Legends Of The East

Bolpur is 99 miles from Howrah by road and 24 miles by train from Khana junction of the Eastern Railway. Bolpur was noted from before as a big trade center. It is in the midst of an area, which has a big, traditional past. Supur, the neighboring village of Bolpur has a temple of Surath- eshwar Siva, which is said to have been regularly worshipped by the legendary Surath Raja.

There is a legend that Surath Raja had offered the sacrifice of one lakh of animals to Chandika Devi and that is why the place came to be known as Balipur laterchanged into Bolpur. Only four miles to the nort

h east of Bolpur at a village Shain there is a cold water spring known as Muni Kunda.

According to local legend this was the Ashram of Risvasringa Rishi. On Uttarayan Sankranti a large mela is held at this place. The local legend, however, mentions that Lomapada, the king of Anga induced Risvasringa’s father Vivandaka who left this place and set up a new Ashram at Vandirban. Vandirban is supposed to be a part of Birsinghapur in Birbhum district.

The image of Lord Siva that Vivandaka Rishi worshipped and obtained Siddhi (Salvation) is now known as Siddhinath or Vandeshwar, which is Birsinghapur. This is one of the Anadi lingams. Ramayan mentions Vivandaka Rishi.

Legend # 1: Once there was a princess named Daragang Magayon (Daraga means lady, Magayon is beautiful) who lived in Bicol. She’s so beautiful. She came from the family that reigns over the entire Bicol.

Because of her beauty and influence, warriors, princes and datus from different parts of the country desired to have her as their wife. But Magayon fell in love with a warrior named Handiong, a prince who came from a tribe that was, unfortunately, the rival of Magayon’s tribe. The two suffered so much from their respective family’s attempts to separate them that they finally decided to flee. Unfortunately their families found out and fought a bloody tribal war. This caused the young couple so much pain they decided together to commit suicide.

The tribes buried the lovers separately. Months passed when Magayon’s tribe saw a volcano growing in the place where Magayon was buried. They named it for Daragang Magayon. “Bulkang Magayon” describing its perfect shape like their beautiful Daraga.

Legend #2: It seems that there once lived a very beautiful native princess who had an uncle named Magayon. He was so possessive of his niece that no man dared to challenge his wrath by courting the favors of the young maiden. One day, however, a brave and virile warrior was so smitten by the princess that he threw all cares to the wind, clambered up through the window of the royal chamber a

nd enticed the girl to elope with him.

With Magayon at their heels, the couple prayed to the gods for assistance. Suddenly from out of nowhere, a landslide buried the raging uncle alive. Local folks now claim that it is Magayon’s anger bursting forth in the form of eruptions.

Source: filipina soul

For thousands of years rumours and reports have circulated that somewhere beyond Tibet, among the icy peaks and secluded valleys of Eurasia, there lies an inaccessible paradise, a place of universal wisdom and ineffable peace called Shambhala – although it is also known by other names.

James Hilton wrote about it in the 1933 book Lost Horizon, Hollywood portrayed it in the 1960s film ‘Shangri-la’, and recent films such as ‘Kundun’, ‘Little Buddha’ and ‘Seven Years in Tibet’ allude to the magical utopia. Even author James Redfield, noted for his New Age best seller The Celestine Prophecy, has written a book called The Secret of Shambhala: In Search of the Eleventh Insight.

Shambhala, which in Sanskrit means “place of peace, of tranquillity,” is thought of in Tibet as a community where perfect and semi-perfect beings live and are guiding the evolution of humanity. Shambhala is considered to be the source of the Kalachakra, which is the highest and most esoteric branch of Tibetan mysticism.

Legends say that only the pure of heart can live in Shambhala, enjoying perfect ease and happiness and never knowing suffering, want or old age. Love and wisdom reign and injustice is unknown. The inhabitants are long-lived, wear beautiful and perfect bodies and possess supernatural powers; their spiritual knowledge is deep, their technological level highly advanced, their laws mild and their study of the arts and sciences covers the full spectrum of cultural achievement, but on a far higher level than anything the outside world has attained.

By definition Shambhala is hidden. Of the numerous explorers and seekers of spiritual wisdom who attempt to locate Shambhala, none can pinpoint its physical location on a map, although all say it exists in the mountainous regions of Eurasia. Many have also returned believing that Shambhala lies on the very edge of physical reality, as a bridge connecting this world to one beyond it.

