Kalacakra Millenarian Timeline (Article)

Kalacakra millenarian views of history and the future as found in Tibetan Buddhism center on three key dates. The first is the transmission of the Kalacakra doctrine to Sucandra by the Buddha. Historians tend to look at this as a legendary event.

According to Kalacakra tradition, Sucandra brought the Kalacakra system to Shambhala where it was passed on by seven kings of the Sakya dynasty in that country.

Then comes the next key date when the Kulika dynasty arises with the Rigden King Manjushrikiirti. One of the most noteworthy deeds of this first Kulika king was to merge the different castes into a single equal "vajra" caste.

Next, the Tibetan Calendar begins in 1027 CE when the Kalacakra system is brought to India and Tibet by either the 12th or 17th Kulika king according to different traditions. The texts state that the calendar starts 403 years after the leader of a people known as the Lalos institutes a new type of astrology. This takes us to the year 624 CE or about two years after the Hijra of the Islamic calendar.

25 Kulika kings

Kalacakra texts state that 25 Rigden kings will reign before an apocalyptic war that ushers in a new golden age. The antagonists are the Lalos, apparently a term for peoples who expand their religious systems through violence.

Each Rigden is given an approximate reign of 100 years, so the full period of the Kulika Dynasty is approximately 2500 years.

A period of 25 reigns of 100 years each can find some basis in the native mensuration systems found in the Philippines and also possibly more broadly in early Austronesian society.

Ifugao peoples retained a quinary (base 5) counting system that they used together with a base 10 system. The quantity of five was known as hongol. When counting base 5, after one reaches five sets of five, one must had a new word to a word number and a new digit to a numeral. Five fives or 25 is known in the Ifugao system as dalan.

Dalan is an interesting word that normally means "way, path, road." So after one counts five fives, the "way" of counting is finished and one starts over again. The imagery is linear although the counting is cyclic.

Remnants of base 5 counting can also be found among the Christianized Filipinos in the dry measure system where five gantas equal one pati, and five pati or 25 ganta equal one caban.

The number five is of importance in Philippine social systems also because most clan genealogies include five generations. These five generations are often visualized in the form of a human body.

Among the Kapampangans, the great-grandparent is known as apung qng tud "grandparent of the knee." The great-great-grandparent is known as apung qng talampacan "grandparent of the sole of the foot." The Tagalogs knew the great-grandchild as apo sa tuhod "grandchild of the knee" and the great-great-grandchild as apo sa talampakan "grandchild of the sole."

Ilocanos saw the present generation as likened to the waist area, while the two preceding generations were characterized as the shoulders and head, and the two successive generations as the knees and soles.

According to researchers, the Ifugao usually kept genealogies going back from 15 to 30 generations. It may be at one time, that it was common to keep at least 25 generations in memory i.e., one dalan or circuit of generations. Noble families may have kept longer genealogies as the Spanish mention the 'genealogies of gods,' which likely refers to the chiefly families tracing their alleged divine descent.

The dalan unit (also daan) in the indigenous decimal systems denotes a quantity of 100. There is some evidence that dalan also referred in early times to one's "path of life" to mean both the course and the duration. For example, the term dalan sa kinabuhi "path of life" in Sugbuanon.

Samosir Batak has the term dalan ngolu literally "path of life" but also meaning "field" to express an agricultural mode of living.

In Tongan, the cognate word hala can mean "death, especially that of the king," in the sense probably of death as the completion of life's path.

If the 100-year reigns of the Rigden Kings are viewed as decimal dalan, then a quinary dalan consisting of five "bodies" of five reigns each would equal 25 reigns lasting 2,500 years.

So, the Kulika Dynasty could be seen as a quinary dalan of decimal dalans.

Reincarnated ancestors

Some of them worshiped a certain bird, others the crocodile; for holding the same fancy regarding the transmigration of souls as was held by Pythagoras in his palingenesis, they believed that, after certain cycles of years, the souls of their forefathers were turned into crocodiles.

-- Pablo de Jesus Letter to Gregory XIII

De Jesus letter on beliefs of tranmigration in the Philippines rightly mentions the crocodile which was known as nunu and dapu "grandfather." The early Filipinos believed in the return of great heroes, for example, the culture-hero/god Lumauig was believed by Igorot peoples to one day return and restore the old order.

During revolutionary times, different peasant leaders claimed to be reincarnations of heroes like Jose Rizal or Father Jose Burgos. Felipe Salvador, who led a sectarian peasant revolt in Central Luzon, declared he was the second coming of Christ.

In addition to reincarnation, there was a belief in the inheriting of the spirit-double of -- or guidance by the spirit of -- a deceased ancestor. In Kapampangan this is known as mana ning kaladua.

The mid-17th century hermaphroditic priest Tapar of Panay, who wore the "garb of a woman," claimed that he was under the command of the nonos, the departed ancestors. He called himself "Eternal Father" and appointed among his followers persons known as the Son, Holy Ghost and "Maria Santisima."

Throughout Southeast Asia the belief that even a person of humble origins could acquire extraordinary powers and claim a special relationship with the supernatural could give rise to sudden eruptions of localized religious movements when prophecies, dreams, magic, amulets, claims of invulnerability and secret revelations provided a potent weaponry.

-- Nicholas Tarling, The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia

The "humble origins" mentioned by Nicholas Tarling above could also mask a submerged ancient lineage as in the prophecies of Ratu Adil and Satria Piningit "Hidden Warrior" in Indonesia. The rural messiah is also indicated by Hindu texts that declare Kalki would be born in a "village" known as Sambhala. Some Kalacakra traditions also claim that both the king and kingdom of Shambhala would be unknown initially to the Lalos, despite the latter having gained control of much of the earth.

Dual ages

If we look at the 2,500 period from the standpoint of the dualistic views held in the region, it would be logical that this period would have a dual counterpart age. Thus the two periods would be equal to 5,000 years.

Buddhist tradition does mention that the period of decline after the death of the Buddha would last 5,000 years consisting of five 1000 year periods. However, after the ordination of women, this period was cut in half to five 500 year periods equaling 2,500 years! We might view this from the dualism standpoint as indicating that the ordination of women allowed the cancellation of the female half of the period of decline. Chinese millenarian sects often saw two ages before the golden age. Among some of these sects, these ages were known as the Blue Sun and the Red Sun, indicating respectively yin and yang.

Some Kalacakra traditions also mention a 5,000 year period but in this case broken up into the 700-year Sakya Dynasty of Shambhala, the 2,500 year Kulika Dynasty, and a 1,800 year golden age after the final battle with the Lalos.

Concepts of generational time perceived in the form of a human body has other reflexes in the Philippine region. In the Tagalog language, for example, the words tao "people," katawan "body," and taon "year" are all derived from the same root. The Kapampangan word banua can mean "heaven" as a place inhabited by the gods, stars and planets, but originally from an early Austronesian word denoting a territory inhabited by people. Banua also means "year" in Kapampangan.

The Bisayan god Laon, was a god of time, and laon denotes the passage of time. He is often described with pantheistic traits as pervading all things or forming the substance of all things.

Aspects of genealogical and solar time were obviously important in the region, but it was also suggested previously that there were may have been some pragmatic reasons involved in the formation of the Kalacakra timeline. Muslim traders began establishing themselves increasingly along the eastern African coast progressively moving southward during the 10th century and threatening the spice trade of Shambhala (Suvarnadvipa). It was about in the late 10th century that we see evidence of propaganda efforts by Suvarnadvipa to draw other political entities into the fray.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Blair, Emma Helen, James Alexander Robertson, Edward and Gaylord Bourne. The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803;: explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands..., The A.H. Clark Company, 1903, vol. 36. p. 318; vol. 38, p. 218.

De Beuclair, Inez. Three genealogical stories from Botel Tobago: A contribution to the folklore of the Yami, ND, http://www.sinica.edu.tw/~dlproj/article/ET-t/ET23.html (Chinese Traditional Big5 encoding).

Conklin, Harold and Pugguwon Lupaih. Ethnographic Atals of Ifugao: a Study of Environment, and Society in Northern Luzon, Yale University Press, 1980, p. 11.

