Buddhism & the Devaraja: India's Indonesian legacy

The Srivijaya Empire (Indonesian Java) was a Maritime Buddhist hegemonic power that strategically used lucrative foreign interests through trade agreements with China, lasting from the Tang to the Song dynasty. Reaching the Islamic Caliphate the empires naval strategy became punitive, coercing trading ships into port, which resulted in emerging raider fleets. Srivijaya’s rival was the Sanjaya dynasty and in frequent conflict was ultimately subjugated by the Javanese kingdoms of Singhasari and, later, Majapahit. Khmer king, Jayavarman II, spent years in the court of Sailendra in Java before returning to Cambodia to rule around 790. Influenced by the Javanese culture of the Sailendran-Srivijayan mandala (and likely eager to emulate the Javanese model in his court), he proclaimed Cambodian independence from Java and ruled as devaraja, establishing the Khmer Empire and starting the Angkor era.

From 11th to the 13th centuries, Angkor was the most extensive pre-industrial urban complex in the world. Utilizing land based trade with China to the North and India to the West, established Maritime trade routes between India and Southeast Asia thrived but carried religious reformations too. Theravada Buddhism from the West dominated the Brahmanic (syncretic) and Mahayana Buddhists. Theravada, traditional to Myanmar with a strict caste based system was less popular in China and still today approximately half of all Buddhists pertain to Mahāyāna (the "Great Vehicle") the original honorary synonym for Bodhisattvayāna. The religions (of Buddha) may be considered essentially insider and outsider methodologies supporting either the elite governance system or alternatively the rankophiles' monastic stability. It’s a controversial disparity commonly diffused with descriptions of left or right political centers from the ever natural in and out material dichotomy of those with everything, and those with nothing. 

Theravada Buddhism by emphasizing individual enlightenment applies the original teachings of the Buddha (Pali Canon) to let individuals attain liberation (nirvana) through one's own self (self-love, pride etc). Mahayana Buddhism alternatively emphasizes the bodhisattva path (helping others achieve enlightenment with teachings) as a modicum of public servants and as sophists will incorporate wider ranges of texts and practices. Brahmanic Hinduism as the alternative can be expected to hold virtue in the Supreme Brahman, an unchanging ultimate reality. Using rituals to sanctify practices, and putting duty and responsibility on individuals in return, the source of devaraja in the Brahman's code (political leadership) is contentious...

The Nalanda inscription records that Maharaja Balaputra, the Srivijayan visitant to India, built a monastery in Pala. Srivijaya and the Indian Chola dynasty were close religious-trading partners, then during the reign of Raja Raja Chola I. In 1006, a Srivijayan Maharaja from the Sailendra dynasty, King Maravijayattungavarman, constructed the Chudamani Vihara in the port town of Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu. However, Rajendra Chola I brought an end to the peace commencing maritime actions against Srivijayan cities. Suggestions that Khmer king, Suryavarman I of the Khmer Empire, had requested aid from Emperor Rajendra Chola I of the Chola dynasty against Tambralinga. The Tambralingans (Indian Malaysia) were well aware of this and likewise requested aid from the Srivijaya king, Sangrama Vijayatungavarman. Heavy losses ensued for Srivijaya during the Chola raid and occupation of Sangramavijayottungavarman in 1025. The large-scale naval expedition boasted superior weaponry on the ground through transporting War-elephants for land assault. This was India’s last and largest invasion and colonization of modern-day Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. 

The Siege of Angkor, or the Fall of Angkor in 1431 was caused by Ayutthaya forces, led by King Borommarachathirat II, who captured Angkor, which was then ruled by Devaraja Ponhea Yat. Considered to have gained popularity in Thailand as a result of the war, the source of God-King (devaraja) worship within the Buddhist cannon's considerable. Considerably China’s mostly Mahayanese influence shifted from Angkor toward Ayutthaya before the war, which suggests the tribute system was partly responsible for the schism in service to the Brahman with self-fulfillment toward Nirvana. On the outside Angkor was refusing to recognize Ayutthaya, but inside this was necessary in consolidated authority of the individual 'God' King. The final invasion of Angkor Wat, was preceded by the Ayutthayan Uthong dynasty's attempt, when Ramathibodi I seized Angkor only for an Angkorian Khmer prince to reclaim the heartland in 1358. The Suphannaphum dynasty of Ayutthaya first lay siege on Angkor Wat in 1370, failing before their second attempt succeeded sixty years later. Considering the influence of Jayavarman who ruled Angkor for nearly forty years while orchestrating a grand program of construction, and who converted to Mahayana Buddhism, is to reconsider the relative success of proponents of either branch of Buddhism. Jayavarman was declared as dedicated to alleviating the suffering of his people. Surviving inscriptions relay that "He suffered from the [afflictions] of his subjects more than from his own; the pain that affected men's bodies was for him a spiritual pain, and thus more piercing.".

Dzungaria, Tibet, Qing, & the British Raj

The Ganden Phodrang was first famed by the 5th Dalai Lama (r. 1642–1682), known for unifying the Tibetan heartland under the control of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism, and after defeating the rival Kagyu and Jonang sects, along with the secular ruling Tsangpa prince. All efforts of Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso were successful because of aid from Güshi Khan, the Oirat leader who established the Khoshut Khanate. Güshi Khan independently bestowed supreme authority on Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso the 5th Dalai Lama for the whole of Tibet at a ceremony at Tashilhunpo Monastery in Shigatse, such that all power and authority lay in the hands of the Dalai Lama right up to his death and no other would forcibly interfere in the administration and its policies. The Tibetan Mongol alliance was keen such that at the age of 7, Galdan Boshugtu Khan was sent to Lhasa to be educated as a lama under the 5th Dalai Lama at Tashilhunpo Monastery. He spent 20 years studying Buddhist canons, philosophy, astronomy, astrology and basics of medicine and pharmacology. In this sense, he was one of the best educated kings of Mongolian history. In 1678, Galdan received from the Dalai Lama the title of Boshogtu Khan, making the Dzungars the leading tribe within the Oirats.