The Sanskrit and Tibetan Shambhala has also been identified by no less an authority than Alexandra David-Neel, who spent years in Tibet, with Balkh – in the far north of Afghanistan – the ancient settlement known as “the mother of cities”. Present day folklore in Afghanistan asserts that after the Muslim conquest, Balkh was known as the “Elevated Candle” (”Sham-i-Bala”), a Persianisation of the Sanskrit Shambhala.

Tibetan lamas spend a great deal of their lives in spiritual development before attempting the journey to Shambhala. Perhaps deliberately, the guidebooks to Shambhala describe the route in terms so vague that only those already initiated into the teachings of the Kalachakra can understand them.

As Edwin Bernbaum says in The Way to Shambhala:

As the traveller draws near the kingdom, their directions become increasingly mystical and difficult to correlate with the physical world. At least one lama has written that the vagueness of these books is deliberate and intended to keep Shambhala concealed from the barbarians who will take over the world.1

The lama’s reference to the barbarians “who will take over the world” is directly connected to the prophecy of Shambhala. This prophecy tells of the gradual deterioration of mankind as the ideology of materialism spreads over the earth. When the “barbarians” who follow this ideology are united under an evil king and think there is nothing left to conquer, the mists will lift to reveal the snowy mountains of Shambhala. The barbarians will attack Shambhala with a huge army equipped with terrible weapons. Then the 32nd king of Shambhala, Rudra Cakrin, will lead a mighty host against the invaders. In a last great battle, the evil king and his followers will be destroyed.

As the cultures of the East and West collide, the myth of Shambhala rises out of the mists of time. We now have access to numerous Buddhist texts on the subject, along with reports by Western explorers who set out on the arduous journey in search of Shambhala. There is much we can learn for our own individual journey of spiritual understanding.

Source: New Dawn Magazine

By: Jason Jaffrey

 The Jokhang Temple was built on the former site of a lake.  According to the legend, the lake site was chosen after many  failed attempts to build a temple in the region. Prior to this, every  time a temple was built, it would collapse. Confused by this  phenomenon, Princess Bhrikuti turned to Wen Cheng for help.  Being a learned woman, Wen Cheng told the Princess that the  geography of Tibet was very much like a hag, with the lake at the  heart. In order to build the temple, Wen Cheng advised they must  demolish the hag by filling and leveling the lake using 1,000  sheep to carry soil from a mountain far away. When the temple  was done, it was called Ra-Sa-Vphrul-Snang (’ra’ meaning sheep and ’sa’ meaning earth in Tibetan) to commemorate those sheep.

Whether the legend is true or not, this temple brought Buddhism into Tibet and became an inseparable part of Tibetan history and culture. The city of Ra-Sa grew around the temple and over time, become known as Lhasa, a holy land.

Huang Di, or the Yellow Emperor, is referred to as the “Originator of the Chinese Culture”, and all people of the Chinese race regard themselves as descendants of Yan Di and Huang Di. 

With the original surname of Gongsun (later changed to Ji) and another name Youxiong Shi, Huang Di was also known as Xuanyuan Shi as he lived at the Xuanyuan Hill. A clan leader towards the end of China’s primitive society, Huang Di was the full brother of Yan Di with whom he shared the country.

He formed an alliance with Yan Di in later years against the invasion of Chiyou, the chieftain of the Jiuli Tribe. A decisive battle was fought at Zhuolu in the northwest of the present Hebei Province. Legend goes that at the beginning of the battle, Chiyou sneezed out a thick fog all over the place which lasted three days, and the soldiers of Huang Di could not tell their directions. Fortunately Huang Di led his men out of the fog by the “compass chariot” he had invented and won complete victory. 

The alliance of Huang Di and Yan Di split after Chiyou was defeated because, it was said, Yan Di intended to infringe upon the various tribes and seize the leading position of the alliance while the chieftains of the tribes preferred to obey Huang Di. As a result the two leaders fought at Banquan. After three fierce battles, Huang Di won victory and was made the “Son of Heaven” by the tribe chieftains. 

Strict and impartial, Huang Di was able to get rid of the evil for the people. It was said that Gu, son of the God of Mount Zhongshan named Zhulong, murdered another god at Mount Kunlun in collaboration with a deity called Qinpi. The Yellow Emperor was indignant at their atrocity and immediately had them killed. 

The Yellow Emperor was a highly gifted “Son of Heaven”. Legend goes that he was the inventor of many things such as making clothes, manufacturing boats and vehicles, building houses and palaces, etc. He also had his court officials Lun Ling make musical instruments, Da Nao compile the Heavenly Stems and the Earthly Branches*, and Cang Ji invent the Chinese characters. The country was in good order and prosperity and the people lived a happy life. 