Narayana (Glossary)

The deity Narayana appears as a form of the Hindu god Visnu fused together with the Vedic primordial being known as Purusa. Narayana is often depicted as floating on a bed of serpents in the Milky Ocean, an imagery found also in the Vedas were a cosmic Yaksha (tree spirit) floats on the primordial waters prior to creation.

Narayana can be broken down etymologically into nara "man" and ayana "coming, arrival," in reference to the deity as the cosmic man and pantheistic cause of creation. The word "nara" might also refer to water and Narayana's association with the ocean.

During the rainy season in the summer months, Narayana is said to fall asleep on the Milky Ocean, connecting his name also to the coming or arrival of water i.e. the summer rains.

Narayana and Pangu/Panhu

Like Narayana in the form of Purusa, the Chinese primordial being Pangu is portrayed as a cosmic being from which the world is created. Panhu, the dog king, is probably identical with Pangu, both having the same father Hundun -- the cosmic dumpling or gourd that floats on the ocean.

The dog-shaped Hundun, and the imagery of Panhu swimming across the flood, or over the ocean to the Dog Tumulus Country (Quan-feng-kuo), brings to mind Narayana's floating over the Milky Ocean.

Indeed, the dog imagery associated with Pangu, appears as horse imagery in association with Narayana. While Narayana as Purusa is closely linked with the Asvamedha horse sacrifice, the lei dog sacrifice to Shang-ti has some related pantheistic aspects.

Shang-ti refers to the Shang dynasty kings' sacrifice of their ancestors and was specifically connected with the location of the Fusang Tree. Instituted by Shun (Di Jun), the Shang-ti ritual was closely connected with dogs and rice, and the lei sacrifice mirrors some of the imagery of the Pangu/Panhu story of dismemberment during the world's creation.

In the Asvamedha, a swimming dog is sacrificed during the opening ceremony. Rice also plays an important part in the Vedic horse ritual. Wendy Doniger notes the rice links mentioned in the Satapatha Brahmana:

The Adhvaryu cooks the priests' mess of rice; it is seed he thereby produces...For when the horse was immolated, its seed went from it and became gold; thus, when he gives gold (to the priests) he supplies the horse with seed...For the ball of rice is seed, and gold is seed; by means of seed he thus lays seed into that (horse and sacrificer) (SB 14.1.1.,1-4)

During the Mahisi ritual of the Asvamedha sacrifice, fried rice grains are thrown at the horse. Rice also plays an important part in an Assam horse ritual in which a dance with a horse image lasts throughout the night after which the body of the image is thrown into a river and the head preserved for another year. During the river ritual, rice is eaten by the participants.

Horse's head

There are various tales of Visnu having a horse's head and human body. Not surprisingly these horse forms are closely linked with Narayana-Purusa.

Narayana is said to have taken the form of the sage Vadavamukha, the submarine mare's head that devours the salty waters of the ocean turning them into fresh water. He also is associated with Hayasiras, the horse-headed deity who saves the Vedic texts after they are stolen by demons.

Kalki, the final avatar of Visnu, is also associated with Narayana and often portrayed with a horse's head.


Kalki with horse's head, source: http://www.karma2grace.org/encyclopedia/Kalki.html


Narayana as horse-headed Hayagriva, source: http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/vasu/cambodia/museeguimet/hayagriva.htm

Thus did the blessed Hari [Visnu] assume in days of old that grand form having the equine head. This, of all his forms, endued with puissance, is celebrated as the most ancient. That person who frequently listens or mentally recites this history of the assumption by Narayana of the form equipt with the equine head, will never forget his Vedic or other lore.

-- Mahabharata 12:47

In China, Panhu, the culture hero who brings rice agriculture, and his descendents in Quan-feng-kuo are often described as having dogs' heads. In medieval times, the Dog Tumulus Country is conflated with Fusang, where we now find the dog-headed men together with the associated kingdom of women.

That this is not a coincidence is also supported by the fact that both Narayana and Panhu are located in the same general region, and at times in the same specific area. If we equate the Vourukasha Sea with the Milky Ocean as we have done previously using the story of Trita, then we know that at least in medieval times these oceans were identified with the "Sea of Chin."

Malaysia and the Philippines retain concepts, now confined to the area of demonology, that could explain the theme of animal and bird-headed humans. The Penanggalan in Malaysia and the Manananggal in the Philippines are now a type of vampire known to detach their heads from their bodies. These heads, often trailed by the person's entrails, fly around at night and come back to rejoin the body during the day.

Thus, the flying detached heads are quite similar to the principle of the kaladua or spirit-double but with a more anthropomorphic twist. The names of both head-detaching creatures are derived from the word tanggal which means "to detach or remove." As the kaladua spirit roams away from the body mostly at night so the detached head flies from the body of the Penanggalan, Manananggal and the Asuang.

In the case of a bird or animal double, the head represents the person's other self. So for the Asuang, the detached head is in principle that of a dog. While in modern Christianized culture, the Asuang has become an enemy of children and childbirth, originally it can confidently be said that the situation was reversed. The dog was seen as a protector of children, something that still survives in the use of dog-teeth necklaces to protect young ones from evil, including protection from the Asuang!

Indian lore often explains the horse's heads of gods and sages as coming after the original head is cut off. Various explanations are given for this procedure. In some cases, the human head is seen to represent bodily desire, while the horse's head contains the knowledge of the Vedas. Some view the horse's head as a symbol of the Sun.

However, even with other animal incarnations of Visnu, we see often that they are sometimes represented as humans with animal heads. This indicates the idea of a double nature.

Sa-Huynh-Kalanay bicephalous pendants may connect with this idea of the double self. There are other indications of dual thinking in this culture including the lingling-o earrings with decorations at each of the four quadrants, and the hexagonal and octagonal cut jade beads.

Object of pilgrimage

Classical sources mention journeys to the eastern island of Svetadvipa to visit Narayana by personages such as Narada, Trita, Rama, Ravana, and the four Kumaras.

Such pilgrimages may link with the Tibetan Buddhist journeys to Shambhala, which in Hindu tradition is linked with horse-headed Kalki. Indeed the Garuda Purana mentions Shambhala as a pilgrimage destination:

"...the village of Shambhala is a good place of pilgrimage. The sanctuary of Narayana is a great shrine, whereas a pilgrimage to holy forest Vadarika leads to the emancipation of self."

Despite the number of Tibetan guidebooks for journeys to Shambhala, the location is not specifically mentioned in the Kalacakratantra as a pilgrimage destination. It may have been included in the location of Suvarnadvipa, that is listed as one of the pilgrimage sites known as upamelapaka in the Kalacakratantra.

Mention has been made of expeditions by Chinese emperors and kings to find the fabled island of Penglai. In messianic Buddhist-Daoist texts that started appearing in the sixth century CE, savior kings known as Prince Moonlight (Yueguang tongzi) and the King of Light (Mingwang) came into being. Writings like the Scripture of the Monk Shouluo and the Scripture of the Realization of Understanding Preached by the Boddhisattva Samantabhadra told of voyages to Penglai to visit Prince Moonlight's kingdom.

The messianic king of Penglai may be the same as the Rigden king of Shambhala, who also figured in millenarian prophecy. Penglai is frequently mentioned together with Fusang in Chinese texts, and the latter seems to be fused with Dog Tumulus Country in the latter literature. Today, for example, Chinese often ascribe the origin of Taiwan's indigenous people either or equally to Panhu and/or the inhabitants of Penglai, as the related locations are hard to distinguish from each other.

Shambhala's rigden kings were identified with incarnations of Visnu in Kalacakra texts. For example, the commentator Mipham says Rigden Manjushrikirti is the same as the Matsya or fish incarnation of Visnu. So, the Shambhala kings are easily connected to Narayana also and to the savior Kalki.

Messianic kingdom

Hindu texts say that Kalki, the last avatar of Visnu, comes from the village of Sambhala (Shambhala), and many researchers equate this with Tibetan prophecies of the messianic king Raudracakrin, the 25th Rigden of Shambhala.

Both Raudracakrin and Kalki are said to arrive on horseback, and Kalki is often portrayed as a horse or as a human with a horse's head. Raudracakrin defeats his enemies using the meditation of the "best of horses." Prince Moonlight also marches into the final battle on a "dragon-horse."