 

The Dzungar rulers used the title of Khong Tayiji or Crown Prince, and between 1680 and 1688, the Dzungars conquered the Tarim Basin, which is now Southern Xinjiang, and defeated the Eastern Khalkha Mongols. In 1696, Galdan was defeated by the Qing dynasty and lost Outer Mongolia. In 1705, the Qing conspired with a Dzungar faction to kidnap and murder the 6th Dalai Lama, his regent and government officials. In 1717 Tsewang Rabtan returned to claim Tibet by deposing the 7th Dalai Lama, and Lha-bzang Khan became the last ruler of the Khoshut Khanate. Lha-bzang Khan and his entire family were executed prior to the Battle of the Salween River, though this matter may be considered conjecture or propaganda. In response, an expedition sent by the Kangxi Emperor, together with Tibetan forces under Polhané Sönam Topgyé of Tsang and Kangchennas, the governor of Western Tibet, expelled the Dzungars from Tibet by 1720 which initiated Qing rule of Tibet. China additionally took advantage of a Dzungar civil war to conquer Dzungaria with ambitions for total genocide of the Dzungar people. Estimates are that about 80% of the Dzungar population, or around 500,000 to 800,000 people, were killed by a combination of warfare and disease during or after the Qing conquest in 1755–1757. After wiping out the native population of Dzungaria (children, women, and the elderly were reported spared for enslavement as bondservants ), the Qing government then resettled Han, Hui, Uyghur, and Sibe people on State farms in Dzungaria, along with Manchu Bannermen to repopulate the area under the Xinjiang political administrative unit.

 

The Great Game is a term ascribed to rivalry between the 19th-century British and Russian Empires over influence in Central Asia, primarily in Afghanistan, Persia, and Tibet. By the early 20th century, a line of independent states, tribes, and monarchies from the shore of the Caspian Sea to the Eastern Himalayas were made into protectorates and territories of the two empires. The British moved in fear that the Qing Dynasty had reached a secret understanding with the Russians over Tibet, and that Russia was providing arms and fighting forces to Tibet. If it were the case that Russia had a direct route to British India it would break the chain of quasi-autonomous buffer-states which separated the British Raj from the Russian Empire. Their fears were fueled by Russian explorers and the courtier Agvan Dorjiyev who had met with the Dalai Lama and acted as ambassador for the Tsar. All the while the Dalai Lama declined British courtiers in full. Even the possibility of a Tibet authority under Russian protection was a situation the British would retaliate against most vehemently.

 

Under the Governor-General Curzon's belief that the Dalai Lama intended to place Tibet firmly within a sphere of Russian influence and end its neutrality, he unofficially issued an ultimatum In 1903. This was a request by the British Raj to the Ganden Phodrang for negotiations to be held at Khampa Dzong, a tiny Tibetan village north of Sikkim. The Chinese ambans were willing to accept this meeting with the British, however, the Dalai Lama refused, and also denied transport for the Palace’s Chinese official You Tai, to attend. The Tibet Frontier Commission heading the British expedition to Tibet in 1903–04 thus trumped up charges for a ground invasion into Tibet across the occupied territory of Sikkim, the trump rumored to be herdsmans cattle ranging over the border.

The Dalai Lama summoned a military contingency in response to the troops marching on his capital but British military might was far superior. In 1904 the British soldiers caused the Massacre of Chumik Shenko, killing 700 Tibetans outright with less than a dozen British casualties. Another 200 Tibetans were murdered at Red Idol Gorge soon thereafter. For three months skirmishes continued by British forces as they marched on Lhasa applying scorched earth policy in decimating the people, land and infrastructure on the way. At Lhasa on 3 August 1904 the thirteenth Dalai Lama had fled to Urga, the capital of Outer Mongolia. Chinese officials to the city issued a writ for their Emperor to depose the Dalai Lama hence, since the Chinese Qing bore no actual powers of law in Tibet. Whence arriving, the British expedition forced a brutal treaty with the Regent and Assembly of Lhasa such that the British had exclusive trading rights in Yatung, Gyantse, and Gartok, all while Tibet was to pay indemnity of 7,500,000 rupees. This fine was later reduced by two-thirds, with the Chumbi Valley ceded to Britain.

George Curzon the Viceroy of India from 1899 to 1905 had fulfilled his Geo-political strategic agenda in averting potential Russian threats in the East and by dealing a crippling blow to Tibet. The full extent of the British game regarding suzerainty of China and potential for Russian expansion was such that;

1. "No portion of Tibetan territory shall be ceded, sold, leased, mortgaged or otherwise given for occupation, to any foreign Power;

2. "No such Power shall be permitted to intervene in Tibetan affairs;

3. "No Representatives or Agents of any foreign Power shall be admitted to Tibet;

4. "No concessions for railways, roads, telegraphs, mining or other rights, shall be granted to any foreign Power, or the subject of any foreign Power. In the event of consent to such concessions being granted, similar or equivalent concessions shall be granted to the British Government;

5. "No Tibetan revenues, whether in kind or in cash, shall be pledged or assigned to any foreign Power, or to the subject of any foreign Power."

