The Africans Who Mapped the Universe: Bogar

He is remembered as an alchemist who worked with mercury and the “nine poisons,” a physician, a master of the breath, the maker of the sacred image of Murugan at Palani, and a traveller who carried the inner sciences to China. In some lineages he becomes the teacher of Lao Tzu, or Lao Tzu himself, under the name Bo Yang.

Who was Bogar, really?

In Book 2 of The Africans Who Mapped the Universe, Ajarn Shaman Shu and Shri Surya Nuranyana Swamikal follow the most mysterious of the eighteen Siddhars from the hill temple of Palani to the Tang court of China. Along the way they carefully separate what history shows, what tradition holds, and what the author argues.

Inside you will discover:

• Palani and the Nine Poisons: the temple legend and the oldest records behind it
• Bogar 7000: the vast alchemical library written under his name
• Mercury and the deathless body: India’s science of transformation, and how Kaya Kalpa compares with Taoist inner alchemy
• The real road to China: Tamil embassies, Indian alchemists at the Tang court, and Bodhidharma
• The Lao Tzu question: where the Bogar–Bo Yang story comes from, and why historians dispute it
• Bogar on trial: an honest look at the African thesis at the heart of this series

Built on public-domain sources and leading modern scholarship, and including a Legend vs. History Ledger, a glossary, and gentle breath-awareness practices, this is the most honest map yet of the alchemist on the hill.

About the Author
Robert S. Shumake, publishing as Ajarn Shaman Shu, has lived two lives in one — the builder and the priest — and his books are where the two meet. He rose from a Ford factory floor to become founding president and CEO of Inheritance Capital Group, a Black Enterprise-ranked private equity firm, served as honorary consul for Botswana and Tanzania, and founded Inheritance Media Group, owner of more than 300 publications produced by an AI-run newsroom. In spirit, each tradition that initiated him gave him a name: Buddhist Ajarn in the Theravada and Vajrayana lines, Oluwo Jolaoso Osainbola in Ifá, and Shri Surya Narayana Swamikal in the Tamil Siddha line. He is the founder of Soul Tribes International Ministries and of Buddha Digital Temple and its universities — Orisha University, Buddha University, and Shiva University. He authored Detroit’s Proposal E, the 2021 ballot initiative that decriminalized entheogenic plants in Detroit, and is the author of more than 140 published books and 86+ DOI-registered academic publications. His philosophy: the Double Bottom Line — make a profit, and make a difference. Robertshumake.biz