Has anyone heard anything about this? Was there an ancient civilization in Siberia that we have not known about?
englishrussia.com
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Deep inside Siberia there is a lake, one of thousands others. And in the middle of this lake there is a small island. And on this island people have found an ancient fortress, which is dated more than 1500 years old.(visit the link for the full news article)
Por-Bajin - stronghold in the Eastern Siberia, built in the VIII century A.D. on an island of lake Tere-Hole. Some consider this stronghold to be a temple and call it 'Russian Shaolin'. Others believe that this construction serves as the northern gates to sacred place Schambala. Por-Bajin is translated form Tuva language as 'clay house'. It's mostly built of clay bricks. The monument has complex structure - inside the regular rectangle of walls there is a whole labyrinth of buildings, which look like as a buddhistic or induistic temple. The walls forms the regular rectangle with side sizes 211x158 metres. ...
Bayanchur Khan died soon after ending his successful expedition against "wild people" or tribes of the Sayan Mountains in 759 A.D., during a feast devoted to this victory. Por- Bajin was among seventeen brick forts that had been erected during that and previous khagan expeditions ( 751, 756 ) in Tuva with permanently stationed garrisons to guard the sources of the Yenisei River and northern borders of the Khaganate. The purposes of these expeditions were a neutralization of the emerged and permanently growing threat from the North - an allegation which proved to be fatally true in 840 A.D., when the Uyghur Empire collapsed.
Shambhala (Tib. bde 'byung) is a Sanskrit term meaning "place of peace/tranquility/happiness". Shakyamuni Buddha is said to have taught the Kalachakra tantra on request of King Suchandra of Shambhala; the teachings are also said to be preserved there. Shambhala is believed to be a society where all the inhabitants are enlightened, actually a Buddhist "Pure Land", centered by a capital city called Kalapa. An alternative view associates Shambhala with the real empire of Sriwijaya where Buddhist master Atisha studied under Dharmakirti from whom he received the Kalachakra initiation.