Preface

Buddhism is one of the three major world religions, along with Christianity and Islam, and has a history that is several centuries longer than either of its counterparts.

Starting in India some twenty-five hundred years ago, Buddhist monks and nuns almost immediately from the inception of the dispensation began to "to wander forth for the welfare and weal of the many, out of compassion for the world," commencing one of the greatest missionary movements in world religious history. Over the next millennium, Buddhism spread from India throughout the Asian continent, from the shores of the Caspian Sea in the west, to the Inner Asian steppes in the north, the Japanese isles in the east, and the Indonesian archipelago in the south. In the modern era, Buddhism has even begun to build a significant presence in the Americas and Europe among both immigrant and local populations, transforming it into a religion with truly global reach. Buddhist terms such as karma, nirvan-a, sam- sara, and koan have entered common parlance and Buddhist ideas have begun to seep deeply into both Western thought and popular culture.

The Encyclopedia of Buddhism is one of the first major reference tools to appear in any Western language that seeks to document the range and depth of the Buddhist tradition in its many manifestations. In addition to feature entries on the history and impact of Buddhism in different cultural regions and national traditions, the work also covers major doctrines, texts, people, and schools of the religion, as well as practical aspects of Buddhist meditation, liturgy, and lay training. Although the target audience is the nonspecialist reader, even serious students of the tradition should find much of benefit in the more than four hundred entries.

Even with over 500,000 words at our disposal, the editorial board realized early on that we had nowhere nearly enough space to do justice to the full panoply of Buddhist thought, practice, and culture within each major Asian tradition. In order to accommodate as broad a range of research as possible, we decided at the beginning of the project to abandon our attempt at a comprehensive survey of major topics in each principal Asian tradition and instead build our coverage around broader thematic entries that would cut across cultural boundaries. Thus, rather than separate entries on the Huichang persecution of Buddhism in China or the Choso˘n suppression in Korea, for example, we have instead a single thematic entry on persecutions; we follow a similar approach with such entries as conversion, festivals and calendrical rituals, millenarianism and millenarian movements, languages, and stupas. We make no pretense to comprehensiveness in every one of these entries; when there are only a handful of entries in the Encyclopedia longer than four thousand words, this would have been a pipe dream, at best. Instead, we encouraged our contributors to examine their topics comparatively, presenting representative case studies on the topic, with examples drawn from two or more traditions of Buddhism.

The Encyclopedia also aspires to represent the emphasis in the contemporary field of Buddhist studies on the broader cultural, social, institutional, and political contexts of Buddhist thought and practice. There are substantial entries on topics as diverse as economics, education, the family, law, literature, kingship, and politics, to name but a few, all of which trace the role Buddhism has played as one of Asia's most important cultural influences. Buddhist folk religion, in particular, receives among the most extensive coverage of any topic in the encyclopedia. Many entries also explore the continuing relevance of Buddhism in contemporary life in Asia and, indeed, throughout the world.

Moreover, we have sought to cross the intellectual divide that separates texts and images by offering extensive coverage of Buddhist art history and material culture. Although we had no intention of creating an encyclopedia of Buddhist art, we felt it was important to offer our readers some insight into the major artistic traditions of Buddhism. We also include brief entries on a couple of representative sites in each tradition; space did not allow us even to make a pretense of being comprehensive, so we focused on places or images that a student might be most likely to come across in reading about a specific tradition. We have also sought to provide some coverage of Buddhist material culture in such entries as amulets and talismans, medicine, monastic architecture, printing technologies, ritual objects, and robes and clothing.

One of the major goals of the Encyclopedia is to better integrate Buddhist studies into research on religion and culture more broadly. When the editorial board was planning the entries, we sought to provide readers with Buddhist viewpoints on such defining issues in religious studies as conversion, evil, hermeneutics, pilgrimage, ritual, sacred space, and worship. We also explore Buddhist perspectives on topics of great currency in the contemporary humanities, such as the body, colonialism, gender, modernity, nationalism, and so on. These entries are intended to help ensure that Buddhist perspectives become mainstreamed in Western humanistic research.

We obviously could not hope to cover the entirety of Buddhism in a two-volume reference. The editorial board selected a few representative monks, texts, and sites for each of the major cultural traditions of the religion, but there are inevitably many desultory lacunae. Much of the specific coverage of people, texts, places, and practices is embedded in the larger survey pieces on Buddhism in India, China, Tibet, and so forth, as well as in relevant thematic articles, and those entries should be the first place a reader looks for information. We also use a comprehensive set of internal cross-references, which are typeset as small caps, to help guide the reader to other relevant entries in the Encyclopedia. Listings for monks proved unexpectedly complicated. Monks, especially in East Asia, often have a variety of different names by which they are known to the tradition (ordained name, toponym, cognomen, style, honorific, funerary name, etc.) and Chinese monks, for example, may often be better known in Western literature by the Japanese pronunciation of their names. As a general, but by no means inviolate, rule, we refer to monks by the language of their national origin and their name at ordination. So the entry on the Chinese Chan (Zen) monk often known in Western writings as Rinzai, using the Japanese pronunciation of his Chinese toponym Linji, will be listed here by his ordained name of Yixuan. Some widely known alternate names will be given as blind entries, but please consult the index if someone is difficult to locate. We also follow the transliteration systems most widely employed today for rendering Asian languages: for example, pinyin for Chinese, Wylie for Tibetan, Revised Hepburn for Japanese, McCune-Reischauer for Korean.

For the many buddhas, bodhisattvas, and divinities known to the Buddhist tradition, the reader once again should first consult the major thematic entry on buddhas, etc., for a survey of important figures within each category. We will also have a few independent entries for some, but by no means all, of the most important individual figures. We will typically refer to a buddha like Amitabha, who is known across traditions, according to the Buddhist lingua franca of Sanskrit, not by the Chinese pronunciation Amito or Japanese Amida; similarly, we have a brief entry on the bodhisattva Maitreya, which we use instead of the Korean Miru˘k or Japanese Miroku.

For pan-Buddhist terms common to most Buddhist traditions, we again use the Sanskrit as a lingua franca: thus, dhyana (trance state), duh-kha (suffering), skandha
(aggregate), and s´unyata (emptiness). But again, many terms are treated primarily in relevant thematic entries, such as samadhi in the entry on meditation. Buddhist terminology that appears in Webster's Third International Dictionary we regard as English and leave unitalicized: this includes such technical terms as dharan-, koan, and tathagatagarbha. For a convenient listing of a hundred such terms, see Roger Jackson,
"Terms of Sanskrit and Pali Origin Acceptable as English Words," Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 5 (1982), pp. 141–142.

Buddhist texts are typically cited by their language of provenance, so the reader will find texts of Indian provenance listed via their Sanskrit titles (e.g., Sukhavatl vyuhasutra, Sam- dhinirmocana-sutra), indigenous Chinese sutras by their Chinese titles (e.g.,
Fanwang jing, Renwang jing), and so forth. Certain scriptures that have widely recognized English titles are however listed under that title, as with Awakening of Faith, Lotus Sutra, Nirvan-a Sutra, and Tibetan Book of the Dead.
Major Buddhist schools, similarly, are listed according to the language of their origin. In East Asia, for example, different pronunciations of the same Sinitic logograph obscure the fact that Chan, So˘n, Zen, and Thiê`n are transliterations of respectively the Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese pronunciations for the school we generally know in the West as Zen. We have therefore given our contributors the daunting task of cutting across national boundaries and treating in single, comprehensive entries such pan-Asian traditions as Madhyamaka, Tantra, and Yogacara, or such panEast Asian schools as Huayan, Tiantai, and Chan. These entries are among the most complex in the encyclopedia, since they must not only touch upon the major highlights of different national traditions, but also lay out in broad swathe an overarching account of a school's distinctive approach and contribution to Buddhist thought and practice.

Compiling an Encyclopedia of Buddhism may seem a quixotic quest, given the past track records of similar Western-language projects. I was fortunate to have had the help of an outstanding editorial board, which was determined to ensure that this encyclopedia would stand as a definitive reference tool on Buddhism for the next generation—and that it would be finished in our lifetimes. Don Lopez and John Strong both brought their own substantial expertise with editing multi-author references to the project, which proved immensely valuable in planning this encyclopedia and keeping the project moving along according to schedule. My UCLA colleague William Bodiford surveyed Japanese-language Buddhist encyclopedias for the board and constantly pushed us to consider how we could convey in our entries the ways in which Buddhist beliefs were lived out in practice. The board benefited immensely in the initial planning stages from the guidance art historian Maribeth Graybill offered in trying to conceive how to provide a significant place in our coverage for Buddhist art. Eugene Wang did yeoman's service in stepping in later as our art-history specialist on the board. Words cannot do justice to the gratitude I feel for the trenchant advice, ready good humor, and consistently hard work offered by all the board members.

I also benefited immensely from the generous assistance, advice, and support of the faculty, staff, and graduate students affiliated with UCLA's Center for Buddhist Studies, which has spearheaded this project since its inception. I am especially grateful to my faculty colleagues in Buddhist Studies at UCLA, whose presence here gave me both the courage even to consider undertaking such a daunting task and the manpower to finish it: Gregory Schopen, William Bodiford, Jonathan Silk, Robert Brown, and Don McCallum.

The Encyclopedia was fortunate to have behind it the support of the capable staff at Macmillan. Publisher Elly Dickason and our first editor Judy Culligan helped guide the editorial board through our initial framing of the encyclopedia and structuring of the entries; we were fortunate to have Judy return as our copyeditor later in the project. Oona Schmid, who joined the project just as we were finalizing our list of entries and sending out invitations to contributors, was an absolutely superlative editor, cheerleader, and colleague. Her implacable enthusiasm for the project was infectious and helped keep both the board and our contributors moving forward even during the most difficult stages of the project. Our next publisher, Hélène Potter, was a stabilizing force during the most severe moments of impermanence. Our last editor, Drew Silver, joined us later in the project, but his assistance was indispensable in taking care of the myriad details involved in bringing the project to completion. Jan Klisz was absolutely superb at moving the volumes through production. All of us on the board looked askance when Macmillan assured us at our first editorial meeting that we would finish this project in three years, but the professionalism of its staff made it happen.

Finally, I would like to express my deepest thanks to the more than 250 colleagues around the world who willingly gave of their time, energy, and knowledge in order to bring the Encyclopedia of Buddhism to fruition. I am certain that current and future generations of students will benefit from our contributors' insightful treatments of various aspects of the Buddhist religious tradition. As important as encyclopedia articles are for building a field, they inevitably take a back seat to one's "real" research and writing, and rarely receive the recognition they deserve for tenure or promotion. At very least, our many contributors can be sure that they have accrued much meritat least in my eyes—through their selfless acts of disseminating the dharma.

ROBERT E. BUSWELL, JR.

List Of Articles

Abhidharma Collett Cox	Anathapindada Joel Tatelman	Atisha Gareth Sparham
Abhidharmakos´abhasya Collett Cox	Anatman/Atman (No-self/Self) K. T. S. Sarao	Avadana Joel Tatelman
Abhijña (Higher Knowledges) Patrick A. Pranke	Ancestors Mariko Namba Walter	Avadanas´ataka Joel Tatelman
Anitya (Impermanence) Carol S. Anderson
Abortion George J. Tanabe, Jr.	Awakening of Faith (Dasheng qixin lun) Ding-hwa Hsieh
An Shigao Paul Harrison
A gama/Nikaya Jens-Uwe Hartmann	Ayutthaya Pattaratorn Chirapravati
Anuttarasamyaksam bodhi (Complete, Perfect Awakening) William M. Bodiford
Ajanta Leela Aditi Wood	Bamiyan Karil J. Kucera
Aksobhya Jan Nattier	Apocrypha Kyoko Tokuno	Bayon Eleanor Mannikka
Alayavijñana John S. Strong	Arhat George D. Bond	Bhavaviveka Paul Williams
Alchi Roger Goepper	Arhat Images Richard K. Kent	Bianwen Victor H. Mair
Ambedkar, B. R. Christopher S. Queen	Aryadeva Karen Lang	Bianxiang (Transformation Tableaux) Victor H. Mair
Amitabha Luis O. Gómez	Aryas´ura Peter Khoroche	Biographies of Eminent Monks (Gaoseng zhuan) John Kieschnick
Amulets and Talismans Michael R. Rhum	Asan˙ ga John P. Keenan
Anagarika Dharmapala George D. Bond	Ascetic Practices Liz Wilson	Biography Juliane Schober
A nanda Bhikkhu Pasadika	As´oka John S. Strong	Bka' brgyud (Kagyu) Andrew Quintman
Ananda Temple Paul Strachan	As´vaghosa Peter Khoroche	Bodh Gaya Leela Aditi Wood

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Bodhi (Awakening) Robert M. Gimello Bodhicaryavatara Paul Williams Bodhicitta (Thought of Awakening) Luis O. Gómez Bodhidharma Jeffrey Broughton Bodhisattva(s) Leslie S. Kawamura Bodhisattva Images Charles Lachman	Burmese, Buddhist Literature in Jason A. Carbine	Communism and Buddhism Jin Y. Park
Bu ston (Bu tön) Gareth Sparham	Confucianism and Buddhism George A. Keyworth
Cambodia Anne Hansen	Consciousness, Theories of Nobuyoshi Yamabe
Candrakl rti Roger R. Jackson	Consecration Donald K. Swearer
Canon Paul Harrison	Conversion Jan Nattier
Catalogues of Scriptures Kyoko Tokuno	Cosmology Rupert Gethin
Body, Perspectives on the Liz Wilson	Cave Sanctuaries Denise Patry Leidy	Councils, Buddhist Charles S. Prebish
Bon Christian K. Wedemeyer	Central Asia Jan Nattier	Critical Buddhism (Hihan Bukkyo) Jamie Hubbard
Borobudur John N. Miksic	Central Asia, Buddhist Art in Roderick Whitfield	Daimoku Jacqueline I. Stone
Bsam yas (Samye) Jacob P. Dalton	Chan Art Charles Lachman	Daitokuji Karen L. Brock
Bsam yas Debate Jacob P. Dalton	Chan School John Jorgensen	D akinl Jacob P. Dalton
Buddha(s) Jan Nattier	Chanting and Liturgy George J. Tanabe, Jr.	Dalai Lama Gareth Sparham
Buddhacarita John S. Strong	Chengguan Mario Poceski	Dana (Giving) Maria Heim
Buddhadasa Christopher S. Queen	China Mario Poceski	Dao'an Tanya Storch
Buddhaghosa John S. Strong	China, Buddhist Art in Marylin Martin Rhie	Daoism and Buddhism Stephen R. Bokenkamp
Buddhahood and Buddha Bodies John J. Makransky	Chinese, Buddhist Influences on Vernacular Literature in Victor H. Mair	Daosheng Mark L. Blum
Buddha Images Robert L. Brown	Daoxuan John Kieschnick
Chinul Sung Bae Park
Buddha, Life of the Heinz Bechert	Chogye School Jongmyung Kim	Daoyi (Mazu) Mario Poceski
Buddha, Life of the, in Art Gail Maxwell	Christianity and Buddhism James W. Heisig	Death Mark L. Blum
Buddhanusmrti (Recollection of the Buddha) Paul Harrison	Clerical Marriage in Japan Richard M. Jaffe	Decline of the Dharma Jan Nattier
Buddhavacana (Word of the Buddha) George D. Bond	Colonialism and Buddhism Richard King	Deqing William Chu
Buddhist Studies Jonathan A. Silk	Commentarial Literature Alexander L. Mayer	Desire Luis O. Gómez

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Devadatta Max Deeg	Dunhuang Roderick Whitfield Economics Gustavo Benavides Education Mahinda Deegalle Engaged Buddhism Christopher S. Queen Ennin David L. Gardiner Entertainment and Performance Victor H. Mair	Folk Religion, China Philip Clart
Dge lugs (Geluk) Georges B. J. Dreyfus	Folk Religion, Japan Ian Reader
Dhammapada Oskar von Hinüber	Folk Religion, Southeast Asia Michael R. Rhum
Dharanl Richard D. McBride II	Four Noble Truths Carol S. Anderson
Dharma and Dharmas Charles Willemen	Gandharl , Buddhist Literature in Richard Salomon
Dharmadhatu Chi-chiang Huang	Ganjin William M. Bodiford
Esoteric Art, East Asia Cynthea J. Bogel
Dharmaguptaka Collett Cox	Gavam pati François Lagirarde
Esoteric Art, South and Southeast Asia Gail Maxwell
Dharmakl rti John Dunne	Gender Reiko Ohnuma
Dharmaraksa Daniel Boucher	Ethics Barbara E. Reed	Genshin James C. Dobbins
Dhyana (Trance State) Karen Derris	Etiquette Eric Reinders	Ghost Festival Stephen F. Teiser
Europe Martin Baumann
Diamond Sutra Gregory Schopen	Ghosts and Spirits Peter Masefield
Evil Maria Heim
Diet James A. Benn	Gyonen Mark L. Blum
Exoteric-Esoteric (Kenmitsu) Buddhism in Japan James C. Dobbins
Dignaga John Dunne	Hachiman Fabio Rambelli
Dl pam kara Jan Nattier	Hair Patrick Olivelle
Faith Luis O. Gómez
Disciples of the Buddha Andrew Skilton	Hakuin Ekaku John Jorgensen
Famensi Roderick Whitfield
Divinities Jacob N. Kinnard	Han Yongun Pori Park
Family, Buddhism and the Alan Cole
Divyavadana Joel Tatelman	Heart Sutra John R. McRae
Fanwang jing (Brahma's Net Sutra) Eunsu Cho
Dogen Carl Bielefeldt	Faxian Alexander L. Mayer	Heavens Rupert Gethin
Dokyo Allan G. Grapard	Faxiang School Dan Lusthaus	Hells Stephen F. Teiser
Doubt Robert E. Buswell, Jr.	Fazang Jeffrey Broughton	Hells, Images of Karil J. Kucera
Dreams Alexander L. Mayer	Festivals and Calendrical Rituals Jonathan S. Walters	Hermeneutics John Powers
Duhkha (Suffering) Carol S. Anderson	Folk Religion: An Overview Stephen F. Teiser	Himalayas, Buddhist Art in Roger Goepper

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Hl nayana John S. Strong	Ingen Ryuki A. W. Barber Initiation Ronald M. Davidson Inoue Enryo Richard M. Jaffe Intermediate States Bryan J. Cuevas Ippen Chishin William M. Bodiford Islam and Buddhism Johan Elverskog	Karma pa Andrew Quintman
Hinduism and Buddhism Johannes Bronkhorst	Karuna (Compassion) Roger R. Jackson
History John C. Maraldo	Khmer, Buddhist Literature in Anne Hansen
Honen James C. Dobbins	Kihwa A. Charles Muller Kingship Pankaj N. Mohan
Honji Suijaku Fabio Rambelli	Klong chen pa (Longchenpa) Jacob P. Dalton
Horyuji and Todaiji Karen L. Brock	Jainism and Buddhism Paul Dundas	Koan Morten Schlütter
Huayan Art Henrik H. Sørensen	Japan Carl Bielefeldt	Koben George J. Tanabe, Jr.
Huayan jing Mario Poceski	Japan, Buddhist Art in Karen L. Brock	Konjaku Monogatari William M. Bodiford
Huayan School Mario Poceski	Japanese, Buddhist Influences on Vernacular Literature in Robert E. Morrell	Korea Hee-Sung Keel
Huineng John R. McRae	Korea, Buddhist Art in Youngsook Pak
Huiyuan Mark L. Blum	Japanese Royal Family and Buddhism Brian O. Ruppert	Korean, Buddhist Influences on Vernacular Literature in Jongmyung Kim
Hyesim A. Charles Muller	Jataka Reiko Ohnuma
Hyujo˘ng Sungtaek Cho	Jataka, Illustrations of Leela Aditi Wood	Kuiji Alan Sponberg
Icchantika Robert E. Buswell, Jr.	Jatakamala Peter Khoroche	Kukai Ryuichi Abé Kumarajl va John R. McRae
Ikkyu Sarah Fremerman	Jewels Brian O. Ruppert
India Richard S. Cohen	Jiun Onko Paul B. Watt	Kyo˘ngho˘ Henrik H. Sørensen
India, Buddhist Art in Gail Maxwell	Jo khang Andrew Quintman	Laity Helen Hardacre
India, Northwest Jason Neelis	Juefan (Huihong) George A. Keyworth	Lalitavistara John S. Strong
India, South Anne E. Monius	Kailas´a (Kailash) Andrew Quintman	Lama Alexander Gardner
Indonesia and the Malay Peninsula Robert L. Brown	Kalacakra John Newman	Language, Buddhist Philosophy of Richard P. Hayes
Indonesia, Buddhist Art in John N. Miksic	Kamakura Buddhism, Japan James C. Dobbins	Languages Jens-Uwe Hartmann
Indra Jacob N. Kinnard	Karma (Action) Johannes Bronkhorst	Lan˙ kavatara-sutra John Powers