"Kulika," the name of Raudracakrin's dynasty and also possibly the name "Kalki" are derived from the words kaula and kula, derivatives of which can refer to "family" and "birth" and also mean "dog."

kulika -- "one of good family, noble birth"
kauleya -- "sprung from a good family, a dog"
kauleyaka -- "sprung from a noble family, pertaining to family, a dog"
kauleyakuTumbini -- "dog's wife, bitch"
kauleyakah -- "dog" (kula + dhakan, Panini As.t.a-dhya-yi- 4.2.96)

Chinese millenarian views date back at least to the sage Mencius who claimed that about every 500 years a sage would arise to restore the natural order. Daoists fused their seer Lao Tzu with the primordial Pangu/Panhu and beliefs arose that Lao Tzu would reincarnate periodically as the savior Li Hong during degenerate times.

Li Hong evolved together with the Buddhist-Daoist Prince Moonlight and the King of Light, the latter two possibly being the same person. These beliefs came to incorporate also the doctrine involving the coming Buddha known as Maitreya. Predicted dates for the coming of Li Hong and Prince Moonlight often matched.

According to the prophecies, a time of cosmic decay would arise leading eventually to a great final battle between divine and demonic troops. Prince Moonlight appears from his kingdom in Penglai, predicting the coming events and instructing in the means of salvation. Those elect few who hear his words are saved as Prince Moonlight leads them to Penglai, or in other versions to the Tushita Heaven, to escape the coming tribulation.

Some have claimed the millennial conflict betrays Manichean influence although cataclysmic dualistic battles are found in some of the oldest Chinese literature. In the Yaodian, which Joseph Needham has dated to between the eighth and fifth centuries BCE on philological grounds, but with astronomical data going back to the third millennium BCE, Emperor Yao battles the flood-ravaging demon Gong-gong. After defeating Gong-gong the earth is titled toward the Southeast causing rivers to flow into a maelstrom and hole in the Earth located in the Southeastern Ocean and known as the Weilu.

Likewise in the Huainanzi of the Han Dynasty, we hear of the battles of the fire and water gods before Nu Gua raises the sky from the earth.

After Prince Moonlight's apocalyptic victory, a new world is reconstructed having great peace and opulence.

The advanced millenarian movements in China were concentrated mostly in the South, with the first center at Nanjing. Cults like the White Lotus tradition were concentrated mainly in northern Fujian and northern Jiangxi. Later the messianic movements became strongly centered in southeastern coastal regions like Fujian and eastern Guangdong.

Hindu, Buddhist and Chinese millennial beliefs thus tend to cluster around Narayana or his cognates, and around the specific locations of the Milky Ocean and Svetadvipa, which act as a backdrop for the Visnu incarnations and as birthplace for the final messianic avatar. The geographic reference is of great importance and like Penglai and Shambhala the precise location is somewhat "hidden" adding to its mystery and allure.

Prester John's communications starting in the 12th century laid claim to the Indies including the Garden of Eden, which in the view of the Ptolemaic astronomers of Muslim Spain, would rest 180 degrees east of the Fortunate Isles in the Sea of Chin. According to Prester John himself, it was from his kingdoms that the final battle would break out, and there one could find both the lost Ten Tribes and apocalyptic Gog and Magog nations. A descendent of Prester John would lead the battle ushering in the Second Coming. Such messages sparked a new wave of voyages in search of the Milky Ocean and the island of Narayana.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Doniger, Wendy. Women, Androgynes, and Other Mythical Beasts, University of Chicago Press, 1980, p. 155.

Ownby, David. "Chinese Millenarian Traditions: The Formative Age," The American Historical Review 104.5 (1999): 38 pars. 14 Nov. 2006 <http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ahr//104.5/ah001513.html>.

Glossary: Conjunctions and Astrology

In Moorish Spain universities arose in cities like Toledo, dominated by Moor and Jewish scholars, with great emphasis on the fields of astronomy and astrology.

By the 12th century, European Christians also attended these centers of learning and began translating Arabic works, including some of the lost Greek works preserved only in Arabic. Gerard of Cremona translated Ptolemy's Almagest in Toledo, which was the world's foremost translation center of Arabic works into Latin.

So it should come as no surprise that Wolfram von Eschenbach claimed that the bard Kyot had translated Arabic texts that he obtained from the "heathen" known as Flegatanis.

The heathen Flegetanis could tell us how all stars set and rise again...With his own eyes, the heathen Flegetanis saw and told of hidden secrets, that he was shy to speak of, in the constellations. He declared the Grail, whose name he read in the stars..."

-- Parzival

In Parzival itself, Cundrie the prophetess from near the Ganges recites the names of the stars in Latino-Arabic revealing that such knowledge as found in Toledo was possessed by von Eschenbach himself.

Conjunctions of stars and planets signaled the advent of new cycles and holy messengers according to the Muslim astrologer Albumasar. First translated by Joannis Hispalensis (John of Seville) in the mid-12th century, his works al-Madkhal al-kabir (Introductorium maius) and Dalalat al-ashkhas al-ulwiyya (De magnis coniunctionibus et annorunt revolutionibus) had great influence on Western thinking.

In particular, Albumasar introduced the idea that the great religions or philosophies were all revealed after special conjunctions of Jupiter with one of the six planets. He also created an Islamicized version of the 'three Hermes' legend found in the Greco-Egyptian Hermetic tradition.

According to Albumasar, various incarnations of Hermes visit the earth to introduce new religions or philosophies. In the west, the first Hermes was Idris known in the Old Testament as Enoch. The second was Budhasaf of Babylon and the third Aris (Horus) of Egypt. Interestingly all these prophets were said, by either Albumasar or his followers, to have originated in, or to have learned their arts in the Indies (al-Hind) or China.

An eastern connection is not surprising when you consider that Albumasar hailed from Balkh in Afghanistan and was probably familiar with medieval Zoroastrian millennarianism.

Roger Bacon and Pierre d'Ailly, following Albumasar, propounded that five prophets corresponding to five of the six planets had already appeared on earth during conjunctions with Jupiter. Each had introduced a major world religious or philosophical system.

The last (false) prophet in their view, the Antichrist, would come with the grand conjunction of Jupiter and the Moon.

Indian tradition also links the last age with a conjunct Jupiter-Moon but in reference to the savior king Kalki rather than the Antichrist.

At this time the Lord will incarnate in a brahmin family in the village known as Sambhala, and will be known as Kalki. With unrivalled majesty he will soar across the sky, destroying millions of brigands in ruler's disguise. Then will the Satyayuga [Age of Truth] commence -- an age of righteousness and holiness. Satyayuga will begin when the Sun, Moon and Jupiter rise together in the same house with Pushya asterism in the ascendant.

-- Bhagavata Purana 12:2

Albumasar popularized as well the concept that regular conjunctions of the two slowest-moving planets -- Saturn and Jupiter -- heralded grand world events, both good and bad. Beginning in about the 14th century, these Saturn-Jupiter conjunctions were of great interest to Europeans particularly in light of the frequent plagues that ravaged the continent. People from royalty to the peasantry payed close attention to publications of conjunction-linked prophecies by astrologers like Cristoforo Landino, Marsilio Ficino and Roger Bacon.

By far the most famous of these prophets was Michel de Nostradamus of Provence, France. In his writings, he may have referred to the last prophetic conjunction of Jupiter with the Moon when he mentions "the sixth bright celestial splendor" (C1:Q80).

Frequently Nostradamus tells of a king or other significant person of the East quite reminiscent of the Zoroastrian prophecies of the savior king from Kangdez. And he mentions a king linked with line of Hermes:

Long awaited he will never return
In Europe, he will appear in Asia:
One of the league issued from the great Hermes,
And he will grow over all the Kings of the East.

-- Les centuries C10:Q75

Given the state of affairs in European astrology at the time, this could certainly be a reference to the Hermes of the sixth Jupiter conjunction described by Bacon and d'Ailly.

Astrological conjunctions throughout the world

Astrological conjunctions also appear at the beginning of new epochs in India, China, Mesopotamia and Mesoamerica.

In India, China and Mesopotamia, all planets are said to have been aligned in the same location at the start of the great age. The sexagenary cycles of China and India appear to originate from the Saturn-Jupiter conjunction cycle. As discussed earlier in the blog, such cycles may also have influenced the Mayan calendar.

