Since rain was playing the spoilsport today, we could not visit thein attractions in Ninh Binh, #Vietnam. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as we ended up visiting the sprawling Bai Dinh pagoda complex. It is interesting on many counts.
Buddhists in Vietnam belong to Mahayana sect. Therefore, depiction of buddha's face is closer to that from Mathura school unlike that from Theravada sect, followed by Tibbetans, Laddakhis etc
The tall pagoda in the complex was built by Indians and has descriptions of Buddha, his life story in Sanskrit (I can already see political Neo Buddhists frothing over). The guide (a Buddhist herself) was in awe that we could read it and expressed her high regard for devbhasha
It had a replica of Mahabodhi temple at Gaya, Bihar in the main shrine. We could see references to India all over the place
What I found most amazing was the fact that a large part of this complex was constructed after 2003. Remember, this is in a communist country where people are "atheists". It is so large that the 1st shrine is 4 km from entrance and the rest of complex too takes up another 4 km.
And I have found so many pagan/ folk/ancestor worship shrines in Vietnam too. It kind of tells me that people don't become "secular" or "atheists" or "communal" depending on the type of current government. Countries retain their belief systems, sometimes hidden , sometimes not so
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Story of India as a floating island, our long lost cousin Madagascar, why Palakkad gap is more than just a break in mountains and how frogs of western ghats are still a living link between India and Madagascar. #CBG_Thread 1/n
In ancient times, India, Africa, South America, Madagascar, Antarctica and Australia were lumped together in a single landmass called Gondwana land, which eventually started breaking up into multiple pieces ~180 million years ago 2/n
India, Madagascar and Seychelles broke away from Gondwana as a single unit almost 140 million years ago. Madagascar was attached to India's present day western coast while Seychelles was just south of Saurashtra. Imagine , pristine beaches of Seychelles in Gujarat 😁 3/n