Open AccessRevisiting a Hypothesis: Tracing Early Buddhist Heritage in Central-Eastern Europe
Author(s) -
Katalin Puskas Khetani
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
technium social sciences journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2668-7798
DOI - 10.47577/tssj.v24i1.4684
Subject(s) - buddhism , ornaments , history , ethnography , connection (principal bundle) , cultural heritage , function (biology) , geography , ancient history , archaeology , engineering , structural engineering , style (visual arts) , evolutionary biology , biology
The following paper is a revisitation of a hypothesized cultural connection between the Szekler gates, predominantly from Transylvania (in the Carpathian Basin), and the Sacred gate tradition found across Asia. The structure of this paper is built upon three different approaches: firstly, the recent publications and historical records on this topic; secondly the ethnographical similarities in function and symbolism between the Szekler gates and the gateways found across Asia; and thirdly the observable similarities and analogies between the ornaments and symbols used on Szekler gates and other Asian gateway structures are examined. This article aims to investigate if the observable analogies and similarities are just the result of a strange coincidence, or if there is indeed a cultural connection between the Szekler gate and the similar constructions across Asia as hypothesized by several 19th and early 20th-century researchers of the topic.