The conjunction of the Sun with the Moon, Venus, the Pleiades, Orion and Sirius is widely observed in many cultures. The ancient Polynesians saw conjunctions as signs and omens, and the navigator Hawai`iloa was advised to sail toward an auspicious conjunction involving Jupiter during his discovery voyage to Hawai`i.

Many Austronesian peoples looked for auspicious times for battles and other events in the conjunction of the Moon with certain fixed stars or planets.

According to Chinese accounts like the P'ing-chou k'o-t'an, the inhabitants of Sanfotsi were expert astronomers, and especially skilled in the prediction of eclipses.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

McCluskey, Stephen C. Astronomies and Cultures in Early Medieval Europe, Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Needham, Joseph. Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 5, Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Part 4, Spagyric..., Cambridge University Press, 2003, p. 412.

Selin, Helaine and Sun Xiaochun. Astronomy Across Cultures: The History of Non-Western Astronomy, Springer, 2000.

Glossary: Letters of Prester John

When analyzing the letters of Prester John, we should distinguish between those said to have been received by the Popes or kings of Europe, and those circulated for general public consumption.

Obviously some of the latter were designed more for entertainment purposes than anything else.

However, when we learn that the Pope sent his personal physician, Magister Philippus, on a mission to Prester John, the completely fictional character of the king becomes a more difficult proposition.

Although many copies of the original letters exist, there are numerous variations in the manuscripts.

Actual specimens of letters addressed to the "Emperor of Rome" and the "King of France" are stated to be preserved at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris (Beazely, p. 278).

Pope Alexander III in Indorum regi sacerdotum santissimo (1177) told of Philippus' encounters with the emissaries of Prester John in the East, and the eastern king's desire to learn about the Roman Catholic Church.

Interestingly, while traveler's reports claiming to have found Prester John's kingdom in Central Asia or Ethiopia are seen as authentic, the accounts of this kingdom in "further India" are viewed as completely fictional and/or fraudulent. This includes the original letter attributed to Prester John, the story of John Mandeville and even the account of Nicolo de Conti given centuries after the first letter.

However, as we have noted, two geographically vast trade empires existed in further India at the time that are certainly deserving of consideration. All the more so when we consider that evidence exists that at least one of these empires appears to have had a long-term strategic policy of courting new allies.

Requests for assistance from the Sung emperor by the king of Sanfotsi against his enemies to the south began in the late 10th century. During the same general period over several centuries, Suvarnadvipa engaged in what apparently was an effort to strengthen political ties with eastern and southern India and Tibet. The Srikalacakra Tantra, having links with Suvarnadvipa gurus, contains not only interesting hopeful prophecies of Buddhist victories against invading hordes, but even a manual of the "art of war" as part of its contents. The presence of Suvarnadvipa influence (Sanfotsi/Zabag) in South India and Sri Lanka is also confirmed by independent Chinese and Muslim sources during this period including Ma Tuan-lin and Chau Ju-Kua.

We know that prior to the initial Prester John letters there had been visits by an "archbishop of India" to Constantinople, and by a "Patriarch John" from the same country to Rome in 1122. These visits are confirmed by two apparently independent sources, one anonymous and the other from Odo of Reims who was in Rome during the event.

These accounts confirm that people at least claiming to be authorities from India were able to venture to the West some 50 years before the first Prester John letter. As we know that merchants and even kings from Suvarnadvipa were journeying to India during this period, the necessary linkage existed.

Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, published only about 35 years after the first letter, was the first in a series of Grail epics that sought to give European roots to the eastern king and to link him with a sacred relic known as the Holy Grail. In this literature, the Grail almost invariably returns to a mountain in far India.

If the letters had some hints of being penned by a Nestorian, this would not automatically effect its authenticity. Cosmas Indicopleustes refers to Nestorians from Siam as early as the 6th century CE. The Persian writer Abu Saliah mentions during the 7th century, a Nestorian church at Fansur (Sumatra or Borneo).

John of Marignolli says that he encounters "Christians" at Sabah during the 14th century, when travelling from China to India.

Even the letters themselves tend to imply they were written by someone in Prester John's service, which according to the king included 'Frankish' knights. We might relate this to Nicolo de Conti's claim much later of having served in the the court of Prester John during his 15th century travels to Asia.

After the Mongol conquests, as Europeans began traveling again to India, and particularly to South India, two advocates of the establishment of a Christian navy in the Indian Ocean arise in Europe. They were Jordanus of Columbum and Marino Sanuto, both of whom located Regnum Joannis Prebyteri in the far Indies. Their world maps though were still Ptolemaic in fashion showing the easternmost islands as part of the Asian continent.

Sanuto wrote an appeal to the Pope for a new crusade known as Secreta fidelium crucis "The Secrets of the Faithful of the Cross."

In this work, Sanuto included many maps, apparently the work of Pietro Vesconte, that were the first to show significant advances over earlier Christian maps. They were known as portolanos, discussed previously in this blog in relation to Austronesian wind compasses, and were valuable new additions to the navigational repetoire of European seafarers.

A pattern of contact, of which I have endeavored to lay out in this blog, continues up to the arrival of Portuguese fleets in the 1500s. The flow of knowledge from the East may be coded in von Eschenbach's account of the visitors Feirfez, Cundrie and Malcreatiure from the kingdom of Tribalibot "near the Ganges." The author even credits the tale of Parzival to a mysterious "pagan" from Toledo. The Grail itself may also allude partly to this new knowledge from the Far East.

It is impossible to say whether Luções "helpfulness" to the Portuguese had strategic rather than purely mercantile or mercenary motivations. However, the situation in Lusung certainly paints a picture of a kingdom in flux.

The land granted to Chinese migrants on the Pasig River, the first major foreign Chinese settlement in history, may have been a conscious policy to curry protectorate sentiments with Ming emperors.

Lusung at the arrival of the Spanish was divided between Islam and the indigenous religions. While the king in Tondo, Lakandula, appeared indigenous by his name, his close neighbor Soliman of Manila was a "Moro."

In the end, one can say that according to the thesis of this blog the lords of the dragon and bird clan succeeded in halting the Muslim juggernaut and the threat from the South, but only at great costs. The letters of "Prester John" worked. However, the land ended up colonized anyway and at one point the Lusung lords could not even conduct trade from village to village with each other under Spanish rule.

However, from the standpoint of the old trading clan the situation could be seen as profound according to their own worldview that I have attempted to reconstruct. Two conflicting exclusive ideologies, from the same root, meeting full circle back at the place where it all started, after nearly a millenium of intense warfare.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Beazely, C. Raymond (Editor). The Texts and Versions of John de Plano Carpini and William de Rubruquis, London: The Hakluyt Society, 1903.

Coedes, G. The Indianized States of Southeast Asia, University of Hawaii Press, 1975-06.

Manansala, Paul. The Kingdom of Prester John, http://asiapacificuniverse.com/pkm/presterjohn.htm, 2003.

The Long Count

The Kalajnana uses the Kaliyuga era starting in 3102 BC to predict events in the future. The dates of 5101 (1999) and 5105 (2003) are given for the return of Kalki to establish "Viradharma," a South Indian form of Siva worship (Virasaivism). The Indian year starts in spring, so 5101 would last from spring 1999 to spring 2000.

In Nostradamus famed collection of prophecies known as Centuries, one of his most well-known quatrains (X. 72) reads:

In the year 1999, in the seventh month
the great king of terror shall come from the sky
he shall resurrect the great king of the Angolmois
before and after Mars rules

This quatrain has been linked by some with the coming golden age alluded to in other Nostradamus prophecies, although it's vagueness has given rise to some disagreement.

Nostradamus saw the period from creation to the end of the world lasting 8,000 years and ending in 3797 AD, but he also envisioned lesser cycles similar to that of the Great Week. Using the above data, Nostradamus would have the world begin in 4203 BC, although one of his writings, possibly due to some error, results in counts indicating 4757 or 4758 years before the common era.

European Christian tradition usually follows Eusebius of Caesarea who gives a date of about 3947 BC.