 

After the fall of the Qing empire in 1912, the Ganden Phodrang government lasted until the 1950s, when Tibet was again occupied by China’s PRC. During most of the time from the early Qing period until the end of Ganden Phodrang rule, a governing council known as the Kashag (established by the Qing in 1721) had operated Qhinese authority within the Ganden Phodrang. Ganden (དགའ་ལྡན) is the Tibetan name for the Tushita heaven, which, according to Buddhist cosmology, is where the future Buddha Maitreya resides. Tuṣita (Sanskrit) or Tusita (Pāli) is one of the six deva-worlds of the Desire Realm (Kāmadhātu), located between the Yāma heaven and the Nirmāṇarati heaven.

 

Tibet & the Tang

Tibet is the highest region on Earth, with an average elevation of 4,380 m (14,000 ft). Located in the Himalayas, the highest elevation surrounding the Tibetan plateau is Mount Everest, Earth's highest mountain, rising 8,848.86 m (29,032 ft) above sea level. The Alexandrian known as Claudius Ptolemy, 100 – c. 170 AD identified the country Batai at an Eastern perimeter in his seminal work Geographia. Proceeding Ptolemy the Egyptian-Greek work Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (1st century CE) identifies Batai as a prospective trading partner. The regional "Bhutan" is derived from the Sanskrit term "Bhotanta," which means "the end of Tibet" or "the land of the Tibetans", however the country is identified in Dzongkha language as "Brug-yul" which translates as The Land of the Thunder Dragon. Bhauṭṭa is the Sanskrit geopolitical equivalent for the modern Bod (བོད་) or ‘Tibet’ in English. The earliest Chinese record pertains to the 7th C. onward and under the name "Tǔfān" (吐蕃) meaning Western Barbarians, or seminally Xīfān (西番) pertaining to the expansion period. Thus the etymology is formally a Tibeto-Burman language of the Sino-Tibetan language family, of which Sino-Tibetan, and that through it Tibetan and Burmese are mere distant cousins of Chinese.

The earliest Tibetan historical texts identify the Zhang Zhung culture as a people who migrated from the Amdo region into what is now the region of Guge in western Tibet. Zhang Zhung is considered to be the original home of the Bön religion, and according to Rolf Alfred Stein’s Tibetan Civilization, the area of Shang Shung was not historically a part of Tibet and was a distinctly foreign territory to the Tibetans: 

"... then further west, the Tibetans encountered a distinctly foreign nation. – Shangshung, with its capital at Khyunglung. Mt. Kailāśa (Tise) and Lake Manasarovar formed part of this country., whose language has come down to us through early documents. Though still unidentified, it seems to be Indo European .... Geographically the country was certainly open to India, both through Nepal and by way of Kashmir and Ladakh. Kailāśa is a holy place for the Indians, who make pilgrimages to it. No one knows how long they have done so, but the cult may well go back to the times when Shangshung was still independent of Tibet. How far Shangshung stretched to the north, east and west is a mystery .... We have already had an occasion to remark that Shangshung, embracing Kailāśa sacred Mount of the Hindus, may once have had a religion largely borrowed from Hinduism. The situation may even have lasted for quite a long time. In fact, about 950, the Hindu King of Kabul had a statue of Vişņu, of the Kashmiri type (with three heads), which he claimed had been given him by the king of the Bhota (Tibetans) who, in turn had obtained it from Kailāśa."

By the 1st Century BCE a neighbouring Kingdom arose in the Yarlung valley. The Yarlung King Drigum Tsenpo attempted to remove the influence of the Zhang Zhung by expelling the Zhang's Bön priests from Yarlung. He was assassinated and Zhang Zhung continued its dominance of the region. Great Tibet then became centred on the Tibetan Plateau, formed as a result of imperial expansion under the mythological Yarlung dynastic rulers heralded by its 33rd king, Songtsen Gampo, in the 7th century. Songtsen Gampo 569–649 [sroŋpʦan zɡampo], The 33rd King and founder of the Tibetan Empire is accredited with the introduction of Buddhism to Tibet after ascending at age 13 according to the Old Book of Tang. Later influenced by his Nepali consort Bhrikuti, of Nepal's Licchavi dynasty, as well as with the unification of what had previously been several Tibetan kingdoms, he is regarded as responsible for the creation of the Tibetan script and therefore the establishment of Classical Tibetan, although this must remain a contested matter and it’s mostly likely he only adopted Mādhyamaka philosophy not the Buddhist religion. Perhaps mythically thus he is said to have issued the order for minister Thonmi Sambhota to travel to India to devise a script for Classical Tibetan, this led to the creation of the first Tibetan literary works and translations, court records and constitution, and so relocated his Capital from the Yarlung Valley to the Kyichu Valley, the site of the future city of Lhasa. According to sources, during the reign of Songtsen Gampo, examples of Handicrafts and Astrological systems were imported from China and the Western Xia; the Dharma and the Art of Writing came from India; material wealth and treasures from the Nepalis and the lands of the Mongols, while Model laws and Administration were imported from the Uyghurs of the Second Turkic Khaganate. 

The Old Tibetan Annals, are composed of two wholly secular manuscripts written in Old Tibetan language found in the early 20th century in a hidden library within the Mogao Grottoes near Dunhuang in northwestern Gansu province, believed to have been sealed in the 11th century CE, they form Tibet's earliest extant history. The libraries Old Tibetan Chronicle alternatively was probably compiled between 800-840 CE, whilst the Annals begin with a very brief account of the early events of the reign of Songtsen Gampo and from a time the Chinese Princess Wencheng arrived in 643 CE until Songtsen Gampo's death in 650, following with year-by-year précis of important events from 650 to 764 CE. The Old Tibetan Chronicle maintains that during the reign of King Trisong Detsen (755 to 797 or 804 CE), "The incomparable religion of the Buddha had been received and there were viharas (monasteries) in the centre as well as the borderlands of the country", an advent much later than the military conquests of Songtsen Gampo between Indian and Chinese borders 200 years prior.

