Spectacle Photo. Dedicated to the St. Baldrick's Foundation Events on the Space Coast of FL and raising awareness for Childhood Cancer. The St. Baldrick's Foundation is a volunteer-driven charity committed to funding the most promising research to find cures for childhood cancers and give survivors long and healthy lives.
Photographs taken by Harry Skull Jr.
Remarks With Canadian Foreign Minister Cannon
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada
13 June, 2009
FOREIGN MINISTER CANNON: Canada and the United States have committed this morning to amending the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. This is important for both nations. These inland waters are the largest system of fresh water in the world, a foundation for billions of dollars in trade, shipping, agriculture, recreation, of course, and other sectors. The Government of Canada has taken significant efforts in the past three years to protect the Great Lakes, and today, this joint stewardship of the environment represents a cornerstone of the Canada-United States relationship. This aspect of our long history of collaboration will remain strong as we begin a second century of jointly managing our shared waters. The agreement has been a model of international cooperation and has achieved numerous successes.
However, as you know, the Great Lakes are still at risk and need more to be done. So we will be doing that together.
The Secretary of State and I also discussed the global economic downturn and the risks of protectionism, cooperation in the Americas, and Afghanistan, as well as Pakistan. Our country’s prosperity and security are inseparable from those of the United States. Americans, as you know, are our closest neighbors, allies, and trading partners.
(Via interpreter) Every day, there is trade to a value of $2 billion that cross our common border from Canada. And Canada is the first export market for 35 of 50 of the American states.
People are worried by a rising tide of protectionism developing in the United States in various circles, and our government is very concerned, in particular, about the negative impacts of Buy America legislation being felt on Canadian businesses. Now, Canada’s and the United State’s shared history demonstrated we can do great things. When we work together, we are able to, of course, serve our mutual interests. Now, this is crucial as we are engaged in emerging from this crisis, and we want to be able to emerge from this crisis stronger, better, and, of course, in a more prosperous manner.
Thank you. Merci.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you very much, Minister Cannon.
I’ve had a delightful morning here, and I want to thank my Canadian hosts, especially Foreign Minister Cannon, the members of the International Joint Commission, and the many distinguished colleagues from both sides of the border who have made this celebration so memorable.
We are celebrating, because the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Boundary Waters Treaty marks a recognition of a ground-breaking agreement, one of the first in the world to recognize the environmental consequences of managing our natural resources, ensuring clean drinking water, protecting the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River system, the Niagara Falls and Niagara River that are such magnificent treasures. So for me, it’s a particular delight both to have been back in Western New York; many friends from Niagara and Erie counties -- I just am delighted to see them, but also to be here in Canada, because Canada is such a trusted ally, a friend, a valued trading partner and a democratic model for the world.
This treaty, which we have celebrated, is not a static document. It’s a living instrument of our cooperation and partnership. It has provided an effective framework for the last 100 years, but now we have to take stock of where we are and how we’re going to be proceeding with confidence and effectiveness into the future. As we look at the strong foundation that this treaty has helped to establish between our countries, it’s truly remarkable: $1.6 billion in goods that flow across the border everyday, supporting millions of jobs; the world’s largest energy-trading relationship. I want to underscore that, because I’m not sure that enough Americans know, Minister Cannon, that you are our number one supplier of energy in the world, and we are grateful for that. We collaborate closely on citizen safety and defense, and, as both the Minister and I have noted, we have soldiers serving side-by-side together in Afghanistan to try to prevent the spread of terrorism and extremism.
So our common values are deeply rooted. But we have to work together even more closely. After this morning’s ceremony, the Minister and I had a chance to review some of our other important matters. Obviously, we discussed international and global concerns that we are both deeply engaged in, and we discussed our nation’s plan to revise and update the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement to protect the Great Lakes Basin for future generations. We reviewed our joint efforts in Afghanistan and elsewhere around the globe. We discussed the challenges in Pakistan, the Middle East, Iran, and elsewhere. We talked about our equal commitment to our own hemisphere, and I’m very grateful for the Canadian Government and the Minister’s particular emphasis on working with us in Haiti, working to strengthen our relationships with our neighbors to the south.
We also have been very focused on ensuring that nothing interferes with the trade between our countries. I deeply respect the Minister’s comments and his concerns, but as President Obama said, nothing in our legislation will interfere with our international trade obligations, including with Canada. But we want to take a hard look, and the Minister and I discussed this, as to what more we can do to ensure that the free flow of trade continues. We consider it to be in the interests of both of our countries and our people.
So as always, it’s great to be in Canada, and we deeply appreciate our close working relationship the Minister and I have forged over a relatively short period of time, and we look forward to continuing close collaboration and cooperation. Thank you very much.
QUESTION: (Off-mike).
SECRETARY CLINTON: We watched closely the enthusiasm and the very vigorous debate and dialogue that occurred in the lead-up to the Iranian elections. We are monitoring the situation as it unfolds in Iran.
But we, like the rest of the world, are waiting and watching to see what the Iranian people decide. The United States has refrained from commenting on the election in Iran. We obviously hope that the outcome reflects the genuine will and desire of the Iranian people.
FOREIGN MINISTER CANNON: For Canada, on behalf of Canada, Canada is deeply concerned by reports of voting irregularities in the Iranian election. We’re troubled by reports of intimidation of opposition candidate’s offices by security forces. We’ve tasked our embassy officials to – in Tehran to closely monitor the situation, and Canada is calling on Iranian authorities to conduct fair and transparent counting of all ballots.