The most common used dating for the start of the Mayan calendar is 3114 BC and the calendar lasts for about 5,125 years. So if we take the date of 1999 in Nostradamus quatrain as proximate to the end/start point in a system of ages, we have:

	Start date	End Date	Duration
Mayan	3114 BC	2012 AD	5,125 years
Nostradamus	4203 BC	1999 AD	6,202 years
Kalajnana	3102 BC	1999/2003 AD	5,101 (5,103) years

I suggested earlier that the start of these cycles may have originated from knowledge diffused by the Nusantao starting in the fourth millennium BC. The difference in precise dates may be due to the fact that the original dates were astrological in nature rather than calendar counts. Different systems used in calculating back to the astronomical phenomenon resulted in varying but still generally close dates.

The Biblical estimates come from the sums of genealogy lists and confusion in this regard may have lead to considerable error. However, considering that the ante-diluvian genealogies appear related to Sumerian king-lists, an astronomical date from the latter tradition is warranted. I believe that would coincide with the period when Spica was located over the latitudes marking the Anu and Enlil path junction. The orientation of building toward this star would resemble in some whay the Qiblah of a mosque oriented toward Mecca, or the Jewish synagogue oriented toward Jerusalem.

The start of the Egyptian calendar varies according to views on what is known as the Sothic cycle. However, from the astronomical viewpoint, the calendar would be calibrated with the coincidence of the heliacal rising of Sirius and the summer solstice at around 3300 BC.

But what of the duration of these cycles? The year 1999 in Nostradamus presumably could have been borrowed from the Kalajnana. An interesting theory offered by scholar Rudy Cambier suggests that Nostradamus borrowed his Centuries from the work of 14th century Cistercian monk Yves de Lessines.

While we will not discuss Cambier's theories on the meaning of the Centuries, he does suggest a connection with the Templars. As you may remember, I mentioned previously a Cistercian abbey in Portugal where an early world map was found. The Cistercian order had close ties with the Templars since the time of Bernard de Clairvaux who had helped to obtain the order's rule. When the Templars were persecuted many sought refuge at Cistercian monasteries.

Did Yves de Lessines have access to Kalajnana traditions through some Templar intermediaries? Unfortunately, there is little more information to make a guess on this one.

However, we can say that the general duration for these cycles does appear to have an astronomical link. In the various traditions, the idea of a conjunction or alignment particularly with regard to the planets is apparent.

According to Berossus, the Great Year ends when the planets come together in one constellation. In Indian tradition, the Kaliyuga started when all the planets were aligned near the star Revati. The savior Kalki comes during a conjunction in the lunar asterism Pushya.

Indeed, with regard to the traditional date for the start of Kaliyuga, the planets did form a very loose conjunction near Revati. It was not the exact alignment suggested in the literature, but then again such precision does not seem to have been the major concern.

The Mayan calendar is fairly clearly set forth. The Mayans had various calendar counts that involved both planetary cycles and the Mayan sacred number counts.

The sacred counting system involved recurring cycles of counts of 20 and 13. Their astronomical observations mainly were concerned with the synodic periods of planets, i.e., the time period between conjunctions of each planet with the Sun. However, the Mayans payed much attention to Venus and had additional counts for this planet.

Conjunctions of these various calendar counts were considered holy to the Mayans. And the grand conjunction of nearly all of them made up their entire sacred calendar known as the Long Count.

The Long Count consisted of 5,200 tun, the Mayan year of 360 days, which converts to about 5,125 solar years. In order to get all their cycles to coincide neatly, the Mayans rounded off planetary cycles and sometimes added an extra day. Again, precision was not as important as the value of achieving a nice round sacred number.

Therefore in 2012, if one accepts the common start date of 3114 BC, the following list of calendar counts will coincide for the first time in 5125 years:

Cycles coinciding at end of Long Count

Cycle	Duration	Total in Cycle
Baktun	144,000 days, 400 tun	13
52 Tun/72 Almanac Cycle	18,720 days	100
Katun	7,200 days, 20 tun	260
Nine Sacred Almanac/Twenty 117-Day Cycle	2,340 days	800
Triple Sacred Almanac[Mars Synodic Period]	780 days	2,400
585-Day Cycle[Venus Synodic Period]	585 days	3,200
Double Sacred Almanac Triple Lunar Half-Node Cycle	520 days	3,600
400 day cycle[Jupiter Synodic Period?]	400 days	4,680
Tun	360 days	5,200
Tzolkin	260 days	7,200
Venus Visibility as Evening Star	250 days	7,488
Cycle Associated with Rain God [Mercury Synodic Period]	117 days	16,000
Venus Invisibility at Superior Conjunction	90 days	20,800
Five Trecena Cycle	65 days	28,800
Haab Calendar Round	52 days	36,000
30-Day Lunation	30 days	62,400
Uinal	20 days	93,600
Trecena	13 days	144,000
Venus Invisibility at Inferior Conjuction	8 days	234,000
Glyph G Cycle Lords of the Night (Bolon-ti-ku)	9 days	208,000
Two, Three and Five Day Cycles	various	various

The table above suggests the Long Count is based on a "great" version of the short count with the katun as the specific unit: 20 X 13 = 260 katuns or 5,200 tuns. All the synodic periods, used to calculate heliacal risings, coincide except that of Saturn. So we might look at the Long Count as timed to a mutual rising of five of the planets from behind the Sun's bright rays coinciding with the sacred number calendar rounds.

The astrologers of the Kalajnana searching for a conjunction similar to that near Revati in 3102 BC, probably used methods like those of the Mayans in finding the least common multiples of the various planetary conjunctions. Apparently this landed them on the date of Kali 5101 or 1999-2000.

That year was not far off the mark as 5101 ended in spring 2000 about a month before a seven planet conjunction near Revati. This conjunction like that of 3102 BC was not very precise however with an orb (error) of about 35 degrees.

The Long Count (5,125 years) and the Kalajnana cycle (5,101 years) are relatively close to a fifth of the precession or about 5,156 years. The Nostradamus cycle (6,202 years) is less accurately a fourth of the precession or about 6,445 years.

Of the planets that come into alignment at the coming new age, Venus stands out in many cultures. Quetzalcoatl, Isis, Inanna and Ishtar all have close association with Venus. The stars Sirius and Spica are likewise linked with this planet. Tala, as the Morning Star, heralds the renewal of the great cycle.

A Kiribati sky dome or maneaba (maneapa) used to teach children about the sky and stars

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

The Return of the Virgin

“Now the Virgin returns, the reign of Saturn returns, now a new generation descends from heaven on high. Only do thou, pure Lucina, smile on the birth of the child, under whom the iron brood shall first cease, and a golden race spring up throughout the world!"

So said the Roman writer Virgil in the 1st century BC in his Fourth Eclogue. Aratus who wrote a well-known poem on astronomy claimed that Themis the goddess of justice left the world and took refuge in Virgo at the end of the last Golden Age. She returns only at the dawn of the new Golden Age according to Virgil, indicating a decline in virtue and justice in the interceding period.

While some believe the reference to Virgo may refer to the precessional cycle of the equinoxes, another possibility is an oblique reference to Spica, alpha Virginis, as the bearing marker for the geographic origin of the age.

The orientation of the Neo-Babylonian temples brings to mind the Sumerian concept of the Me, the systems of measurements, rules and guidelines for the arts, crafts and sciences. The Me were especially associated with the Seven Sages, the abgal who come from the sea.

Abgal are said to provide the proportions of the ziggurat as model of the cosmic mountain, a structure where the measure of the base width is significantly greater than the temple height. This gives an image of a broad low mountain rather than a steep or cone-shaped one.

Spica also has significance in ancient Egyptian astronomy. A temple to Menat in Thebes built around 3200 BC appears oriented toward that star. At least one temple in the New Kingdom city of Akhenaton also appears so aligned although Spica's declination had changed considerably by that time.

Livio Catullo Stecchini, whose expertise was metrology, the history of measurement, believed that Spica served as the ancient meridian in Egypt during certain periods. He notes that in their rectangular sky charts, Spica is placed near the center.

If you remember, Sirius and Venus were both said to have special links with the Egyptian goddess Isis and the Sumerian goddess Inanna. Spica was also closely related to these goddesses, and appears to be from this association that the sign of Virgo originated. In Sumer, both Spica and Sirius are called ban "shooting bow."

Many megaliths also seem aligned on Spica at different periods with no apparent link to equinotical points. This suggests that the star was revered for some other reason.