Since the Kings Tagri Nyensig and Namri Songtsen (570-620) the struggle to unify ‘’Tibet’’ was thwarted with difficulties. The empire further expanded under its 38th king, Trisong Detsen, and expanded to its greatest extent under the 41st King Rapalchen in the 780s to 790s spanning territory across modern-day Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, China, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan. The Kingdom of Nanzhao (in Yunnan and neighbouring regions) remained under Tibetan control from 750 to 794, when they turned on their Tibetan overlords and helped the Chinese inflict a serious defeat on the Tibetans.

In 747, the hold of Tibet was first loosened by the campaign of the Tang general Gao Xianzhi, who tried to re-open the direct communications between Central Asia and Kashmir. By 750, the Tibetans had lost almost all of their central Asian possessions to the Chinese. However, after Gao Xianzhi's defeat by the Arabs and Qarluqs at the Battle of Talas (751) and the subsequent civil war known as the An Lushan Rebellion (755), Chinese influence decreased rapidly and the Tibetans resumed regional superiority. As a part of the Muslim Conquest the Abbasid Caliphate  who were allied with the Tibetans, co-opted the Karluk Turks 20,000 strong force who defected, betraying the Tang forces (only 10,000 soldiers) and in joining the Caliphate, the battle within the valley of the Talas River which vied for control over the Syr Darya had assured the Caliphate’s control over Transoxiana for the next 400 years ending the Chinese expansion West by the Imperial Tang Dynasty (618 to 907). Emperor Rapalchen’s 821–823 treaty concluded conflicts between the Tibetan Empire and the Tang dynasty. The terms of this treaty, including the fixed borders between the two countries, are recorded in a bilingual inscription on a stone pillar outside the Jokhang temple in Lhasa.

Greece; Laconophilia & the Thirty Tyrants

Several dynasties claimed descent from Heracles, such as the Agiads and Eurypontids of Sparta, or the Temenids of Macedonia. Of pre-classical dialects and traditions in southern Greece, the ones that prevailed in Classical Greece followed. According to Herodotus, Macedonian tribes called Dorians charged South [from the mountains of Epirus] to reclaim their ancestral territories en mass within the Peloponnese, where they subjugated the local tribes before commencing territorial expansions. The Return of the Heracleidae was orchestrated by the brothers Kresphontes and Temenos, as well as the twins Eurysthenes and Prokles who accordingly divided the Peloponnese into three parts: Kresphontes took Messenia, Temenos the north-east, and the twins Laconia, thus becoming the first dual kings of Sparta.

Siam; the Haw & the Indochinese Federation

The widespread colonization in the Orient by the Dutch, French, Portuguese, British and Spanish Europeans, wasn't universal in practice as the different political maneuvers enacted in Thailand ensured sovereignty was maintained irrespective of the technological superiority Europeans exercised. The French were the primary antagonists for King Chulalongkornin through which his prince Maha Vajirunhis, Crown Prince of Siam would die of Typhoid fever. The Indochinese Union and after 1947 as the Indochinese Federation, was a grouping of French colonial territories in Southeast Asia until its demise in 1954. It comprised Cambodia, Laos (from 1899), the Chinese territory of Guangzhouwan (from 1898 until 1945), and the Vietnamese regions of Tonkin in the north, Annam in the centre, and Cochinchina in the south. The capital for most of its history (1902–45) was Hanoi; Saigon was the capital from 1887 to 1902 and again from 1945 to 1954.

King Chulalongkorn's coronation was in 1868 at age 16, as the 5th monarch of the House of Chakri. The King mitigated the Eastern threat by building three new forts on the Chao Phraya and bolstering the garrison at the gulf port of Chantaburi (Chantaboon). Also by forming a professional standing army and dismantling the feudal territories in favor of a constituted national government with strict borders. Additionally abolishing slavery (33% of Thai people), liberating free speech, religious practice, enshrining tax collection and generally aligning the nations administration with Europe and America. The young Chulalongkorn visited Singapore and Java in 1870 and British India during 1870–1872 to study the administration of British colonies. He toured the administrative centers of Calcutta, Delhi, Bombay, and back to Calcutta in early-1872. Chulalongkorn would provide aid to the British in their occupation of Burma.  

In the northern Laotian lands bordering China, insurgents of the Taiping Rebellion had taken refuge since the reign of King Mongkut. The Haw were generally bandits and pillagers, but had consolidated banners and drew a serious response from Chao Oun Kham, the ruling prince of Luang Prabang in 1874. The Prince appealed to Siam for aid when in 1875 Chulalongkorn sent troops from Bangkok to crush the rebellious Haw who had ravaged as far as Vientiane by the time. In 1868 Liu Yongfu abandoned Wu Yuanqing's rebels as new Chinese national forces were routing the nations rebels, and crossed into Vietnam with a force of 200 loyal soldiers. He feigned to be the famous 'General of the Black Tiger', and branded his Black Flag Army, heiqi jun (hei-ch'i chun, 黑旗軍). The Black Flags marched slowly through northern Tonkin, engaging the local montagnards after which attaining recognition and rank as a Vietnamese military governor. Recruiting men to their standard as they went, the Haw set up camp just outside Son Tay, on the northern bank of the Red River, before taking over Lao Cai and centralizing there as now forming the modern border of Vietnam and China.