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Laos Justin McDaniel Law and Buddhism Rebecca French Lineage Albert Welter Local Divinities and Buddhism Fabio Rambelli Logic John Dunne Longmen Dorothy Wong	Maitreya Alan Sponberg	Monastic Militias William M. Bodiford Mongolia Patricia Berger Monks John Kieschnick Mozhao Chan (Silent Illumination Chan) Morten Schlütter Mudra and Visual Imagery Denise Patry Leidy Mulasarvastivada-vinaya Gregory Schopen Murakami Sensho Richard M. Jaffe
Mandala Denise Patry Leidy Mantra Richard D. McBride II Mara Jacob N. Kinnard Mar pa (Marpa) Andrew Quintman Martial Arts William Powell
Lotus Sutra (Saddharmapundarl kasutra) Jacqueline I. Stone	Matrceta Peter Khoroche Medicine Kenneth G. Zysk
Madhyamaka School Karen Lang	Myanmar Patrick A. Pranke
Meditation Luis O. Gómez
Ma gcig lab sgron (Machig Lapdön) Andrew Quintman	Myanmar, Buddhist Art in Paul Strachan
Meiji Buddhist Reform Richard M. Jaffe	Nagarjuna Paul Williams
Mahabodhi Temple Leela Aditi Wood	Merit and Merit-Making George J. Tanabe, Jr.	Nara Buddhism George J. Tanabe, Jr.
Mahakas´yapa Max Deeg	Mijiao (Esoteric) School Henrik H. Sørensen	Naropa Andrew Quintman
Mahamaudgalyayana Susanne Mrozik	Mi la ras pa (Milarepa) Andrew Quintman	Nationalism and Buddhism Pori Park
Mahamudra Andrew Quintman	Milindapañha Peter Masefield	Nenbutsu (Chinese, Nianfo; Korean, Yo˘mbul) James C. Dobbins
Mahaparinirvana-sutra John S. Strong	Millenarianism and Millenarian Movements Thomas DuBois
Mahaprajapatl Gautaml Karma Lekshe Tsomo	Nepal Todd T. Lewis
Mahasam ghika School Paul Harrison	Mindfulness Johannes Bronkhorst	Newari, Buddhist Literature in Todd T. Lewis
Mahasiddha Andrew Quintman	Miracles John Kieschnick	Nichiren Jacqueline I. Stone
Mahavastu John S. Strong	Mizuko Kuyo George J. Tanabe, Jr.	Nichiren School Jacqueline I. Stone
Mahayana Gregory Schopen	Modernity and Buddhism Gustavo Benavides	Nine Mountains School of So˘n Sungtaek Cho
Mahayana Precepts in Japan Paul Groner	Mohe Zhiguan Brook Ziporyn	Nirvana Luis O. Gómez
Mahl s´asaka Collett Cox	Monastic Architecture Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt	Nirvana Sutra Mark L. Blum
Mainstream Buddhist Schools Collett Cox	Monasticism Jeffrey Samuels	Nuns Karma Lekshe Tsomo

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Om mani padme hum Alexander Gardner Ordination John R. McRae Original Enlightenment (Hongaku) Jacqueline I. Stone Oxherding Pictures Steven Heine Padmasambhava Jacob P. Dalton Pali, Buddhist Literature in Oskar von Hinüber	Prajñaparamita Literature Lewis Lancaster Pratimoksa Karma Lekshe Tsomo Pratl tyasamutpada (Dependent Origination) Mathieu Boisvert Pratyekabuddha Ria Kloppenborg Pratyutpannasamadhi-sutra Paul Harrison Prayer José Ignacio Cabezón	Renwang jing (Humane Kings Sutra) A. Charles Muller Repentance and Confession David W. Chappell Ritual Richard K. Payne Ritual Objects Anne Nishimura Morse Rnying ma (Nyingma) Jacob P. Dalton Robes and Clothing Willa Jane Tanabe
Panchen Lama Gareth Sparham	Precepts Daniel A. Getz	Ryokan David E. Riggs
Paramartha Daniel Boucher	Printing Technologies Richard D. McBride II	Saicho David L. Gardiner
Paramita (Perfection) Leslie S. Kawamura	Provincial Temple System (Kokubunji, Rishoto) Suzanne Gay	Sam dhinirmocana-sutra John Powers
Parish (Danka, Terauke) System in Japan Duncan Williams	Samguk yusa (Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms) Richard D. McBride II
Psychology Luis O. Gómez
Paritta and Raksa Texts Justin McDaniel	Pudgalavada Leonard C. D. C. Priestley	Sam sara Bryan J. Cuevas
Path William Chu	Pure Land Art Eugene Y. Wang	Sañcl Leela Aditi Wood
Persecutions Kate Crosby	Pure Land Buddhism Daniel A. Getz	San˙ gha Gareth Sparham
Philosophy Dale S. Wright	Pure Lands Luis O. Gómez	Sanjie Jiao (Three Stages School) Jamie Hubbard
Phoenix Hall (at the Byodoin) Karen L. Brock	Pure Land Schools A. W. Barber	Sanskrit, Buddhist Literature in Andrew Skilton
Pilgrimage Kevin Trainor	Rahula Bhikkhu Pasadika	S´antideva Paul Williams
Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch (Liuzu tan jing) John R. McRae	Realms of Existence Rupert Gethin	S´ariputra Susanne Mrozik
Poetry and Buddhism George A. Keyworth	Rebirth Bryan J. Cuevas	Sarvastivada and Mulasarvastivada Collett Cox
Politics and Buddhism Eric Reinders	Refuges John Clifford Holt	Sa skya (Sakya) Cyrus Stearns
Portraiture Karen L. Brock	Relics And Relics Cults Brian O. Ruppert	Sa skya Pandita (Sakya Pandita) Ronald M. Davidson
Potala Andrew Quintman	Reliquary Roderick Whitfield	Satipatthana-sutta Patrick A. Pranke
Prajña (Wisdom) Roger R. Jackson	Rennyo James C. Dobbins	Satori (Awakening) Robert M. Gimello

L IST OF A RTICLES

Sautrantika Collett Cox	Space, Sacred Allan G. Grapard	Theravada Kate Crosby
Scripture José Ignacio Cabezón	Sri Lanka John Clifford Holt	Theravada Art and Architecture Bonnie Brereton
Self-Immolation James A. Benn	Sri Lanka, Buddhist Art in Benille Priyanka	Thich Nhat Hanh Christopher S. Queen
Sengzhao Tanya Storch	Stupa A. L. Dallapiccola	Tiantai School Brook Ziporyn
Sentient Beings Daniel A. Getz	Sukhavatl vyuha-sutra Mark L. Blum	Tibet Ronald M. Davidson
Sexuality Hank Glassman	Sukhothai Pattaratorn Chirapravati	Tibetan Book of the Dead Bryan J. Cuevas
Shingon Buddhism, Japan Ryuichi Abé Shinran James C. Dobbins	S´unyata (Emptiness) Roger R. Jackson	Tominaga Nakamoto Paul B. Watt
Sutra John S. Strong	Tsong kha pa Georges B. J. Dreyfus
Shinto (Honji Suijaku) and Buddhism Fabio Rambelli	Sutra Illustrations Willa Jane Tanabe	U˘ich'o˘n Chi-chiang Huang
Suvarnaprabhasottama-sutra Natalie D. Gummer	U˘isang Patrick R. Uhlmann
Shobogenzo Carl Bielefeldt	Suzuki, D. T. Richard M. Jaffe	United States Thomas A. Tweed
Shotoku, Prince (Taishi) William M. Bodiford	Syncretic Sects: Three Teachings Philip Clart	Upagupta John S. Strong
Shugendo Paul L. Swanson	Tachikawaryu Nobumi Iyanaga	Upali Susanne Mrozik
Shwedagon Paul Strachan	Taiwan Charles B. Jones	Upaya Roger R. Jackson
S´iksananda Chi-chiang Huang	Taixu Ding-hwa Hsieh	Usury Jamie Hubbard
Silk Road Jason Neelis	Takuan Soho William M. Bodiford	Vajrayana Ronald M. Davidson
Sinhala, Buddhist Literature in Ranjini Obeyesekere	Tantra Ronald M. Davidson Charles D. Orzech	Vam sa Stephen C. Berkwitz
Skandha (Aggregate) Mathieu Boisvert	Vasubandhu Dan Lusthaus
Slavery Jonathan A. Silk	Tathagata John S. Strong	Vidyadhara Patrick A. Pranke
Soka Gakkai Jacqueline I. Stone	Tathagatagarbha William H. Grosnick	Vietnam Cuong Tu Nguyen
So˘kkuram Junghee Lee	Temple System in Japan Duncan Williams	Vietnamese, Buddhist Influences on Literature in Cuong Tu Nguyen
Soteriology Dan Cozort	Thai, Buddhist Literature in Grant A. Olson
Southeast Asia, Buddhist Art in Robert L. Brown	Thailand Donald K. Swearer	Vijñanavada Dan Lusthaus

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Vimalakl rti Andrew Skilton	Wo˘nhyo Eunsu Cho	Zanning Albert Welter
Vinaya Gregory Schopen	Worship Jacob N. Kinnard	Zen, Popular Conceptions of Juhn Ahn
Vipassana (Sanskrit, Vipas´yana) Patrick A. Pranke	Xuanzang Alexander L. Mayer	Zhanran Linda Penkower
Vipas´yin Jan Nattier	Zhao lun Tanya Storch
Yaksa Jacob N. Kinnard
Visnu Jacob N. Kinnard	Zhili Brook Ziporyn
Yanshou Albert Welter
Vis´vantara Reiko Ohnuma	Zhiyi Brook Ziporyn
Yijing Alexander L. Mayer
War Michael Zimmermann	Zhuhong William Chu
Yinshun William Chu
Wilderness Monks Thanissaro Bhikkhu (Geoffrey DeGraff)	Zonggao Ding-hwa Hsieh
Yixuan Urs App	Zongmi Jeffrey Broughton
Women Natalie D. Gummer	Yogacara School Dan Lusthaus
Wo˘nbulgyo Bongkil Chung	Yujo˘ng Sungtaek Cho
Wo˘nch'u˘k Eunsu Cho	Yun'gang Dorothy Wong

List Of Contributors

Ryuichi Abé Columbia University Kukai Shingon Buddhism, Japan	Patricia Berger University of California, Berkeley Mongolia Stephen C. Berkwitz Southwest Missouri State University Vam sa Carl Bielefeldt Stanford University Dogen Japan Shobogenzo Mark L. Blum State University of New York, Albany Daosheng Death Gyonen Huiyuan Nirvana Sutra Sukhavat lvyuha-sutra William M. Bodiford University of California, Los Angeles Anuttarasamyaksam bodhi (Complete, Perfect Awakening) Ganjin Ippen Chishin Konjaku monogatari Monastic Militias Shotoku, Prince (Taishi) Takuan Soho Cynthea J. Bogel University of Washington Esoteric Art, East Asia Mathieu Boisvert University of Quebec at Montreal Prat ltyasamutpada (Dependent Origination) Skandha (Aggregate)	Stephen R. Bokenkamp Indiana University Daoism and Buddhism George D. Bond Northwestern University Anagarika Dharmapala Arhat Buddhavacana (Word of the Buddha)
Juhn Ahn University of Michigan Zen, Popular Conceptions of Carol S. Anderson Kalamazoo College Anitya (Impermanence) Duhkha (Suffering) Four Noble Truths	Daniel Boucher Cornell University Dharmaraksa Paramartha
Urs App University Media Research, Kyoto, Japan Yixuan	Bonnie Brereton University of Michigan Theravada Art and Architecture
A. W. Barber University of Calgary Ingen Ryuki Pure Land Schools	Karen L. Brock Albuquerque, New Mexico Daitokuji Horyuji and Todaiji Japan, Buddhist Art in Phoenix Hall (at the Byodoin) Portraiture
Martin Baumann University of Lucerne, Switzerland Europe Heinz Bechert University of Göttingen Buddha, Life of the	Johannes Bronkhorst University of Lausanne, Switzerland Hinduism and Buddhism Karma (Action) Mindfulness
Gustavo Benavides Villanova University Economics Modernity and Buddhism	Jeffrey Broughton California State University, Long Beach Bodhidharma Fazang Zongmi
James A. Benn Arizona State University Diet Self-Immolation

L IST OF C ONTRIBUTORS

Robert L. Brown University of California, Los Angeles Los Angeles County Museum of Art Buddha Images Indonesia and the Malay Peninsula Southeast Asia, Buddhist Art in	Richard S. Cohen University of California, San Diego India	Devadatta Mahakas´yapa
Mahinda Deegalle Bath Spa University College, United Kingdom Education
Alan Cole Lewis and Clark College Family, Buddhism and the
Robert E. Buswell, Jr. University of California, Los Angeles Doubt Icchantika	Collett Cox University of Washington Abhidharma Abhidharmakos´abhasya Dharmaguptaka Mah ls´asaka Mainstream Buddhist Schools Sarvastivada and Mulasarvastivada Sautrantika	Karen Derris Harvard University Dhyana (Trance State) James C. Dobbins Oberlin College Exoteric-Esoteric (Kenmitsu) Buddhism in Japan Genshin Honen Kamakura Buddhism, Japan Nenbutsu (Chinese, Nianfo; Korean, Yo˘mbul) Rennyo Shinran
José Ignacio Cabezón University of California, Santa Barbara Prayer Scripture Jason A. Carbine University of Chicago Burmese, Buddhist Literature in	Dan Cozort Dickinson College Soteriology
David W. Chappell Soka University of America Repentance and Confession	Kate Crosby University of London, United Kingdom Persecutions Theravada Bryan J. Cuevas Florida State University Intermediate States Rebirth Sam sara Tibetan Book of the Dead	Georges B. J. Dreyfus Williams College Dge lugs (Geluk) Tsong kha pa
Pattaratorn Chirapravati California State University, Sacramento Ayutthaya Sukhothai	Thomas DuBois National University of Singapore Millenarianism and Millenarian Movements
Eunsu Cho University of Michigan Fanwang jing (Brahma's Net Sutra) Wo˘nch'u˘k Wo˘nhyo	Paul Dundas University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom Jainism and Buddhism
A. L. Dallapiccola University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom Stupa Jacob P. Dalton International Dunhuang Project, British Library Bsam yas (Samye) Bsam yas Debate D akin l Klong chen pa (Longchenpa) Padmasambhava Rnying ma (Nyingma)	John Dunne University of Wisconsin, Madison Dharmak lrti Dignaga Logic
Sungtaek Cho Korea University Hyujo˘ng Nine Mountains School of So˘n Yujo˘ng	Johan Elverskog Southern Methodist University Islam and Buddhism
William Chu University of California, Los Angeles Deqing Path Yinshun Zhuhong	Sarah Fremerman Stanford University Ikkyu Rebecca French State University of New York, Buffalo Law and Buddhism
Ronald M. Davidson Fairfield University Initiation Sa skya Pandita (Sakya Pandita) Tantra Tibet Vajrayana Max Deeg University of Vienna, Austria
Bongkil Chung Florida International University Wo˘nbulgyo Philip Clart University of Missouri–Columbia Folk Religion, China Syncretic Sects: Three Teachings	David L. Gardiner Colorado College Ennin Saicho

L IST OF C ONTRIBUTORS
Alexander Gardner University of Michigan Lama Om mani padme hum	Natalie D. Gummer Beloit College Suvarnaprabhasottama-sutra Women	Dharmadhatu S ´iksananda U˘ich'o˘n
Jamie Hubbard Smith College Critical Buddhism (Hihan Bukkyo) Sanjie Jiao (Three Stages School) Usury
Suzanne Gay Oberlin College Provincial Temple System (Kokubunji, Rishoto)	Anne Hansen University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee Cambodia Khmer, Buddhist Literature in
Rupert Gethin University of Bristol, United Kingdom Cosmology Heavens Realms of Existence	Helen Hardacre Harvard University Laity	Nobumi Iyanaga Tokyo, Japan Tachikawaryu Roger R. Jackson Carleton College Candrak lrti Karuna (Compassion) Prajña (Wisdom) S ´unyata (Emptiness) Upaya
Paul Harrison University of Canterbury, New Zealand An Shigao Buddhanusmrti (Recollection of the Buddha) Canon Mahasam ghika School Pratyutpannasamadhi-sutra
Daniel A. Getz Bradley University Precepts Pure Land Buddhism Sentient Beings	Richard M. Jaffe Duke University Clerical Marriage in Japan Inoue Enryo Meiji Buddhist Reform Murakami Sensho Suzuki, D. T.
Robert M. Gimello Harvard University Bodhi (Awakening) Satori (Awakening)	Jens-Uwe Hartmann University of Munich, Germany A gama/Nikaya Languages
Hank Glassman Haverford College Sexuality	Richard P. Hayes University of New Mexico Language, Buddhist Philosophy of	Charles B. Jones The Catholic University of America Taiwan
Roger Goepper Cologne Museum, Germany Alchi Himalayas, Buddhist Art in	Maria Heim California State University, Long Beach Dana (Giving) Evil Steven Heine Florida International University Oxherding Pictures	John Jorgensen Griffith University, Australia Chan School Hakuin Ekaku
Luis O. Gómez University of Michigan Amitabha Bodhicitta (Thought of Awakening) Desire Faith Meditation Nirvana Psychology Pure Lands	Leslie S. Kawamura University of Calgary Bodhisattva(s) Paramita (Perfection)
James W. Heisig Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture, Nanzan University, Japan Christianity and Buddhism	Hee-Sung Keel Sogang University, South Korea Korea
John Clifford Holt Bowdoin College Refuges Sri Lanka
Allan G. Grapard University of California, Santa Barbara Dokyo Space, Sacred	John P. Keenan Middlebury College Asan˙ ga
Ding-hwa Hsieh Truman State University Awakening of Faith (Dasheng qixin lun) Taixu Zonggao	Richard K. Kent Franklin and Marshall College Arhat Images
Paul Groner University of Virginia Mahayana Precepts in Japan	George A. Keyworth University of Colorado Confucianism and Buddhism Juefan (Huihong) Poetry and Buddhism
William H. Grosnick La Salle University Tathagatagarbha	Chi-chiang Huang Hobart and William Smith Colleges
E NCYCLOPEDIA	OF	B UDDHISM	xxi

L IST OF C ONTRIBUTORS

Peter Khoroche Cambridge, United Kingdom Aryas´ura As´vaghosa Jatakamala Matrceta	Aryadeva Madhyamaka School	Commentarial Literature Dreams Faxian Xuanzang Yijing
Richard D. McBride II The University of Iowa Dharan l Mantra Printing Technologies Samguk yusa (Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms) Justin McDaniel Harvard University Laos Paritta and Raksa Texts John R. McRae Indiana University Heart Sutra Huineng Kumaraj lva Ordination Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch (Liuzu tan jing) John N. Miksic National University of Singapore Borobudur Indonesia, Buddhist Art in
Junghee Lee Portland State University So˘kkuram Denise Patry Leidy Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Cave Sanctuaries Mandala Mudra and Visual Imagery
John Kieschnick Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan Biographies of Eminent Monks (Gaoseng zhuan) Daoxuan Miracles Monks	Todd T. Lewis College of the Holy Cross Nepal Newari, Buddhist Literature in
Jongmyung Kim Youngsan University, South Korea Chogye School Korean, Buddhist Influences on Vernacular Literature in	Dan Lusthaus University of Missouri–Columbia Faxiang School Vasubandhu Vijñanavada Yogacara School
Richard King Liverpool Hope University College, United Kingdom Colonialism and Buddhism	Victor H. Mair University of Pennsylvania Bianwen Bianxiang (Transformation Tableaux) Chinese, Buddhist Influences on Vernacular Literature in Entertainment and Performance
Jacob N. Kinnard College of William and Mary Divinities Indra Mara Visnu Worship Yaksa	Pankaj N. Mohan University of Sydney, Australia Kingship
John J. Makransky Boston College Buddhahood and Buddha Bodies
Ria Kloppenborg Utrecht University, Netherlands Pratyekabuddha	Anne E. Monius Harvard University India, South Robert E. Morrell Washington University in St. Louis Japanese, Buddhist Influences on Vernacular Literature in
Eleanor Mannikka Indiana University of Pennsylvania Bayon
Karil J. Kucera St. Olaf College Bamiyan Hells, Images of	John C. Maraldo University of North Florida History
Charles Lachman University of Oregon Bodhisattva Images Chan Art	Anne Nishimura Morse Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Ritual Objects
Peter Masefield University of Sydney, Australia Ghosts and Spirits Milindapañha	Susanne Mrozik Western Michigan University Mahamaudgalyayana S ´ariputra Upali A. Charles Muller Toyo Gakuen University, Japan Hyesim Kihwa Renwang jing (Humane Kings Sutra)
François Lagirarde Ecole Française d'Extrême-Orient, Bangkok, Thailand Gavam pati	Gail Maxwell Los Angeles County Museum of Art Buddha, Life of the, in Art Esoteric Art, South and Southeast Asia India, Buddhist Art in
Lewis Lancaster University of California, Berkeley Prajñaparamita Literature	Alexander L. Mayer University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign
Karen Lang University of Virginia

L IST OF C ONTRIBUTORS
Brian O. Ruppert University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign Japanese Royal Family and Buddhism
Jan Nattier Indiana University Aksobhya Buddha(s) Central Asia Conversion Decline of the Dharma D lpam kara Vipas´yin	Sung Bae Park State University of New York at Stony Brook Chinul	Christopher S. Queen Harvard University Ambedkar, B. R. Buddhadasa Engaged Buddhism Thich Nhat Hanh
Bhikkhu Pasadika Philipps University, Marburg, Germany A nanda Rahula	Andrew Quintman University of Michigan Bka' brgyud (Kagyu) Jo khang Kailas´a (Kailash) Karma pa Ma gcig lab sgron (Machig Lapdön) Mahamudra Mahasiddha Mar pa (Marpa) Mi la ras pa (Milarepa) Naropa Potala
Jason Neelis University of Washington India, Northwest Silk Road	Richard K. Payne Institute of Buddhist Studies, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California Ritual
John Newman New College of Florida Kalacakra	Linda Penkower University of Pittsburgh Zhanran
Cuong Tu Nguyen George Mason University Vietnam Vietnamese, Buddhist Influences on Literature in	Mario Poceski University of Florida Chengguan China Daoyi (Mazu) Huayan jing Huayan School	Fabio Rambelli Sapporo University, Japan Hachiman Honji Suijaku Local Divinities and Buddhism Shinto (Honji Suijaku) and Buddhism
Ranjini Obeyesekere Princeton University Sinhala, Buddhist Literature in Reiko Ohnuma Dartmouth College Gender Jataka Vis´vantara	William Powell University of California, Santa Barbara Martial Arts	Ian Reader Lancaster University, United Kingdom Folk Religion, Japan
John Powers Australian National University, Australia Hermeneutics Lan˙ kavatara-sutra Sam dhinirmocana-sutra	Barbara E. Reed St. Olaf College Ethics
Patrick Olivelle University of Texas at Austin Hair	Eric Reinders Emory University Etiquette Politics and Buddhism
Grant A. Olson Northern Illinois University Thai, Buddhist Literature in	Patrick A. Pranke University of Michigan Abhijña (Higher Knowledges) Myanmar Satipatthana-sutta Vidyadhara Vipassana (Sanskrit, Vipas´yana)
Charles D. Orzech University of North Carolina, Greensboro Tantra	Marylin Martin Rhie Smith College China, Buddhist Art in Michael R. Rhum Chicago, Illinois Amulets and Talismans Folk Religion, Southeast Asia
Youngsook Pak University of London, United Kingdom Korea, Buddhist Art in	Charles S. Prebish The Pennsylvania State University Councils, Buddhist	David E. Riggs University of California, Los Angeles Ryokan
Jin Y. Park American University Communism and Buddhism	Leonard C. D. C. Priestley University of Toronto Pudgalavada
Pori Park Arizona State University Han Yongun Nationalism and Buddhism	Benille Priyanka University of California, Los Angeles Sri Lanka, Buddhist Art in