The timing of the return of the Golden Age has vexed many cultures. Some have equated it with the Great Year, the precession of the equinoxes, when after about 25,920 years, the stars return to their "original" position.

However, there were also shorter cycles usually lasting around 5,000 to 6,000 years. These may have been attempts to divide the Great Year, but in many of the involved cultures there is no clear evidence of knowledge of the precession.

In Jewish-Christian circles, the idea of a "Great Week" of 6,000 years followed by a 1,000 year Golden Age or Great Sabbath was innovated with the calendar calibrated to start at around 4000 BC. In the far-off Mayan culture, the calendar started in the first few centuries before 3000 BC, depending on which estimate you use, and lasts about 5,125 solar years.

The Hindu cycle starts at 3102 BC and although the present Kaliyuga eras last for much longer than even a Great Year, an interesting prophetic text from South India also hints at a shorter age.

The Kalajnana written about 1,000 years ago mentions dates like 1999 and 2003 in association with the coming of a golden age and the savior king Kalki, who is also known in the text as Virabhoga Vasantaraya.

The year 1999 suprisingly enough also appears some five centuries later in the prophecies of the renowned French prophet Nostradamus. Next we will examine whether there might be any connection between these dates so widely spread apart in time and place.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

The Black Banners of the East

Although the imagery is more stylized than earlier descriptions of the fiery, smoking mountains of Eden and the Sinai, the basic ideas are still present. The sea of glass/crystal mingled with fire, for example, is reminiscent of the great quantities of volcanic glass such as obsidian produced by eruptions.

However, the localization is never quite complete. The great 'war in heaven' is still placed in the mount of Eden, the cosmic site of the original conflict. It was here that Tala, the Morning Star, descended to earth. The motif linking the stars with the cycle of conflict occurs in many traditions including those of the Hebrews and Zoroastrians.

It is said that from the east and from the quarters of Hind or China (he will appear) and as appears from the religion, the sign at his birth will be the falling of the stars.

The Persian Rivayats of Hormazyar Framarz and others

The Muslims also naturally incorporated these ideas into their prophetic views of the latter days.

The Black Banners will come to you from the East, their hearts are like iron. Whosoever hears about them let them go crawling -- even over ice!

Hadith of Thawban

The predicted "Army coming from the East" is led by a man called Mansur. Generally the location of the "East" is obscure although it is indicated that he shall approach Mecca from the direction of Transoxania (Uzbekistan and parts of Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan). Some modern fundamentalists believe that Osama bin Laden is none other than the Mansur who will lead his troops from Afghanistan in a great world battle. These armies carrying black banners come to the aid of al-Mahdi, the future messianic king.

In certain Hadiths, al-Mahdi and some of his companions are described as "Masters of the Dwellers of Paradise."

We are the children of Abd Al Muttalib, the Masters of the Dwellers of Paradise myself, Hamza, Ali, Jafar, Al Hasan, Al Hussain and Al Mahdi

Anas

Although the Muslim version appears to localize things more in Central Asia, we still have ideas similar to those in the Jewish and Christian traditions. For example, the water that seems to be at the same time fire, and the paradise that appears as hell, but in this case associated with al-Dajjal the Antichrist:

The anti-Christ will appear and with him will be both water and fire. That which people perceive to be water will be fire that burns and that which people perceive to be fire will be cool and sweet water. If any among you encounters him, you should jump into that which you perceive to be fire because it is sweet and palatable water.

Hadith of Ribi

I shall tell you something about the anti-Christ that no Prophet has told his people -- he is one-eyed and will have with him what appears to be Paradise and Hell. That which he calls Paradise will be Hell, and that which he calls Hell is Paradise.

Abu Hurayrah

Among the Ismailis, the Hidden Imam is stationed in the "Green Isle" where the Tree of Paradise and the Spring of Life are found. The Hidden Imam in this tradition returns as al-Mahdi. Paradise is viewed often as an archipelago of five linked islands although the location is obscure. In latter times, it was said to be in the "intermediate East" a location sometimes earthly, sometimes otherworldly of the pre-heavenly abode of the departed.

Muslim views of the apocalypse thus hold much in common with those found in the religions that preceded it in the region.

Ideas of a great end-times battle in various traditions are also found in prophecies which give some rather specific details including chronological dates. We will examine how these timings appear to correlate with the epoch of the ancient eruptions suggested here as initiating the great cycle of conflict.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala

River of Fire and "Living Water"

In the Bible, the motif of the holy volcano is first associated with Eden, but later gets localized until eventually in a highly-converted form, one sees it even transfered to Zion and/or the Mount of Olives.

In some cases, we see preserved the destructive attributes of Pinatubo in the images of a river of lake of fire:

I watched till thrones were put in place, and the Ancient of Days was seated; His garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, its wheels a burning fire; a fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him. A thousand thousands ministered to Him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him. The court was seated, and the books were opened. I watched then because of the sound of the pompous words which the horn was speaking; I watched till the beast was slain, and its body destroyed and given to the burning flame.

Daniel 7:9,10

And I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire, and those who have the victory over the beast, over his image and over his mark and over the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, having harps of God.

Revelation 15:2

The lake of fire later became associated with the Underworld, although it is stated that even Hades is cast into the lake.

Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone.

Revelation 19:20

And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.

Revelation 20:9-15

These great judgements are prophesied for the "end times" when a messianic savior comes to the world. This savior is sometimes portrayed as a king or sometimes as God himself. Isaiah often refers to an eastern king in verses that some believe refer to the future messiah described as "one from the rising sun who calls on my [the Lord's] name. He treads on rulers as if they were mortar, as if he were a potter treading the clay." (Isaiah 41:25)

Apparently the very same river and lake elsewhere are portrayed in a less threatening manner.

Zechariah refers to the Mt. Olives splitting asunder but not in the sense of a disaster but rather to open up the springs of "living waters." However, these same waters are said to cause a plague against those "who fought against Jerusalem."

And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, Which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, From east to west, making a very large valley; half of the mountain shall move toward the north And half of it toward the south. And in that day it shall be that living waters shall flow from Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea And half of them toward the western sea; In both summer and winter it shall occur. And this shall be the plague with which the LORD will strike all the people who fought against Jerusalem: Their flesh shall dissolve while they stand on their feet, Their eyes shall dissolve in their sockets, And their tongues shall dissolve in their mouths. It shall come to pass in that day that a great panic from the LORD will be among them. Everyone will seize the hand of his neighbor, and raise his hand against his neighbor's hand.

Zechariah 14:4,8,12-14

The Apostle John saw the waters of the river and lake as a type of crystal that comes to adorn the New Jerusalem.

And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

Revelation 22:1,2

Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne. And He who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, in appearance like an emerald. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and on the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white robes; and they had crowns of gold on their heads. And from the throne proceeded lightnings, thunderings, and voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. Before the throne there was a sea of glass, like crystal.

Revelation 4:2-6

We can see there that the fiery mountain of Eden mentioned in Genesis, Ezekiel and Enoch is converted to Mt. Zion. The river that "came out from Eden to water the paradise" in the second chapter of Genesis now flows either from the temple or from a newly-created valley that splits the Mount of Olives.

Indeed the creation of the valley reminds us also of the creation of the double volcano or the double peaked volcano, each possessing its own crater with another large crater between them. This middle crater is sometimes visualized as a third peak or mountain which has collapsed creating a valley.

Isaiah tells us that before the great judgement a ruler shall be called from the "isles" and from the East.

Be silent before me, you islands! Let the nations renew their strength! Let them come forward and speak; let us meet together at the place of judgment. Who has stirred up one from the east, calling him in righteousness to his service. He hands nations over to him and subdues kings before him. He turns them to dust with his sword, to windblown chaff with his bow."

Isaiah 41:1, 2

And in what may even be an illusion to the bird clan, we have:

From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do.

Isaiah 46:11

In some cases, it is the Lord who comes as savior in person from the east into the eastern gate.

Then he brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary, which faces east; and it was shut. And he said to me, "This gate shall remain shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it; for the LORD, the God of Israel, has entered by it; therefore it shall remain shut. Only the prince may sit in it to eat bread before the LORD; he shall enter by way of the vestibule of the gate, and shall go out by the same way.