(Via Interpreter) According to (inaudible) irregularities in the Iranian election, we are also deeply concerned with reports according to which there might have been intimidation, intimidation against opposition candidate’s offices, for instance; amongst them would be intimidation by security officials. I therefore asked our people in Tehran and officers in the Canadian embassy to follow the development very closely. And finally, we hope – we hope with a great deal of vigor that the counting of ballots be done transparently and that all the ballots that have been used during this election be indeed counted.
QUESTION: Madame Secretary, welcome to Canada.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you.
QUESTION: Canada’s government and many Canadian businesses have said that our economy and our bilateral relationship is being hurt by the Buy American policy. Secretary Clinton, why is it in there, and if you don’t call it protectionism, what is it? And to Minister Cannon, how deeply is this hurting Canada’s economy and our relationship with the United States?
SECRETARY CLINTON: Let me just reiterate that the provision is not being enforced in any way that is inconsistent with our international trade obligations. And we take that very seriously. Obviously, Canada is our number one trading partner. It is a mutually beneficial relationship that we intend to not only nurture, but see grow.
And I am well aware of the concerns that there may be elements of the international trade obligations or absences of agreements that should be looked at so that we can promote more procurement and other kinds of trade interactions. And I have assured Minister Cannon that we will take a very close look at that.
FOREIGN MINISTER CANNON: Thank you. On – I was able this morning to bring Secretary of State Clinton up-to-date, up-to-speed on the Prime Minister’s visit last week to – with Premier Charest, who, as you know, is the premier responsible for the Council of the Federation. This issue was discussed. As you know, the premiers have agreed to look at the procurement issue as being one of importance. My colleague, Minister Day, as well, did go and travel to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, so I was able to bring the Secretary of State to – up-to-speed on this issue, and at the same time, get assurances that we would look to find different options to make sure that what we already have built in terms of a solid foundation continue – can continue to flourish and to prevail.
So we still have work ahead of us, and we’re looking forward to doing that.
(Via interpreter) -- I had the opportunity to indicate to Secretary of State Clinton and bring her up-to-speed on the recent meeting with Premier Charest. Well, as the premiers, members of the Council of the Federation, Premier Charest being the chair, and the commitment from all premiers to look at the whole issue of procurement and public expenditures so that such expenditures be part and parcel of perhaps even an agreement with the Americans.
My colleague, Minister Stockwell Day, took the same undertaking with the Canadian Federation of Municipalities. So this enabled me to allude to these events with the Secretary of State, and also enabled me, by the same token, to look at what options might be open to us in upcoming months. As I mentioned a moment ago, there is a very solid basis upon which we can work; indeed, there are other issues to be worked on, but – and that we’ve always been able to reach an agreement with the Americans on a number of topics. I don’t think this impediment is a major one, and we will continue our dialogue.
QUESTION: (Off-mike)
SECRETARY CLINTON: First, let me say how gratified we were that the United Nations Security Council reached and agreement on a very strong resolution that contains not only new sanctions and the authorization for inspections of ships that may be carrying contraband or weapons of mass destruction or other dangerous technology from North Korea, but that the resolution represented a unified response to the provocative actions that have been taken by the North Koreans over the last several months.
This was a tremendous statement on behalf of the world community that North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and the capacity to deliver those weapons through missiles is not going to be accepted by the neighbors, as well as the greater international community. We intend to work with our partners, including Canada and others, to enforce the provisions of this resolution in a vigorous way, to send a clear message that we intend to do all we can to prevent continued proliferation by the North Koreas.
I will add, however, that the North Korean’s continuing provocative actions are deeply regrettable. They have now been denounced by everyone. They have become further isolated, and it is not in the interests of the people of North Korea for that kind of isolation to continue. So the Six-Party Framework, which the North Koreans left, turning their back on the obligations to continue with denuclearization, is still an open opportunity for them to return. And we are going to be consulting closely with our friends and allies, not only in Northeast Asia, but more generally, to determine a way forward in response to further actions.
But I think these sanctions and the authorizations included in this resolution give the world community the tools we need to take appropriate action against the North Korean regime.
FOREIGN MINISTER CANNON: Canada already, of course, abides by Resolution 1718 that was passed in 2006. And we’ve implemented that resolution and the binding sanctions, of course, that were introduced.
We as well are very – and we welcome the additional imposition of – by Resolution 1874. Canada, of course, is very, very pleased that the world community has come together in a united response at the (inaudible) to be able to signal to the international – to North Korea the international community’s determination that their recent conduct is inacceptable. So we’re very pleased by this Security Council resolution, as well.
We’re also pleased by the new resolution’s calls upon North Korea to return immediately to the Six-Party Talks and to demand, of course, that these talks that are extremely important in terms of nonproliferation and the use of nuclear weapons get going.
(Via interpreter) Canada, of course, is very much abiding by Resolution 1718 that was adopted in 2006, and we are very happy with that recent resolution, adopted by the UN Security Council. Canada will apply with determination all the provisions contained therein. For that matter, we’re delighted to see that the international community has sent a very clear signal to North Korea. And will add, by way of conclusion, that for our part, it’s important that the discussions amongst the six parties resume as quickly as possible, and we’re delighted that this resolution also calls upon the Government of North Korea to go back to the negotiating table, so that we might limit the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
QUESTION: (Off-mike).
SECRETARY CLINTON: I’m sorry, and what?
QUESTION: (Off-mike).
SECRETARY CLINTON: First, with respect to our shared border, there is certainly no argument that we each have to take additional security steps, given conditions in the world. I mean, I think we both regret those. We are sorry that we have to respond to them, but nevertheless, that is the reality. And we are doing everything we can in the Obama Administration to listen and work with our Canadian counterparts.