E B xxiii

L IST OF C ONTRIBUTORS

Jewels Relics And Relics Cults	Cyrus Stearns Clinton, Washington Sa skya (Sakya)	Merit and Merit-Making Mizuko Kuyo Nara Buddhism
Richard Salomon University of Washington Gandhar l, Buddhist Literature in	Willa Jane Tanabe University of Hawaii Robes and Clothing Sutra Illustrations
Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt University of Pennsylvania Monastic Architecture
Jeffrey Samuels Western Kentucky University Monasticism	Jacqueline I. Stone Princeton University Daimoku Lotus Sutra (Saddharmapundar lka-sutra) Nichiren Nichiren School Original Enlightenment (Hongaku) Soka Gakkai	Joel Tatelman Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Anathapindada Avadana Avadanas´ataka Divyavadana
K. T. S. Sarao Chung-Hwa Institute of Buddhist Studies, Taiwan Anatman/Atman (No-Self/Self) Morten Schlütter Yale University Koan Mozhao Chan (Silent Illumination Chan)	Stephen F. Teiser Princeton University Folk Religion: An Overview Ghost Festival Hells
Tanya Storch University of the Pacific Dao'an Sengzhao Zhao lun Paul Strachan Gerona, Spain Ananda Temple Myanmar, Buddhist Art in Shwedagon John S. Strong Bates College Alayavijñana As´oka Buddhacarita Buddhaghosa H lnayana Lalitavistara Mahaparinirvana-sutra Mahavastu Sutra Tathagata Upagupta Paul L. Swanson Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture, Nanzan University, Japan Shugendo Donald K. Swearer Swarthmore College Consecration Thailand George J. Tanabe, Jr. University of Hawaii Abortion Chanting and Liturgy Koben
Juliane Schober Arizona State University Biography Gregory Schopen University of California, Los Angeles Diamond Sutra Mahayana Mulasarvastivada-vinaya Vinaya Jonathan A. Silk University of California, Los Angeles Buddhist Studies Slavery	Thanissaro Bhikkhu (Geoffrey DeGraff) Metta Forest Monastery, Valley Center, California Wilderness Monks Kyoko Tokuno University of Washington Apocrypha Catalogues of Scriptures Kevin Trainor University of Vermont Pilgrimage
Andrew Skilton Cardiff University, United Kingdom Disciples of the Buddha Sanskrit, Buddhist Literature in Vimalak lrti	Karma Lekshe Tsomo University of San Diego Mahaprajapat l Gautam l Nuns Pratimoksa Thomas A. Tweed University of North Carolina United States
Henrik H. Sørensen Seminar for Buddhist Studies, Copenhagen, Denmark Huayan Art Kyo˘ngho˘ Mijiao (Esoteric) School	Patrick R. Uhlmann University of California, Los Angeles U˘isang
Gareth Sparham University of Michigan Atisha Bu ston (Bu tön) Dalai Lama Panchen Lama San˙ gha Alan Sponberg University of Montana Kuiji Maitreya	Oskar von Hinüber University of Freiburg, Germany Dhammapada Pali, Buddhist Literature in Mariko Namba Walter Harvard University Ancestors

Kenneth G. Zysk University of Copenhagen, Denmark Medicine
Jonathan S. Walters Whitman College Festivals and Calendrical Rituals	Charles Willemen Academy of Sciences, Belgium Dharma and Dharmas	Ajanta Bodh Gaya Jataka, Illustrations of Mahabodhi Temple Sañc l
Eugene Y. Wang Harvard University Pure Land Art	Duncan Williams University of California, Irvine Parish (Danka, Terauke) System in Japan Temple System in Japan	Dale S. Wright Occidental College Philosophy
Paul B. Watt DePauw University Jiun Onko Tominaga Nakamoto	Paul Williams University of Bristol, United Kingdom Bhavaviveka Bodhicaryavatara Nagarjuna ´antideva S	Nobuyoshi Yamabe Kyushu Ryukoku Junior College, Japan Consciousness, Theories of
Christian K. Wedemeyer University of Copenhagen, Denmark Bon	Michael Zimmermann University of Hamburg, Germany War
Albert Welter University of Winnipeg Lineage Yanshou Zanning	Liz Wilson Miami University of Ohio Ascetic Practices Body, Perspectives on the	Brook Ziporyn Northwestern University Mohe Zhiguan Tiantai School Zhili Zhiyi
Roderick Whitfield University of London, United Kingdom Central Asia, Buddhist Art in Dunhuang Famensi Reliquary	Dorothy Wong University of Virginia Longmen Yun'gang Leela Aditi Wood University of Michigan

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Synoptic Outline Of Entries

This outline provides a general overview of the conceptual structure of the Encyclopedia of Buddhism. The outline is organized under twenty-four major categories, a few of which are subcategorized. The entries are listed alphabetically within each category or subcategory. For ease of reference, one entry may be listed under several categories.

Art History Ajanta Arhat Images Bamiyan Bayon Bianxiang (Transformation Tableaux) Bodh Gaya Bodhisattva Images Borobudur Buddha Images Buddha, Life of the, in Art Cave Sanctuaries Central Asia, Buddhist Art in Chan Art China, Buddhist Art in Daitokuji Dunhuang Esoteric Art, East Asia Esoteric Art, South and Southeast Asia Famensi Hells, Images of Himalayas, Buddhist Art in Horyuji and Todaiji Huayan Art India, Buddhist Art in Indonesia, Buddhist Art in Japan, Buddhist Art in Jataka, Illustrations of Jewels Jo khang Kailas´a (Kailash) Korea, Buddhist Art in Longmen Mahabodhi Temple Mandala Monastic Architecture Mudra and Visual Imagery	Myanmar, Buddhist Art in Oxherding Pictures Phoenix Hall (at the Byodoin) Portraiture Potala Pure Land Art Reliquary Sañc Shwedagon So˘kkuram Southeast Asia, Buddhist Art in Sri Lanka, Buddhist Art in Stupa Sutra Illustrations Theravada Art and Architecture Yun'gang	Buddha, Life of the Bu ston (Bu tön) Candrak rti Chengguan Chinul Dalai Lama Dao'an Daosheng Daoxuan Daoyi (Mazu) Deqing Devadatta Dharmak rti Dharmaraksa Dignaga Disciples of the Buddha Dogen Dokyo Ennin Faxian Fazang Ganjin Gavam pati Genshin Gyonen Hakuin Ekaku Han Yongun Honen Huineng Huiyuan Hyesim Hyujo˘ng Ikkyu Ingen Ryuki Inoue Enryo Ippen Chishin Jiun Onko
Biographies Ambedkar, B. R. Anagarika Dharmapala A nanda Anathapindada An Shigao Arhat Aryadeva Aryas´ura Asan˙ ga As´oka As´vaghosa Atisha Bhavaviveka Biographies of Eminent Monks (Gaoseng zhuan) Biography Bodhidharma Buddhadasa Buddhaghosa

S YNOPTIC O UTLINE OF E NTRIES

Juefan (Huihong) Karma pa Kihwa Klong chen pa (Longchenpa) Koben Kuiji Kukai Kumaraj va Kyo˘ngho˘ Ma gcig lab sgron (Machig Labdrön) Mahakas´yapa Mahamaudgalyayana Mahaprajapat Gautam Mar pa (Marpa) Matrceta Mi la ras pa (Milarepa) Murakami Sensho Nagarjuna Naropa Nichiren Padmasambhava Panchen Lama Paramartha Rahula Rennyo Ryokan Saicho S´antideva S´ariputra Sa skya Pandita (Sakya Pandita) Sengzhao Shinran Shotoku, Prince (Taishi) S´iksananda Suzuki, D. T. Taixu Takuan Soho Tominaga Nakamoto Tsong kha pa U˘ich'o˘n U˘isang Upagupta Upali Vasubandhu Vimalak rti Wo˘nch'u˘k Wo˘nhyo Xuanzang Yanshou Yijing Yinshun Yixuan Yujo˘ng Zanning Zhanran Zhili Zhiyi Zhuhong Zonggao Zongmi	Bodhisattvas Bodhicaryavatara Bodhicitta (Thought of Awakening) Bodhisattva(s) Bodhisattva Images Karuna (Compassion) Maitreya Paramita (Perfection) Prajña (Wisdom) Upaya Vimalak rti Vis´vantara	Rebirth Sam sara Sentient Beings Tibetan Book of the Dead Countries and Regions Central Asia An Shigao Bamiyan Central Asia Central Asia, Buddhist Art in Dunhuang Gandhar , Buddhist Literature in Huayan jing India, Northwest Islam and Buddhism Kumaraj va Silk Road China Ancestors An Shigao Apocrypha Awakening of Faith (Dasheng qixin lun) Bianwen Bianxiang (Transformation Tableaux) Biographies of Eminent Monks (Gaoseng zhuan) Bodhidharma Bsam yas Debate Catalogues of Scriptures Cave Sanctuaries Chan Art Chan School Chengguan China China, Buddhist Art in Communism and Buddhism Confucianism and Buddhism Dao'an Daoism and Buddhism Daosheng Daoxuan Daoyi (Mazu) Deqing Dharmaraksa Dunhuang Ennin Esoteric Art, East Asia Famensi Fanwang jing (Brahma's Net Sutra) Faxian Fazang Folk Religion, China Ganjin Heart Sutra Huayan Art Huayan jing Huayan School Huineng Huiyuan
Buddhas and Buddhology Aksobhya Amitabha Anuttarasamyaksam bodhi (Complete, Perfect Awakening) Biography Bodh Gaya Bodhi (Awakening) Bodhicaryavatara Bodhicitta (Thought of Awakening) Buddha(s) Buddhacarita Buddhahood and Buddha Bodies Buddha Images Buddha, Life of the Buddha, Life of the, in Art Buddha-nature Buddhanusmrti (Recollection of the Buddha) Buddhavacana (Word of the Buddha) D pam kara Divyavadana Mahaparinirvana-sutra Mara Nirvana Paramita (Perfection) Prajña (Wisdom) Prat tyasamutpada (Dependent Origination) Pratyekabuddha Tathagata Tathagatagarbha Vipas´yin Cosmology Buddha(s) Cosmology Death Heavens Hells Hells, Images of Indra Intermediate States Prat tyasamutpada (Dependent Origination) Pratyekabuddha Pure Lands Realms of Existence

Pali, Buddhist Literature in Paritta and Raksa Texts Persecutions Prajñaparamita Literature Pratimoksa Pratyutpannasamadhi-sutra Pudgalavada Sam dhinirmocana-sutra Sañc Sanskrit, Buddhist Literature in S´antideva S´ariputra Sarvastivada and Mulasarvastivada Satipatthana-sutta Sautrantika Sukhavat vyuha-sutra Suvarnaprabhasottama-sutra Tantra Upagupta Upali Vajrayana Vam sa Vasubandhu Vidyadhara Vijñanavada Vimalak rti Vinaya Visnu Yijing Yogacara School Japan Buddhist Studies Chan Art Chan School Clerical Marriage in Japan Critical Buddhism (Hihan Bukkyo) Daimoku Daitokuji Dogen Dokyo Ennin Esoteric Art, East Asia Exoteric-Esoteric (Kenmitsu) Buddhism in Japan Folk Religion, Japan Ganjin Genshin Gyonen Hachiman Hakuin Ekaku Honen Honji Suijaku Horyuji and Todaiji Huayan Art Huayan School Ikkyu Ingen Ryuki Inoue Enryo Ippen Chishin Japan

Juefan (Huihong) Koan Kuiji Kumaraj va Lineage Longmen Lotus Sutra (Saddharmapundar ka-sutra) Maitreya Martial Arts Mijiao (Esoteric) School Mohe Zhiguan Mozhao Chan (Silent Illumination Chan) Nirvana Sutra Oxherding Pictures Paramartha Persecutions Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch (Liuzu tan jing) Poetry and Buddhism Pure Land Buddhism Pure Land Schools Renwang jing (Humane Kings Sutra) Sanjie Jiao (Three Stages School) Sengzhao S´iksananda Silk Road Syncretic Sects: Three Teachings Taiwan Taixu Tiantai School Xuanzang Yanshou Yijing Yinshun Yixuan Yun'gang Zanning Zhanran Zhao lun Zhili Zhiyi Zhuhong Zonggao Zongmi Europe and the United States Buddhist Studies Christianity and Buddhism Dalai Lama Engaged Buddhism Europe Suzuki, D. T. Thich Nhat Hanh United States Zen, Popular Conceptions of India, the Himalayas, and Nepal Ajanta Alchi Ambedkar, B. R. Anagarika Dharmapala Aryadeva

Aryas´ura Asan˙ ga As´oka As´vaghosa Atisha Bhavaviveka Bodh Gaya Buddhacarita Candrak rti Cave Sanctuaries Councils, Buddhist Devadatta Dhammapada Dharmaguptaka Dharmak rti Diamond Sutra Dignaga Esoteric Art, South and Southeast Asia Faxian Gandhar , Buddhist Literature in Gavam pati Heart Sutra Himalayas, Buddhist Art in H nayana Hinduism and Buddhism India India, Buddhist Art in India, Northwest India, South Islam and Buddhism Jainism and Buddhism Jataka Jataka, Illustrations of Jatakamala Kailas´a (Kailash) Kalacakra Kingship Lalitavistara Language, Buddhist Philosophy of Languages Lan˙ kavatara-sutra Lotus Sutra (Saddharmapundar ka-sutra) Madhyamaka School Mahakas´yapa Mahamaudgalyayana Mahamudra Mahaprajapat Gautam Mahasam ghika School Mahasiddha Mahavastu Mahayana Mah s´asaka Mainstream Buddhist Schools Matrceta Milindapañha Mulasarvastivada-vinaya Nagarjuna Naropa Newari, Buddhist Literature in Nirvana Sutra Padmasambhava

S YNOPTIC O UTLINE OF E NTRIES

Japan, Buddhist Art in Japanese, Buddhist Influences on Vernacular Literature in Japanese Royal Family and Buddhism Jiun Onko Kamakura Buddhism, Japan Koan Koben Konjaku Monogatari Kukai Laity Local Divinities and Buddhism Lotus Sutra (Saddharmapundar ka-sutra) Mahayana Precepts in Japan Meiji Buddhist Reform Mizuko Kuyo Murakami Sensho Nara Buddhism Nichiren Nichiren School Original Enlightenment (Hongaku) Parish (Danka, Terauke) System in Japan Phoenix Hall (at the Byodoin) Provincial Temple System (Kokubunji, Rishoto) Pure Land Buddhism Pure Land Schools Rennyo Ryokan Saicho Satori (Awakening) Shingon Buddhism, Japan Shinran Shinto (Honji Suijaku) and Buddhism Shobogenzo Shotoku, Prince (Taishi) Shugendo Soka Gakkai Suzuki, D. T. Tachikawaryu Takuan Soho Tantra Tiantai School Tominaga Nakamoto Vajrayana Zen, Popular Conceptions of Korea Chan Art Chan School Chinul Chogye School Confucianism and Buddhism Esoteric Art, East Asia Han Yongun Huayan Art Huayan School Hyesim Hyujo˘ng Kihwa Koan	Korea Korea, Buddhist Art in Korean, Buddhist Influences on Vernacular Literature in Kyo˘ngho˘ Nine Mountains School of So˘n Samguk Yusa (Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms) So˘kkuram Tiantai School U˘ich'o˘n U˘isang Wo˘nbulgyo Wo˘nch'u˘k Wo˘nhyo Yujo˘ng Southeast Asia Amulets and Talismans Ananda Temple Ancestors Ayutthaya Bayon Borobudur Buddhadasa Burmese, Buddhist Literature in Cambodia Communism and Buddhism Esoteric Art, South and Southeast Asia Folk Religion, Southeast Asia Hinduism and Buddhism Indonesia and the Malay peninsula Islam and Buddhism Khmer, Buddhist Literature in Laos Local Divinities and Buddhism Myanmar Myanmar, Buddhist Art in Pali, Buddhist Literature in Paritta and Raksa Texts Shwedagon Southeast Asia, Buddhist Art in Sukhothai Thai, Buddhist Literature in Thailand Theravada Theravada Art and Architecture Thich Nhat Hanh Upagupta Vietnam Vietnamese, Buddhist Influences on Literature in Sri Lanka Anagarika Dharmapala Buddhaghosa Esoteric Art, South and Southeast Asia Hinduism and Buddhism Pali, Buddhist Literature in Paritta and Raksa Texts Sinhala, Buddhist Literature in	Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, Buddhist Art in Theravada Theravada Art and Architecture Vam sa Tibet and Mongolia Atisha Bka' brgyud (Kagyu) Bon Bsam yas (Samye) Bsam yas Debate Bu ston (Bu tön) Communism and Buddhism D akin Dalai Lama Dge lugs (Geluk) Engaged Buddhism Islam and Buddhism Jo khang Kailas´a (Kailash) Karma pa Klong chen pa (Longchenpa) Lama Ma gcig lab sgron (Machig Labdrön) Mahamudra Mahasiddha Mandala Mar pa (Marpa) Mi la ras pa (Milarepa) Mongolia Naropa Om Mani Padme Hum Padmasambhava Panchen Lama Potala Rnying ma (Nyingma) Sa skya (Sakya) Sa skya Pandita (Sakya Pandita) Tantra Tibet Tibetan Book of the Dead Tsong kha pa Vajrayana Vidyadhara Disciples of the Buddha A nanda Anathapindada Arhat Disciples of the Buddha Gavam pati Mahakas´yapa Mahamaudgalyayana Mahaprajapat Gautam Ordination Rahula San˙ gha S ´ariputra Upagupta Upali

S YNOPTIC O UTLINE OF E NTRIES

Divinities, Ghosts, and Spirits Ancestors D akin Death Divinities Ghost Festival Ghosts and Spirits Hachiman Heavens Hells Hells, Images of Honji Suijaku Indra Intermediate States Local Divinities and Buddhism Mara Visnu Yaksa	Original Enlightenment (Hongaku) Paramita (Perfection) Path Philosophy Prajña (Wisdom) Prat tyasamutpada (Dependent Origination) Psychology Rebirth Sam sara Skandha (Aggregate) S´unyata (Emptiness) Tathagatagarbha Upaya Vipassana (Sanskrit, Vipas´yana)	Rebirth Self-Immolation Sentient Beings Tibetan Book of the Dead Upagupta Vimalak rti Visnu Vis´vantara Humanities, Thematic Entries Abortion Body, Perspectives on the Colonialism and Buddhism Death Desire Education Entertainment and Performance Ethics Evil Family, Buddhism and the Gender Hermeneutics Languages Lineage Mizuko Kuyo Modernity and Buddhism Nationalism and Buddhism Persecutions Philosophy Psychology Ritual Sexuality Slavery Space, Sacred War Women
Folk Religions and Popular Practices Amulets and Talismans Ancestors Arhat Arhat Images Ascetic Practices Bianwen Bianxiang (Transformation Tableaux) Chanting and Liturgy Cosmology D akin Daoism and Buddhism Dana (Giving) Death Dharan Diet Entertainment and Performance Evil Faith Family, Buddhism and the Festivals and Calendrical Rituals Folk Religion: An Overview Folk Religion, China Folk Religion, Japan Folk Religion, Southeast Asia Gavam pati Ghost Festival Ghosts and Spirits Hachiman Heart Sutra Heavens Hells Hells, Images of Hinduism and Buddhism Honji Suijaku Indra Initiation Intermediate States Karma (Action) Laity Local Divinities and Buddhism Martial Arts Merit and Merit-Making Pilgrimage
Doctrines and Doctrinal Study Abhidharma Alayavijñana Anatman/Atman (No-Self/Self) Anitya (Impermanence) Anuttarasamyaksam bodhi (Complete, Perfect Awakening) Ascetic Practices Bodhi (Awakening) Bodhicitta (Thought of Awakening) Body, Perspectives on the Bsam yas Debate Buddha-nature Buddhavacana (Word of the Buddha) Buddhist Studies Consciousness, Theories of Critical Buddhism (Hihan Bukkyo) Dana (Giving) Death Decline of the Dharma Desire Dharan Dharma and Dharmas Dharmadhatu Dhyana (Trance State) Doubt Duhkha (Suffering) Ethics Evil Faith Four Noble Truths Hermeneutics H nayana Icchantika Initiation Intermediate States Karma (Action) Karuna (Compassion) Language, Buddhist Philosophy of Logic Mindfulness Nirvana	Literary Genres and Collections Abhidharma A gama/Nikaya Apocrypha Avadana Bianwen Biographies of Eminent Monks (Gaoseng zhuan) Biography Canon Catalogues of Scriptures Commentarial Literature Hermeneutics Konjaku Monogatari Languages Poetry and Buddhism Prajñaparamita Literature Samguk Yusa (Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms) Scripture Literature, Indigenous; Buddhist Influences on Bianwen Burmese, Buddhist Literature in