Ezekiel 44:1-3

"...the gate that looketh toward the east: And the glory of the Lord came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east."

Nehemiah 3:29

In the 26th chapter of Ezekiel, Eden is described together with other nations involved in the great mercantile trade. We often see in the Bibilical prophecies that nations from the direction of "Tarshish and Ophir" play an important role. These may be the "kings of the east" referred to in the Book of Revelation who cross the Euphrates in preparation for the great apocalyptic battle.

And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.

Revelations 16: 12

The apocryphal Testament of Dan even appears to equate the "New Jerusalem" with Eden: "And the saints shall rest in Eden, and in the New Jerusalem shall the righteous rejoice, and it shall be unto the glory of God for ever."

The Parsis and Zoroastrians also believed in a savior king who would come from the East. In the Zand-i-Vahuman, he is described as coming from the direction of China and the Indies.

O Zartosht the Spitaman [Zoroaster]! When the demon with dishevelled hair of the race of Wrath comes into notice in the eastern quarter, in the direction of Chinistan [China], it is said - some have said among the Hind - is born a prince; it
is his father, a prince of the Kayanian race, who approaches the women, and a religious prince is born to him; he calls his name Warharan [Bahrám] the Varjavánd, some have said Shahpur.

The vision of heaven and hell as existing in the same place is explained perfectly by the volcano of the lush tropical forests. Where, sometimes with little warning, paradise is transformed into a fiery hell.

However, the newly-formed krater from the eruption will if the conditions are right, provide a lake and rivers filled with the "living waters" of immortality, and the land will be duly blessed again.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

The Golden Age

Earlier, the concept of "suns" emerging from mountains, including symbolic pyramids, at the start of new cycles was examined. Of particular interest is that of the Aztec concept of the present age as the "Fifth Sun."

The explanation I have proposed for the image of the Sun rising from the top of a mountain on a pillar composed of fire, light and/or smoke, is that of a volcanic eruption.

The idea of a new Golden Age heralded by such an eruption is found in the Javanese prophecy of Sabdapalon, the priest of Majapahit ruler Brawijaya V. When the king converted to Islam, Sabdapalon predicted a decline that would last for five centuries until the eruption of fabled Mt. Meru (Sumeru). At that time, Sabdapalon himself would return to help usher in the new age.

The idea of multiple suns is rather widespread throughout the world. They are found scattered also throughout insular Southeast Asia. The element of different ages is not always apparent, but the tales of many suns are placed at the start of the present era or creation. Usually they include the death of one of these suns at the founding of our epoch.

In the dualistic world of the Nusantao, the lesser and greater cycles of fortune would have almost surely formed part of their worldview. This cyclic vision I believe can be found in various prophetic traditions of the world pointing to the rise of a new messianic leader of the Dragon and Bird Clan. Indeed, this was the basis, I proposed, for the messianic legends of the Rigden of Shambhala and Prester John.

In the "Old World," this leader was often known as the "King of the East" since he came from the "farthest East" as known at that time.

Among the Nusantao, the great hero is repeatedly linked symbolically with the descent of a planet or star. Thus, like the heavenly body it eventually departs only to rise again. Some traditions have been preserved stories of the returning hero of the Golden Age as with Lumauig in the Philippines, Lono in Hawai`i and Ratu Adil in Java.

As in the beginning, everything starts at the cosmic axis, and so is the case with the ending of the old cycle and the starting of the new.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

Transition

Before the end of the 16th century, the Lusung kingdom had been colonized by the West although the specific Sambali area where Mt. Pinatubo is located was largely covered with forest growth at this time, and was fiercely guarded by Aeta and Sambal peoples.

The spread of Islam to the north had been stopped but just barely. We won't explore what happened to the old kings of the mountain, but instead will investigate how the Dragon and Bird Clan influenced the world of prophecy and messianism in much of the world.

But first we will recap the historical outline we have presented here. Then after the section of prophecy we will have an epilogue bringing us to present times after which the narrative portion of this blog will be completed. From that point, I will compile as extensive a glossary as my time permits of the symbology, archetypes, myths, artifacts and other evidence presented here, as well as some not yet presented. Also, periodic news briefs related to this blog well be posted. I will also try to arrange the blog into one easy-to-read and ordered pdf file for download, hopefully with some interesting new images.

Let's start off with a timeline of some the events suggested here (approximate dates):

Nusantao Timeline 33,000 - 11,000 BP:  Shell mound building culture in Vietnam and possibly Sundaland  |  | 20,000 BP:  Edge-ground tools in Australia, classified as "Hoabinhian" by Solheim  |  | 17,000 BP:  Jomon culture in Japan makes first pottery,  build "mega-middens"  |      |      |      Toggle harpoon by 7,000 BP  | 11,500 BP:  Rapid-rise sea floods, Hoabinhian  migrations    |      |  |  Spirit Cave culture near Thai-Myanmar border  | 9,000 - 8,000 BP:  Proto-Austronesian migrations due to  sea flooding, fully-polished tools  |                        |  |        Maglemose shell mounds, Denmark prior to 8,000 BP  | 7,000 BP:  Nusantao trade network already underway,  E. Indonesia to China coast  |                            |                                  |  |  Ubaid mounds in Persian Gulf    Siberian/Arctic shell mounds  |  | 5,500 BP:  Pinatubo eruption, allied Dragon and Bird  Clan dominate Nusantao network  |                                                    |  |          Rival clans expelled from "Eden," move southeast  | 5,500 BP:  Extended contacts with eastern African coast  |  | 5,000 BP:  Nusantao established in Sumer and on  Atlantic coast of Europe, contacts increasing with Americas  |  | 4,000 - 3,500 BP:  Nusantao spice routes are firmly  established to Africa, extended Pacific exploration/colonization     |                           |  |        Wave of Bronze Age Nusantao influence in N. Europe  | 2,000 BP:  Roman ships begin sailing western leg  of northern spice route, Hindu-Buddhist influences in SE Asia  |  | 1,800 BP: Southeast Asia/South Asia exchange builds  up rapidly  |  | 1,400 -- 1,000 BP:  Islam spreads quickly through  Asia threatening Nusantao trade routes  |  | 1,100 -- 900 BP:  Kalacakra doctrine from SE Asia  filters back to India and Tibet  |  | 1,000 -- 900 BP:  "Prester John" makes significant  contacts with West  |  | 700 BP:  Map-making revolution, European exploration  begins gradually  |  | 500 BP:  Major expansion of European exploration,  "discovery" of "Golden Land"

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

The development of Kalacakra

In eastern Asia and various parts of India, particularly in the East and the South, Buddhism and Hinduism began to fuse through the vehicle of Tantra. The texts make clear that the flow of culture was in both directions.

From Tibet, Burma and China, probably known collectively as Mahacina we hear of substantial Tantric influence. The yab-yum philosophy of the Tibetan Bon religion and the related yin-yang doctrine of Taoism are quite evident in Tantric literature including the Mahacinatantra.

The goddess Tara, who was of utmost importance in both Buddhist and Hindu tantrism, shared many similarities to eastern Asian sea goddesses. She was herself the patron deity of seafarers in Tantric tradition.

In Southeast Asia, we see the rise of important Buddhist learning centers. When I Ching visited Foshi in the seventh century, he stated that "the level of the sciences has reached such a state, that one can say all the knowledge of the world flows from this island."

The great Tantric Buddhist teacher Atisha traveled to insular Southeast Asia to study under the master guru Suvarnadvipi.

Tantric forms of Buddhism like Vajrayana and Kalacakra became strongly identified with this region known as Suvarnadvipa "the Golden Isles." This region was part of what what we have described before as Sakadvipa "the Isles of the Saka (Teak) Tree."

These islands form part of the eastern quarter of the world known as Bhadrasva in the Puranic literature. The Sita River was the great river of Bhadrasva and was said also to be one of the rivers of Sakadvipa. The kingdom of Shambhala was said to lie on the north side of this river.

The region was famed as fragrant with the scent of cloves and rich in gold and other precious metals. The The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea a first century Greek work on Indian Ocean trade mentions the commerce between the markets at the mouth of the Ganges and Chryse "the Gold Isle" the very farthest land to the East.

