Question by No Chance Without Derp: How did the ancient Egyptian religion influence Tibetan Buddhism?
I know there are some similarities, such as “The Book of the Dead”, and some animal-headed deities are mentioned and depicted in both books, and the Tibetan flag even looks like a pyramid. What happened? How did the knowledge of the mysteries pass to Tibet?
Er, no it isn’t. My knowledge of geography, history and religion is strong actually.
Best answer:
Answer by Bharat Swabhimaan
your geography is weak.
Add your own answer in the comments!
Religion is something compared to improving living standards each and every civilization achieves this level at some time and it depends upon those people who put the foundation for it.
If you see Hindu religion they have colorful and fearful Gods and Goddesses might be the person who started this should be very imaginative.
Both the person who started the Egyptian and Tibetan Buddhism should be of on same mind frame.
I’m not aware of any influence The Tibetan “Book of the Dead” isn’t actually called that in Tibetan, it’s merely the name which Westerns called it because of their awareness of the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Animistic dieties are common in various primitive religions, which Buddhism assimilated when it spread to Tibet.
there are many similarities in every religions. tibetan book of the Dead isnt a superstition. it is very much different concept than the one in ancient Egyptian religion. another thing is tibetan buddhism arrive to tibet around 8 century from india by Guru Padmasambhava. only around 9 century few great tibetan physician manage to reach until to India and China, as well as the Persian and Roman areas of Central Asia not before. so i think if you say tibetan book of dead has lots of influence from india can make sense.
The work of Carl Jung might interest you. There seem to be common themes in all cultures, in all religions, and in the subconscious workings of all humans being. The same themes and symbols, common to our cultural inborn heritage, appear across all cultures and times. Therefore, these similarities should not come as any surprise.
The important message here is this: correlation is not cause-and-and effect.
In other words, just because two things seem to be connected, that doesn’t mean that one causes the other. If it rains everytime I have just washed my car (correlation), can I make it rain by washing my car (cause-and-effect).
This is an intersting question that needs deeper research. I have kept a notebook over the years on comparisons between Tibetan Buddhism and the Egyptian religion. For example: 1) we have a Lotus born Horus/Harpocrates, and a Lotus born Guru Rinpoche/Padmasambhava. Lotus symbolism would have migrated from India in the South to Tibet in the North. 2) The Symbol of Min, which is only to be seen in rare Journals of Egyptian archaeology, looks very similar to the Tibetan Vajra/Dorje. But this is neither here no there, because the Thunderbolt Sceptre is to be seen across the Near East – and I suggest from my research that it is Indo-European in essence. Then besides this symbolic fabric, we have to move into the metaphysical speculations, the ritual, the invocation of the Deity, and so on – where there are a wealth of similarities. Another example, is the Rabne Ceremony – of the empowerment of deity statues, which is a central theme in the later Hermetic Ascelpius Text, which though Alexandrian in time, has ancient Egyptian roots. Cosmogonic myths are also worth examining. Though I believe there is much of value in the Jungian approach to these matters, at the same time there is an ongoing re-evalution of the use of the word ‘archetype’ and its co-ordinates. There is a small network involved in exploring these issues. This is a valuable discourse, because Tibetan Buddhist have a tendency to fall into a Buddhist ghetto – and not place the religion itself within a wider world context.
Yours sincerely
Samten de Wet