S YNOPTIC O UTLINE OF E NTRIES

Chinese, Buddhist Influences on Vernacular Literature in Gandhar , Buddhist Literature in Japanese, Buddhist Influences on Vernacular Literature in Khmer, Buddhist Literature in Korean, Buddhist Influences on Vernacular Literature in Languages Newari, Buddhist Literature in Pali, Buddhist Literature in Sanskrit, Buddhist Literature in Sinhala, Buddhist Literature in Thai, Buddhist Literature in Vietnamese, Buddhist Influences on Literature in	Poetry and Buddhism Prajña (Wisdom) Psychology Sam sara Satipatthana-sutta Satori (Awakening) Self-Immolation Soteriology S´unyata (Emptiness) Tantra Vipassana (Sanskrit, Vipas´yana) Yogacara School	Monastic Architecture Monasticism Monks Nirvana Nuns Ordination Path Persecutions Pilgrimage Prayer Precepts Rebirth Refuges Relics and Relics Cults Repentance and Confession Ritual San˙ gha Scripture Self-Immolation Soteriology Space, Sacred Syncretic Sects: Three Teachings Wilderness Monks Worship
Religious Encounters with Buddhism Christianity and Buddhism Communism and Buddhism Confucianism and Buddhism Daoism and Buddhism Folk Religion: An Overview Folk Religion, China Folk Religion, Japan Folk Religion, Southeast Asia Hinduism and Buddhism Islam and Buddhism Jainism and Buddhism Local Divinities and Buddhism Shinto (Honji Suijaku) and Buddhism Syncretic Sects: Three Teachings
Material Culture Printing Technologies Ritual Objects Robes and Clothing Silk Road Meditation and Practice Abhijña (Higher Knowledges) Alayavijñana Ascetic Practices Bodhi (Awakening) Bodhicaryavatara Buddhanusmrti (Recollection of the Buddha) Chan School Consciousness, Theories of Cosmology Daimoku Dana (Giving) Death Dhyana (Trance State) Doubt Duhkha (Suffering) Ethics Faith Four Noble Truths Icchantika Intermediate States Koan Lineage Logic Mahamudra Mandala Mantra Martial Arts Meditation Mindfulness Miracles Mudra and Visual Imagery Nirvana Om Mani Padme Hum Paramita (Perfection) Path Pilgrimage	Ritual Practices Consecration Conversion Dharan Diet Etiquette Initiation Intermediate States Kalacakra Lineage Mandala Mantra Mizuko Kuyo Mudra and Visual Imagery Om Mani Padme Hum Ordination Portraiture Pratimoksa Precepts Refuges Relics and Relics Cults Repentance and Confession Ritual Ritual Objects Self-Immolation Stupa Tantra Tibetan Book of the Dead
Religious Studies, Thematic Entries Body, Perspectives on the Commentarial Literature Conversion Cosmology Dana (Giving) Death Decline of the Dharma Diet Doubt Dreams Duhkha (Suffering) Education Ethics Evil Faith Gender Heavens Hells Hermeneutics History Icchantika Initiation Intermediate States Karma (Action) Laity Lineage Millenarianism and Millenarian Movements Miracles	Sacred Sites Ajanta Bamiyan Bayon Bodh Gaya Borobudur Cave Sanctuaries

Abhidharma Abhidharma Abhidharmakos´abhasya Apocrypha Apocrypha Awakening of Faith (Dasheng qixin lun) Fanwang jing (Brahma's Net Sutra) Heart Sutra Renwang jing (Humane Kings Sutra) Commentaries and Treatises Awakening of Faith (Dasheng qixin lun) Commentarial Literature Dhammapada Milindapañha Mohe Zhiguan Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch (Liuzu tan jing) Shobogenzo Tibetan Book of the Dead Zhao lun Genres A gama/Nikaya Abhidharma Apocrypha Avadana Canon Catalogues of Scriptures Commentarial Literature Hermeneutics Jataka Mahayana Paritta and Raksa Texts Prajñaparamita Literature Scripture
Central Asia, Buddhist Art in China, Buddhist Art in Daitokuji Dunhuang Esoteric Art, East Asia Esoteric Art, South and Southeast Asia Famensi Himalayas, Buddhist Art in Horyuji and Todaiji India, Buddhist Art in Indonesia, Buddhist Art in Japan, Buddhist Art in Jo khang Kailas´a (Kailash) Korea, Buddhist Art in Longmen Mahabodhi Temple Mandala Myanmar, Buddhist Art in Phoenix Hall (at the Byodoin) Pilgrimage Potala Pure Land Art Relics and Relics Cults Reliquary Space, Sacred Sañc Shwedagon So˘kkuram Southeast Asia, Buddhist Art in Sri Lanka, Buddhist Art in Stupa Theravada Art and Architecture Yun'gang	Mahayana Precepts in Japan Martial Arts Medicine Meiji Buddhist Reform Merit and Merit-Making Mindfulness Monastic Architecture Monasticism Monastic Militias Monks Nuns Ordination Parish (Danka, Terauke) System in Japan Persecutions Pilgrimage Poetry and Buddhism Politics and Buddhism Pratimoksa Prayer Precepts Refuges Repentance and Confession Ritual Objects Robes and Clothing San˙ gha Self-Immolation Sexuality Slavery Usury Vam sa Vidyadhara Vinaya Wilderness Monks Women Worship	Pudgalavada Pure Land Buddhism Pure Land Schools Rnying ma (Nyingma) Sanjie Jiao (Three Stages School) Sarvastivada and Mulasarvastivada Sa skya (Sakya) Sautrantika Shingon Buddhism, Japan Shugendo Soka Gakkai Tachikawaryu Tantra Tathagatagarbha Theravada Tiantai School Vajrayana Vijñanavada Vinaya Wo˘nbulgyo Yogacara School Zen, Popular Conceptions of Scriptures and Texts
San˙ ga, General Themes Abhijña (Higher Knowledges) Chanting and Liturgy Clerical Marriage in Japan Consecration Conversion Councils, Buddhist Dana (Giving) Death Decline of the Dharma Devadatta Economics Education Entertainment and Performance Etiquette Faith Festivals and Calendrical Rituals Hair Initiation Jewels Karma (Action) Laity Lama Law and Buddhism Lineage Mahasiddha	Schools and Traditions Bka' brgyud (Kagyu) Bon Bsam yas (Samye) Chan School Chogye School Critical Buddhism (Hihan Bukkyo) Dge lugs (Geluk) Dharmaguptaka Exoteric-Esoteric (Kenmitsu) Buddhism in Japan Faxiang School H nayana Huayan School Kamakura Buddhism, Japan Madhyamaka School Mahasam ghika School Mahayana Mah s´asaka Mainstream Buddhist Schools Mijiao (Esoteric) School Mozhao Chan (Silent Illumination Chan) Nara Buddhism Nichiren School Nine Mountains School of So˘n

S YNOPTIC O UTLINE OF E NTRIES

Sutra Tantra Vinaya Vam sa	Suvarnaprabhasottama-sutra	Etiquette Family, Buddhism and the Festivals and Calendrical Rituals Folk Religion: An Overview Folk Religion, China Folk Religion, Japan Folk Religion, Southeast Asia Gender Ghost Festival Ghosts and Spirits Hair History Honji Suijaku Japanese Royal Family and Buddhism Jewels Kingship Laity Law and Buddhism Martial Arts Medicine Merit and Merit-Making Millenarianism and Millenarian Movements Mizuko Kuyo Modernity and Buddhism Monastic Militias Nationalism and Buddhism Persecutions Politics and Buddhism Provincial Temple System (Kokubunji, Rishoto) Self-Immolation Shinto (Honji Suijaku) and Buddhism Silk Road Slavery Usury Vinaya War
Tantra Kalacakra Tantra Vinaya Law and Buddhism Mulasarvastivada-vinaya Pratimoksa Vinaya
Ja taka, Avada na and Story Literature Avadana Avadanas´ataka Bodhicaryavatara Buddhacarita Divyavadana Lalitavistara Jataka Jatakamala Konjaku Monogatari Mahavastu Samguk Yusa (Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms) Vam sa	Sexuality and Gender Issues Abortion D akin Gender Hair Laity Mizuko Kuyo Monks Nuns San˙ gha Sexuality Women
Sutra A gama/Nikaya Diamond Sutra Fanwang jing (Brahma's Net Sutra) Heart Sutra Huayan jing Lan˙ kavatara-sutra Lotus Sutra (Saddharmapundar ka-sutra) Mahaparinirvana-sutra Nirvana Sutra Prajñaparamita Literature Pratyutpannasamadhi-sutra Renwang jing (Humane Kings Sutra) Sam dhinirmocana-sutra Satipatthana-sutta Scripture Sukhavat vyuha-sutra Sutra Sutra Illustrations	Social, Economic, and Political Issues Colonialism and Buddhism Communism and Buddhism Conversion Councils, Buddhist Dalai Lama Death Decline of the Dharma Diet Economics Education Engaged Buddhism Entertainment and Performance Ethics

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Abhidharma

In the centuries after the death of the Buddha, with the advent of settled monastic communities, there emerged new forms of religious praxis and modes of transmitting and interpreting the teaching. In this more organized setting, Buddhist practitioners began to reexamine received traditions and to develop new methods of organization that would make explicit their underlying significance and facilitate their faithful transmission. Although begun as a pragmatic method of elaborating the received teachings, this scholastic enterprise soon led to new doctrinal and textual developments and became the focus of a new form of scholarly monastic life. The products of this scholarship became revered tradition in their own right, eventually eclipsing the dialogues of the Buddha and of his disciples as the arbiter of the true teaching and determining both the exegetical method and the salient issues that became the focus of later Indian Buddhist doctrinal investigations.

Abhidharma, Its Meaning And Origins

This scholastic enterprise was called abhidharma (Pali:
abhidhamma), a multivalent term used to refer to the new techniques of doctrinal interpretation, to the body of texts that this interpretation yielded, and finally to the crucial discriminating insight that was honed through doctrinal interpretation and employed in religious praxis. Traditional sources offer two explanations for the term abhidharma: "with regard to (abhi)
the teaching (dharma)" or the "highest or further (abhi) teaching (dharma)." The subject of abhidharma analysis was, of course, the teaching (dharma) as embodied in the dialogues of the Buddha and his disciples. However, abhidharma did not merely restate or recapitulate the teaching of the sutras, but reorganized their content and explicated their implicit meaning through commentary. In abhidharma, the specific content of the various individual sutras was abstracted and reconstituted in accordance with new analytical criteria, thereby allowing one to discern their true message.

This true message, as set down in abhidharma texts, consists of the discrimination of the various events and components (dharma) that combine to form all of experience. This discrimination in turn enables one to distinguish those defiling factors that ensnare one in the process of REBIRTH from those liberating factors that lead to enlightenment. And finally, when the defiling and liberating factors are clearly distinguished, the proper PATH of practice becomes clear. Hence, abhidharma was no mere scholastic commentary, but rather soteriological exegesis that was essential for the effective practice of the path.

Traditional sources do not offer a uniform account of the origins of the abhidharma method or of the abhidharma corpus of texts. Several traditional accounts attribute the composition of abhidharma texts to a first council supposedly held immediately after the death of the Buddha, at which his teachings were arranged and orally recited in three sections: the dialogues (sutra);
the disciplinary monastic codes (VINAYA); and the taxonomic lists of factors (matr-ka or abhidharma). Implicitly, therefore, these traditional sources attribute authorship of the abhidharma to the Buddha himself. This question of the authorship and, by implication, the authenticity and authority of the abhidharma continued to be a controversial issue within subsequent, independent abhidharma treatises. Although many MAINSTREAM BUDDHIST SCHOOLS accepted the 1 authority of abhidharma texts and included them within their canons as the word of the Buddha, several schools rejected the authority of abhidharma and claimed that abhidharma treatises were composed by fallible, human teachers.

Independent abhidharma treatises were composed over a period of at least seven hundred years (ca. third or second centuries B.C.E. to fifth century C.E.). The appearance and eventual proliferation of these independent abhidharma treatises coincides with the emergence of separate schools within the early Buddhist community. Doctrinal differences among various groups, which were, in part, the natural result of differing lineages of textual transmission, were refined in scholastic debates and amplified by the composition of independent abhidharma exegetical works. Scholarly opinion on the sources for the genre of independent abhidharma treatises is divided between two hypotheses, each of which finds support in structural characteristics of abhidharma texts. The first hypothesis emphasizes the practice of formulating matrices or taxonomic lists (matr-ka) of all topics found in the traditional teaching, which are then arranged according to both numeric and qualitative criteria. The second hypothesis stresses the doctrinal discussions (dharmakatha) in catechetical style that attempt to clarify complex or obscure points of doctrine. These two structural characteristics suggest a typical process by which independent abhidharma treatises were composed: A matrix outline served to record or possibly direct discussions in which points of doctrine were then elaborated through a pedagogical question and answer technique.

Regardless of which hypothesis more accurately represents the origin of independent abhidharma treatises, this dual exegetical method reflects a persistent tendency in the Buddhist tradition, from the earliest period onward, toward analytical presentation through taxonomic categories and toward discursive elaboration through catechesis. The need to memorize the teaching obviously promoted the use of categorizing lists as a mnemonic device, and certain sutras describe this taxonomic method as a way of encapsulating the essentials of the teaching and averting dissension.

Other sutras proceed much like oral commentaries, in which a brief doctrinal statement by the Buddha is analyzed in full through a process of interrogation and exposition. Both of these methods, amply attested in the sutra collection, were successively expanded in subsequent independent scholastic treatises, some of which were not included within the sectarian, canonical abhidharma collections. For example, the collection of miscellaneous texts (khuddakapit-aka) of the canon of the THERAVADA school includes two texts utilizing these methods that were not recognized to be canonical "abhidharma" texts. The Pat-isambhidamagga (Path of Discrimination) contains brief discussions of doctrinal points structured according to a topical list
(matika), and the Niddesa (Exposition) consists of commentary on the early verse collection, the Suttanipata.

In fact, a clear-cut point of origin for the abhidharma as an independent section of the textual canon only reflects the perspective of the later tradition that designates, after a long forgotten evolution, certain texts as
"abhidharma" in contrast to sutras or other possibly earlier expository works that share similar characteristics.

Abhidharma Texts

Traditional accounts of early Indian Buddhist schools suggest that while certain schools may have shared some textual collections, many transmitted their own independent abhidharma treatises. XUANZANG (ca.

600–664 C.E.), the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim who visited India in the seventh century C.E., is reported to have collected numerous texts of as many as seven mainstream Buddhist schools. These almost certainly included canonical abhidharma texts representing various schools. However, only two complete canonical collections, representing the Theravada and Sarvastivada schools, and several texts of undetermined sectarian affiliation are preserved. Even though each of the Theravada and Sarvastivada abhidharma collections contains seven texts, the individual texts of the two collections cannot be neatly identified with one another. However, a close examination of certain texts from each collection and a comparison with other extant abhidharma materials reveals similarities in the underlying taxonomic lists, in exegetical structure, and in the topics discussed. These similarities suggest either contact among the groups who composed and transmitted these texts, or a common ground of doctrinal exegesis and even textual material predating the emergence of the separate schools.

The Theravada canonical abhidharma collection, the only one extant in an Indian language (Pali), contains seven texts:

1. Vibhan˙ ga (Analysis); 2. Puggalapaññatti (Designation of Persons); 3. Dhatukatha (Discussion of Elements); 4. Dhammasan˙ gan-i (Enumeration of Factors);
2. Yamaka (Pairs);
3. Pat-t-hana (Foundational Conditions); and 7. Kathavatthu (Points of Discussion).

The Sarvastivada canonical abhidharma collection, also including seven texts, is extant only in Chinese translation:

1. San˙ gl tiparyaya (Discourse on the San˙ gl ti);
2. Dharmaskandha (Aggregation of Factors); 3. Prajñaptis´astra (Treatise on Designations); 4. Dhatukaya (Collection on the Elements);
3. Vijñanakaya (Collection on Perceptual Consciousness);
4. Prakaran-apada (Exposition); and 7. Jñanaprasthana (Foundations of Knowledge).

Certain other early abhidharma texts extant in Chinese translation probably represent the abhidharma canonical texts of yet other schools: for example, the
S´ariputrabhidharmas´astra* (T. 1548), which may have been affiliated with a Vibhajyavada school, or the *Sam- *matl* yas´astra (T. 1649) affiliated by its title with the Sam- matya school, associated with the Vatsputryas.

In the absence of historical evidence for the accurate dating of the extant abhidharma treatises, scholars have tentatively proposed relative chronologies based primarily upon internal formal criteria that presuppose a growing complexity of structural organization and of exegetical method. It is assumed that abhidharma texts of the earliest period bear the closest similarities to the sutras, and are often structured as commentaries on entire sutras or on sutra sections arranged according to taxonomic lists. The Vibhan˙ ga and Puggalapaññatti of the Theravadins and the San˙ gl
tiparyaya and Dharmaskandha of the Sarvastivadins exemplify these characteristics. The next set of abhidharma texts exhibits emancipation from the confines of commentary upon individual sutras, by adopting a more abstract stance that subsumes doctrinal material from a variety of sources under an abstract analytical framework of often newly created categories. This middle period would include the five remaining canonical texts within the Theravada and the Sarvastivada abhidharma canonical collections. The catechetical style of commentarial exegesis, evident even in the earliest abhidharma texts, becomes more structured and formulaic in texts of the middle period. The final products in this process of abstraction are the truly independent treatises that display marked creativity in technical terminology and doctrinal elaboration. Some of the texts, in particular the Kathavatthu of the Theravadins and the Vijñanakaya of the Sarvastivadins, display an awareness of differences in doctrinal interpretation and factional alignments, although they do not adopt the developed polemical stance typical of many subsequent abhidharma works.

The composition of abhidharma treatises did not end with the canonical collections, but continued with commentaries on previous abhidharma works and with independent summary digests or exegetical manuals.

Within the Theravada tradition, several fifth-century C.E. commentators compiled new works based upon earlier commentaries dating from the first several centuries C.E. They also composed independent summaries of abhidhamma analysis, prominent among which are the Visuddhimagga (Path of Purification) by BUDDHAGHOSA and the Abhidhammavatara (Introduction to Abhidhamma) by Buddhadatta. The Abhidhammatthasan˙ gaha (Collection of Abhidhamma Matters) composed by Anuruddha in the twelfth century C.E. became thereafter the most frequently used summary of abhidhamma teaching within the Theravada tradition.

The first five centuries C.E. were also a creative period of efflorescence for the abhidharma of the Sarvastivadins. In texts of this period, summary exposition combines with exhaustive doctrinal analysis and polemical debate. The teaching is reorganized in accordance with an abstract and more logical structure, which is then interwoven with the earlier taxonomic lists. Preeminent among these texts for both their breadth and their influence upon later scholastic compositions are the voluminous, doctrinal compendia, called vibhas-a, which are represented by three different recensions extant in Chinese translation, the last and best known of which is called the Mahavibhas-a (Great Exegesis). Composed over several centuries from the second century C.E. onward, these ostensibly simple commentaries on an earlier canonical abhidharma text, the Jñanaprasthana, exhaustively enumerate the positions of contending groups on each doctrinal point, often explicitly attributing these views to specific schools or masters. Instead of arguing for a single, orthodox viewpoint, the vibhas-a compendia display an encyclopedic intention that is often content with comprehensiveness in cataloguing the full spectrum of differing sectarian positions. The vibhas-a compendia are repositories of several centuries of scholastic activity representing multiple branches of the Sarvastivada school, which was spread throughout greater northwestern India. However, they came to be particularly associated by tradition with the Sarvastivadins of Kashmir who, thereby, acquired the appellation, Sarvastivada-Vaibhas-ika.

Three other texts composed during the same period that are associated with the northwestern region of Gandhara display a markedly different structure and purpose:
the Abhidharmahr-dayas´astra (Heart of Abhidharma*) by Dharmas´res-t-hin; the *Abhidharmahr-dayas´astra (Heart of Abhidharma) by Upas´anta; and the *Mis´rakabhidharmahr-dayas´astra *(Heart of Abhidharma with Miscellaneous Additions*) by Dharmatrata. Composed in verse with an accompanying prose auto-commentary, these texts function as summary digests of all aspects of the teaching presented according to a logical and nonrepetitive structure. In contrast to the earlier numerically guided taxonomic lists well-suited as mnemonic aids, these texts adopt a new method of organization, attempting to subsume the prior taxonomic lists and all discussion of specific doctrinal points under general topical sections. This new organizational structure was to become paradigmatic for the texts of the final period of Sarvastivada *abhidharma.*
This final period in the development of Sarvastivada abhidharma treatises includes texts that are the products of single authors and that adopt a polemical style of exposition displaying a fully developed sectarian self-consciousness. They also employ increasingly sophisticated methods of argumentation in order to establish the position of their own school and to refute at length the views of others. Despite this polemical approach, they nonetheless purport to serve as wellorganized expository treatises or pedagogical digests for the entirety of Buddhist teaching. The Abhidharmakos´a (Treasury of Abhidharma), including both verses (karika) and an auto-commentary (bhas-ya), by VASUBANDHU became the most important text from this period, central to the subsequent traditions of abhidharma studies in Tibet and East Asia. Adopting both the verse-commentary structure and the topical organization of the Abhidharmahr-daya,* the Abhidharmakos´a presents a detailed account of Sarvastivada abhidharma teaching with frequent criticism of Sarvastivada positions in its auto-commentary. The Abhidharmakos´a provoked a response from certain Kashmiri Sarvastivada masters who attempted to refute non-Sarvastivada views presented in Vasubandhu's work and to reestablish their own interpretation of orthodox Kashmiri Sarvastivada positions. These works, the *Nyayanusaras´astra *(Conformance to Correct Principle*) and *Abhidharmasamayapradl pika (Illumination of the Collection of Abhidharma) by San˙ ghabhadra and the Abhidharmadl pa (Illumination of Abhidharma) by an unknown author who refers to himself as the Dpakara (author of the Dl pa) were the final works of the Sarvastivada abhidharma tradition that have survived.

Abhidharma Exegesis

Abhidharma exegesis evolved over a long period as both the agent and the product of a nascent and then increasingly disparate Buddhist sectarian self-consciousness. Given the voluminous nature of even the surviving literature that provides a record of this long doctrinal history, any outline of abhidharma method must be content with sketching the most general contours and touching on a few representative examples. Nonetheless, scanning the history of abhidharma, one discerns a general course of development that in the end resulted in a complex interpretative edifice radically different from the sutras upon which it was believed to be based.