There were indeed quite a number of wars at the time, which however, broke the narrow limits between the different clans and promote (their merging. The ancient Huaxia nationality was thus gradually formed, being the predecessor of the Han nationality to which the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people belong. 

It is said that Yao, Shun and the monarchs of the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties were all descendants of the Yellow Emperor. He was thus regarded as the first ancestor of the Chinese nation and to him was attributed the creation of all Chinese cultural institutions.

Bahirawakanda ‘the hill of Bahirawa’ with its breathtaking panoramic view of he hill capital is today a far cry from what it was a few generations back. it was then a jungle encroached green belt where lesser denizens of the wilds roamed at will. During Kandyan regime and as late as the early British period the area earned a chilling reputation as the abode of Bahirawa, an elusive demon who, it was believed, preyed upon humans.

Folk in the hinterland village held the locality under taboo, not even the most daring of poachers would venture alone into the precincts. Many were cautious in speaking of the faceless terror.

Gentrification of the area and its burgeoning development over the last 50 years or so has altered its original semblance so dramatically that today it is to Kandy what Cinnamon Gardens is to the metropolis, one of the most coveted pieces of real estate that the Kandy city boast of.

The Bahirawakanda heights command a breathtaking Disneyland view of the Kandy town in the nights when the place is lit up in all its chromatic splendour of glittering city lighting. Feast your eyes for once on this ethereal wonderland you remain transfixed for ever!

Tradition

The earliest reference to Bahirawakanda by its chilling name, ‘the hill of Bahirawa’ is recorded in a late 18th century ola scroll - ‘The Asgiri Talpotha’. It chronicles that King Parakramabahu 1 (1164-1197) honoured by his King Parakrama Bahu the Great founded hereabouts a monastic sanctuary for Buddhist priests. The southern boundary of this refuge is identified as Bahirawakanda.

It can be surmised that the name Bahirawakanda was extent prior to the early 12th century, but from what period earlier evidence is scanty.

Tradition recounts that during the Kandyan period human sacrifices were made to propitiate the demon of Bahirawakanda. The first such sacrifice is credited to the fancy of a 17th century childless queen. The queen dreamt that Bahirawa manifested himself to her in a dream and demanded a human sacrifice if she were to be with child. The king in his anxiety to beget an heir soothsayer the king decreed that a virgin of noble birth be selected as the victim.

On the evening of the appointed day the young girl was led up in a procession to a clearing in the wilderness of Bahirawakanda and left there secured to a stake. Their gruesome task accomplished the crowd deserted the place leaving the girl to her fate. Morbid terror, exhaustion and exposure to the chilly mountain air had done the work that Bahirawa was supposed to have done to her. The following morning her remains were found with the lower portion of her body severely mauled and partly eaten by those relentless scavengers of the jungles - jackals.

Last human sacrifices

The last human sacrifice to Bahirawa was in the reign of the last king of Kandy, Sri Wickrema Rajasinghe. During the latter period of his rule he was in the doldrums. Political intrigues of his ministers from within and the threat to his kingdom from without had goaded on the irascible potentate to desperation on the advice of his soothsayers he decided to review the now defunct traditional practice of the grisly sacrifice to appease the wrath of Bahirawa which he opined was the cause of his predicament.

The object of sacrifice,a comely young wench, daughter of a lesser chief was taken in a procession to the selected spot of immolation and in accordance with the traditional custom was left there secured to a stake.

This time Bahirawa was baulked of his victim. The hinge of fate turned in favour of the girl. No sooner than the crowd deserted the arena of sacrifice, the girl’s suitor disguised as a woodcutter secretly stole up to her and freed his love.

The king who slept well that night comforted by his surmise the Bahirawa was appeased and the future would augur well for him was taken by surprise when he was informed by his ministers the next morning that the girl was well and alive. He considered the event a propitious omen and offered her a golden ha

ndshake in anything she desire. She preferred her saviour who had by now fled the king’s territory fearing royal wrath. The king granted her wish.

According to one tradition the girl was rescued by one of the king’s young courtiers. Enraptured by the ravishing beauty and charm of the young girl is disguised himself as a woodcutter, crept up to her immediately after the assemblage deserted the locality and freed her. His daring feat accomplished, the gallant Lochinvar fled to Colombo with his love. He returned to his native Kandy after 1815 when the kingdom was ceded to the British.