--- Bhante Sujato <sujato@...> wrote:

> >
> > 3) If the Lord Buddha was born in Nepal, which
> they say has four
> > seasons, why did the Lord Buddha speak of three
> seasons?
>
> The Buddha was born on the Nepalese/Indian border

The *present* Nepalese/Indian border, of course; the
political map looked otherwise at that time.

> i
> don't know how
> many seasons they have there (it is far south of
> Kathmandu). But the
> Vinaya was established when the Buddha was living
> farther South,
> where they definitely have three seasons.

Well, the story about prince Siddhattha´s three
palaces seems to be related to three seasons; but
climate can change a lot in 2500 years. In Northern
Europe, it probably got worse just about that time
(end of Bronze Age and beginning of Iron Age), and I
suppose there might have been changes in South Asia as
well.

> > 4) In short, what proof is there that tells us
> beyond doubt that
> all
> > of this what we are talking about really took
> place in India, and
> > not Thailand?
>
> Obviously, the overwhelming evidence of all the
> texts, reinforced in
> essentials by vast quantities of archeological
> remains of Buddhism,
> dating a thousand years or more before anything is
> found in Thailand.

Besides, the term "Thailand" is rather anacronistic in
this connection; if the present historians are right,
the Thai people migrated from China to Siam about a
thousand years ago, i. e. 1500 after the time of the
Buddha. Perhaps it was at that time "Monland", or
something else (I don't remember if even the Mon
kingdom came later).

> > 1) they say there are no Bodhi trees in India
> (anyone ever been to
> > India?)
>
> Complete rubbish. Bodhi trees may be seen commonly
> along the side of
> the road throughout northern India, at least, where
> they are often
> made into shrines. Proof of the antiquity of this
> custom is found in
> the Indus valley seals, which clearly depict a Bodhi
> tree as object
> of worship around 2000 before the Buddha.

I visited India in 1973-1974, and saw Bodhi trees both
in Sarnath and Buddha Gaya.

> > 2) they say it was not cold in the place of the
> Buddha, but there
> > clearly was occasional snow wherever the Buddha
> lived, as
> according
> > to the sutta about the "between-the-eights".
>
> We can only presume that the weather has changed

As I said above, climate does change - it's very much
conditioned, thus impermanent.

(I´ve been told there are also Burmese people who are
convinced that the Buddha was born, lived and passed
away in Burma. Local patriotism is a fascinating
thing.)

Gunnar

gunnargallmo@...