In its earliest stage, that is, as elaborative commentary, abhidharma was guided by the intention simply to clarify the content of the sutras. Taxonomic lists were used as a mnemonic device facilitating oral preservation and transmission; catechetical investigation was employed in a teaching environment of oral commentary guided by the pedagogical technique of question and answer. Over time, the taxonomic lists grew in complexity as the simpler lists presented in the sutra teachings were combined in new ways, and additional categories of qualitative analysis were created to specify modes of interaction among discrete aspects of the sutra teaching. The initially terse catechetical investigation was expanded with discursive exposition and new methods of interpretation and argumentation, which were demanded by an increasingly polemical environment. These developments coincided with a move from oral to written methods of textual transmission and with the challenge presented by other Buddhist and non-Buddhist groups. In its final stage, abhidharma texts became complex philosophical treatises employing sophisticated methods of argumentation, whose purpose was the analysis and elaboration of doctrinal issues for their own sake. The very sutras from which abhidharma arose were now subordinated as mere statements in need of analysis that only the abhidharma could provide. No longer serving as the starting point for abhidharma exegesis, the sutras were invoked only as a supplemental authority to buttress independent reasoned investigations or to corroborate doctrinal points actually far removed from their scriptural antecedents.

Abstract analysis, which is the guiding principle of abhidharma exegesis, also became the salient characteristic of its doctrinal interpretation. The analytical tendency, evident in lists present even in the sutras, expanded in abhidharma to encompass all of experience. In very simple terms, abhidharma attempts an exhaustive and systematic accounting of every possible type of experience in terms of its ultimate constituents. Abhidharma views experience with a critical analytical eye, breaking down the gross objects of ordinary perception into their constituent factors or dharmas and clarifying the causal interaction among these discrete factors. This analysis was not, however, motivated by simple abstract interest, but rather by a soteriological purpose at the very core of Buddhist religious praxis. Analysis determines the requisite factors of which each event consists, distinguishing those factors that lead to suffering and rebirth from those that contribute to their termination. This very process of analysis was identified with the insight that functions in religious praxis to cut off ensnaring factors and to cultivate those leading to liberation.

Abhidharma analysis focused on refining these lists of factors and on investigating the problems that arise in using them to explain experience. Simple enumerations of factors found in the earlier sutras include the lists of five aggregates (skandha), twelve sense-spheres (ayatana), and eighteen elements (dhatu) that were used to describe animate beings, or the lists of practices and qualities that were to be incorporated into the set of thirty-seven limbs of enlightenment, whose cultivation results in the attainment of enlightenment.

These earlier analytical lists were preserved in abhidharma treatises and integrated into comprehensive and complex intersecting classifications that aimed to clarify both the unique identity of each factor and all possible modes of conditioning interaction among them.

The abhidharma treatises of various schools proposed differing lists of factors containing as many as seventyfive, eighty-one, or one hundred discrete categories.

For example, the Sarvastivadins adopted a system of seventy-five basic categories of factors distinguished according to their intrinsic nature (svabhava), which were then grouped in five distinct classes. The first four classes (material form [rupa]—eleven; mind [citta]— one; mental factors [caitta]—forty-six; and factors dissociated from material form and mind [cittaviprayuktasam- skara]—fourteen) comprise all conditioned factors (sam- skr-ta), that is, factors that participate in causal interaction and are subject to arising and passing away. The fifth class comprises three unconditioned factors (asam- skr-ta), which neither arise nor pass away.

Through abhidharma analysis, all experiential events were explained as arising from the interaction of a certain number of these factors. Particular occurrences of individual factors were further characterized in accordance with additional specific criteria or sets of qualities including their moral quality as virtuous, unvirtuous, or indeterminate, their locus of occurrence as connected to the realm of desire, the realm of form, the formless realm, or not connected to any realm, their connection to animate experience as characteristic of SENTIENT BEINGS or not, and their conditioning efficacy as resulting from certain types of causes or leading to certain types of effects. To give an example, a particular instance of a mental factor, such as conception (sam- jña), can be virtuous in moral quality, characteristic of sentient beings, connected to the realm of desire, and so on. In other circumstance, another occurrence of the same factor of conception, while still characteristic of sentient beings, can be unvirtuous and connected to the realm of form. Although the specific character of each instance of conception differs as virtuous, or unvirtuous, and so on, all such instances, regardless of their particular qualities, share the same intrinsic nature as conception and can, therefore, be placed within the same fundamental category.

Thus, the taxonomic schema of seventy-five factors represents seventy-five categories of intrinsic nature, each of which occurs phenomenally or experientially in innumerable instances. Through this disciplined exercise of exhaustive analysis in terms of constituent factors, experience can be seen as it actually is, the factors causing further suffering can be discarded, and those contributing toward liberation can be isolated and cultivated.

This exhaustive abhidharma analysis of experience occasioned a number of doctrinal controversies that served to demarcate different schools. Many of these controversies were directed by fundamental disagreements that could be termed ontological, specifically concerning the way in which the different factors constituting experience exist and the dynamics of their interaction or conditioning. Such ontological concerns motivated the early lists of factors in the sutras, which were used to support the fundamental Buddhist teaching of no-self (anatman) by demonstrating that no perduring, unchanging, independent self (atman)
could be found. In abhidharma treatises the focus of ontological concern shifted from gross objects, such as the self, to the factors or dharmas of which these objects were understood to consist.

Perhaps the most distinctive ontology was proposed by the Sarvastivadins, "those who claim sarvam asti,"
or "everything exists." Beginning from the fundamental Buddhist teaching of ANITYA (IMPERMANENCE), they suggested that the constituent factors of experience exist as discrete and real entities, arising and passing away within the span of a single moment. But such a view of experience as an array of strictly momentary factors would seem to make continuity and indeed any conditioning interaction among the discrete factors impossible. Factors of one moment, whose existence is limited to that moment, could never condition the arising of subsequent factors that do not yet exist; and factors of the subsequent moment must then arise without a cause since their prior causes no longer exist. To safeguard both the Buddhist teaching of impermanence and the conditioning process that is essential to account for ordinary experience, the Sarvastivadins suggested a novel reinterpretation of existence. Each factor, they claimed, is characterized by both an intrinsic nature, which exists unchanged in the past, present, and future, and an activity or causal efficacy, which arises and passes away due to the influence of conditions within the span of the present moment. Only those factors that are defined by both intrinsic nature and the possibility of activity exist as real entities (dravya); the composite objects of ordinary experience that lack intrinsic nature exist only as mental constructs or provisional designations (prajñapti). This model, the Sarvastivadins claimed, preserves the Buddhist doctrine of impermanence, since each factor's activity arises and passes away, and yet also explains continuity and the process of conditioning, since factors exist as intrinsic nature in the past, present, and future. Such past (or future) existent factors can then, through various special types of causal efficacy, serve as conditions in the arising of subsequent factors. The Sarvastivada ontological model became the subject of heated debate and was rejected by other schools (e.g., the Theravada and the Dars-t-antika)
who claimed that factors exist only in the present, and not in the past and future. According to the Dars-t-antikas, intrinsic nature cannot be distinguished from a factor's activity. Instead, a factor's very existence is its activity, and experience is nothing other than an uninterrupted conditioning process. The fragmentation of this conditioning process into discrete factors possessed of individual intrinsic nature and unique efficacy is nothing but a mental fabrication.

These ontological investigations generated complex theories of conditioning and intricate typologies of causes and conditions. There is evidence for several rival classifications of individual causes and conditions, each of which accounts for a specific mode of conditioning interaction among specific categories of factors: For example, the Theravadins proposed a set of twenty-four conditions; the Sarvastivadins, two separate sets of four conditions and six causes. Besides establishing different typologies of causes and conditions, the schools also disagreed on the causal modality exercised by these specific types. The Sarvastivadins acknowledged that certain of these causes and conditions arise prior to their effects, while others, which exert a supportive conditioning efficacy, arise simultaneously with their effects. The Dars-t-antikas, however, allowed only successive causation; a cause must always precede its effect. In these debates about causality, the nature of animate or personal conditioning—that is, efficacious action, or KARMA—and the theory of dependent origination intended to account for animate conditioning were, naturally, central issues because of their fundamental role in all Buddhist teaching and practice.

The investigation of these doctrinal controversies, which came to occupy an ever greater position in later abhidharma treatises, required the development of more formal methods of argumentation that employed both supporting scriptural citations and reasoned investigations. In the earliest examples of such arguments, reasoned investigations did not yet possess the power of independent proof and were considered valid only in conjunction with supportive scriptural citations. This reliance upon scriptural citations spurred the development of a systematic HERMENEUTICS that would mediate conflicting positions by judging the authenticity and authority of corroborating scriptural passages and determining the correct mode of their interpretation. In general, the interpretative principles applied were inclusive and harmonizing; any statement deemed in conformity with the teaching of the Buddha or with his enlightenment experience was accepted as genuine. Hierarchies were created that incorporated divergent scriptural passages by valuing them differently. And finally, contradictory passages in the sutras or within abhidharma texts were said to represent the variant perspectives from which the Buddhist teaching could be presented. Notable for its parallel with later Buddhist ontology and epistemology was the hermeneutic technique whereby certain passages or texts were judged to have explicit meaning (nl tartha) expressing absolute truth or reality, while others were judged to have implicit meaning (neyartha) expressing mere conventional truth. And for the abhidharma texts, the sutras were merely implicit and in need of further interpretation that could be provided only by the explicit abhidharma treatises. In abhidharma texts of the later period, reasoned investigations were deemed sufficient, and the supporting scriptural references became decontextualized commonplaces, cited simply to validate the use of key terms in an abhidharma context. Reasoned investigations began to be appraised by independent non-scriptural criteria, such as internal consistency, and the absence of logical faults, such as fallacious causal justification. The doctrinal analysis and methods of argumentation developed within abhidharma treatises defined the course for later Indian Buddhist scholasticism, which refined and expanded its abhidharma heritage through the addition of new doctrinal perspectives, increasingly sophisticated techniques of argument, and a wider context of both intraand extra-Buddhist debate.

See also: Abhidharmakos´abhas-ya; Anatman/Atman
(No-Self/Self); Canon; Commentarial Literature; Councils, Buddhist; Dharma and Dharmas; Psychology; Sarvastivada and Mulasarvastivada

Bareau, André. "Les Sectes bouddhiques du Petit Véhicule et leurs Abhidharmapit-aka." Bulletin de l'École Française d'ExtrêmeOrient 50 (1952): 1–11.

Cox, Collett. "The Unbroken Treatise: Scripture and Argument in Early Buddhist Scholasticism." In Innovation in Religious Traditions: Essays in the Interpretation of Religious Change, ed. Michael A. Williams, Collett Cox, and Martin S. Jaffee. Berlin and New York: de Gruyter, 1992.

Cox, Collett. Disputed Dharmas: Early Buddhist Theories on Existence. Tokyo: International Institute for Buddhist Studies, 1995.

Cox, Collett. "Kas´mra: Vaibhas-ika Orthodoxy (Chapter 3)." In Sarvastivada Buddhist Scholasticism, by Charles Willemen, Bart Dessein, and Collett Cox. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill. 1997.

Frauwallner, Erich. Studies in Abhidharma Literature and the Origins of Buddhist Philosophical Systems, tr. Sophie Francis Kidd. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995.

Gethin, Rupert. "The Matikas: Memorization, Mindfulness, and the List." In In the Mirror of Memory: Reflections on Mindfulness and Remembrance in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism,
ed. Janet Gyatso. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992.

Hirakawa Akira. A History of Indian Buddhism: From S´akyamuni to Early Mahayana, tr. Paul Groner. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1990.

Nyanatiloka Mahathera. Guide through the Abhidhamma Pit-aka
(1938). Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society, 1971.

Potter, Karl; with Buswell, Robert E.; Jaini, Padmanabh S.; and Reat, Noble Ross; eds. Abhidharma Buddhism to 150 A.D., Vol. 7: Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1996.

Watanabe Fumimaro. Philosophy and Its Development in the Nikayas and Abhidhamma. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1983.

COLLETT COX

Abhidharmakos´Abha S-Ya

The Abhidharmakos´a (Treasury of Abhidharma) was composed by the fourth- or fifth-century Indian Buddhist master, VASUBANDHU. No scholarly consensus exists concerning whether or not Vasubandhu, the author of the Abhidharmakos´a, should be identified with Vasubandhu, the author of numerous MAHAYANA and YOGACARA SCHOOL treatises. According to traditional biographical accounts, Vasubandhu composed the verses of the Abhidharmakos´a, or karika, as a digest of orthodox Kashmiri Sarvastivada-Vaibha-sika abhidharma doctrine. However, in his prose auto-commentary, the bhas-ya, Vasubandhu frequently criticized Sarvastivada doctrinal positions and presented his own divergent interpretations.

Typical of the later abhidharma genre of polemical, summary digests, the Abhidharmakos´a attempts to present the entirety of abhidharma doctrinal teaching according to a logical format, while also recording variant, sectarian interpretations and often lengthy arguments on specific points. For his organizational structure and much of his content, Vasubandhu relied upon earlier abhidharma treatises: notably, for content, upon the massive scholastic compendia (vibhas-a) of Kashmir, and for structure and tenor of interpretation, upon the Abhidharmahr-daya (Heart of Abhidharma)
texts of Gandhara. The Abhidharmakos´a is divided into nine chapters (nirdes´a):

1. Elements (dhatu) 2. Faculties (indriya)
2. Worlds (loka)
3. Action (karma) 5. Contaminants (anus´aya) 6. Path of Religious Praxis and Religious Persons
   (margapudgala)
4. Knowledge (jñana)
5. Meditative States (samapatti) 9. Person (pudgala)
   The ninth chapter contains a refutation of the theory of the existence of the person and may represent a separate treatise by Vasubandhu, appended to the remainder of the Abhidharmakos´a. The Abhidharmakos´a became the most influential early Indian Buddhist Abhidharma text within the later scholastic traditions of Tibet and East Asia, where it served as a textbook within monastic curricula and generated numerous commentaries.

See also: Abhidharma; Dharma and Dharmas; Sarvastivada and Mulasarvastivada

La Vallée Poussin, Louis de, trans. L'Abhidharmakos´a de Vasubandhu, 6 vols. Paris: Paul Geuthner, 1923–1931. English trans. Leo M. Pruden, Abhidharmakos´abhas-yam, Vols. 1–4. Berkeley, CA: Asian Humanities Press, 1988–1990.

COLLETT COX

Abhijña (Higher Knowledges)

Abhijña (Pali, abhiñña; higher knowledge) refers to a stereotyped set of typically six spiritual powers ascribed to buddhas and their chief disciples. The first five are mundane and attainable through the perfection of concentration (samadhi) in meditative trance (dhyana; Pali, jhana). As earthly attainments, they are deemed available to non-Buddhist sages. In contrast, the sixth higher knowledge is supramundane and exclusively Buddhist, and attainable only through insight
(vipas´yana; Pali, vipassana) into the Buddhist truths.

The five mundane abhijñas include:

• The divine eye (divyacaks-us; Pali, dibbacakkhu), or the ability to see the demise and rebirth of beings according to their good and evil deeds;
• The divine ear (divyas´rota; Pali, dibbasota), the ability to hear heavenly and earthly sounds far and near;
• Knowledge of other minds (cetah-paryayajñana; Pali, cetopariyañan-a), the ability to know the thoughts and mental states of others;
• Recollection of previous habitations (purvanivasanusmr-ti; Pali pubbenivasanusati), the ability to remember one's former existences from one to thousands of rebirths, through the evolution and destruction of many world systems;
• Various supernatural powers (r-ddhi; Pali, iddhi),
  such as the ability to create mind-made bodies, project replicas of oneself, become invisible, pass through solid objects, move through the earth, walk on water, fly through the air, touch the sun and moon, and ascend to the highest heaven.

In the MAHAPARINIRVAN-A-SUTRA (Pali, Mahaparinibbana-sutta; Great Discourse on the Parinirvan-a), the Buddha tells his disciple A NANDA that one who perfects the four bases of supernatural power (r-ddhipada; Pali, iddhipada) can live for an entire eon, or for the remaining portion of an eon should he so desire.

The sixth and only supramundane abhijña is the most important. Called "knowledge of the extinction of the passions" (a´ravaks s -aya; Pali, asavakkhaya), it is equivalent to arhatship. The passions extinguished through this knowledge are sensuality (kama), becoming (bhava), ignorance (avidya; Pali, avijja), and views (dr-s-t-i; Pali, dit-t-hi).

Historically, the six abhijñas can be seen as an elaboration of an earlier Buddhist paradigm of human perfection called the "three knowledges" (traividya; Pali, tevijja). Comprised of the recollection of former habitations, the divine eye, and knowledge of the extinction of the passions, the three knowledges form the content of the Buddha's awakening in early canonical depictions of his enlightenment experience.

Although mastery of the six abhijñas is an attribute of all perfect buddhas, the early Buddhist tradition was ambivalent toward the display of supernatural powers by members of the monastic order. In the Kevaddhasutta (Discourse to Kevaddha), the Buddha disparages as vulgar those monks who would reveal such powers to the laity, and in the VINAYA or monastic code, he makes it an offense for them to do so. Despite these strictures, wonder-working saints were lionized in the literatures of all Buddhist schools, and they became the focus of numerous ARHAT cults, such as those devoted to the worship of the disciples UPAGUPTA and MAHAKA S´YAPA. The MAHAYANA tradition elaborated upon the abhijñas and r-ddhis of early Buddhism in its depictions of the attainments of celestial bodhisattvas and cosmic buddhas. In Buddhist TANTRA, these same powers became the model for a host of magical abilities called siddhis possessed by tantric masters and displayed as signs of their spiritual perfection.

See also: Dhyana (Trance State); Meditation; Vipassana (Sanskrit, Vipas´yana)

Buddhaghosa. The Path of Purification (Visuddhimagga), tr.

Bhikkhu Nyanamoli. Berkeley, CA: Shambhala, 1964.

Katz, Nathan. Buddhist Images of Human Perfection: The Arahant of the Sutta Pitaka Compared with the Bodhisattva and the Mahasiddha. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1982.

Ray, Reginald A. Buddhist Saints in India: A Study in Buddhist Values and Orientations. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.

PATRICK A. PRANKE

Abortion

Abortion is the deliberate termination of pregnancy by mechanical or pharmaceutical means that result in the death of an unborn fetus. Since the death of the fetus is willfully caused, abortion is the subject of heated controversy. Just as Christians are divided in their opinions about abortion, Buddhists likewise present a range of views from unequivocal condemnation to active support. Between the extremes are various attempts to justify abortion without completely affirming it, or to question it without totally rejecting it.

There are also those who remain silent on the issue.

Early Buddhist Teachings And Practices

Early Buddhist texts describe the formation of the fetus in great detail. At conception the fetus is in a liquid state and takes on flesh at the end of two weeks.

Hands, feet, and a head appear by the fifth week, and the embryo is mature after three months. In physical terms, life begins with conception, but since the new fetus takes shape around a state of being that has already had previous lives, it represents a continuation of life and not just the beginning of new life. Most texts deny that the transmigrating state of being is a permanent soul, but they also define different kinds of INTERMEDIATE STATES that provides the karmic transition from one bodily life to the next. The exact nature of this intermediate state is the subject of debate, but the belief that there is some kind of vital continuity between one incarnation and the next means that the beginning of life does not take place at conception but precedes it. Each conception, however, is not taken lightly and the termination of bodily life at any stage is generally regarded as killing.

Abortion is therefore not supported in early Buddhist teachings. It violates the first precept against the taking of life and goes against other teachings that condemn acts causing harm to others. Rituals performed for the fetus affirm its life and request protection for it and its mother. Monks who performed an abortion or helped a woman obtain abortion drugs were subject to punishment, including expulsion from the order. A monk could also be punished for reciting magical spells to prevent birth, or even for advising a woman to get an abortion.

Traditional methods of performing abortions were crude and often not very effective. Medicines were used, but they could harm the mother or fail to produce the desired result. Abortionists used heating and scorching, as well as heavy manipulation, including trampling, of the womb, to terminate a pregnancy.

Since intention is an important consideration in determining the seriousness of an offense, early texts discuss the different levels of infraction involved in cases in which death occurs to the mother or the fetus or both. The most serious crime is committed when the fetus alone dies as the intended victim.

Modern Views And Practices

With the development of safer and more effective means of abortion through modern medical practices, the abortion rate in Buddhist countries has risen. According to a survey done in 1981, it was estimated that there were thirty-seven abortions for every one thousand women of childbearing age in Thailand, a country in which over 90 percent of the population is Buddhist. The same survey estimated that there were sixty-five to ninety abortions among Japanese women of childbearing age. The United States rate was 22.6, according to this survey.

These statistics show that early Buddhist proscriptions against abortion have not prevented its practice.

Aware of Buddhist teachings against abortion, modern Buddhists have adopted a variety of strategies for relating theory with practice. In Thailand, for example, one approach makes the distinction between the ordained clergy, who are forbidden to be involved with abortion, and lay followers, who are allowed to have abortions without any religious or moral sanction. Some monks argue that while abortion is morally wrong in terms of Buddhist teachings, the decision for or against it is a matter of individual judgment. Other Thai Buddhists invoke the teaching on UPAYA (SKILLFUL MEANS) by which an act can be justified if the intent behind it is pure. If pregnancy threatens the health or life of the mother, then its termination through abortion can be justified because the intention is to save the mother.

Modern Japanese Buddhists likewise have developed means for dealing with the problem of carrying out abortions in the face of the precept against killing. Using the modern term mizuko, literally "water child," for the fetus, William R. LaFleur in his influential book, Liquid Life (1992), explains the strategy of obscuring the point at which life begins and seeing fetal development as a continuum of liquid slowing becoming solid. This watery ambiguity disallows a fixed definition of the precise point at which life begins, and termination of the process through abortion likewise obscures any judgment that killing has taken place. LaFleur argues that fetal life is not so much terminated as returned to its origins, where it is put on hold and can await another occasion for its birth. While there is as yet little evidence to indicate the extent to which ordinary Japanese share this liquid life theory, it is not without its influence.

Another modern development among Japanese Buddhists for dealing with abortion is MIZUKO KUYO,
or rite for aborted fetuses. Popular in the 1970s and 1980s, the rite has been criticized by Jodo Shinshu
(True Pure Land School) and other Buddhists as being a moneymaking scheme that takes advantage of people's superstitious fears that the souls of the aborted fetuses will curse them. Others defend mizuko kuyo as a legitimate Buddhist ritual that can help people deal with their feelings of sadness and guilt. That some people feel guilt over abortion indicates that they feel that in some way a wrong has been committed.