There have been several very productive discussions already between our Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, and her Canadian counterpart. Because we know that we want to maintain this extraordinary relationship that we have with the right amount of security to protect our citizens on both sides, without interfering in the free movement of goods and people that we value so greatly.
Sometimes we need to help each other really understand fully the challenges that we are each facing to make sure we achieve that common goal. I would still argue that although we do have law enforcement on our border in greater numbers than we did ten years ago, compared to a border that I know of anywhere, just about, in the world, this is a demilitarized, free, open border with appropriate law enforcement personnel and technology in the interest of protecting our two peoples.
So we will work very closely with the Canadian Government, and we will try to solve problems that have arisen between our governments in the past to make sure that we are doing what we need to do with security in a way that does not interfere with all of the other interests that we share.
We are both members of the Arctic Council. We, and Canada, with its very extensive presence on the Arctic waters, along with Russia, Norway, and -- Denmark, right? – are the members of the Arctic Council. We want to work closely together. We want to foresee issues and try to resolve them so that they don’t become problems. And we feel, as one of the five nations working with the others, that we have an opportunity here, and we intend to take this very seriously. Obviously, there are questions of sovereignty and jurisdiction that have to be acknowledged and respected, but what we don’t want is for the Arctic to become a free-for-all. If there is going to be greater maritime passageways through the Arctic, if there is going to be more exploration for natural resources, if there are going to be more security issues, I think it’s in the Canadian and the United States’ interests to try to get ahead of those, and try to make sure we know what we’re going to do to resolve them before countries that are not bordering the arctic are making claims, are behaving in ways that will cause us difficulties.
FOREIGN MINISTER CANNON: Let me respond by saying at the outset how very pleased I was one of the first initiatives that Secretary of State Clinton took on was to be able to host the Antarctica Joint Arctic Council Meeting in Washington a couple of months ago, which was, I think, a strong indication, once again, of our country’s commitment to not only this border here, but, of course, to our northern border. And what I can say on that is that there are no obstacles. We have been able to manage the issues as it should be between the two neighbors. We, of course, as a country, as well as the United States, Russia, and the other members of the Arctic Council, have agreed to abide by, of course, the United Nations Convention, the Law of the Seas, to go forward and do the mapping. We’ve been able to, as a Canadian Government, assume our responsibilities, assert our responsibilities in terms of sovereignty by our infrastructure programs.
So from that perspective, it’s going extraordinarily well, as well as, as Hillary Clinton just mentioned, Peter Van Loan, who, as you know, is our minister responsible for – I was going to say homeland security, but for border crossings and has worked extremely well with the Secretary of State, Secretary Napolitano, over the course of the last several weeks. They’ve established a working relationship, which I feel is something that is extraordinarily good in terms of moving forward. And so I’d say that on that front as well, things are going very, very well.
(Via interpreter) Briefly, I would say this: I congratulated Secretary of State Clinton for the initiative she took at the very outset of her mandate, and by convening in Washington a joint meeting between the Arctic Council and the Antarctica Council. At that time, we were able to examine a variety of subjects that arise in the extremities of the globe. And as I mentioned, we were – we have always been able to manage our difficulties in a very positive, healthy manner. That is what exists in the arctic part of our country.
We are members of the Arctic Council with three other countries. We are committed into various provisions of the UN Convention on the Law of the Seas. We have also noted, with a great deal of satisfaction and interest, the work that is being done by Minister Peter Van Loan, who is the minister responsible for public safety here in Canada, as well as with the American Secretary for Homeland Security, Mrs. Napolitano, to deal with issues that arise in common to both our countries. In that regard, many steps are being taken. So we’re very happy with the progress that has been made.
And I will tell you, by way of conclusion, that the relationship between Canada and the U.S. again continues to shine, and it is a real breath of fresh air and a ray of sunshine for many countries in the world when we want to see how borders should be managed and the relationship between two countries. We are great, great friends.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you. Thank you all.
FOREIGN MINISTER CANNON: Thank you. Merci.
Copyright held by: Pickering And Inglis, 24-26 Bothwell Street, Glasgow, Lanarkshire G2 6PA
THE ANTICHRIST IS NERO RESURRECTED
Nero (Nero Claudius Caesar) Caesar - October 16, 54 - June 9, 68
Nero burned up the city, blaming Christians, because every time he would kill a bunch of Christians more would surface, so right before he committed suicide he admitted that he set fire to city in frustration.
What if the reason you don’t think Nero is the Antichrist is because your conscience is not attuned to it? You may treat the Antichrist as not an individual, but allegorically or as some organization, and thus, be deceived into taking the mark of the beast and being fooled by this man who is a pretext for war.
Nero was the worse human being in history. He was the first to really go after the Church in the Neronian persecutions. Compared to Domitian, it is like night and day. Nero was last of the Julio-Claudians. He was not only the sixth emperor of Rome, he was the first to persecute Christians so overtly. For the purposes of Revelation though he is considered the 5th. Domitian is the 6th at the time of John writing Revelation. "Five are fallen, and one is, the other is not yet come" (Rev. 17.10). Nero is not the 6th mentioned in Revelation 17 because Claudius adopted the name of Julius Caesar and was himself also adopted by Julius Caesar.
Emperor Augustus of Rome was born with the given name Gaius Octavius on September 23, 63 B.C. He took the name Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus (Octavian) in 44 B.C. after the murder of his great uncle, Julius Caesar. In his will, Caesar had adopted Octavian and made him his heir.
