“The Falang Corner”Palayāloka Sangha

Talks on Buddhism by Buddy Landry

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These talks draw on mainstream historical, linguistic, archeological and anthropological sources to present a very abbreviated non-mythological account of how the Buddhist religion arose.

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Before the Buddha Part 1: India

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I The Birth of India

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• India and Asia were originally separate land masses.

• India moved north and collided with Asia some 10 million years ago.

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• The Indian plate slipped under the Asian plate, which is known as subduction.

• The Himalaya and Hindu Kush mountains are an ongoing result of this collision.

• The Tibetan Plateau is being raised by the underlying Indian Plate.

• A trench formed where India dipped down under Eurasia.

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• Runoff from the mountains deposited soil in the lowered area over geological time.

• The depressions filled, forming marshlands and later consolidated into two great rivers with many tributaries: the Indus and the Ganges.

• The Ganges runs nearly due east through northwest India, Nepal, and Bangladesh to empty into the Bay of Bengal.

• The Ganges River system is the cradle of Hindu civilization.

• The Buddha lived, taught, and died there.

Hindu K

ush

Mou

ntains

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Ganges River

Indus River

Punjab Region

• Northwest of the Ganges Plain and due north of the Indus river is the Punjab (“Five Rivers”) region.

• To the west of the Punjab is the Khyber Pass thru the Hindu Kush Mountains.

• The Khyber Pass is the easiest way into India from Central Asia.

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Himalaya Mountains

Khyber#Pass

• Southwest of the Gangetic Plain is the Aravalli hill region

• South of the Ganges Plain, the Vindhya and Satpura Mountain ranges separate the Ganges River Valley in the north and the Deccan in the south.

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#• The center of India is the

Deccan Plateau, which is relatively dry, but not a desert.

• The East and West Ghats are inland mountain ranges.

• Off the southeast tip of the east coast is the island of Sri Lanka (Ceylon).

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Next: #

The Indus Valley Civilization

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