Hi,
>Just wondering: Was Gautama Buddha a <representative of Ariya higher varna> as claimed below? I am shocked for I thought Buddha preached against VarNa Thinking. Am I wrong here? Is this an attempt to introduce the typical European racialism into Buddhism which has not seen any racialism at all and does not condone it right from the beginning.
According to the Pali Canon the Buddha was a Ksatriya. You are right that he preached against varnas in the sense that he claimed a person's deeds and way of thinking were true signs of nobility, not birth. So I think you could say he was a 'representative' of a higher varna only in the sense that he came from one, not that he represented its interests or argued for its superiority.
best regards,
/Rett