In 1869, having conciliated the Vietnamese, Liu also won favor with the Chinese authorities by committing the Black Flag Army to a Chinese punitive campaign against the Yellow Flags, the other insurgent offshoot of the Yunan province. A Chinese expedition into the region was commanded by the veteran general Feng Zicai, who would later win fame during the Sino-French War (August 1884–April 1885) by defeating a French column at the Battle of Zhennan Pass (24 March 1885). 'The storming of the thirteen passes' ensued when Liu's Black Flags fought their way through the mountains and attacked Huang Chongying's headquarters at Hayang, a town on the Clear River near the border with Yunnan, forcing the Yellow Flag leader to take refuge with his montagnard allies. Although the Chinese and Black Flags failed to annihilate the Yellow Flags, they taught them a severe lesson, and Feng rewarded Liu for his help by offering him an honorary commission in the Chinese army.

In the next few years Liu Yongfu established a profitable protection racket on commerce on the Red River between Son Tay and Lao Cai. Traders were taxed at the rate of 10% of the value of their goods. The profits that accrued from this extortion were so great that Liu's army swelled in numbers during the 1870s, attracting to its ranks adventurers from all over the world. Although most of the soldiers were Chinese, many mercenaries were American or European expats, some of whom had fought in the Taiping Rebellion. Liu used their western expertise to transform the Black Flag Army into a formidable fighting force. Liu now commanded 7,000 Black Flag soldiers from Guangdong and Guangxi around Tonkin. 

What would be Thailand's last military expeditions into the region, Chulalongkorn's forces marched to capture a supposed Haw stronghold at Chiangkham in spring of 1875. Siamese forces crossed the River Mekong at Nong Khai, and after suffering losses against the proxy militia retreated all the way to Isan in 1885. New, modernized forces were next sent along with the British James McCarthy who accounted for the Haw's demoralizing tactics, trapping territories and guerilla warfare. This force was divided into two groups attacking the Haw from both Chiang Kam and Pichai. The Haw were defeated only as much as scattering into the hills and mountains, many taking to Vietnam.

In 1893 Auguste Pavie, the French vice-consul of Luang Prabang, requested the cession of all Laotian lands east of the Mekong River which was Siam's suzerain. Siam resented the demand, embarking on the Franco–Siamese War of 1893. Governor-General Jean de Lanessan sent three military columns into the disputed region to assert French control in April. Eight small Siamese garrisons west of the Mekong withdrew upon the arrival of the central column, but the advance of the other columns met with resistance. The French came under siege on the island of Khoung, with the capture of an officer, Thoreaux. The occupation proceeded smoothly until an ambush by the Siamese on the village of Keng Ker.

The column was at first successful in evicting the Siamese commissioner at Khammuan by 25 May. Shortly afterward on 5 June, the Siamese commissioner organized a surprise ambush on the village of Kien Ket, where Grosgurin, confined to his sickbed, had encamped with his militia. The commissioner had apparently been instructed by Siamese government representatives to "compel their [French troops] retirement, by fighting, if necessary, to the utmost of their strength". The ambush resulted in the razing of the village and the killing of Grosgurin and 17 Vietnamese.

Conflict climaxed when the French Navy aviso Inconstant and the gunboat Comete arrived on July 13 at Paknam with the intention of crossing the bar into the Chao Phraya River and join the French gunboat Lutin already anchored off the French embassy in Bangkok. Makut Ratchakuman and Coronation led the Siamese fleet but were ill-equipped with weaponry compared to the more modern French flotilla. 

The French gunboat Le Lutin entered the Chao Phraya en route for the French consulate to ready a full assault. Fighting between French and Siamese forces were underway on the Eastern frontier. The French Foreign Minister, Jules Develle, ordered Admiral Edgar Humann, the commander of the French Far Eastern Naval Division, to concentrate his nine warships off Saigon on Siam maintaining the need to "round off our Indochinese empire", with the most optimal means of technological superiority. The French in Bangkok believed that the Siamese were well-prepared for battle however in tutelage of the Dutch. Chulachomklao Fort had just been modernized with seven 6-inch Armstrong Whitworth disappearing guns and was under the command of Andreas du Plessis de Richelieu, a Danish naval officer granted the noble title of Phraya Chonlayutyothin. Further upriver at Paknam Island, the smaller Phi Seua Samut fortress had also been fitted with three of the same guns. The Siamese had placed a sorte of water traps from below the Fort to the center of the river. Above this, two chain and stake barrages plus several sunken vessels off both banks caused a bottle neck.

The Phra Chulachomklao Fort opened fire with two blank rounds but the French continued on, so a third, live, warning shot was fired and hit the water in front of the Jean Baptiste Say. When this warning was ignored, a fourth shot was fired so the gunboats Makhut Ratchakuman and Coronation opened up at 18:50. Inconstant returned fire on the fort while the Comete engaged the gunboats. At least two shots from the fortress hit the Inconstant but coordinated strikes lacked on both side. After firing two shots the carriage of the 70-pound gun aboard the Coronation broke through the deck and could no longer be fired. In the ensuing confusion the Coronation was nearly rammed by the Inconstant which fired two shells into the Coronation. The Jean Baptiste Say was hit several times by cannon fire and the Captain was forced to ground her on Laem Lamphu Rai. No shells hit the Phra Chulachomklao Fort. Within 25 minutes the Inconstant and the Comete had broken through the line of Siamese defenses at a cost of fifteen Siamese and two French lives. A short time later the ships passed the Phi Seua fortress at Paknam with ineffective retaliation, and one report of civilian casualties by the Port.