The persecution began in the middle of November 64 A.D. and continued until June 8, 68 A.D. when Nero committed suicide, a period of 42 months. This where we get our 1260 days from in Revelation which point to the coming period of end time events. This last week of 7 years is separated from the 69 weeks in Daniel's prophecy. The 69 weeks pointed to the time when the Messiah would come and atone for sins. A great span of time separates the 69 weeks and the 70th week because Israel rejected their Messiah and the gospel of salvation is given to all the nations, not just Israel.
The fact that Nero killed by the sword is well documented. Paul, for example, is said to have died under Nero by decapitation with a sword. Tertullian credits “Nero’s cruel sword” as providing the martyr’s blood as seed for the Church. He urges his readers to “Consult your histories; you will there find that Nero was the first who assailed with the imperial sword the Christian sect.”
The number of a man who is the Antichrist is 666. This takes wisdom to understand (Rev. 13.18). See how this calculation points to Nero. By all means, study the information on preterist sites, but make sure you check your sources. They make the grave error of concealing who the Antichrist will be by denying his future existence and who he is going to be like (Nero) so as to be deceived by him and take the mark of the beast. Preterists claim the 1000 years has already happened or partial preterists will say it is happening now. But Revelation 20.3 says, "Satan could not deceive the nations anymore until the thousand years were finished." The nations still war and we hear rumors of wars.
History records that Nero took his own life with the sword. Roman historian Suetonius describes Nero’s death: “Then with the help of his secretary, Epaphroditus, he stabbed himself in the throat.”
It is interesting, from a historical perspective, that Nero was actually referred to as a “beast” by his contemporaries. For instance, the pagan writer Apollinius of Tyana, who lived at the time of Nero, states: “In my travels, which have been wider than ever man yet accomplished, I have seen many wild beasts of Arabia and India; but this beast, that is commonly called a Tyrant, I know not how many heads it has, nor if it be crooked of claw, and armed with horrible fangs.... And of wild beasts you cannot say that they were ever known to eat their own mother, but Nero gorged himself on this diet.”
Nero ruthlessly murdered his parents, his brother, his pregnant wife (whom he kicked to death) and other family members. He was a homosexual, who found sexual gratification in watching torture. He enjoyed dressing up as a wild beast and raping male and female prisoners. He illuminated his garden parties with the bodies of Christians, covered with pitch and set aflame.
Roman historian Tacitus (56-117 A.D.) spoke of Nero’s “cruel nature” that “put to death so many innocent men.” Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder (23-79 A.D.) described Nero as "the destroyer of the human race” and ”the poison of the world.”Roman satirist Juvenal (60-140 A.D.) speaks of “Nero’s cruel and bloody tyranny.” Suetonius (70-160 A.D.), speaks of Nero’s “cruelty of disposition” evidencing itself at an early age. He documents Nero’s evil and states: “neither discrimination or moderation [were employed] in putting to death whosoever he pleased on any pretext whatever.” When Nero committed suicide on June 8, 68 A.D., two major inter-related historical situations faced the world. Both carried with them catastrophic consequences.
First, with the death of Nero, the Julian-Claudian line of emperors came to an end. In other words, the blood line which had received worship from the Roman Empire had been cut off forever. To the superstitious, pagan world this was most significant. This was no small matter to the subjects of the Roman Empire.
Second, catastrophe upon catastrophe followed the death of Nero and the extinction of the Roman Empire’s founding family. The empire found itself engulfed in civil wars, to the extent that “eternal Rome” was endanger of being reduced to rubble.
Josephus writes concerning these civil wars: “I have omitted to give an exact account of them, because they are well known by all, and they are described by a great number of Greek and Roman authors.”
Tacitus writes: “The history on which I am entering is that of a period rich in disasters, terrible with battles, torn by civil struggles, horrible even in peace. Four emperors failed by the sword; there were three civil wars, more foreign wars and often both at the same time.... In Rome there was more awful cruelty.... Besides the manifold misfortunes that befell mankind, there were prodigies in the sky and on the earth, warnings given by thunderbolts, and prophecies of the future, both joyful and gloomy, uncertain and clear. For never was it more fully proved by awful disasters of the Roman people or by indubitable signs that gods care not for our safety, but for our punishment.”
Suetonius wrote, concerning the long months following Nero’s death, that the empire “for a longtime had been unsettled, and as it were, drifting, through the usurpation and violent death of the three emperors, was at last taken in hand and given stability by the Flavian family.”
Titus Flavius Vespasianus restored political stability and established a new dynasty of the Roman Empire. Under the rule of Vespasian the empire was revived and the Beast lived once more.
The relevant verses in Revelation regarding the death and revivification of the Beast are most readily understood from the earth-shaking historical events after the suicide of Nero in 68 A.D. Not only will the person of Antichrist be revealed but so will the revived Roman empire.
Did you know that Nero was the great Grandson of Claudius and Claudius was adopted by Julius Caesar and Claudius changed his name to Julius Caesar. Rev. 13.18 is asking for your wisdom to see underneath.
Don’t think in terms of mass persecutions, think in terms of killing your own family members. That is highly evil beyond belief. Evil does not need to be wide open. It can be sitting right there in the heart of one man killing his own family members, my God!
Nero was much worse than Domitian. Tertullian said Domitian also cruel like Nero often ceased from his attempts. Banishment (as in John) is his more likely avenue whereas Nero would just put you to death.
Domitian was the 6th, the one “who is”. Hitler was not Nero. Antichrist will be far worse than Hitler, instead Nero who will kill his own family for God sakes!!
The possible negative consequences of this is that in not recognizing the difference in nature of Nero to other forms of evil men, you may confuse the Antichrist to be more like certain men in history as opposed to the real Antichrist nature of Nero.