Abortion is widely practiced in Buddhist countries, and the Buddhist responses vary from condemnation to justification. As indicated by studies showing that the majority of Japanese women having abortions do not feel guilt, the most popular response is toleration and acceptance of the act despite teachings that reject it, and many Buddhists remain silent, voicing no moral judgment one way or the other. See also: Precepts

Hardacre, Helen. Marketing the Menacing Fetus in Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997. Keown, Damien, ed. Buddhism and Abortion. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1999.

LaFleur, William R. Liquid Life: Abortion and Buddhism in Japan. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992.

GEORGE J. TANABE, JR.

A Gama/Nikaya

The terms A gama and Nikaya denote the subdivisions of the Sutrapit-aka (Pali, Suttapit-aka; Basket of Discourses) within the CANON. A gama has the basic meaning of (received) tradition, canonical text, and
(scriptural) authority, while Nikaya means both collection and group. Nikaya also denotes an ordination lineage that allows the joint performance of legal acts of the Buddhist order (SAN˙ GHA), a meaning that will not be explored in this entry.

It is not known when monks started to gather individual discourses of the Buddha into structured collections. According to tradition, the Buddha's discourses were already collected by the time of the first council, held shortly after the Buddha's death in order to establish and confirm the discourses as "authentic" words of the Buddha (buddhavacana). Scholars, however, see the texts as continuously growing in number and size from an unknown nucleus, thereby undergoing various changes in language and content. For at least the first century, and probably for two or three centuries, after the Buddha's death, the texts were passed down solely by word of mouth, and the preservation and intact transmission of steadily growing collections necessitated the introduction of ordering principles. The preserved collections reveal traces of an earlier structure that classified the texts into three, four, nine, or even twelve sections (an˙ ga), but this organizing structure was superseded by the Tripit-aka scheme of arranging texts into the three (tri) baskets (pit-aka)
of discipline (VINAYA), discourses (sutras), and systematized teachings (ABHIDHARMA). All Buddhist schools whose literature has been preserved divided the Sutrapit-aka further into sections called A gama or Nikaya. Neither term is school-specific; the notion that the THERAVADA school used the term Nikaya while other schools used A gama is justified neither by Pali nor by Sanskrit sources.

There are either four or five A gamas and Nikayas considered canonical by the various MAINSTREAM BUDDHIST SCHOOLS: the Drghagama (Pali, Dghanikaya; Collection of Long Discourses); the Madhyamagama (Pali, Majjhimanikaya; Collection of Discourses of Middle Length); the Sam- yuktagama (Pali, Sam- yuttanikaya; Connected Discourses); the Ekottar(ik)agama
(Pali, An˙ guttaranikaya; Discourses Increasing by One);
and the Ks-udrakagama (Pali, Khuddhakanikaya; Collection of Small Texts). Some schools do not accept a Ks-udraka section as part of the Sutrapit-aka; others classify it as a separate pit-aka. The sequence of the five (or four) sections varies, but if included, the Ks-udraka always comes last. The names refer to the ordering principle of each section: the Drgha (long) contains the longest discourses; the Madhyama (middle) contains those of medium-length; and the Sam- yukta (connected) contains shorter sutras connected by their themes. The Ekottarika (Growing by one) or An˙ guttara (Increasing number of items) comprise discourses arranged in ascending order according to numbered sets of terms, from sutras treating one term up to those dealing with groups of ten or more. The contents of the Ks-udraka (small texts) vary significantly from version to version: Most of the works that seem to form its nucleus are composed in verse and apparently belong to the oldest strata of the canon. Some of them, such as the DHAMMAPADA, rank among the best known Buddhist texts.

It is not known how many versions of the Sutrapit-aka were once transmitted by the various schools in India. Equally unknown is the number of languages and dialects used for this purpose. At present, only the Pali Suttapit-aka of the Theravada school is completely preserved. Four A gamas are available in Chinese translation: the Drgha, the Madhyama, the Sam- yukta, with three translations, two of them incomplete, and the Ekottarika. These were translated from the collections of different schools: The Drghagama probably belongs to the DHARMAGUPTAKA, the Madhyamagama and Sam- yuktagama to the (Mula)Sarvastivadins, and the Ekottarikagama to the MAHA SAM- GHIKA SCHOOL.

In the early twentieth century, numerous fragments of Sanskrit sutra manuscripts were found in Central Asia, enabling scholars to recover at least a small part of the Sutrapit-aka of the (Mula)Sarvastivadins. Later, fragments of the Ekottarikagama of the same school came to light among the Gilgit finds. Recent manuscript finds from Afghanistan and Pakistan also contain many sutra fragments from the scriptures of at least two schools, the (Mula)Sarvastivadins and probably the Mahasam- ghikas. Most notable among them is a manuscript of the Drghagama of the (Mula)Sarvastivadins. Unlike colophons of vinaya texts, those of single sutras or sutra collections never mention schools, and this often renders a definite school ascription difficult. School affiliation of A gama texts may have been less important than modern scholars tend to believe.

The different versions of the Sutrapit-aka are by no means unanimous with regard to the number and type of sutras included in each section. To give one example: The Dghanikaya of the Theravada school contains thirty-four texts, while the Drghagama in Chinese translation contains only thirty. In the incompletely preserved Drghagama of the (Mula)Sarvastivadins, however, forty-seven texts are so far attested. Only twenty of them have a corresponding text in the Chinese Drghagama, and only twenty-four correspond to texts in the Pali version. For eight of them, a parallel text is found in the Majjhimanikaya of the Pali; at least four have no parallel at all. The agreement between the different versions of a sutra varies significantly. Versions may be close in some passages and loose in others. Often a considerable part of a sutra consists of formulaic passages, and the wording of these formulas is version specific. Further differences may be found in the sequence of passages, in the names of places and persons, and also in doctrine. All this indicates a common origin, followed by a long period of separate transmissions with independent redactional changes.

There are many examples of text duplicates in two sections of the same Sutrapit-aka. For example, the Satipat-t-hana-sutta (Foundation of Mindfulness) of the Pali canon is contained in both the Dgha- and the Majjhimanikaya. This may be an indication of a separate transmission for each A gama/Nikaya in earlier times, another indication being terms like Dghabhan-aka (reciter of the Dgha section) to refer to the respective specialist during the phase of oral transmission in the Pali tradition. At least in the case of the Mulasarvastivadins, many sutras are also duplicated in their Vinaya.

When growth and redactional changes of the various collections came to an end, they began to form what can best be described as part of a canon of the respective schools. However, very little is known about the use or ritual and educational functions of the collections during early times. Because of their status as scriptural authority, quotations from the sutras are numerous in the COMMENTARIAL LITERATURE of the various schools.

Certain sutras also continued to be transmitted individually or in fixed selections designed for specific religious purposes, and it appears that such texts played a much more important role in the life of Buddhists than the complete collections. Not all the sutras were collected as A gamas/Nikayas; the MAHAYANA sutras, for instance, never came to be included in such a classification scheme.

See also: Buddhavacana (Word of the Buddha); Pali, Buddhist Literature in; Sanskrit, Buddhist Literature in; Scripture

Hinüber, Oskar von. A Handbook of Pali Literature. Berlin and New York: de Gruyter, 1996.

Lamotte, Étienne. History of Indian Buddhism: From the Origins to the Saka Era (1958), tr. Sara Webb-Boin. Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium: Université catholique de Louvain, Institut orientaliste, 1988.

Mayeda, Egaku. "Japanese Studies on the School of the Chinese A gamas." In Zur Schulzugehörigkeit von Werken der Hl nayana-Literatur, 2 vols., ed. Heinz Bechert. Göttingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1985–1987.

Mizuno, Kogen. Buddhist Sutras: Origin, Development, Transmission. Tokyo: Kosei, 1982.

JENS-UWE HARTMANN

Ajan- T-A

Carved into a precipitous gorge in northern Maharashtra, Ajan-t-a's thirty Buddhist cave monasteries were excavated in two phases. The three finished S´atavahana caves (ca. first century C.E.) typify contemporaneous and earlier Western Indic cave monasteries. Ajan-t-a's other caves all date to the Vakat-aka emperor Haris-ena's reign (ca. 460–480 C.E.). The S´atavahana and Vakat-aka excavations reveal differences in donorship, layout, and design.

Containing numerous and generally terse Prakrit inscriptions, the earlier caves evidence a collective and socially eclectic pattern of patronage. Most of the Sanskrit Vakat-aka donative inscriptions are later intrusions into abandoned caves. Of the four programmatic inscriptions, three are lengthy eulogies in verse. They record that individual members of the ruling elites donated one or more caves in their entirety, giving them to the Buddha as his residence rather than to the three jewels or the SAN˙ GHA as theretofore.

Differences in site layout and cave design reflect these changes. Both phases manifest two architectural types based on structural wooden prototypes. Ajan-t-a's worship halls share apsidal plans, caitya windows, barrel-vaulted roofs, and monumental STUPAs, while differing in the nature and amount of their painting and sculpture. Repeated buddha figures and joyous worshipers throng the Vakat-aka stupa halls. Most significant is the hieratically scaled buddha who, as it were, emerges from each central stupa. Framed within an architectural structure, these active buddhas transform the later stupa halls into gandhakut-l s, the Buddha's personal residences.

Early viharas (residential caves) typically take the form of large flat-roofed quadrangular rooms without pillars. Doorways leading to cells punctuate their sparsely decorated interior walls. The Vakat-aka donors added internal pillars, a colonnaded porch, and rich decorations in relief and paint onto this basic plan. A
rear cell located immediately opposite the main doorway was expanded into an ornate pillared antechamber with a large internal cell. Tenanted by a monolithic statue of the Buddha preaching from a cosmic throne, this cell is (1) the gandhakut-l where the Buddha resides as the spiritual and administrative head of his monks, and (2) the shrine where he is worshiped.

These innovations speak to differences in Buddhist practice and belief. Viharas with shrines signal a departure from the earlier centralization of public worship, when the only shrines were stupa halls. In the early phase, the most potent manifestation of the Buddha's living presence was the central stupa that embodied his body relics (´ar s l ra); at Vakat-aka Ajan-t-a, the most potent manifestation was the monumental Buddha image dwelling in his gandhakut-l . Profuse ornamentation transformed relatively austere monasteries into richly jeweled cave palaces atop a cosmic mountain, appropriate residences for the Vakat-aka Buddha, who, as the Emperor of Ascetics, was the prime cosmic being. The belief in and practice of the bodhisattva PATH evidenced in caves 17 and 26 simultaneously reveal his imitable and human aspects. Vakat-aka Ajan-t-a's fabled narratives participated in these changes. Characterized by an idealized naturalism that represents beings in action, the Ajan-t-a style "cosmologizes" landscapes and beings. It thus expresses the simultaneously transcendental and imitable nature of the Buddha performing his wondrous deeds.

See also: Jataka, Illustrations of; Relics and Relics Cults

Dehejia, Vidya. Discourse in Early Buddhist Art: Visual Narratives of India. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1997. Kramrisch, Stella. "Ajan-t-a." In Exploring India's Sacred Art: Selected Writings of Stella Kramrisch, ed. Barbara Stoler Miller.

Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1983.

Parimoo, Ratan, et al., eds. The Art of Ajan-t-a: New Perspectives.
New Delhi: Books and Books, 1991.

Schlingloff, Dieter. Studies in the Ajan-t-a Paintings: Identifications and Interpretations. Delhi: Ajan-t-a Publications, 1987.

Schlingloff, Dieter. Guide to the Ajan-t-a Paintings: Narrative Wall Paintings. New Delhi: Munsiram Manoharlal, 1999.

Spink, Walter. "Ajan-t-a's Chronology: Cave 1's Patronage." In Chhavi II: Rai Krishnadasa Felicitation Volume. Benares, India: Bharat Kala Bhavan, 1981.

Spink, Walter. "The Achievement of Ajan-t-a." In The Age of the Vakat-akas, ed. A. M. Shastri. New Delhi: Harman, 1992.

Spink, Walter. "The Archaeology of Ajan-t-a." Ars Orientalis 21
(1992): 67–94.

Spink, Walter. "Before the Fall: Pride and Piety at Ajan-t-a." In The Powers of Art: Patronage in Indian Culture, ed. Barbara Stoler Miller. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1992.

Yazdani, Ghulam. Ajan-t-a: The Color and Monochrome Reproductions of the Ajan-t-a Frescoes Based on Photography, 4 vols.

London: Oxford University Press, 1930.

LEELA ADITI WOOD

Aks-Obhya

One of a large number of so-called celestial buddhas known to MAHAYANA Buddhists in India during the first millennium, Aks-obhya was believed to inhabit a paradise-like world system far to the east, known as Abhirati (extreme delight). Bodhisattvas reborn there could make rapid progress toward buddhahood, while s´ravakas could achieve arhatship within a single life.

Belief in Aks-obhya appears to have emerged in India around the beginning of the first millennium C.E. and spread widely in Buddhist communities before being eclipsed by the growing popularity of AMITABHA. Today Aks-obhya is known mainly as one of the five directional buddhas who appear in tantric ritual texts.

Chang, Garma C. C., ed. The Dharma-Door of Praising Tathagata Aks-obhya's Merits (partial translation of the Aks-obhyavyuha). In A Treasury of Mahayana Sutras: Selections from the Maharatnakut-a Sutra, tr. Buddhist Association of the United States. University Park and London:
Pennsylvania State University Press, 1983.

Dantinne, Jean, trans. La splendeur de l'inébranlable (Aks-obhyavyuha). Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium: Institut Orientaliste, 1983.

Nattier, Jan. "The Realm of Aks-obhya: A Missing Piece in the History of Pure Land Buddhism." Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 23, no. 1 (2000): 71–102.

JAN NATTIER

Alayavijña Na

The alayavijñana (storehouse consciousness) is the most fundamental of the eight consciousnesses recognized in the VIJN
ANAVADA school of thought. It is said to contain all the "seeds" for the "consciousnessmoments" or "consciousness-events" that people generally call reality.

See also: Consciousness, Theories of; Psychology
JOHN S. STRONG

Alchi

The small village of Alchi (A lci), located about seventy kilometers west of Leh in Ladakh on an alluvial terrace on the left bank of the river Indus, has as its center an ancient religious area (chos 'khor). Alchi's religious area is composed of a large STUPA, a threestoried temple (Gsum brtsegs), a congregation hall ('dus khang), two small chapels, and a later building, the socalled New Temple (Lha khang gsar ma). The site's thick white-washed walls of mud and stone follow the Tibetan tradition of architecture; the wooden facades and the beams and pillars of the interior structures are clearly Kashmiri in style.

The congregation hall, which dates to the late eleventh or early twelfth century, is the oldest building in the complex; the hall includes a Sarvavid-Vairocana sculpture at its back end and rich wall paintings that are mainly variants of the Vajradhatu-man-d-ala based on the Tibetan translation of the SarvatathagataTattvasam- graha (Symposium of Truth of All Buddhas).

The three-storied temple, with three colossal clay sculptures of bodhisattvas in the niches, has similar man-d-alas in its murals. The temple also houses representations of Tara and Avalokites´vara, along with many tathagatas and secular figures. A series of images of priests in the second upper story ends with 'Bri-gung-pa (1143– 1217), which leads to a date of around 1200 C.E. The stylistic elegance and sophistication of the murals has its roots in Kashmir. The so-called Great Stupa is in fact a chapel in pañcayatana form housing a stupa and decorated with "thousands" of buddhas and a group of priests. Tibetan inscriptions in all three buildings give the names, though no dates, of the founders, who apparently belonged to the ruling families of the Ladakhi kingdom. The murals in the smaller New Temple show a different iconographic tradition and clearly belong to a slightly later Tibetan style. See also: Cave Sanctuaries; Himalayas, Buddhist Art in; India, Buddhist Art in; Monastic Architecture

Goepper, Roger. Alchi: Ladakh's Hidden Buddhist Sanctuary:
The Sumtsek. London: Serindia, 1996.

Pal, Pratapaditya (text), and Fournier, Lionel (photographs). A
Buddhist Paradise: The Murals of Alchi, Western Himalayas. Vaduz, Liechtenstein: Ravi Kumar, 1982.

ROGER GOEPPER

Ambedkar, B. R.

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891–1956), leader of India's Dalits (untouchables) and principal draftsman of India's constitution, led millions of his followers to Buddhist conversion. After earning doctoral degrees from Columbia University in New York and the London School of Economics, Ambedkar passed the English bar and launched a campaign of legal and moral challenges to the Hindu caste system. In The Buddha and His Dhamma (1957) and other writings, Ambedkar combined elements of Buddhist ethics, American pragmatism, and Protestant "social gospel" theology to formulate a socially and politically engaged Buddhism that he called "New Vehicle" (Navayana) Buddhism.

See also: Engaged Buddhism
Bibliography Ambedkar, Bhimrao Ramji. The Buddha and His Dhamma.
Bombay: R. R. Bhole, 1957.

Queen, Christopher S. "Dr. Ambedkar and the Hermeneutics of Buddhist Liberation." In Engaged Buddhism: Buddhist Liberation Movements in Asia, ed. Christopher S. Queen and Sallie B. King. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996.

Sangharakshita. Ambedkar and Buddhism. Glasgow, UK: Windhorse, 1986.

CHRISTOPHER S. QUEEN

Amita Bha

Amitabha (Sanskrit, limitless light) is one of the socalled celestial or mythic buddhas who inhabit their own buddha-field and intervene as a saving force in our world. According to the Larger SUKHAVATIVYUHASUTRA, in a previous life Amitabha was the monk Dharmakara, who vowed that as part of his mission as a BODHISATTVA he would purify and adorn a world, transforming it into the most pure and beautiful buddha-field. Once he attained full awakening and accomplished the goals of his vows, Dharmakara became the Buddha Amitabha. He now resides in the world he purified, known as Sukhavat (blissful). From this world he will come to ours, surrounded by many bodhisattvas, to welcome the dead and to lead them to REBIRTH in his pure buddha-field.

The figure of Amitabha is not known in the earliest strata of Indian Buddhist literature, but around the beginning of the common era he appears as the Buddha of the West in descriptions of the buddhas of the five directions. The cult of Amitabha most likely developed as part of the early MAHAYANA practice of invoking and worshiping "all the buddhas" and imagining some of these as inhabiting distant, "purified" worlds, usually associated with one of the cardinal directions. The myth of his vows and pure land may have developed in close proximity to, or in competition with, similar beliefs associated with other buddhas like AKS-OBHYA (another one of the early buddhas of the five directions, whose eastern pure land is known as Abhirati).

Although Amitabha shares many of the qualities associated with other buddhas of the Mahayana, he is generally linked to the soft radiance of the setting sun, which suffuses, without burning or blinding, all corners of the universe (in East Asia he is also linked to moonlight). The emphasis on his luminous qualities (or those of his halo), which occupies an important role in East Asian iconography, does not displace or contradict the association of Amitabha with a religion of voice and sound; his grace is secured or confirmed by calling out his name, or, rather, invoking his name with the ritual expression of surrender: "I pay homage to Amitabha Buddha." Even in texts that emphasize imagery of light, such as the Dazhidu lun (Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom), he is still the epitome of the power of the vow and the holy name.

Amitabha is represented in dhyanamudra, perhaps suggesting the five hundred kalpas of meditation that led Dharmakara to his own enlightenment. An equally characteristic posture is abhayamudra (MUDRA of protection from fear and danger), which normally shows the buddha standing.

In its more generalized forms, however, FAITH in Amitabha continues to this day to include a variety of practices and objects of devotion. A common belief, for instance, is the belief that his pure land, Sukhavat, is blessed by the presence of the two bodhisattvas Avalokites´vara and Mahasthamaprapta. Faith in the saving power of these bodhisattvas, especially Avalokites´vara, was often linked with the invocation of the sacred name of Amitabha, the recitation of which could bring the bodhisattva Avalokites´vara to the believer's rescue. The overlapping of various beliefs and practices, like the crisscrossing of saviors and sacred images, is perhaps the most common context for the appearance of Amitabha—it is the case in China, Korea, and Vietnam, and in Japanese Buddhism outside the exclusive Buddhism of the Kamakura reformers.

The perception of Amitabha as one among many saviors, or the association between faith in him and the wonder-working powers of Avalokites´vara, are common themes throughout Buddhist Asia. It is no accident that the PANCHEN LAMA of Tibet is seen as an incarnation of Amitabha, whereas his more powerful counterpart in Lhasa, the DALAI LAMA, is regarded as the reincarnation of the Bodhisattva Avalokites´vara.

See also: Nenbutsu (Chinese, Nianfo; Korean, Yo˘mbul); Pure Lands

Foard, James; Michael Solomon; and Richard K. Payne, eds. The Pure Land Tradition: History and Development. Berkeley: Regents of the University of California, 1996.

Gómez, Luis O. "Buddhism as a Religion of Hope: Observations on the 'Logic' of a Doctrine and Its Foundational Myth." Eastern Buddhist New Series 32, no. 1 (Spring 1999/2000): 1–21.

Gómez, Luis O., trans. and ed. The Land of Bliss: The Paradise of the Buddha of Measureless Light: Sanskrit and Chinese Versions of the Sukhavat lvyuha Sutras (1996), 3rd printing, corrected edition. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2000.

Tsukinowa, Kenryu; Ikemoto, Jushin; and Tsumoto, Ryogaku.

"Amita." In Encyclopaedia of Buddhism, Vol. 1, Fasc. 3., ed. G. P. Malalasekera. Colombo, Sri Lanka: Government Press of Ceylon, 1964.

Zürcher, E. "Amitabha." In The Encyclopedia of Religion, Vol.

1., ed. Mircea Eliade. New York: Macmillan, 1987.

LUIS O. GO´MEZ

Amulets And Talismans

Amulets are small, mystically charged objects carried upon the person that provide the bearer with good fortune or protection from harm. Amulets are carried by members of many Buddhist cultures, most prominently in the THERAVADA countries of mainland Southeast Asia (Burma [Myanmar], Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia). These amulets are almost always explicitly Buddhist in form. They often take the form of small Buddha images or representations of holy people. They can also be representations of sacred objects, such as cetiyas. Cetiyas (Sanskrit, caitya) are reliquary monuments, such as STUPAS. The sale of Buddhist amulets can be an effective means of raising funds.