By the break of day the Siamese captured the steamer Jean Baptiste Say taking hostages, and were unable to sink the vessel. The French gunboat Forfait shortly arrived at Paknam but was repelled attempting to board Jean Baptiste Say. This was a minor victory for the Siamese since Captain Borey had anchored off the French Embassy in Bangkok at around 22:00 on July 13 his ships' guns were targeted on the Royal palace. Forced negotiations ensued when the French sent an ultimatum: an indemnity of three million francs, as well as the cession of and withdrawal from Laos, lest a full attack ensue on the capital Bangkok. Siam did not accept the ultimatum evacuating where required and setting course for prolonged war. French troops then blockaded the Gulf of Siam and occupied Chantaburi and Trat.

King Chulalongkorn sent Rolin-Jacquemyns to negotiate and appealed to Britain for assistance likewise. Britain proposed an agreement with France in arbitration guaranteeing the integrity of the rest of Siam. In exchange, Siam needed to surrender any territorial claim on the Thai-speaking Shan region as north-eastern Burma to the British, and cede Laos to France.

The Siamese agreed to cede Laos to France, significantly expanding French Indochina. In 1896, France signed a treaty with Britain defining the border between Laos and British territory in Upper Burma. The Kingdom of Laos became a protectorate, initially placed under the Governor General of Indochina in Hanoi. French vice-consul Pavie, who almost single-handedly brought Laos under French administration, saw to the officialization in Hanoi.

The French and British both had strong interests in controlling parts of Indochina and Thailand as a middle-ground bode well for the region. Twice in the 1890s, the two superpowers were on the verge of war over two different routes leading to Yunnan. But several difficulties discouraged them from war. The geography of the land made troop movements difficult, and any warfare far more costly and less effective. Both countries were fighting a difficult conflict within their respective colonies likewise and troop consignment was impossibly forthcoming. Malaria was common and deadly too. Ultimately, the imagined trade routes never really came into use and the economic results of the colonization in entirety remains dubious. In 1904, the French and the British put aside their many differences with the Entente Cordiale, ending their own disputes waged in southeastern Asia.

Zoroaster & the Throne of Solomon

The three monotheistic religions of Christianity/Catholicism, Islam and Judaism, referred to as Abrahamic, are claimed under the Takht-e-Sulaiman which is both atop a mountain in Pakistan (Takht-e-Sulaiman) and by a thermal pool at Iran’s Takht-e Soleyman (also known as the Azar Goshnasp Fire Temple). The literal meaning of Takht-e-Sulaiman, the Throne of Solomon is discerned against it’s metonymy alluding to such an idea of a supernatural holding as well as where Zoroastrians originated and may claim a birthplace of Zoroaster in West Azerbaijan Provinces Nosratabad circa seventeen century BCE. The Zoroastrians continue to practice the maintenance of the eternal flame in the fire temple to this day, such as at Yazd Atash Behram. The myth of this particular fire temple at Takht-e-Sulaiman as the origin of world religions is based on the story of the three wise men (Magi), which includes the practice of astrology, magic, and idol worship particularly of course also practically instills the three things fire truly serves in good living; warmth, light and cooking.

  

 

If conducting transnational trade in the ancient world the obstacles to financial success were complicated, it was identifiably less so for Zoroastrians. From the mountain in Pakistan surrounded by olive groves and pine nut forests, which at its peak of 3,487 meters (11,440 ft) the general zenith for living; the prophet Solomon didn’t transgress this distance east, rather overlooked India to see it’s cover of darkness, before returning west. Choreography of a journey across such regions, often covered in snow, is of course the trepidation surrounding such allegory, when merchants seek both to secure the route in good living standards, and avoid the impasse of many kinds including banditry. The basis of the Silk road for instance; it’s trail from east to west and vice-a-versa hence is between stationed securities which requires some obligatory measure of standards, easily enforced under the certainty of Zoroaster when potentially the traders on the lucrative trade routes from East and Southern Asia to the West weren’t privy to accept intoxications of a classical Indo-Iranian religious belief system (such as soma and haoma).

Zoroastrianism or Mazdayasna the State religion of Iran from 600 BCE to 650 CE, has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil and an eschatology, predicting the ultimate conquest of evil by good. Zoroastrianism exalts the uncreated and benevolent deity of wisdom, Ahura Mazda. Featuring monotheism, messianism, judgment after death, heaven and hell, and free will all which was adopted by other religious and philosophical systems, including Second Temple Judaism, Gnosticism, Greek philosophy, Christianity, Islam, the Baháʼí Faith, and Buddhism. The Avesta is it’s central writing (of Zoroaster) composing Gathas, with 17 Hymns, in Gathic or Old Avestan, of the old Iranian language group that is a sub-group of Eastern families of the Indo-European languages. Also the Yasna, the constituent chapters of which define the ceremony and function to strengthen the orderly spiritual and material creations of Ahura Mazda against the assault of the destructive forces of Angra Mainyu, and via a lengthy eulogy which culminates in an offering and or strengthening of the waters. 
The historical identity of Zoroaster isn’t well discerned and potentially for good reason. For example while the birthplace of Buddha, or Jesus acts to centralize these faiths, the Gathas means both the teaching of Zoroaster and the community that accepts that teaching. As origins go, magic itself is such an illusion more often than not, of multiple meanings, which either so entertained, seeks to embellish or deceive, and so acquire uncertainty for recompense. As such the Avestan maga- and the Sanskrit magha-, should confer while there is no reason to suppose something, that thing rather as belief acts in force, on what may be, and however is, which is what is known as faith. The Magi, the priests of Zoroaster first appear in the trilingual inscription written by Darius the Great, known as the Behistun Inscription. Old Persian texts, predating the Hellenistic period, refer to a magus as a Zurvanic, and presumably Zoroastrian, priest. Such accounts of course defy the nature of the Magus, which necessarily imparts undefined methodology, superstitions perhaps, and so often regarded, but the mystical life, which is often embellished with the motivation to aspire to greatness.

