Towering Mysteries

The Smithsonian ^ | 4-2-2004 | Richard Stone

[blam]

"the Discovery Channel aired a documentary about it last November)"

I saw this documentary, very good. Some of the towers are beautiful.

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[blam]

[JimSEA]

"If there's any mystery surrounding them, it's no doubt partly a product of Western mythology around anything Tibetan and the fact that until recently the Chinese forbade access to the region," says Alex Gardner, a Buddhism specialist at the University of Michigan. "I don’t see how they could be called 'unknown' when they are visible for miles, and the region is crisscrossed with trading routes and now automobile roads."

I am sure this guy irritates you as much as he does me. Arrogant academic twit that he is. Dismissive "experts" like this extinguish the talent and ability of their grad students. Rant over

What is your take on the towers. The shape throws me. The Mongols sweeping through this area some 400 years after the towers were apparently built could account for the lack of any accounts or records.

[Fedora]

I guess the time frame for that older tower in Kongpo would be 900-1100 AD--contemporary with the Viking-Muslim trade in the Baltic and Eastern Europe ('til about 1050, says my Anchor Atlas of World History, V. 1, 131: "Because [the Vikings] controlled the Rus. trade-lines (the Dnieper to Byzantium, the Volga to the Arab world), the emphasis of world trade shifted to Sweden (Birka); after 900 it shifted to Haithabu. . .More important than the trade with Greece was that with the Arabs (silver from Western Turkestan and Afghanistan: find of 40,000 Arab silver coins on Gotland). . .Viking trade ceased c. 1050."), with the Muslim penetration of India, and with the Tang-Sung period in China.

[Fedora]

> says Alex Gardner, a Buddhism specialist at the University of Michigan

I am sure this guy irritates you as much as he does me. Arrogant academic twit that he is. Dismissive "experts" like this extinguish the talent and ability of their grad students. Rant over

LOL! You mean you don't think being in Michigan gives this guy a special insight into what was happening in Tibet 1,000 years ago? :) I forwarded this article to my monk friend from Tibet; I'll let you know what his reaction is to this guy--as a general rule he has some pretty unflattering opinions on academic Buddhist scholars :)

[BenLurkin]

I'm sure that building them seemed like a good idea at the time.

[Kirkwood]

Pictures?

[farmfriend]

Gods, Graves, Glyphs
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[eeaaggllee11]

ping!

[BradyLS]

"Her most important contribution is the attempt to date the towers,"

Where would they go, I wonder? Being stone towers, they'd probably enjoy rock concerts.

[BradyLS]

Seriously, I'd thought I'd read in a National Geographic a few years back that one archeoligist studying these structures found evidence of Christian Iconography dating from about a thousand years ago in one of these structures. Some preliminary research led the student toi suggest that the tower might have housed a Christian monastery at one point.

[EggsAckley]

Sure wish there were some pictures of the towers. ~</:o(

The bit about them being 12-pointed and earthquake resistant is intriguing to me. My house is 12-sided (do-decahedron,) and in our big '89 quake, the damage to the house was purely cosmetic. The builder had touted the design as "earthquake proof" and I was amazed when the foundation and frame stayed pristine, even ON AN EPICENTER! Interesting that the 12-point towers resist quakes too.

[Joe 6-pack]

"Yet suppose further. Suppose that all worlds, all universes, met at a single nexus, a single pylon, a Tower. And within it, a stairway, perhaps rising to the Godhead itself. Would you dare climb to the top, gunslinger? Could it be that somewhere above all of endless reality, there exists a room?..."

[Old Professer]

Where are the pictures; the author surely didn't one well enough for me to see it, all I see are lighthouses with guy wires.

[Old Professer]

I meant to say the author didn't paint one for me.

[Mr. Jeeves]

Who built them? When? Why?—nobody seemed to have a clue.

"In his house in (Tibet) dead Cthulhu waits dreaming..."

[tet68]

"...and when the monks computer finally printed out
the last name of God...............the stars quietly
began to wink out..." From an old SF short story.

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

"The Nine Billion Names of God", by Arthur C. Clarke.

IIRC.

[Little Ray]

Star-shaped towers - Cthuhlu Mythos ping?