Amulets are usually either stamped medallions or molded clay statuettes—similar to votive tablets—that are small enough to be worn on a chain around the neck. Stamped medallions, usually of bronze, are a relatively modern but very popular type. They are often issued in honor of a particularly holy monk and bear the monk's portrait on the obverse. The reverse can bear representations of renowned stupas or apotropaic texts and designs, such as magical number squares. Amulets can also be short sacred passages (usually gatha) written on paper, cloth, or metal. In Southeast Asia, texts on base or precious metal are wound into tight little tubes. Texts on paper are similarly rolled up and put into a small container. Texts on cloth can be carried folded up and put into a breast pocket; it would be sacrilegious to carry them in a lower pocket. These amulets are especially popular in Cambodia. Texts or magical diagrams can also be written on larger pieces of cloth or paper and carried folded up in other types of containers, such as cloth pouches or lockets made of wood, brass, or silver. This type of amulet is used in Tibet and China.

Amulets derive their power from the blessings of monks with reputations for being exceptionally holy and mystically powerful. The amulets can be seen as small objects in which the power of the sacred is crystallized, as with holy relics. Once crystallized, this power can be used by ordinary people who are not themselves holy or powerful. This power comes from both the words—Pali or Sanskrit blessings—and the personal power of the monks who chant them. The right words must be spoken by the right person for the transfer of power to be effective. Individual monks acquire this power after years of meditation; it is demonstrated by their ability to perform miracles. The ideal monk is an ascetic hermit who spends his days in meditation and who has been ordained since he was a boy.

While amulets are most commonly worn for generalized protection, they often have very specific protective properties. A given amulet, for instance, may protect against puncture wounds (such as those from bullets or knives), but not against crushing wounds (such as those from truncheons). It is not unusual to see men, and to a lesser extent women, wearing several amulets. Special metal neck chains are made for this purpose. Thriving amulet markets can be found near some large urban Buddhist monasteries. The value of an amulet is a function of the power of its initial blessing (which derives from the holiness of the monk who blessed it), its age and rarity, and any history of demonstrated efficacy that is attached to it. An amulet is more valuable if it is known, for example, to have saved someone from a terrible car wreck. See also: Merit and Merit-Making; Relics and Relic Cults

Tambiah, Stanley Jeyaraja. The Buddhist Saints of the Forest and the Cult of Amulets: A Study in Charisma, Hagiography, Sectarianism, and Millennial Buddhism. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1984.

Anaga Rika Dharmapa La

Anagarika Dharmapala (1864–1933) was the leading figure in the Sri Lankan Buddhist renaissance that sought to restore Buddhism during the late colonial period.

Born Don David Hevavitarana into an elite Sinhala Buddhist family, he met Colonel Henry Olcott and Madame Elena Petrovna Blavatsky and joined their newly formed Buddhist Theosophical Society in 1884 in Sri Lanka
(then Ceylon). Seeing the depressed condition of Buddhism in both Sri Lanka and India, Dharmapala took it as his mission to revive Buddhism. In his work he sought to enable Buddhists to address the twofold task of recovering their identity and finding ways to respond to modernity. Creating a new role for himself in Buddhism, he became an anagarika (homeless one), who was neither a monk nor a layperson, and he took the name Dharmapala (protector of the dharma).

A tireless activist, Dharmapala worked in India, where he founded the Maha Bodhi Society and sought to restore the Buddhist shrine of the sacred bodhi tree at the site of the Buddha's enlightenment in BODH GAYA. Through his writings and his brilliant oratory, he critiqued the colonial and Christian suppression of Buddhism and Buddhists. Relying on Buddhist texts such as the Mahavam- sa, he linked Buddhism and Sinhala nationalism and challenged Sinhala Buddhists to reclaim their true identity and abandon their attachment to colonial values.

Dharmapala popularized a reformed Buddhism that was characterized by a lay orientation, a this-worldly asceticism, an activist and moralist focus, and a strong social consciousness. Dharmapala traveled widely in Asia preaching these ideas, and he introduced the West to his reformist vision when he represented Buddhism at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893.

Bond, George D. The Buddhist Revival in Sri Lanka: Religious Tradition, Reinterpretation, and Response. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1988.

Gombrich, Richard, and Obeysekere, Gananath. Buddhism Transformed: Religious Change in Sri Lanka. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1988.

GEORGE D. BOND

A Nanda

A nanda was a close relative of the Buddha. The Buddha ordained A nanda, and as the Buddha grew old, he MICHAEL R. RHUM
chose A nanda to serve as his attendant. Thus, A nanda became the Buddha's constant companion for the twenty-five years preceding the Buddha's death. The canonical texts are replete with examples of A nanda's dedicated care for the Buddha's comfort, health, and safety. In an extreme situation, A nanda was even prepared to risk his life to save that of his master. A nanda is depicted in the scriptures as extremely amicable toward both ordained or laypersons. He was known as a brilliant organizer who essentially served as the Buddha's personal secretary, as he would be called in present terms. A nanda was instrumental in the creation of the Buddhist order of NUNS, a move that the Buddha did not initially favor. A nanda, however, asked the Buddha if women were capable of realizing supreme enlightenment like men, whereupon the Buddha answered in the affirmative.

A nanda was the key figure in the transmission of the BUDDHAVACANA (WORD OF THE BUDDHA). He served as an indispensable authority at the First Council, which was held to codify the Buddha's legacy soon after his death. A nanda is reported to have recited the texts of the discourses (sutras); in the line that opens all sutras—
"Thus have I heard"—the I refers to A nanda. The Buddha's declaration that A nanda was foremost among the erudite and upright is a monument to his talents, moral strength, and determination. A nanda was said to have lived an extraordinarily long life. He later came to be revered as the second Indian patriarch of the CHAN SCHOOL.

See Also: Councils, Buddhist; Disciples Of The Buddha Bibliography

Malalasekera, G. P. "1. A nanda." Dictionary of Pali Proper Names, Vol. 1. London: Indian Text Series, 1937–1938.

Wang, Bangwei. "The Indian Origin of the Chinese Chan School's Patriarch Tradition." In Dharmaduta: Mélanges offerts au Vénérable Thich Huyên-Vi, ed. Bhikkhu Tampalawela Dhammaratana and Bhikkhu Pasadika. Paris:
Éditions You-Feng, 1997.

BHIKKHU PASADIKA

Ananda Temple

The most uplifting of Pagan temples, the Ananda was built by King Kyanzittha in the mid-eleventh century. The Ananda Temple represents the maturity of the early period style at Pagan. Based on a single story elevation, it is a balanced and harmonious design with its central spire rising from a square base and terraces. The true effect is best seen from the west side, where nineteenth-century donors did not add covered walkways. The plan is a Greek cross: a two hundred-foot central square with four prayer halls that project out at the cardinal points. Facing these prayer halls, the four cardinal shrines are set in giant arched niches cut into the block. These contain colossal standing buddhas. Only the south image is original early period; the others are Konbaung replacements from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, as are the splendid carved wood doors at the entrance to the outer ambulatory. These images are dramatically lit by concealed shafts that connect to skylights contained in the external pediments. Fragments of the original paintings have been recovered in the halls; the remainder, which would have covered all the walls and vaults, were whitewashed by misguided do-gooders during an earlier period. There is a double ambulatory running around the main block over which the exterior terraces climb. These terraces contain glazed plaque scenes of the JATAKAS. Around the base are more glazed plaques depicting the attack and defeat of the army of MARA (the personification of evil who tried to tempt the Buddha just before his enlightenment). Inside, the outer ambulatory contains ninety relief scenes from the life of the Buddha. This was a time when people were converting to the new faith and these scenes were intended to teach the story of the Buddha's life. The stone carving is vigorous and at times dynamic.

As with the entire building there is an energy and excitement to these scenes. The Ananda is a monument to the establishment of THERAVADA as the state religion of Myanmar (Burma). There is none of the grand complacency of the colossal late temples; the place vibrates with the force of a newfound faith. See also: Monastic Architecture; Myanmar; Myanmar, Buddhist Art in; Southeast Asia, Buddhist Art in

Duroiselle, Charles. The Ananda Temple at Pagan. Delhi: Manager of Publications, Archaeological Survey of India, 1937.

Luce, G. H. Old Burma—Early Pagan. 3 vols. Locust Valley, NY:
J. J. Augustin, 1969–1970.

Strachan, Paul. Pagan: Art and Architecture of Old Burma. Whiting Bay, Arran, Scotland: Kiscadale Publications, 1989.

PAUL STRACHAN

Ana Thapin- D- Ada

Sudatta, usually called Anathapin-d-ada (Pali, Anathapin-d-ika; Giver of Alms to the Destitute), the wealthy merchant of S´ravast and donor of the famous Jetavana Monastery in India, was perhaps the Buddhist order's most important patron. An ardent and learned lay disciple (upasaka), he was particularly devoted to the Buddha and to his disciple S´ARIPUTRA. Anathapin-d-ada died listening to the dharma.

See Also: Disciples Of The Buddha Bibliography

Dennis, Mark, and Dennis, Joseph, trans. "Anathapin-d-ada, Purn-a, and Kotikarna in the Mahasam- ghika Vinaya." In The Glorious Deeds of Purn-a, ed. Joel Tatelman. Richmond, UK: Curzon, 2000.

Johnston, E. H., trans. The Buddhacarita, or, Acts of the Buddha.
Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1935–1937.

Malalasekera, G. P. "Anathapindika." In Dictionary of Pali Proper Names. London: J. Murray, 1937–1938. Reprint, London: Pali Text Society, 1974.

Nyanaponika, Thera, and Hecker, Hellmuth. Great Disciples of the Buddha: Their Lives, Their Works, Their Legacy, ed. Bhikkhu Bodhi. Boston: Wisdom, 1997.

JOEL TATELMAN

Ana Tman/A Tman (No-Self/Self)

The Vedic Sanskrit term atman (Pali, atta), literally meaning breath or spirit, is often translated into English as self, soul, or ego. Etymologically, anatman (Pali, anatta) consists of the negative prefix an plus atman
(i.e., without atman) and is translated as no-self, nosoul, or no-ego. These two terms have been employed in the religious and philosophical writing of India to refer to an essential substratum within human beings.

The idea of atman was fully developed by the Upanis-adic and Vedantic thinkers who suggested that there does exist in one's personality, a permanent, unchanging, immutable, omnipotent, and intelligent atman, which is free from sorrow and leaves the body at death. The Chandogya Upanis-ad, for instance, states that the atman is "without decay, death, grief." Similarly, the Bhagavadgl ta calls the atman "eternal . . .

unborn . . . undying . . . immutable, primordial . . .

all-pervading." Some Upanis-ads hold that the atman can be separated from the body like the sword from its scabbard and can travel at will away from the body, especially in sleep. But Buddhism maintains that since everything is conditioned, and thus subject to ANITYA
(IMPERMANENCE), the question of atman as a self-subsisting entity does not arise. The religion points out that anything that is impermanent is inevitably DUH-KHA (SUFFERING) and out of our control (anatman), and thus cannot constitute an ultimate self.

According to Buddhism, beings and inanimate objects of the world are constructed (sam- skr-ta), as distinguished from NIRVAN-A, which is unconstituted
(asam- skr-ta). The constituted elements are made up of the five SKANDHA (AGGREGATE) or building blocks of existence: the physical body (rupa), physical sensation (vedana), sensory perception (sam- jña, sañña), habitual tendencies (sam- skara, sam- khara), and consciousness
(vijñana, viññana). The last four of these skandhas are also collectively known as nama (name), which denotes the nonmaterial or mental constituents of a being. Rupa represents materiality alone, and inanimate objects therefore are included in the term rupa. A living being composed of five skandhas is in a continuous state of flux, each preceding group of skandhas giving rise to a subsequent group of skandhas. This process is going on momentarily and unceasingly in the present existence as it will go on also in the future until the eradication of avidya (ignorance) and the attainment of nirvan-a. Thus, Buddhist analysis of the nature of the person centers on the realization that what appears to be an individual is, in fact, an everchanging combination of the five skandhas. These aggregates combine in various configurations to form what is experienced as a person, just as a chariot is built of various parts. But just as the chariot as an entity disappears when its constituent elements are pulled apart, so does the person disappear with the dissolution of the skandhas. Thus, what we experience to be a person is not a thing but a process; there is no human being, there is only becoming. When asked who it is, in the absence of a self, that has feeling or other sensations, the Buddha's answer was that this question is wrongly framed: The question is not "who feels," but "with what as condition does feeling occur?" The answer is contact, demonstrating again the conditioned nature of all experience and the absence of any permanent substratum of being.

Just as the human being is analyzed into its component parts, so too is the external world with which one interacts. This interaction is one of consciousness (vijñana) established through cognitive faculties
(indriya) and their objects. These faculties and their objects, called spheres (ayatana), include both sense and sense-object, the meeting of which two is necessary for consciousness. These three factors that together comprise cognition—the sense-faculty, the sense-object, and the resultant consciousness—are classified under the name dhatu (element). The human personality, including the external world with which it interacts, is thus divided into skandha, ayatana, and dhatu. The generic name for all three of them is dharma, which in this context is translated as "elements of existence." The universe is made up of a bundle of elements or forces (sam- skaras) and is in a continuous flux or flow (santana). Every dharma, though appearing only for a single instant (ks-an-a), is a "dependently originating element," that is, it depends for its origin on what had gone before it. Thus, existence becomes "dependent existence," where there is no destruction of one thing and no creation of another. Falling within this scheme, the individual is entirely phenomenal, governed by the laws of causality and lacking any extraphenomenal self within him or her.

In the absence of an atman, one may ask how Buddhism accounts for the existence of human beings, their identity, continuity, and ultimately their religious goals. At the level of "conventional truth" (sam- vr-tisatya), Buddhism accepts that in the daily transactional world, humans can be named and recognized as more or less stable persons. However, at the level of the "ultimate truth" (paramarthasatya), this unity and stability of personhood is only a sense-based construction of our productive imagination. What the Buddha encouraged is not the annihilation of the feeling of self, but the elimination of the belief in a permanent and eternal "ghost in the machine." Thus, the human being in Buddhism is a concrete, living, striving creature, and his or her personality is something that changes, evolves, and grows. It is the concrete human, not the transcendental self, that ultimately achieves perfection by constant effort and creative will.

The Buddhist doctrine of REBIRTH is different from the theory of reincarnation, which implies the transmigration of an atman and its invariable material rebirth. As the process of one life span is possible without a permanent entity passing from one thought-moment to another, so too is a series of life-processes possible without anything transmigrating from one existence to another. An individual during the course of his or her existence is always accumulating fresh KARMA (ACTION) affecting every moment of the individual's life. At DEATH, the change is only comparatively deeper. The corporeal bond, which held the individual together, falls away and his or her new body, determined by karma, becomes one fitted to that new sphere in which the individual is reborn. The last thought-moment of this life perishes, conditioning another thoughtmoment in a subsequent life. The new being is neither absolutely the same, since it has changed, nor totally different, being the same stream (santana) of karmic energy. There is merely a continuity of a particular lifeflux; just that and nothing more. Buddhists employ various similes to explain this idea that nothing transmigrates from one life to another. For example, rebirth is said to be like the transmission of a flame from one thing to another: The first flame is not identical to the last flame, but they are clearly related. The flame of life is continuous, although there is an apparent break at so-called death. As pointed out in the MILINDAPANHA
(Milinda's Questions), "It is not the same mind and body that is born into the next existence, but with this mind and body . . . one does a deed . . . and by reason of this deed another mind and body is born into the next existence." The first moment of the new life is called consciousness (vijñana); its antecedents are the sam- skaras, the prenatal forces. There is a "descent" of the consciousness into the womb of the mother preparatory to rebirth, but this descent is only an expression to denote the simultaneity of death and rebirth. In this way, the elements that constitute the empirical individual are constantly changing but they will never totally disappear till the causes and conditions that hold them together and impel them to rebirth, the craving (tr-s-n-a; Pali, tan-ha), strong attachment (upadana) and the desire for reexistence (bhava),
are finally extinguished. See also: Consciousness, Theories of; Dharma and Dharmas; Intermediate States

Collins, Steven. Selfless Persons: Imagery and Thought in Theravada Buddhism. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1982.

Conze, Edward. Buddhist Thought in India: Three Phases of Buddhist Philosophy. London: Allen and Unwin, 1962. de Silva, Lynn A. The Problem of the Self in Buddhism and Christianity. Colombo, Sri Lanka: Study Centre for Religion and Society, 1975.

Hick, John. Death and Eternal Life. London: Macmillan, 1976.

Murti, T. R. V. The Central Philosophy of Buddhism: A Study of the Madhyamika System, 2nd edition. London: Allen and Unwin, 1960.

Pérez-Remón, Joaquín. Self and Non-Self in Early Buddhism.
The Hague, Netherlands: Mouton, 1980.

Rahula, Walpola. What the Buddha Taught, revised edition.

Bedford, UK: Fraser Gallery, 1967.

K. T. S. SARAO

Ancestors

The meaning of ancestor differs among different cultures, depending on their kinship system and their beliefs regarding the deceased. Ancestor could refer to the originator of an ancestral lineage or the soul of a dead person who is memorialized in a family shrine. The Sanskrit word for ancestor, preta, is related to the Vedic term pitarah- (fathers). According to an ABHIDHARMA commentary, Mahavibhas-a (Chinese, Dapiposha lun; Great Exegesis), Yama, the first mortal who died and became the king of the netherworld, is called preta-raja (king of the dead) or pit-r--raja (king of fathers). Thus, in ancient India, the words preta and pitarah- were almost interchangeable in their use. This reflects the patrilineal kinship system of ancient India and the ancestral rites that were performed and maintained through the male line.

In Asia, various forms of ancestor worship were incorporated into Buddhist rites. Ancestral rites and ceremonies are particularly prominent in East Asia, where MAHAYANA Buddhism and Confucianism predominated and interacted. Southeast Asian societies, where THERAVADA Buddhism flourished, observe similar Buddhist rites for ancestors, but the continuity of a family lineage is not the main motive of their rites. In general, ancestor worship entails belief in the protective power of the deceased members of a particular family, lineage, or a tribal group. It is also based on the desire to overcome fear of the corpse and elevate the newly deceased to the level of respected ancestors, which continue to interact with the living.

Buddhist Ideas Of Soul And Afterlife

According to Buddhist scriptures, questions regarding existence in the afterlife constitute one of the fourteen issues on which the Buddha did not elaborate because such matters cannot be proven by experience or logic.

Buddhist teachings denied any unchangeable or permanent entity, such as a soul, since all phenomena are seen as subject to ANITYA (IMPERMANENCE). The Buddha is said to have instructed his disciples not to deal with funerals, unless they were for family members. The Buddha's funeral is said to have been performed according to the ancient Indian customs for the funeral of a cakravartin (wheel-turning emperor or king, who rules the world), and no Buddhist funerals for the dead were established at that time. Buddhist ideas of no-self (anatman) were the opposite of Brahmanical beliefs concerning the continuity of the self. Later, however, some Buddhist schools modified the idea of no-self by, for example, positing the ALAYAVIJNANA
(storehouse consciousness) as that which undergoes rebirth. One widely accepted theory is the Sarvastivada school's stance on KARMA (ACTION) as the continuing force that sets in motion a new existence after death.

Whatever philosophical terms the Buddhist scholars used, continuity of the individual after death was more or less assumed. These ideas, such as karma, provided the theoretical background for ancestral rites for the Buddhists.

Buddhist ancestral rites developed and incorporated non-Buddhist beliefs and practices from Hinduism, Confucianism, Daoism, and Shinto, as well as from the popular folk beliefs of the people in Asia. In almost all Asian cultures, indigenous spirit cults play a major role in ancestor worship and veneration: for example, the phi spirit of Thai people, the nat of the Burmese, the tama of the Japanese, and the po and gui of the Chinese. These potentially dangerous spirits can become ancestors through Buddhist pacification rituals and memorial rites.

The Ghost Festival And Merit Transfer

The most widespread Buddhist ancestral festival is the GHOST FESTIVAL, or yulanpen (Japanese, Obon), which was recorded in Chinese Buddhist sources as early as the fifth century. During the Ghost Festival, ancestors are invited back to this world for a feast, which is prepared by the family members. This festival is based on the Buddhist legend of MAHAMAUDGALYAYANA, one of the ten leading disciples of the Buddha. Mahamaudgalyayana is well known for liberating his mother from hell. His mother was unable to eat since all the food she tried to eat changed into fire before she put it into her mouth. Mahamaudgalyayana's offerings to the community of monks saved her from hell, and she was reborn in an upper heaven. This yulanpen festival unites the Buddhist components of hungry ghosts and salvation with Chinese indigenous belief in pacifying dead spirits. In China, imitation paper money and miniature furniture and houses are burned to enrich the dead in the netherworld. With proper family offerings, these spirits can be transformed into protective ancestors. This legend of yulanpen is based on Chinese Buddhist scriptures, but the idea of food offerings for ancestors also existed in pre-Buddhist India. An example of this is the main feature of the s´raddha feast, where sacred rice balls, or pin-d-a, were offered to ancestors.

In these Indian rites, a feast is provided for the Brahmans, and the merit of this act is transferred to the ancestors. This kind of direct and indirect ritual feeding of ancestors has been incorporated into Buddhist ancestral rites such as yulanpen and other rites to feed hungry ghosts.

In yulanpen and related rites, an altar outside the main chapel was set up with food for the hungry ghosts, and various sutras were recited in order to feed them and provide prayers for the pretas' possible future enlightenment. This kind of ritual act of pujana or, as Lynn deSilva calls it, "spiritual nourishment" (p. 155) was made for various revered objects such as the "three jewels" of the Buddha, dharma, and san˙ gha, as well as for parents, teachers, elders, and the souls of the dead. The objects of offering were primarily food but also included incense (fragrance), clothes, bedding for monks, flowers, lights (candles and other bright lights), music, and right actions. In these offering ceremonies, the Buddha is symbolically invited into the ceremonial place and given praise and offerings. Confessional prayers are recited and certain MANTRA (e.g., nenbutsu,
DHARAN-I, or DAIMOKU, depending on which Buddhist school one belongs to) are chanted in front of the Buddha. The merit accrued from these offerings and sutra recitations is transferred to the dead.

