A book I was reading last night by an academic author, citing another book as its source, pointed out that the idea of the Buddha being of Aryan stock (straight nose, light skin, etc - not to mention blue eyes) was added to his legend as time went by. His father and mother were actually from the Sakya and Koliya tribes respectively, racially mongoloid-looking tribes from the foothills of the Himalayas in present-day Nepal. The photos of Sakyans look more Oriental than typically Indian.

This is kind of neat since it fits with the facial features you see on the majority of Buddha images East of India.

Religions have a tendency to depict their "Prime Example" in a recognisable figure.

I have seen statues and pictures of the Buddha in Thailand with all colours and kind of eyes.

Just like I have seen all kinds of pictures and statues of Jesus of Nazareth.

Most of those will probably far beside the real thing.

So what?

Is it really important?

Probably the reason why the Jewish and the Muslim faith forbid pictures of G'd, Allah and the Profets.

Religions have a tendency to depict their "Prime Example" in a recognisable figure.

I have seen statues and pictures of the Buddha in Thailand with all colours and kind of eyes.

Just like I have seen all kinds of pictures and statues of Jesus of Nazareth.

Most of those will probably far beside the real thing.

So what?

Is it really important?

Probably the reason why the Jewish and the Muslim faith forbid pictures of G'd, Allah and the Profits.

It can have a big effect on those who are racially biased.

A book I was reading last night by an academic author, citing another book as its source, pointed out that the idea of the Buddha being of Aryan stock (straight nose, light skin, etc - not to mention blue eyes) was added to his legend as time went by. His father and mother were actually from the Sakya and Koliya tribes respectively, racially mongoloid-looking tribes from the foothills of the Himalayas in present-day Nepal. The photos of Sakyans look more Oriental than typically Indian.

This is kind of neat since it fits with the facial features you see on the majority of Buddha images East of India.

My adopted son (it's a long story) is from Pakistan. He is Muslim. He strongly considers himself "Asian". It's something we tend to disagree on. While I agree that Pakistan is, technically in Asia, to me the culture is absolutely not Asian. Of course, then he brings into it Indonesia being Muslim and clearly Asian. I think to some extent it depends on how you define a "culture". Geographically? Ethnically? Language? Religion? And I think that gets into what you are bringing up.

I often wondered what would happen to Christianity in the southeastern United States if we verifiably learned that Jesus was Black.

Religions have a tendency to depict their "Prime Example" in a recognisable figure.

I have seen statues and pictures of the Buddha in Thailand with all colours and kind of eyes.

Just like I have seen all kinds of pictures and statues of Jesus of Nazareth.

Most of those will probably far beside the real thing.

So what?

Is it really important?

Probably the reason why the Jewish and the Muslim faith forbid pictures of G'd, Allah and the Profets.

Despite what another post says, I would say that it is important. There is always a question of validating various religions, and that is a fine line between faith and history.

My adopted son (it's a long story) is from Pakistan. He is Muslim. He strongly considers himself "Asian". It's something we tend to disagree on. While I agree that Pakistan is, technically in Asia, to me the culture is absolutely not Asian. Of course, then he brings into it Indonesia being Muslim and clearly Asian. I think to some extent it depends on how you define a "culture". Geographically? Ethnically? Language? Religion? And I think that gets into what you are bringing up.

I often wondered what would happen to Christianity in the southeastern United States if we verifiably learned that Jesus was Black.

Recognize this guy? http://i.cnn.net/cnn/2002/TECH/science/12/...sushead.cnn.jpg

The image of what Jesus probably looked like is from http://edition.cnn.com/2002/TECH/science/1...esus/index.html