The creation of fable as designed to expel indignity, generate positivity and endure generations is the essential contribution we should expect from those in deep discussions cloistered around an eternal flame. The so called source of Zoroaster, for instance, his said birthplace by the Azar Goshnasp Fire Temple, imbues the sanctity of the best potential where the harshest climate can still be reveled in. So riding the trade route along the Silk road one caravan traveling day in and day out, holds that in the whitest winter when reaching the thermal lake at Nosratabad, those may bathe, and dry at it’s temple fire. Indulgence hence in remoteness is so sought, but not only to just receive sustenance in good company, but availing profit in security whilst too securing the opportunity to wed.

Byzantium & Khazaria; the Quinisext Council

Gog and Magog were apocryphal terms for the Khazar, descendants from the east-Asian steppe in following the Sabir war-machine, and departure of the far eastern Hun. Bearing ethnocentric composition of both Asian and Caucasians, the empire was preempted with the first collapse of Tong Yabghu Qaghan’s Western Turkic Khaganate from 618 to 628 AD. Described in the Old Book of Tang as having ‘occupied the land of Wusun and moved... to Qianquan north of Tashkent’ while Buddhist pilgrim Xuanzang whence visiting the western Göktürk capital Suyab in modern Kyrgyzstan described Tong Yabghu as wearing “a green satin robe; his hair, which was ten feet long, was free. A band of white silk wound round his forehead and hung down behind”. Attributed to be the leader mentioned in Byzantine sources as having (as khagan of the Khazars) campaigned with the Emperor Heraclius in the Caucasus against the Sassanid Persian Empire in 627–628. Scholars disagree though as to whether Sipi Khagan was the ruler, who was Tong Yabghu's uncle; maintaining authority in the West. The generations following Tong Yabghu Qaghan’s assasination were composed by a mixture of regimes imposed under military Generals of which scholars cannot definitively attribute any sovereign authority to a Khagar again until 740 - 786 with Bulan Khazar who famously converted to Judaism. The Khazar capital was originally Balanjar but following sustained conflict with the Arabs (see Al-Tabari) after the seventh century it was moved to Atil.

Ibn Fadlan accounted for the Khāqān, or Khan’s as “Emperors” and “Kings” in modern English; having invaded territories of the Black Sea where the Khazar would consolidate it’s multi-ethnic State. The Khan, so typical of the Orient, can only appear in public once every four months. The ruling deputy in command of the armies would actually manage the affairs of the kingdom, predominately in collecting homage and in daily council, considered as ritual. The armies were deemed to never lay eyes on their Emperor as for example when out riding, the entire army accompanies him at a distance of one mile and on return all subjects prostrate themselves. Such armies will forfeit their lives on retreat from battle or otherwise abandonment while it’s General's possessions were publicly distributed prior to his execution, or if favored nonetheless, kept in service of the State as a stable boy. The Great Khāqān bore innumerable wives and concubines sourced from neighboring kingdoms who had sworn fealty to the ruler. A Great Khāqān’s rule is said to expire precisely after forty years, where if just one day late his subjects should execute him while maintaining his mind to be defective, and his judgement impaired. On death, his subjects are required to build a large dwelling over a river, in which twenty tents are erected and twenty graves are dug. Those who bury the Khāqān are beheaded upon completion of their task so that no one knows the final location of the corpses interment in its “Garden”.

The Islamic Caliphate inadvertently brought Byzantium and Khazaria into alliance. Likewise the Khagar acted as proxy of the Byzantines, in consolidated opposition to Kievan Rus’ control of Kiev; the western edge of the Khazar silk road, even though consistently disputing control over Crimea. Following the son of Saint Olga, who converted to Orthodox Christianity at the court of Byzantine Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus in 957. Sviatoslav I Igorevich’s reign, his name meaning ‘holy glory’, created the largest European State at the time when moving the Kievan Rus’ capital from Kiev into retreat in modern day Romania. Following a failed Bulgarian campaign he was forced to accept peaceful terms with Byzantine emperor John I Tzimiskes, submitting southern Crimea as a concession. He was ambushed and killed at 30 years of age as a consequence. Following Sviatoslav's death, tensions among his sons grew. A war of legitimization followed first between Oleg and Yaropolk, in 976, with the later prevailing. In 977 his third son Vladimir fled Novgorod for Scandinavia, he subsequently raised an army of Varangians and returned in 980 to defeat Yaropolk becoming the sole ruler of Kievan Rus'. Converting to Chalcedonian Christianity he maintained peaceful accords at large since his father’s paganism was a main point of consternation with the Byzantine, and the Bulgars were crippled following his campaigns there.

