Buddha Was Indian Not Oriental?

Again i dont know why so many people think buddha was chineese and people are so misinformed. Buddhism is a great religon from indian origins and the oriental people made the statue of buddha look oriental with the slanted eyes and the short stubby nose I mean my god he looks oriental. And holy crouching tiger hidden dragon they also turned our beloved religon into one big kung fu movie. Watching movie after movie about fighting and how buddhism has nothing to do with fighting or special magical powers, I mean this is sick. What do you people think?????????????????

Buddha Was Indian Not Oriental?
No, he was Asian. People in Northern India are mixed because Nepal and Burma is right there. It was only 2500 years ago and they knew what he looked like and made pictures and statues of his face. Trace all the records back to both India and Asia and all the pictures resemble an Asian person.
Reply:well acually buddhism was involed with martial arts..


a long long time ago the first monk of the first buddhist temple were being bullied on..then came a person.. in vietnamese his name was Dat Ma Dai Su, and he tought them a fighting style and that style still lastes untill today Report It

Reply:They also make Jesus look western european and I have seen indian people with oriental looking features.
Reply:yeah i think it's a great religion....nd i don't think that he is chinese..
Reply:he was mexican
Reply:Sorry about your confusion little dharmist. Is it not a habit of people to place those things they find most familiar, into a reference of thier own concept? In other words: Chinese Buddhists place the Buddha in a chinese reference, Indian Buddhists place him in an Indian appearance and context, Tibetans into a Tibetan context aand so on and so forth. Considering this minor but common habit, are you focusing on the man or the message?


Buddhism has provided many useful influences on many parts of the world and in many ways: The Old Khmer empire (the City of Ankhor is a 'Buddhist' city- but the face of the Buddha is Cambodian, not Indian) Look up "The Lotus Sutra" a Japanese study.


You should also understand one other detail: Most of the martial arts stem from the adventures, at least roughly mythologically, of one man The Bodhi Dharma, an Indian Buddhist monk, who travelled from the Indian subcontinent through Tibet into China and even to Japan and Okinawa.


it is He who is credited with both the beginning of the Shaolin Monastery's history of martial arts, and the birth of Okinawan-style practice and study. The Japanese called him Daruma.


One should be aware of one thing in Buddhism's history: sometimes one must do what one thinks of as the unthinkable when confronted by the nearly impossible: On Okinawa, the local people were being visiouly oppressed by Japanese warlords from the big island (this is way long before the shogunate and Japan's unification). The people were not even allowed metal to make tools to harvest and grow grain. They were less even than slaves-and valued as much . After much serious thought and meditation (the story says 12 years) Bodhi Dharma (Daruma) emerged from the cave with a decision: telling the people around him that if they could not find weapons, then they must learn to become one, he broke a rock with his fist.


Buddhism has done two really great things for people: It has taught them a peaceful way of life, and also shown a way, when needed, to insure that peace can be maintained.


While the whole crouching tiger thing is a bit much-but such are the realms of fantasy, as much as Robin Hood placing two arrows into the same spot on a target, as I have asked before: What is more important; the messenger or the message?
Reply:Buddha is a state, not a person-even though there were many "Buddhas" throughout history.





You know that, of course?





There were, and still are, Buddhist monks that train in Martial Arts-some were highly prized as mercenaries.





You will find a long and rich History-in the Library.





/!\
Reply:You are absolutely correct. Buddha was of Indian descent (the country India)





Now Zen Buddhism DOES trace it's roots back to China.





Zen goes back to chan (which means seated meditation), and they borrowed from both philosophies Taoism and Buddhism. It was named Zen after this form of meditation was taken to Japan.
Reply:"The details of the Buddha's life are not known for certain, but most scholars are in agreement that he was an actual historical figure who lived in northern India around the 5th century BCE.





Before the Buddha was born into this world as Shakyamuni, he was a bodhisattva in the Tushita heaven (home of the contented gods). His name there was Shvetaketu ("White Banner"). From here he witnessed the dark ages engulfing the human realm, leading to its spiritual impoverishment. Moved to compassion like a true bodhisattva, he vowed to manifest himself in the sentient world and relieve people from their sufferings.





The Lalitavistara (1st cent. AD) says that Buddha himself selected the time, place, and caste of his birth. He finally short listed King Shudhodhana and his wife, Queen Mayadevi, rulers of the Shakya (Lion) clan, as his future parents. This generous couple was well known throughout the land for their just and noble bearing. Scriptures assert that Buddha chose a king as his father since the royal caste was more respected that the priestly one. It indeed seems strange that the Buddha, who never believed in the caste system, was so particular in the choice of a Brahmin or Kshatriya family for his own birth. In fact, it was precisely to show the futility of the notion of high-birth as an aid in spiritual salvation that this choice was made.





Wandering in his search for enlightenment, Buddha came to a pleasant hermitage by a lovely stream, where, for six years, he joined five mendicants in a way of discipline based on progressively severe fasting. He ate a single grain of rice for each of the first two years, drank a single drop of water for each of the second two years, and took nothing at all during the last two. Consequently, his bones stuck out like a row of spindles, and when he touched his stomach, he could almost feel his spine. His hair fell out and his skin became withered.





Having gained enlightenment, Gautama came to be called Shakyamuni, or the silent lion, indicating the explosive potential he carried within himself. He first went up to Sarnath near Varanasi where he met the five disciples with whom he had previously traversed the path of asceticism. Though they had deserted him after their failed experiment, the unearthly glow from his body now attracted them. Hearing his discourse, they became his first followers.





Traveling great distances to disseminate his teachings, Buddha finally reached the city of Kushinagara, where he asked his disciples to spread a couch for him in a grove. He lay there, reclining on his right side, facing west, with his head supported by his hand. Shakyamuni realized clearly that death was approaching. Towards midnight of the same day, the event known in Buddhist terminology as the Parinirvana, or "Final Nirvana," took place. It was a full-moon night and also his eightieth birthday. The Enlightened One passed through progressively higher planes of meditation until he attained entry into Parinirvana."





this is a story about the life of buddha shakyamuni - historical buddha... even more fascinating is fact that every human being (asian or not) has the buddha nature, which means everyone is buddha potentially... experiencing it in everyday life is called enlightenment...

flowers baby