A.D. 37-68, Roman emperor (A.D. 54-68), the son of Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus and Agrippina II, who was the great-granddaughter of Augustus. Agrippina married (A.D. 49) Claudius I and persuaded him to adopt Nero. In A.D. 55, Agrippina saw that she was losing control of Nero and intrigued in favor of Claudius' son, Britannicus, but Nero poisoned the boy. Poppaea Sabina became Nero's mistress, and according to rumor she was to blame for the worst of his behavior. In A.D. 59 he murdered his mother and in A.D. 62 his wife Octavia; he later married Poppaea. When half of Rome was burned in a fire (A.D. 64), Nero accused the Christians of starting it and began the first Roman persecution. In A.D. 65 there was a plot to make Caius Calpurnius Piso emperor. The detection of this plot began a string of violent deaths, e.g., of Seneca, Lucan, and Thrasea Paetus. Nero had ambitions to be a poet and artist. Revolts in A.D. 68 caused him to commit suicide. Among his last words were, What an artist the world is losing in me!
A.D. 37-68, Roman emperor (A.D. 54-68), the son of Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus and Agrippina II, who was the great-granddaughter of Augustus. Agrippina married (A.D. 49) Claudius I and persuaded him to adopt Nero. In A.D. 55, Agrippina saw that she was losing control of Nero and intrigued in favor of Claudius' son, Britannicus, but Nero poisoned the boy. Poppaea Sabina became Nero's mistress, and according to rumor she was to blame for the worst of his behavior. In A.D. 59 he murdered his mother and in A.D. 62 his wife Octavia; he later married Poppaea. When half of Rome was burned in a fire (A.D. 64), Nero accused the Christians of starting it and began the first Roman persecution. In A.D. 65 there was a plot to make Caius Calpurnius Piso emperor. The detection of this plot began a string of violent deaths, e.g., of Seneca, Lucan, and Thrasea Paetus. Nero had ambitions to be a poet and artist. Revolts in A.D. 68 caused him to commit suicide. Among his last words were, What an artist the world is losing in me!
Ascension of Isaiah (mid-second century)
"Beliar (Nero). . . shall descend . . . in the form of a man, a lawless king, a slayer of his mother, who . . . will persecute the plant which the Twelve Apostles of the Beloved have planted. . . . He will act and speak in the name of the Beloved and say ‘I am God and before me there has been none else.’ And all the people in the world will believe in him, and will sacrifice to him. " (Ascension of Isaiah, 41 Ill)
Apollonius of Tyana (b. 4 B.C.)
"commonly called a Tyrant": "In my travels, which have been wider than ever man yet accomplished, I have seen many, many wild beasts of Arabia and India; but this beast, that is commonly called a Tyrant, I know not how many heads it has, nor if it be crooked of claw, and armed with horrible fangs. . . . And of wild beasts you cannot say that they were ever known to eat their own mothers, but Nero has gorged himself on this diet." (Philostratus, Life of Apollonius 38. Cited in John A. T Robinson, Redating the New Testament (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1976), p. 235, from J. S. Phillimore (Oxford, 1912) 2:38.)
Augustine (4th Century)
"What means the declaration, that the mystery of iniquity already works?... Some suppose this to be spoken of the Roman emperor, and therefore Paul did not speak in plain words, because he would not incur the charge of calumny for having spoken evil of the Roman emperor: although he always expected that what he had said would be understood as applying to Nero." (quoted by Stuart in Apocalypse)
Clement of Alexandria (2nd Century)
"We have still to add to our chronology the following, -- I mean the days which Daniel indicates from the desolation of Jerusalem, the seven years and seven months of the reign of Vespasian. For the two years are added to the seventeen months and eighteen days of Otho, and Galba, and Vitellius; and the result is three years and six months, which is "the half of the week," as Daniel the prophet said. For he said that there were two thousand three hundred days from the time that the abomination of Nero stood in the holy city, till its destruction. For thus the declaration, which is subjoined, shows: "How long shall be the vision, the sacrifice taken away, the abomination of desolation, which is given, and the power and the holy place shall be trodden under foot? And he said to him, Till the evening and morning, two thousand three hundred days, and the holy place shall be taken away."
"These two thousand three hundred days, then, make six years four months, during the half of which Nero held sway, and it was half a week; and for a half, Vespasian with Otho, Galba, and Vitellius reigned. And on this account Daniel says, "Blessed is he that cometh to the thousand three hundred and thirty-five days." For up to these days was war, and after them it ceased. And this number is demonstrated from a subsequent chapter, which is as follows: "And from the time of the change of continuation, and of the giving of the abomination of desolation, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and thirty-five days." " (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 2, p. 334)
F.W. Farrar (1882)
"all the earliest Christian writers on the Apocalypse, from Irenaeus down to Victorious of Pettau and Commodian in the fourth, and Andreas in the fifth, and St. Beatus in the eighth century, connect Nero, or some Roman emperor, with the Apocalyptic Beast ." (p.541)
"the clue is preserved for us, not only by Jewish Talmudists, and Pagan historians and authors, such as Tacitus, Suetonius, Dion Cassius, and Dion Chrysostom; but also by Christian fathers like St. Irenaeus, Lactantius, St. Victorinus, Sulpicius Severus, and the Sibylline books, and even by St. Jerome, and by St. Augustine. Nothing can prove more decisively than these references that for four centuries many Christians identified Nero with the Beast."