Among the products from Chryse was said to be the finest tortoise shell in all the Indian Ocean trade. Reports of near-by gold mines are also mentioned. The Chryse merchants apparently used "very large" ships known in the text as colandia.

The Tantric doctrine of Kalacakra will play an important role in the history of this area beginning in about the 8th or 9th century. The Kalacakra like all Tantras has strong dualistic elements combined with the predominant doctrine of cyclic time. The supreme Kalacakra Deity is, in fact, a sort of personification of time, particularly time as a destroying and hence rejuvenating factor.

In the Kalacakra doctrine we see a very strong emphasis on messianism and end-times prophecy linked specifically with the kingdom of Shambhala. This was at a time when the Dragon and Bird Clan was maybe at its highest height but also preparing to face its greatest challenge.

A Tibetan representation of the kingdom of Shambhala

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

Prediction and Prophecy

Early European visitors to Tahiti found that the people were skilled at the art of weather forecasting:

"What took me most in two Indians whom I carried from Otahiti to Oriayatea was that every evening or night, they told me, or prognosticated, the weather we should experience on the following day, as to wind, calms, rainfall, sunshine, sea, and other points, about which they never turned out to be wrong: a foreknowledge worthy to be envied, for, in spite of all that our navigators and cosmographers have observed and written about the subject, they have not mastered this accomplishment (B.G. Corney, (ed. )(1913-19) The Quest and Occupation of Tahiti by Emissaries of Spain during the Years 1772-6 (3 vols.), London, 286-287).

J.C. Beaglehole wrote regarding Tahitian weather prediction:

"The people excell much in predicting the weather, a circumstance of great use to them in their short voyages from Island to Island. They have many various ways of doing this but one only that I know of which I never heard of being practised by Europeans, that is foretelling the quarter of the heavens from whence the wind shall blow by observing the Milky Way, which is generally bent in an arch either one way or the other: this arch they conceive as already acted upon by the wind, which is the cause of its curving, and say that if the same curve continues a whole night the wind predicted by it seldom fails to come some time in the next day; and in this as well as their other predictions we found them indeed not infallible but far more clever than Europeans." (J.C. Beaglehole, (1962) Endeavour Journal Vol. I, 1768-1771, Sydney, p. 368)

Similar accounts of accurate weather forecasting are found in other parts of Polynesia and Micronesia.

The ability to forecast weather no doubt relied on a deep understanding of lunar, solar and other cycles and the way they interacted. This understanding of interaction between polar forces in weather extended by analogy from weather prediction to all cosmic phenomenon.

In binary divination, like the knot system of Micronesia, one gets answers in a form that represents some interaction of two dual forces. To the trained mind, the logical result from this representation can be interpreted.

Another way of predicting the future involved contact with spirits -- gods and ancestors. In the great clan war, the ancestors and friendly spirits were important allies in battle. They had a way of seeing that earthly beings ordinarily do not. The medium could be a woman as with the baylan of the Philippines, or a man. Possession by spirits often resulted in frenzied activity on the part of the medium or oracle.

The spiritual batttle can not go on without consulting the ancestors since they, after all, were the ones who would have started the whole thing. They would know things long since lost through the ravages of time.

Some people in all cultures were also said to be blessed with the gift of foresight. The Nusantao were no different. Probably this can be seen best in the messianic culture of present-day Java.

One hears about prophecies of the Ratu Adil "the King of Righteousness" and the Satria Piningit "Hidden Warrior" in everyday discourse, in news editorials and even in popular comic books and television cartoons. The words of popular or even street soothsayers often make front-page headlines.


Ratu Adil comic book

Messianic cults are first recorded back in the time of King Joyoboyo in the 11th century. His predictions on the future Ratu Adil have been used as a measuring stick in judging Indonesian history and current events.

Sociologists and pyschologists have speculated on humanity's need for future messiahs. Some say that millennial prophecies are borne of desperate times, but there are instances of doomsday prophets in even the most prosperous of societies.

I would propose that among the Nusantao, at least, prophecies were a way of showing that there was really something to their claims of a war between the angels of Heaven. It was a way of showing that they were not mad. In some cases, prophecies were made that would be fulfilled only long after the prophet was gone. One has to believe that they believed in their own abilities to foretell the future.

Painting of Rigden Drakpo from Nicholas Roerich Museum

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

The "King of the East" in ancient and medieval tradition

The concept of the King of the East is intimately linked with that of the King of the Underworld.

In Sumerian literature, Enki, the King of the Abzu, swims to Sumer from the island of Dilmun in the east. The entrance to both the underworld and skyworld was found on Mt. Mashu in Dilmun in the Sea of the Rising Sun.

Enki in the form of a fish-human is the main advisor to humanity from among the Annunaki who had come to Sumer. Among the things conveyed was the idea of the priest-king. Each Sumerian city had a patron god whose instrument was the priest king. The temple of the god was usually in the form of a ziggurat.

The ziggurat is a terraced, truncated pyramid that symbolized the holy mountain of the Sumerians. The flat top of the ziggurat is similar to the appearance of a volcano's profile. Enki would send fish-being sages known as abgal (Akkadian apkallu) from Dilmun to advise the priest-kings.

In ancient India, the first king Yama is also the lord of the underworld both for good souls (Devachan, Yamasabha, Pitriloka, etc.) and bad souls (Kamaloka, Patala, etc.).

Although the location of the underworld is a bit more ambigious here there are both eastern and southern indications. Devachan in Buddhist tradition is placed in Sukhavati, a blessed land to the east of India. The Devas themselves in Vedic literature always come from the East and one faces in that direction when praying to the Devas. On the other hand, one faces the South when praying to the Pitris, the departed ancestral fathers. The southern course of the Sun is known as the way of the Pitris.

The underworld was also associated with the ocean. Patala was said to be located under the earth and in the ocean.

As Dharmaraja, Yama was associated with dharma, the mundane and spiritual law. In fact, the word yama can also mean dharma. Although kingship and priesthood diverged in Indian society, the spiritual law or yama is personified by Yama. He is also the model for kingship in Indian tradition according to the dharmasastras (lawbooks).

The Indian view of the renewal of the ages involves the rise of the king known as Kalki, an avatar of god Visnu, from the village Sambhala. This is similar to the Tibetan tradition of the Golden Age prophesied king Rigden Drakpo who comes from Shambhala, which is likely the same place as in the Indian prophecy. Shambhala is associated with the Sita River, which among the four great rivers of Indian tradition is the river of the East. Shambhala is likely also linked with the Milky Ocean where Visnu is said to slumber on a bed of serpents. The Puranas state that Kalki rises out of the ocean on a white horse during the last days. In the Churning of the Milky Ocean myth, the white horse Ucchaisravas ascends from that ocean.

Indian tradition links the apocalypse with an underwater fiery formation known as the Vadavamukha or "Mare's Head" located far to the east and south. The Vadavamukha sounds much like an underwater volcano and in Indian literature the world is destroyed in a cataclysmic explosion.

Among the Hebrews we also find the idea of an apocalyptic King of the East contained in the prophecies of Isaiah and the Book of Revelation. These prophecies were likely the source of the King of the East motif in the writings of the medieval astrologer Nostradamus.

In Persia also during medieval times, the King of the East as a future savior appears in the Rivayats and other works. The savior king is said to come from the direction of Hind (the Indies) and China.

In Hebrew literature, Melchizedek, the priest-king who meets Abraham may be modeled after the Sumerian prototype. The name Melchizedek means "King of Righteousness" and Hebrew tzedek "uprightness" is roughly the equivalent of the word dharma in India. Thus Melchizedek is very close in meaning to Dharmaraja, the title of Yama.

In medieval times, the King of the East becomes the King of the Indies. The model for Prester John, the king of the Three Indias, and Shahriyar, the 'king of the Indian Isles and China,' in the One Thousand and one Nights is likely the real-life medieval king of the kingdom known to the Muslims as Zabag and to the Chinese as Sanfotsi.

This was a late Nusantao realm located in the eastern Malay Archipelago.

The Medieval Geography of Sanfotsi and Zabag

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Meisami, Julie S. "The King from the East and the End of Days: Myth,
History, and Politics in the Samanid Milieu" (Oxford: Oriental
Institute: 1997.

Moens, J.L., "Srivijaya, Yava en Kataha," Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol XVII, 1940.