Discovered - Vital Clue To Buddha's Age

[seeder]

Discovered - Vital Clue To Buddha's Age

Archaeologists digging beneath the sacred Maya Devi Temple at Lumbini have uncovered the first physical evidence to enable them to accurately date the nativity of Prince Siddhartha Gautama whose teachings are now followed by half a billion believers.

The extraordinary find suggests that the very earliest devotees - some 600 years before Christ - were vegetarian and eschewed material wealth in favour of spirituality as laid down by the prince who abandoned his high rank to seek out the path to Enlightenment

http://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/unearthed-the-shrine-set-to-revolutionise-world-view-of-buddhas-origins-8962817.html

[questionmark]

if you look in the archeology forum you will find an ongoing discussion about this.

[SHaYap]

yerps ... and its taking up most of my online time too ...

~

[Frank Merton]

I think this puts to bed the idea that Buddhism was something started in Asoka's time. It appears he or others during his time took the original shrine and built over it. Beyond that it is very hard to read beliefs and so on out of physical archaeological remains.