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AN ARCHAEOLOGIST SENT BIZARRE IMAGE FOR REFLECTION

In some ages past, a Buddhist woman decided to pay homage to Lord Buddha. Homage could be anything but the best homage was considered to be sacrifice. One could sacrifice anything, but the more close the sacrificed, the more the spirituality. So she cut her ear and placed it in a Stupa and then closed the enclosure after her offering. Powder resin was put on her ear to stop the bleeding. That is one version. Another version that the said lady did something evil in the eyes of the Head monk and he had her ear cut and placed in the Stupa as homage to Lord Buddha. There could be other versions. But a fossilized ear flesh, with perforations for many rings. Some silver, blackened with age. Some in gold ever fresh. Some pearls still shining and blue topaz ever bright. And decayed fossilized flesh for the ages.

The turmoil of war, the fighters leaving things in dust. Razing stupas to the ground. One of them putting his hand n a small clay enclosure and senses metal. The ear came out and he put it in his pocket. The Kabul market, foreigners from all over the world buying trinkets. Haggling and things like that. The result the ear leaves the home country and fly away to another land. The man who bought it literally forgot it for years and years. It had to come out. The supposition is some garage sale.

We love to share things on the internet and people love to share things with us. We were sent this bizarre and fantastic image of a cut ear of a Buddhist woman long dead and gone. It was an omen of love on one hand and repulsion on the other hand. A degraded human flesh is not easy to digest. But we saw the image. We inspected the image. Our blog is about Art and Pakistan. The field of Buddhism is not our field, We are no scholars. We are no experts. But there is a dignity in the ear. Centuries after the death, a Buddhist homage still there.

The lady made an offering to Lord Buddha and asked for his help in her daily life. Perhaps we too can ask Lord Buddha to help us in our hour of distress as we fight the rancid corruption of our times, out to demolish an iconic museum of Pakistan. The will of Allah is in all things. The Divine Principles. Perhaps the sacrifice of an ear of a woman will help us in our time of need.