Joel P. Green
"How would John's first readers have understood these images? Already in New Testament times, the emperor of Rome was increasingly seen not only as an agent of the gods, but as a god himself. For many, the emperor was the deity who guaranteed sustenance and fulfillment in life. Thus he was to be worshiped as a god. This state of affairs constituted no small problem for Christians, who gave their highest allegiance to their Lord and who looked to him, not to the Roman emperor, for daily provision. As this imperial religion developed further, the state would harass Christians more and more, pressing them to renounce Christ in favor of emperor worship. In such a context, the beast from the sea would have symbolized the deified emperor. His counterpart from the earth would have represented those persons - priests, philosophers, and the like - who promoted the imperial religion." (How to Read Prophecy, 76-77)
"this is a political antichrist, the Roman emperor demanding divine adoration. In claiming for himself the title Lord the emperor became for Christians a rival Christ, an antichrist." (How to Read Prophecy, 108)
Jewish Sibylline Oracles (Written "Sometime after A.D.70")
"Then Beliar will come from the Sebastinoi [i.e., the line of Augustus] and he will raise up the height of mountains, he will raise up the sea, the great fiery sun and shining moon, and he will raise up the dead. . . . But he will, indeed, also lead men astray, and he will lead astray many faithful, chosen Hebrews, and also other lawless men who have not yet listened to the word of God. (Sibylline Oracles 3:63-70; OTP 1:363.)
"One who has fifty as an initial will be commander, a terrible snake, breathing out grievous war, who one day will lay hands on his own family and slay them, and throw every-thing into confusion, athlete, charioteer, murderer, one who dares ten thousand things. He will also cut the mountain between two seas and defile it with gore. But even when he disappears he will be destructive. Then he will return declaring himself equal to God. But he will prove that he is not. Three princes after him will perish at each other’s hands." (.5:28-35; OTP 1:393.)
"a savage-minded man, much-bloodied, raving nonsense, with a full host numerous as sand, to bring destruction on you." (5:96; OTP 1:395.)
"a terrible and shameless prince whom all mortals and noble men despise. For he destroyed many men and laid hands on the womb. (5:143- 145; OTP 1:396.)
"There will come to pass in the last time about the waning of the moon a war which will throw the world into confusion and be deceptive in guile. A man who is a matricide will come from the ends of the earth in flight and devising penetrating schemes in his mind. He will destroy every land and conquer all and consider all things more wisely than all men. He will immediately seize the one because of whom he himself perished. He will destroy many men and great rulers, and he will set fire to all men as no one else ever did. Through zeal he will raise up those who were crouched in fear. There will come upon men a great war from the West. Blood will flow up to the band of deep-eddying rivers. Wrath will drip in the plains of Macedonia, an alliance to the people horn the West, but destruction for the king." (Oracles 5:361-374; OTP 1:401-402.)
"making himself equal to God." (12:79, 81, 86; OTP 14-47.)
Dr. James Kennedy, Jerry Newcomb
"He had received the finest of pagan philosophical educations, and yet he degenerated into one of the worst conceivable men. He visited brothels, frequently in disguise. He practised, as one historian says, "lewdness on boys... striking, wounding, mudering." He took a mistress. He wanted to have an affair with her and his wife objected. What do you do in a case like that? Well, it should be obvious to any and all: you simply kill your wife! - Which is what he did. But his mother objected. So he killed his mother. But he wasn't completely without feeling. In fact, when he looked down on her corpse at her funeral he said, "I did not know I had so beautiful a mother."
And so he married his mistress. Then one day she made the sad mistake of nagging him because he came home late from the races. She was in the latter stages of pregnancy. Nero kicked her in the stomach, killing both her and the child. Keep in mind, this was the ruler of the world at that time!" (What if Jesus Had Never Been Born?, 160)
Pate, Haynes
“Nero’s infamous character merits the title of “beast applied to him by the seer of the Apocalypse (v.1). Revelation 13:1-6 gives the generic background of the beast, which is the roman empire of the first century, The seven heads correspond to the seven hills of Rome, while the ten horns allude to the Caesars of the first century, however one may number them (v.1). The blasphemous worship demanded by the beast distinctly reminds one of the imperial cult of the first century, and the war the beast wages on the saints cannot help but recall the intense persecutions Nero, and later Domitian, inflicted on Christians because they did not worship Caesar. Nero’s persecution of Christians from November AD 64 to June AD 68 could account, in part, for the forty-two months (or 3 ½ years) of oppression mentioned in Rev. 13:5. The reference in Revelation 13:11-15 to the beast of the land securing worship for the beast from the sea (Rome was across the sea from the place of the writing of the Apocalypse, Asia Minor) reminds one of the local priests of the imperial cult in Asia Minor whose task was to compel the people to offer a sacrifice to Caesar and proclaim him Lord. Megalomaniac that he was, Nero had coins minted in which he was called “almighty God” and “Savior.” Nero’s portrait also appears on coins as the god Apollo playing a lyre. While earlier emperors were proclaimed deities upon their deaths, Nero abandons all reserve and demanded divine honors while still alive (as did also Caligula before him, AD 37-41). Those who worshipped the emperor received a certificate or mark of approval – charagma, the same word used in Revelation 13:16. Furthermore, in the reign of Emperor Decius (AD 249-251), those who did not possess the certificate of sacrifice to Caesar couldn not pursue trades, a prohibition that conceivably goes back to Nero, reminding one of Revelation 13:17” (C Martin Pate and Calvin B. Haynes, Doomsday Delusions, 41-42)
Orosius, Paulus (early fifth century)
"he (Nero, by context) was the first at Rome to torture and inflict the penalty of death upon Christians, and he ordered them throughout all the provinces to be afllicted with like persecution; and in his attempt to wipe out the very name, he killed the most blessed apostles of Christ, Peter and Paul." (The Seven Books of History Against the Pagans 7:7.)
