Hello All,
A freind of mine, an ordained Theravadan, wrote on this topic and noted tht in several Suttas the Buddha is indistinguishable from others in the Sangha, while in other Suttas Buddha stands out as having the dome on his head and other marks of a Tathagata.

My friend came to the conclusion that the Buddha appeared to different differently at various times. Other than that one either takes Sutta knowledge at face value or one does not. I am a Theravadan Buddhist, and there is to my knowledge no concrete proof one way or another that settles for once and all that Nibbana can be realized other than to attempt to realize it for oneself. After all that is what is stated in the Suttas themselves.

If one is engaged in "objective" study and analysis of the Suttas then lack of objective proof while quite likely continue. And after all isn't that what most scholars really want? they jprefer the continued paper chase of objective research that purports to "break new ground" rather than the actual practice of Dhamma.

Pete Tomlinson

"K. Loganathan" <ulagankmy@...> wrote: 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.

Loga


"Dmytro O. Ivakhnenko" <aavuso@...> wrote:
Hi Thomas,

> I wonder any one in this group knows the Buddha's racial appearance
> according to the Pali texts. He was born in the Nepal region. The
> inhabitants in the region at that time may be closer to the Himalayan
> race.

As a representative of Ariya higher varna, Buddha must have looked like
like Slav, Osset, or Persian (Iranian-Afghan).

Genetic analysis shows that the higher varnas in India still are much
closer genetically to Europeans, than the lower varnas.

http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/articles/05_01/Indo-European.shtml
https://www3.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/atlas.html

Probably the earliest Gandhara and Mathura images preserve his features:

http://www.answers.com/topic/buddhahead-jpg
http://www.gandhara.com.au/gandhara_showcase5.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:MathuraBodhisattvaSide.JPG

Regards,
Dmytro


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