Sources of the modern Byzantium-Khazaria alliance occur over disputation of the Eastern Roman Empires control of Constantinople. Under Byzantine Emperor Tiberius III, following the reigns of Justinian II who appeared before the Khazar Khāqān and married the Khāqān’s sister; Justinian II, the eldest son of Emperor Constantine IV, was raised as joint emperor in 681 on the fall of his uncles Heraclius and Tiberius, attaining the rank of Emperor at age 16. Three years later he thwarted the Arabs in Armenia usurping the Umayyad Caliphate partially regaining control over Cyprus. In addition to securing the incomes of Armenia and Iberia, he liberated 12,000 Lebanese Christian Maronites, who maintained resistance against the Caliphate. His first military campaign was in 688–689, in defeating the Bulgars of Macedonia; Justinian was able to enter Thessalonica, the second most important Byzantine city in Europe and prior under consistent invasion attempts from the Avars and Slavs. Provisioning for 30,000 Slavic troops which he had forcibly resettled in Anatolia, Justinian commenced military campaigns against the Arabs, which proved disastrous as the Arabs turned the mercenary Slavs against Justinian at the Battle of Sebastopolis. Armenia was claimed by the Patrician Symbatius who resumed dealings with the Arabs, but in turn was conquered by 695. Justinian II, after attempting genocide of the regional Slavs, commenced persecution of Manichean's, and became immensely unpopular for this and through his extreme taxation policies and forcible resettlement plans. Despite dedicating himself to a religious council and hence regional security, his reign was doomed. Firstly, in 695 the population rose up against Justinian, under Leontios, the strategos of Hellas, proclaiming him to be Emperor. Justinian was deposed, his nose was cut off, and he was exiled to Cherson in Crimea. Leontius, after a reign of three years, was in turn dethroned and imprisoned by Tiberius Apsimarus. It was then having escaped Crimea, Justinian, and taking to Khazar Khāqān, with a new golden nose, wed the Khāqān’s sister, renaming her Theodora at Baptismal. Theodora would soon enough herself save Justinan’s life. 

Tiberios having heard of the marital alliance, bribed Busir for the head of Justinian. According to the chronicle of Theophanes the Confessor, ca. 704, Busir dispatched two agents to murder his brother-in-law, Balgitzin and Papatzys. The then pregnant Theodora, discovering the assassination plot, warned her husband Justinian II, who supposedly strangled both of his assassins. He then secretly set sail in a fishing boat back to Crimea, leaving Theodora under the protection of her brother. In 705, Justinian forged a new alliance with Tervel of Bulgaria, offering him the title Ceasar, and in ceding Bulgaria to him from the empire’s holdings and granting him his own daughter Anastasia to be wed. With an army of 15,000 Bulgarian horsemen, Justinian succeeded to invade Constantinople though by subterfuge via an unused water conduit. He successfully roused supporters, seizing control of the city in a midnight coup d'état. In deposing Tiberios III and reclaiming his throne, Theodora was crowned Augusta and their son Tiberios proclaimed co-Emperor to secure his succession rights. After the public execution of Tiberius and Leontios he blinded and exiled Patriarch Kallinikos I of Constantinople to Rome. Betraying Tervel in turn he failed to reclaim Bulgaria on military expedition, and while struggling against the Caliphate he claimed minor victories in Asia minor, specifically Cappadocia. 

Requiring Pope John VII to recognize the decisions of the Quinisext Council, the Pope visited Constantinople and for the last time in over one thousand years. After receiving Holy Communion by the hands of the Pope, Justinian renewed all the privileges of the Roman Church. The Quinisext Canons found their way into Byzantine canonical collections even in the iconoclast period (despite the approval given to images of Christ in Canon 82). They did not, however, attain a wholly equal status to the canons of earlier councils until the great canonists of the twelfth century such as Balsamon. The immediate reaction of the Holy See was fiercely hostile, partly because two canons (13 and 55) explicitly criticized Roman practices, but more because Rome resented being expected to approve a whole sheaf of new canons retrospectively. In 711, however, Pope Constantine appears to have accepted a compromise whereby Rome accepted the validity of the canons in the East, while being allowed to continue existent western practices where these differed. Later a letter by Pope Hadrian I (dating to 785) citing Byzantine approval of the canons was misread in the West as a statement of approval by Hadrian himself. Partly in consequence of this error but also in view of their quality, Gratian (twelfth-century) cited many of the Quinisext Canons in his own great collection of canons, the Decretum. Where, however, they clashed with western canons or practice, he set them aside as representing Byzantine practice, just lacking universal validity. Gratian's work remained authoritative in the West until the first systematic Code of Catholic Canon Law was issued in 1917.

In retaliation for his treatment at the hands of the Khazars, Justinian II orchestrated an invasion of Crimea. Raising a Greek army of 100,000 soldiers, their Khazarian influence was underestimated. While succeeding to establish a governor in the city of Cherson, three quarters of the army didn’t return to Constantinople due to excessive weather, loyalties or both. The son of Armenian patrician Nikephorus was Philippicus, originally named Bardanes; who with support of the Monothelites during the first rebellion against Justinian, was after pretension for the throne, relegated to Cephalonia by Tiberius Apsimarus, and subsequently banished to Cherson by order of Justinian. When Cherson rebelled against the second reign of Justinian it was under General Bardanes with Khazar support. Emperor Justinian's forces thus after visibly failing to take Cherson, joined the rebellion, returning to seize Constantinople. Philippikus (General Bardanes) hence obtained the throne from Justinian II whilst he was on route to Armenia, and subsequently captured and beheaded. Justinian’s son Tiberius was likewise apprehended at the sanctuary of St. Mary's Church in Blachernae and executed. Among the first acts as Emperor was the deposition of Cyrus, the orthodox patriarch of Constantinople, in favor of John VI, a member of the Emperor Philippicus' private sect. Consequently, summoning a Conciliabulum of eastern bishops to abolish the canons of the Sixth Ecumenical Council, the Holy See refused to recognize the Emperor or his patriarch. Tervel (Caesar) took upon the opportunity to plunder Constantinople as far as the citadel. After only two years in power, the Opsikion troops rebelled in Thrace. Several of their officers captured and blinded Philippicus in the hippodrome, while he died in the same year.