Pliny the Elder (contemporary of Nero; died in the eruption of Vesuvius in A.D. 79)
"Marcus Agrippa is said to have been born in this manner [i.e., breech position], almost the solitary instance of a successful career among all those so born – although he too is deemed to have paid the penalty which his irregular birth foretold, by a youth made unhappy by lameness, a lifetime passed amidst watiare and ever exposed to the approach of death, by the misfortune caused to the world by his whole progeny but especially due to his two daughters who became the mothers of the emperors Gaius Caligula and Domitius Nero, the two firebrands of mankind. . . . Nero also, who was emperor shortly before and whose entire rule showed him the enemy of mankind." (Pliny, Natural History 7:45.)
Ernest Renan (1873)
"THE period covered by the present volume is, after the three or four years of the public life of Jesus, the most extraordinary in the entire development of Christianity. Here, by a singular touch of the great unconscious Artist who appears to rule in the seeming caprice of historic evolution, we shall see Jesus and Nero - Christ and Antichrist - set, as it were, in contrast, face to face, like heaven and hell. The Christian consciousness is now full-grown. Hitherto it has known little else than the law of love: Jewish intolerance, though harsh, could not fret away the bond of grateful attachment cherished in the heart of the infant Church for her mother the Synagogue, from whom she is still hardly sundered. Now at length the Christian has before him an object of hate and terror. Over against the memory of Jesus rises a monstrous form, the ideal of evil, as He had been the ideal of holiness. Held in reserve, -like Enoch or Elias, to play his part in the last great tragedy of the world, Nero completes the cycle of Christian mythology: he inspires the first sacred book of the new canon; by a frightful massacre he lays the corner-stone of Romish primacy, and opens the way to that revolution which is to make of Rome a second Jerusalem, a holy city. At the same time, by a mysterious coincidence not infrequent in great crises of human destiny, Jerusalem is overthrown; the Temple disappears; Christianity, disburdened of a restraint already painful and advancing to a broadening freedom, follows out its own destinies apart from conquered Judaism. " (Antichrist, Intro.)
Philip Schaff (1877)
"the Neronian persecution [was] the most cruel that ever occurred" (History of the Christian Church, 8 vols. [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, (1910) 1950] 1 :386).
"Nero's mother, Agrippina the younger, daughter of Germanicus and of Agrippina the elder, was assassinated at Nero's command in 60 a.d. in her villa on Lake Lucrine, after an unsuccessful attempt to drown her in a boat so constructed as to break to pieces while she was sailing in it on the lake. His younger brother Britannicus was poisoned by his order at a banquet in 55 a.d. His first wife Octavia was divorced in order that he might marry Poppaea, the wife of his friend Otho, and was afterward put to death. Poppaea herself died from the effects of a kick given her by Nero while she was with child." (footnote to Eusebius, #291)
"We learn from Tacitus, Ann. XV. 39, that Nero was suspected to be the author of the great Roman conflagration, which took place in 64 a.d. (Pliny, H. N. XVII. I, Suetonius, 38, and Dion Cassius LXII. 18, state directly that he was the author of it), and that to avert this suspicion from himself he accused the Christians of the deed, and the terrible Neronian persecution which Tacitus describes so fully was the result. Gibbon, and in recent times especially Schiller (Geschichte der Römischen Kaiserzeit unter der Regierung des Nero, p. 584 sqq.), have maintained that Tacitus was mistaken in calling this a persecution of Christians, which was rather a persecution of the Jews as a whole. But we have no reason for impeaching Tacitus' accuracy in this case, especially since we remember that the Jews enjoyed favor with Nero through his wife Poppaea. What is very significant, Josephus is entirely silent in regard to a persecution of his countrymen under Nero. We may assume as probable (with Ewald and Renan) that it was through the suggestion of the Jews that Nero's attention was drawn to the Christians, and he was led to throw the guilt upon them, as a people whose habits would best give countenance to such a suspicion, and most easily excite the rage of the populace against them. This was not a persecution of the Christians in the strict sense, that is, it was not aimed against their religion as such; and yet it assumed such proportions and was attended with such horrors that it always lived in the memory of the Church as the first and one of the most awful of a long line of persecutions instituted against them by imperial Rome, and it revealed to them the essential conflict which existed between Rome as it then was and Christianity." (footnote to Eusebius, #307)
Sulpicius Severus (403)
"As to Nero, I shall not say that he was the worst of kings, but that he was worthily held the basest of all men, and even of wild beasts. It was he who first began a persecution; and I am not sure but hew will be the last also to carry it on, if, indeed, we admit, as many are inclined to believe, that he will yet appear immediately before the coming of Antichrist. Our subject would induce me to set forth his vices at some length, if it were not inconsistent with the purpose of this work to enter upon so vast a topic. I content myself with the remark, that he showed himself in every way most abominable and cruel, and at length even went so far as to be the murderer of his own mother. After this, he also married a certain Pythagoras in the style of solemn alliances, the bridal veil being put upon the emperor, while the usual dowry, and the marriage couch, and wedding torches, and, in short, all the other observances were forthcoming--things which even in the ease of women, are not looked upon without some feeling of modesty. But as to his other actions, I doubt whether the description of them would excite greater shame or sorrow. He first attempted to abolish the name of Christian, in accordance with the fact that vices are always inimical to virtues, and that all good men are ever regarded by the wicked as casting reproach upon them. For, at that time, our divine religion had obtained a wide prevalence in the city. Peter was there executing the office of bishop, and Paul, too, after he had been brought to Rome, on appealing to Caesar from the unjust judgment of the governor. Multitudes then came together to hear Paul, and these, influenced by the truth which they were given to know, and by the miracles(1) of the apostles, which they then so frequently performed, turned to the worship of God. For then took place the well-known and celebrated encounter of Peter and Paul with Simon.(2) He, after he had flown up into the air by his magical arts, and supported by two demons (with the view of proving that he was a god), the demons being put to flight by the prayers of the apostles, fell to the earth in the sight of all the people, and was dashed to pieces. " (Section XXVIII)
Moses Stuart (1836)
"The idea that Nero was the man of sin mentioned by Paul, and the Antichrist spoken of so often in the epistles of St. John, prevailed extensively and for a long time in the early church.."
