[Buddha-l] on anicca, Omar Khayyam style

[Jo]

Chris, thanks for reminding us of Berzin. His pages are always worth re-reading.

Speaking of Nishapur: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/nish/hd_nish.htm 

.............The evidence from the excavations also revealed much about the development of architectural decoration in northeastern Iran. Walls in residences and public buildings throughout Nishapur were decorated in many different ways, from frescoes to carved and painted stucco, terracotta panels to glazed ceramic tiles. The range of imagery was also wide, including geometric and vegetal patterns, calligraphy, figures, and animals. The refined tradition of wall painting shows links with the earlier history of the region, such as Buddhist paintings in Central Asia and Sasanian paintings in Iran.........

Joanna

-----------------------------

On Behalf Of Christopher Fynn
Sent: Friday, February 17, 2012 2:02 AM


Buddhism & Persian poetry:

"The many Buddhist references in the Persian literature of the period also provide evidence of this Islamic-Buddhist cultural contact.
Persian poetry, for example, often used the simile for palaces that they were “as beautiful as a Nowbahar (Nava Vihara).” Further, at Nava Vihara and Bamiyan, Buddha images, particularly of Maitreya, the future Buddha, had moon discs behind their heads. This led to the poetic depiction of pure beauty as someone having “the moon-shaped face of a Buddha.” Thus, eleventh-century Persian poems, such as Varqe and Golshah by Ayyuqi, use the word bot with a positive connotation for “Buddha,” not with its second, derogatory meaning as “idol.” It implies the ideal of asexual beauty in both men and women. Such references indicate that either Buddhist monasteries and images were present in these Iranian cultural areas at least through the early Mongol period in the thirteenth century or, at minimum, that a strong Buddhist legacy remained for centuries among the Buddhist converts there to Islam"


<http://www.berzinarchives.com/web/en/archives/study/history_buddhism/buddhism_central_asia/history_afghanistan_buddhism.html>



On 12/02/2012, Jo <jkirk at spro.net> wrote:


> Even though I am so precious
>And beautiful, like a crystal, or a tulip,
> Or a pine tree so green and tall--
> I cannot understand why the creator
> Made me so precious, yet
>After all that work, the potter breaks me down
>And finishes me off.
>
> (The term potter translates literally as 'jug maker')
>
> (I guess if one imbibes the way Omar did, one does tend to
>overrate one's beauty. But language aside, he knew we are
>all self-attached. This reminds me of the oft-stated Tibetan
>Buddhist phrase, a human life is precious.)
>Edited, so to speak, from a translation of the original by an
>Iranian friend.
>
> Joanna