This is again for Buddhists across the world. Today I am posting videos of Anands four stupas. I know there is a controversy between Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism on how Anand died. i realize that the Thais don't believe in self attained nirvana which can be called suicide. Why? The answer can be found in India. Scouring satellite pictures for village names I have come across many sanghrammas dedicated to cases of self attained nirvana or suicide. It seems Buddhists with their theory of rebirth forgot the fear of death. This was wrong. I think because of this Buddhists changed the story of Anands death by suicide to dying a natural death. My Buddhism is limited to Huen Tsangs wonderful book so I may be most probably wrong. If I'm wrong forgive me. Anyway, according to Huen Tsang after the Buddhas nirvana Anand was feeling miserable. He was invited by the Lichavis to stay in Vaishali. So he reached the Ganges to cross the river to Vaishali. King Ajatshatru of Magadh heard of this and came with his army beseeching Anand to come back and stay in Magadh. When the Lichavi king heard about this he also came with his army to the northern banks and appealed to Anand to cross over. It was a warlike situation. Anand was disgusted as he felt that Buddha had recently died and the people had already stopped following the good law. He was in a barge in the middle of the river so he told his followers he was attaining nirvana. And after his nirvana his followers were to burn him and give half the relics to Magadh and the other half to Vaishali. He set fire to himself. The disciples then deposited half of his body relics south of the Ganges and the other half on the northern banks. The Lichavi king collected the relics and built a stupa to mark the spot naming it Anand Golwa which is the name today. The Magadh king took his share of the relics and made a stupa to mark the spot where it had been deposited. Today the places name is Athmal Gola (which literally means the lower half portion or the bottom). From here he took the relics to Rajgir and enshrined them in a stupa called Dumri (which again means the bottom) next to Ajatshatrus original Buddha relic stupa called Chakra. The Lichavi king of Vaishali took his share of relics to Vaishali and enshrined them in a stupa named Nandpur Saroop (literally means the dead form of Anand). Today villages have settled on the stupas and kept the names alive. From these names we realize that Vaishali got the upper portion of the relics causing them to use the name Anand for the stupas. Magadh got the bottom portion. The naming of the stupas show how systematic people were 2400 years ago. The stupas were named in such a manner that a pilgrim paying homage knew what part of Anands anatomy they were paying homage to. Video number (1) is satellite pictures showing the location of the four stupas north and south of the Ganges. Video number (2) is of Athmal Gola where the disciples of Anand deposited Magadhs share of relics south of the Ganges. Video number (3) is of 'Nandpur Saroop' village which is the half body Anand stupa of the Lichavis in Vaishali/Pidhauli. Video number (4) is Magadhs half body Anand stupa in Rajgir. I failed to upload the Anand Golwa stupa where the followers of Anand deposited the Lichavi share of relics south of the Ganges because the server was too low. It took me three days to upload these videos. Twice I had to cancel uploading because of low server. I will be showing you Anand Golwa in another post. As a side note, it was Huen Tsangs accurate bearings and directions that took me to these villages. Folks enjoy the videos and thank Huen Tsang. And don't forget to subscribe to my youtube channel "Buddha Exhumed" for more videos of holy Buddhist sites.
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