"Augustine says: What means the declaration, that the mystery of iniquity already works?... Some suppose this to be spoken of the Roman emperor, and therefore Paul did not speak in plain words, because he would not incur the charge of calumny for having spoken evil of the Roman emperor: although he always expected that what he had said would be understood as applying to Nero." (Excurs. iii.)
Tacitus
"inflicted unheard-of punishments on those who . . . were vulgarly called Christians" (Tacitus, Annals 15:44). Suetonius praises Nero for the persecution of Christians, but mentions no Domitianic persecution (Nero 16).
Merrill C. Tenney (1965)
"Having exhausted the imperial treasury by his heedless expenditures, he looked for some method of replenishing it. Heavy taxation of the estates of childless couples, false accusations followed by confiscation of wealth, and outright murder of the aristocracy or else invitation to suicide made life unbearable. Wealthy men lived in dread of the emperor’s displeasure, and so great was the terror that the senatorial class endured unimaginable insults and mistreatment as the price of staying alive. Men betrayed their best ftiends, perjured themselves, and stooped to any infamy to aver the emperor’s hatred or cupidity." (New Testament Times (Chicago: Moody, 1965, p. 289).
Conclusion
The view I have espoused here may, in all likelihood, run contrary to what you have been previously taught. My encouragement to you, would be to examine this teaching in light of the Scriptures. Bearing in mind John’s original audience (Rev. 1:4,11), his call for their careful consideration (Rev. 1:3; 13:9), and his contemporary expectation (Rev. 1:1, 3).
David Chilton in his book, Days of Vengeance, makes this comment:
“It is significant that ‘all the earliest Christian writers on the Apocalypse, from Irenaeus down to Victorinus of Pettau and Commodian in the fourth, and Andreas in the fifth, and St. Beatus in the eighth century, connect Nero, or some Roman emperor, with the Apocalyptic Beast’. There should be no reasonable doubt about this identification. St. John was writing to first-century Christians, warning them of things that were “shortly” to take place. They were engaged in the most crucial battle of history, against the Dragon and the evil Empire which he possessed. The purpose of the Revelation was to comfort the Church with the assurance that God was in control, so that even the awesome might of the Dragon and the Beast would not stand before the armies of Jesus Christ.”
You can talk the talk, but can you walk the walk? Ben drilled that our heads this year at Overflow. (Thanks bro, you were a great teacher this year! haha)
Overflow videos here: www.youtube.com/user/OverflowRetreat
(Huge shout-outs to Kyung/Jungmin & the rest of the media team for doing an UH-MAZING job!)
So yeah.. def just tryna talk that talk, and walk that walk. Nah mean?? Truly tryna live as a follower of Jesus Christ.
My prayer is that He changes me more and everyday, and gives me a heart like His, so I can reflect His light.
"Everlasting... Your light will shine when all else fades" www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-afZJ9_TIM
Thanks Christal for snapping this pic!
~
Canon EOS REBEL T1i
Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II
~
Editing: Cross processing
~
Have a blessed night! Sweet dreams & all that good stuff ^__^
That's what it says, 20 years of it.
The Eastern Idaho Railroad has it's maintenance shop in the centre of Rupert ID. They must have known I was coming, they left something out for me to phot.
This is #4040, an EMD GP40-3 owned by Webb Asset Management and carrying a special version of the Eastern Idaho's colours to celebrate it's 20th anniversary, which was actually in 2013. The locomotive celebrates it's 50th birthday this month having entered service with the Penn Central in September 1968.
The Eastern Idaho has over 350 miles of trackage which was sold off by the Union Pacific, although UP power can still be seen in Rupert as they bring traffic in for the EI system.
6 September 2018
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) has today raised the rainbow flag in support of IDAHOT 2015 (International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia).
The Force’s participation in the annual event marks its support for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGB&T) communities in Greater Manchester and across the world.
IDAHOT is held on 17 May each year to commemorate the day in 1990 that the World Health Organisation declassified homosexuality as a mental disorder.
Rainbow flags will be raised across the Force, with some officers donning rainbow laces to show their support.
Chief Constable Sir Peter Fahy said: “Our differences are what makes us stronger and everybody has the right to go about their daily business without the fear of hatred and abuse.
“GMP is proud to support IDAHOT to highlight the importance of treating everyone with respect and show our LGB&T communities that we take their concerns very seriously and are committed to tackling action against any form of hate crime committed against them.
“I would encourage anyone who is a victim of homophobic or transphobic abuse to report the matter immediately. We are committed to taking robust action against hate crime so we can help bring an end to homophobia and transphobia.”
GMP’s ‘police with pride’ rainbow car, which launched last year, is used to promote gay and transgender communities.
To report a hate crime call GMP on 101 or 999 in emergencies. You can report a hate crime or a hate incident online, visit www.report-it.org.uk or use the True Vision app.
Alternatively call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 to report any information you might have about crime anonymously.