Land of Urgyen, Oddiyan, Ogyen visited in 1400's

[Aemilius]

David Templeman has published an article about Buddhaguptanath and Late Indian Siddha Tradition, "late" means 1400's. Buddhaguptanath was teacher of Jetsun Taranatha, he also traveled extensively, visiting Indonesia, Afghanisthan (which is Urgyen in his opinion), and Madagaskar! His travel diary is interesting to read.
In 1970's several authors placed Urgyen in Afghanishtan rather than in Pakistan. Since then Urgyen has usually been placed in Orissa, Pakistan. It is refresing to hear that in 1400's it was in Afghanisthan. Here:
http://www.ordinarymind.net/may2003/feature2_03.htm

[Luke]

In 1970's several authors placed Urgyen in Afghanishtan rather than in Pakistan. Since then Urgyen has usually been placed in Orissa, Pakistan. It is refresing to hear that in 1400's it was in Afghanisthan.

That's a very interesting article, but why do you think it's more "refreshing" for Urgyen to be in Afghanistan rather than Pakistan?

In that article the author says that Urgyen was in the modern-day province of Ghazni in Afghanistan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghazni_Province

It would be interesting to make a pilgrimage there when it's less dangerous. The mountains look quite beautiful.

[Aemilius]

In 1970's several authors placed Urgyen in Afghanishtan rather than in Pakistan. Since then Urgyen has usually been placed in Orissa, Pakistan. It is refresing to hear that in 1400's it was in Afghanisthan.

That's a very interesting article, but why do you think it's more "refreshing" for Urgyen to be in Afghanistan rather than Pakistan?

In that article the author says that Urgyen was in the modern-day province of Ghazni in Afghanistan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghazni_Province

It would be interesting to make a pilgrimage there when it's less dangerous. The mountains look quite beautiful.

Thanks for the link, it says there that they found in 1960's excavatons in Ghazni a female buddha lying on its back (!??), surrounded by rows of smaller male buddhas sitting on pillars.

[Indrajala]

Xuanzang visited various kingdoms in what is now Afghanistan and the surrounding areas in the 7th century.

They were Buddhist kingdoms where the royalty sponsored the sangha.

Also another source to look into if you're interested in travel journals.

[Aemilius]

Xuanzang visited various kingdoms in what is now Afghanistan and the surrounding areas in the 7th century.

They were Buddhist kingdoms where the royalty sponsored the sangha.

Also another source to look into if you're interested in travel journals.

Offtopic: Do you know why in the Gandhavyuha Sutra (included in the Avatamsaka Sutra) when Youth Sudhana meets the 52 teachers, teachings of Manjushri are not included in the sutra ? It just says that Manjushri gave him many teachings (indeed, but where are they?!)
( thus in the Flower Ornament Scripture translation)

[Aemilius]

Another offtopic question to Huseng:
Vimanas?
We know that they appear in the Lotus Sutra ( atleast in the older translations), in the Pureland sutras (e.g. the Luiz Gomez translations), in Vimana Vatthu, etc...
In modern Buddhism there is a strong tendency to explain them away completely, why is that ? For example in the Sutra translations that appear in the http://www.sutrasmantras.info -site we find the horrible translation "Offering Platform".
Are we to think that devas or bodhisattvas come with "offering platforms"??
In other modern works they often skip over the issue elegantly, relying on general ignorance of modern readers, flying palaces are translated as just "palaces", or as "abodes", etc...
I wonder if you know the correspondig words in chinese/japanese ? How are they treated in the commentarial literature ?