In Sri Lanka, the deceased who did not reach the proper afterworld are feared by the living. Various sicknesses and disasters are alleged to be caused by these floating spirits of the dead. In order to pacify such ghosts, Buddhist monks are called upon to perform the pirit rites and to distribute magic threads and water to those afflicted. These floating spirits are eventually transformed into benevolent ancestors by the power of the pirit rites. Thai and Burmese Buddhists observe the same rite, but it is called the paritta ritual (Spiro, pp. 247–250). In Thailand, bun khaw saak (merit-making with puffed rice) and org phansa (end of Lent) are held annually in wats (monasteries), and offerings are made to the ancestors collectively (Tambiah, p. 190). The merit of such acts is transferred to the deceased, yet Stanley Tambiah is reluctant to call these ceremonies ancestral worship since they do not involve systematized or formalized interaction between the deceased and the living. Nevertheless, he notes that the Buddhist monks act as mediators between death and rebirth, and they eliminate the dangers and pollution of death. In Korea, Buddhist monks do not widely deal with death rituals or rites of feeding deceased spirits and ancestors, unlike Thai or Japanese monks, even though Koreans have similar beliefs in spirits as those of other East Asian people. Shamans (Korean, mudang) largely deal with these ancestral rites.

Intermediate States And Memorial Rites

The timing interval of memorial rites for the dead varies. In Sri Lanka, the rites (pujanas) are to be held on the seventh day, three months, and one year after the death day. These memorial rites are called mataka danes, and monks are invited for the memorial feasts.

The ABHIDHARMAKOS´ABHAS-YA and other Buddhist texts describe the judgments said to be undergone by the dead in the INTERMEDIATE STATES (Sanskrit, antarabhava; Chinese, zhongyou) every seven days after death, up to the forty-ninth day. The forty-ninth day is the final date when the realm of REBIRTH—whether in the hells, the heavens, or other realms—will be decided. Thus it marks the end of first mourning period for the living. In China, memorial rites for the deceased assume the form of Ten Buddha Rites (Chinese, shifoshi), which include seven weekly rites held every seven days up to the forty-ninth day, and on the hundredth day, one year, and the third year anniversaries—in total, ten memorial rites.

In Japan, three to five more rites were added, including rites held on the seventh, thirteenth, and thirty-third anniversaries. Observing ancestral rites is a major part of Japanese Buddhist practice, and death related rituals and services, such as funerals and memorial rites, have become the major source of monastic financing. According to folklorist Yanagida Kunio, the deceased souls, which are called hotoke (buddha) or spirits (Japanese, shorei) are purified through these memorial rites. Once pacified, they become kami (deities) after the thirty-third anniversary memorial rite. These deified ancestors eventually lose their individual personalities as time passes and converge into the collective group of divine ancestors, which resides in the ancestral tablets (Japanese, ihai) and in ancestral family tombs. In Japan, ihai tablets are the most significant object in a Buddhist altar. They are enshrined in Japanese homes, with the exception

A Zen (Chan school) priest paying respect at his parents' gravesite in the cemetery of the Kotokoji in Tokyo, 1992. © Don Farber 2003. All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission.

of those of Jodo Shinshu, one of the major lineages of Pure Land adherents. The ancestral tablet is Chinese Confucian in origin but was popularized by Buddhist monks during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries (Fujii, 1988, p. 20).

Family tombs are also important objects of ancestral worship in Japan. Early tombs are modeled on the STUPAS in India, where relics of the Buddha are enshrined. Japanese ancestral tombs are visited by family members to commemorate their ancestors during the Obon ancestral festival. Unlike the Chinese and Japanese, Thai and Burmese Buddhists do not show much interest in building and maintaining elaborate graves because tombs are not regarded as ancestral residences.

Founder Worship In Japan

Another characteristic of Japanese Buddhism in relation to ancestor worship is worship of the founders of various Buddhist schools and sects, many of which were established during the Kamakura period (1185– 1333). Those most frequently worshipped include KUKAI (774–835) of the Shingon Tantric school; Eisai
(1141–1215) of Rinzai Zen; DO GEN (1200–1253) of Soto Zen; HO NEN (1133–1212) of the Pure Land sect or Jodoshu; SHINRAN (1173–1263) of Jodo Shinshu; and NICHIREN (1222–1282) of the Nichiren school. These founders are worshipped and revered as divine "fathers" of their respective lineages. The followers of these founders are considered the "children" of the father-founders, using a family analogy. The blood lineage (Japanese, kechimyaku) is interpreted in a spiritual sense as the bond connecting the founder and the followers through various rites. This founder worship is the basis of salvific and devotional Japanese Buddhism, since schools and lineages were formed and developed upon the basis of the revelatory experience of these founders. Several annual rites are performed to commemorate the birth, death, and other major life events of the founders or prominent monks who contributed to the different schools of Buddhism in Japan.

The stupas, which contain the remains of founders and prominent monks, are usually constructed within a monastery complex of the headquarters of a particular lineage or sect. Furthermore, statues of the founders and prominent monks are made and placed near the central objects of worship, usually Buddha figures or MAN- D-ALAS.

Conclusion

Although S´akyamuni Buddha did not affirm the existence of an unchanging soul, Buddhism, in its development over many centuries in different parts of Asia, provides a rich theoretical and ritual basis for ancestral rites. One aspect of this basis is the idea of repeated birth in the lower six realms of existence: the realms of the hells, hungry ghosts, animals, humans, demigods (asura), or heavenly deities, depending upon one's karma from past lives. This idea of karma, of ancient Indian origin, was inherited by Buddhists and is understood as the continuing individual process that undergoes the cycle of rebirth. The concept of PRATITYASAMUTPADA (DEPENDENT ORIGINATION) also contributed to ancestor worship, as the theory was understood, especially by the laypeople, to mean that past, present, and future lives are connected. Moreover, the idea of NIRVAN-A, which is often explained with the analogy of extinguishing a candle, evolved into the idea of dharmakaya or dharma body, which is not affected by the death of the physical body of the Buddha (Sanskrit, nirman- akaya). The Buddha's funeral and the subsequent development of relic worship gave further impetus to the worship of ancestors.

The main concept underlying Buddhist ancestral rituals is the transfer of merit, which is practiced in almost all Buddhist countries. In the rituals of merit transfer, giving offerings to the Buddha is regarded as the same thing as offering to ancestors. The unity of the living and the dead or the bond between descendants and ancestors is assured and affirmed by participating in and observing the Buddhist ancestral rites. In Southeast Asia, ancestor worship is not as evident as in East Asia, but the continual transfer of merit though offerings to monks and the san˙ gha provides the opportunity to commemorate and nourish ancestral spirits.

See also: Cosmology; Death; Lineage; Merit and MeritMaking

Ahern, Emily M. The Cult of the Dead in a Chinese Village. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1973.

deSilva, Lynn A. Buddhism: Beliefs and Practices in Sri Lanka.
Colombo, Sri Lanka: de Silva, 1974.

Freedman, Maurice. Lineage Organization in Southeastern China. London: University of London, Athlone Press, 1958.

Fujii Masao. "Soshi shinko no keisei to tenkai" (The formation and development of founder worship in Japan). Taisho daigaku daigaku-in kenkyu ronshu 6 (1982): 23–39.

Fujii Masao. Sosen saiki (Ancestral rites). Bukkyo minzogu-gaku taikei, Vol. 4. Tokyo: Meicho shuppan, 1988.

Gombrich, Richard Francis, and Obeyesekere, Gananath. Buddhism Transformed: Religious Change in Sri Lanka. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1988.

Holt, John C. "Assisting the Dead by Venerating the Living:
Merit Transfer in the Early Buddhist Tradition." Numen 28, no. 1 (1981): 1–28.

Jordan, David K. Gods, Ghosts, and Ancestors: The Folk Religion of a Taiwanese Village. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972.

Lee, Kwang Kyu. "The Concept of Ancestors and Ancestor Worship in Korea." Asian Folklore Studies 43 (1984): 199–214. Smith, Robert J. Ancestor Worship in Contemporary Japan. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1974.

Spiro, Melford E. Buddhism and Society: A Great Tradition and Its Burmese Vicissitudes. New York: Harper, 1970.

Takeda Choshu. Sosen suhai (Ancestor worship). Kyoto:
Heirakuji Shoten, 1971.

Tamamura Taijo. Soshiki Bukkyo (Funeral Buddhism). Tokyo:
Daihorinkaku, 1964.

Tambiah, Stanley J. Buddhism and the Spirit Cults in North-East Thailand. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1970.

Teiser, Stephen. The Ghost Festival in Medieval China. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1988.

Yanagida Kunio. Senzo no hanashi. Tokyo: Tsukuma shobo, 1946. English translation by Fanny Hagin Mayer and Ishiwara Yasuyo. About Our Ancestors: The Japanese Family System. Tokyo: Bunshodo, 1970.

MARIKO NAMBA WALTER

Anitya (Impermanence)

Impermanence, as the Sanskrit word anitya or Pali word anicca are generally translated, is one of the three characteristics of the phenomenal world, or the world in which human beings live. The other two characteristics are DUH-KHA (SUFFERING) and no-self (anatman).

The concept of impermanence is fundamental to all Buddhist schools: Everything that exists in this world is impermanent. No element of physical matter or any concept remains unchanged, including the SKANDHA (AGGREGATE) that make up individual persons. Things in the world change in two ways. First, they change throughout time. Second, everything in this world is influenced by other elements of the world, and thus all existence is contingent upon something else. Because of this state of interdependence, everything that exists in this world is subject to change and is thus impermanent. Impermanence is the cause of suffering, because humans attempt to hold on to things that are constantly changing, on the mistaken assumption that those things are permanent.

NIRVAN-A is the only thing that lies beyond the reach of change, because it exists beyond the conceptual dualism of existence or nonexistence. Traditionally, Buddhist texts explain that because nirvan-a is not dependent upon other elements in the world, it is described as "uncreated" and "transcendent." In short, nirvan-a is not subject to change and is therefore not impermanent. For one who pursues the path toward enlightenment, the goal is to recognize the truth of impermanence by learning how not to depend upon the notion that things exist permanently in the world. According to the THERAVADA school of Buddhism, the first step in knowing the nature of reality is recognizing that neither the self nor the world exist permanently. Impermanence is woven throughout all of Buddhism, from its texts to artistic representations of Buddhist concepts.

See also: Anatman/A tman (No-Self/Self); Bodhi
(Awakening); Four Noble Truths; Path; Pratltyasamutpada (Dependent Origination)

Conze, Edward. Buddhist Thought in India: Three Phases of Buddhist Philosophy. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1962.

Karunadasa, Y. "The Buddhist Critique of Sassatavada and Ucchedavada: The Key to a Proper Understanding of the Origin and Doctrines of Early Buddhism." Middle Way 74, no. 2 (1999): 69–79.

CAROL S. ANDERSON

An Shigao

An Shigao is the Chinese name of a Parthian Buddhist translator active in the Chinese capital Luoyang circa 148 to 180 C.E. Tradition represents him as a prince who renounced his throne to propagate the dharma in distant lands, becoming a hostage at the Han court, but little is known about his life. Scholars disagree over whether he was a layman or a monk, a follower of the MAHAYANA or not. What is certain is that he was the first significant translator of Buddhist texts into Chinese. Fewer than twenty genuine works of his are thought to have survived. They include sutras on such important topics as the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS, PRATITYASAMUTPA DA
(DEPENDENT ORIGINATION), the SKANDHA (AGGREGATE), and MINDFULNESS of breathing and other techniques of self-cultivation, as well as several treatises on similar subjects (one of them an early version of San˙ gharaks-a's Yogacarabhumi). Two works are in fact anthologies of short sutras, while two other longer sutras (Das´ottara,
Arthavistara) are compendia of terms, thus providing Chinese Buddhists with a comprehensive treatment of their new religion's ideas and vocabulary. All the translations are of mainstream (S´ravakayana) literature, most apparently affiliated with the Sarvastivada school. The first propagator of ABHIDHARMA and meditation texts in China, An Shigao also pioneered the field of Chinese Buddhist translations, and may have established the translation committee as the standard approach. While his archaic renditions were soon superseded by his successors, some of the terms he used (like the transcriptions fo for Buddha or pusa for bodhisattva) have stood the test of time and are still current in East Asia today.

See Also: Mainstream Buddhist Schools Bibliography

Forte, Antonino. The Hostage An Shigao and His Offspring.
Kyoto, Japan: Italian School of East Asian Studies, 1995.

Zürcher, Erik. The Buddhist Conquest of China: The Spread and Adaptation of Buddhism in Early Medieval China. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 1959.

Zürcher, Erik. "A New Look at the Earliest Chinese Buddhist Texts." In From Benares to Beijing: Essays on Buddhism and Chinese Religion in Honour of Prof. Jan Yün-hua, ed. Koichi Shinohara and Gregory Schopen. Oakville, ON: Mosaic, 1991.

PAUL HARRISON

Anuttarasamyaksam- Bodhi (Complete, Perfect Awakening)

Anuttarasamyaksam- bodhi is a Sanskrit term for unsurpassed (anuttara), complete and perfect (samyak)
awakening (sam- bodhi). Buddhist texts frequently use this term to describe the awakened wisdom acquired by buddhas and tathagatas and to indicate that the content of that awakening transcends all conceptions and cannot be compared to the knowledge or wisdom of any other being, whether human or divine. See also: Bodhi (Awakening)
WILLIAM M. BODIFORD

Apocrypha

The term apocrypha has been used in Western scholarship to refer to Buddhist literature that developed in various parts of Asia in imitation of received texts from the Buddhist homeland of India. Texts included under the rubric of apocrypha share some common characteristics, but they are by no means uniform in their literary style or content. Apocrypha may be characterized collectively as a genre of indigenous religious literature that claimed to be of Indian Buddhist pedigree or affiliation and that came to acquire varying degrees of legitimacy and credence with reference to the corpus of shared scripture. Some apocrypha, especially in East Asian Buddhism, purported to be the BUDDHAVACANA (WORD OF THE BUDDHA) (that is, sutra) or the word of other notable and anonymous exegetes of Indian Buddhism (s´astra). Others claimed to convey the insights of enlightened beings from India or of those who received such insights through a proper line of transmission, as in the case of Tibetan
"treasure texts" (gter ma) that were hidden and discovered by qualified persons. Still others were modeled after canonical narrative literature, as in the case of apocryphal JATAKA (birth stories of the Buddha)
from Southeast Asia. Thus, what separates apocrypha from other types of indigenous Buddhist literature was their claimed or implied Indian attribution and authorship. The production of apocryphal texts is related to the nature of the Buddhist CANON within each tradition. The Chinese and Tibetan canons remained open in order to allow the introduction of new scriptures that continued to be brought from India over several centuries, a circumstance that no doubt inspired religious innovation and encouraged the creation of new religious texts, such as apocrypha. The Pali canon of South and Southeast Asia, on the other hand, was fixed at a relatively early stage in its history, making it more difficult to add new materials.

The above general characterization offers a clue as to the function and purpose of apocrypha: They adapted Indian material to the existing local contexts—be they religious, sociocultural, or even political—thereby bridging the conceptual gulf that otherwise might have rendered the assimilation of Buddhism more difficult, if not impossible. The perceived authority inherent in the received texts of the tradition was tacitly recognized and adopted to make the foreign religion more comprehensible to contemporary people in the new lands into which Buddhism was being introduced. Indeed history shows that some apocryphal texts played seminal roles in the development of local Buddhist cultures as they became an integral part of the textual tradition both inside and outside the normative canon. But not all apocrypha were purely or even primarily aimed at promoting Buddhist causes. Some Chinese apocrypha, for example, were all about legitimating local religious customs and practices by presenting them in the guise of the teaching of the Buddha. These examples illustrate that the authority of SCRIPTURE spurred literary production beyond the confines of Buddhism proper and provided a form in which a region's popular religious dimensions could be expressed in texts. Of the known corpus of apocrypha, the most "egregious" case may be East Asian Buddhist apocrypha that assumed the highest order of Indian pedigree, by claiming to be the genuine word of the Buddha himself. Naturally their claims to authenticity did not go unnoticed among either conservative or liberal factions within the Buddhist community. During the medieval period these texts became objects of contempt as well as, contrarily, materials of significant utility and force in the ongoing sinification of Buddhism.

Thus Chinese Buddhist apocrypha epitomize the complexity of issues surrounding the history, identity, and function of Buddhist apocrypha as a broader genre of Buddhist literature.

Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha

Chinese Buddhist apocrypha began to be written almost contemporaneously with the inception of Buddhist translation activities in the mid-second century C.E. According to records in Buddhist CATALOGUES OF SCRIPTURES, the number of apocrypha grew steadily every generation, through at least the eighth century. Most cataloguers were vehement critics of apocrypha, as can be gauged from their description of them as either "spurious" or "suspected" scriptures, or from statements that condemned these scriptures as eroding the integrity of the Buddhist textual transmission in China. Despite the concerted, collective efforts of the cataloguers and, at times, the imperial court to root out these indigenous scriptures, it was not until the compilation of the first printed Buddhist canon, the Northern Song edition (971–983), that new textual creation waned and eventually all but ceased. The production of apocrypha in China was thus a phenomenon of the manuscript period, when handwritten texts of local origin could gain acceptance as scripture and even be included in the canon, the result being an enigmatic category of scripture that is at once inauthentic and yet canonical.

Modern scholarship's discovery of such "canonical apocrypha" testifies to the complexity and difficulty of textual adjudication as well as to the authors' sophisticated level of comprehension and assimilation of Buddhist materials. It was never easy for traditional bibliographical cataloguers to determine scriptural authenticity. Success in ferreting out apocryphal texts—especially when the texts in question were composed by authors with extensive knowledge of Buddhist doctrines and practice and with substantial literary skill—required extensive exposure to a wide range of Buddhist literature. In addition, the task was at times deliberately compromised—as in the case of the Lidai sanbaoji (Record of the Three Treasures throughout Successive Dynasties; 597)—for no other reason than the polemical need to purge from the canon any elements that might subject Buddhism to criticism from religious and ideological rivals, such as Daoists and Confucians. The Lidai sanbaoji added many false author and translator attributions to apocrypha in order to authenticate those texts as genuine scripture; and once its arbitrary attributions were accepted in a state-commissioned catalogue, the DaZhou kanding zhongjing mulu (Catalogue of Scriptures,
Authorized by the Great Zhou Dynasty; 695), the Chinese tradition accepted the vast majority of those texts as canonical. The Kaiyuan shijiao lu (Record of S´akyamuni's Teachings, Compiled during the Kaiyuan Era;
730)—recognized as the best of all traditional catalogues—was critical of both these predecessors, but even it was unable to eliminate all these past inaccuracies due in part to the weight of tradition.

Canonical apocrypha are therefore ideal examples of the clash of motivations and compromises reached in the process of creating a religious tradition. These apocrypha thus added new dimensions to the evolving Buddhist religion in China due in part to their privileged canonical status, but also, more importantly, because of their responsiveness to Chinese religious and cultural needs.

There are some 450 titles of Chinese apocryphal texts listed in the traditional bibliographical catalogues.

In actuality, however, the cumulative number of apocrypha composed in China is closer to 550 when we take into account both other literary evidence, as well as texts not listed in the catalogues but subsequently discovered among Buddhist text and manuscript collections in China and Japan. Approximately one-third of this total output is extant today—a figure that is surprisingly large, given the persistent censorship to which apocrypha were subjected throughout the medieval period. This survival rate is testimony to their effectiveness as indigenous Buddhist scripture and attests to the continued reception given to these texts by the Chinese, even such knowledgeable exegetes as ZHIYI
(538–597), the systematizer of the TIANTAI SCHOOL of Chinese Buddhism. The vitality of the phenomenon of apocrypha in China also catalyzed the creation of new scriptures in other parts of East Asia, though to nowhere near the same extent as in China proper.

The extant corpus of apocrypha includes both canonical apocrypha as well as texts preserved as citations in Chinese exegetical works. Apocrypha were also found in the two substantial medieval manuscript collections discovered in modern times. The first is the DUNHUANG cache of Central Asia discovered at the turn of the twentieth century, which included manuscripts dating from the fifth to eleventh centuries. The second is the Nanatsu-dera manuscript canon in Nagoya, Japan, which was compiled during the twelfth century based on earlier manuscript editions of the Buddhist canon. It was discovered in 1990 to have included apocrypha of both Chinese and Japanese origin. The most astonishing historical finding in this canon was the Piluo sanmei jing (The Scripture on the Absorption of Piluo), an apocryphon attested in the bibliographical catalogue compiled by the renowned monk-scholar DAO'AN (312–385), but previously unknown. The Japanese manuscript is the only extant copy of this extremely early Chinese apocryphon. Other findings are no less valuable in ascertaining the overall history of apocrypha: Both the Dunhuang and Nanatsu-dera manuscripts included many titles with no known record in the catalogues, evidence indicating that indigenous scriptural creation was even more prolific than had previously been recognized. Moreover, scholars have suggested or identified convincingly some of the Nanatsu-dera apocrypha as Japanese compilations based on Indian texts or Chinese apocryphal materials. Thus the apocrypha extant in Japan serve as witness to the currency and impact of this contested, but obviously useful, material.

Texts And Contents

The extant corpus of apocryphal literature defies simple description, as each text has its own unique doctrinal or practical orientation, motive, and literary style and technique. Some of the canonical apocrypha skillfully synthesized orthodox Buddhist material from India without any apparent indication of their native pedigree; others, however, propagated popular beliefs and practices typical of local culture while including negligible Buddhist elements, save for the inclusion of the word sutra (jing) in the title. The majority falls somewhere between the two extremes, by promoting Buddhist beliefs and practices as the means of accruing worldly and spiritual merit. A few scholars have attempted to make typological classifications of all extant apocrypha, but these remain problematic until the corpus is thoroughly studied and understood in its religious and sociocultural contexts. What follows therefore is a selected review of some of the raison d'être of apocrypha, which are reflected in the ways in which Buddhist teachings are framed and presented.

We will begin with two examples of apocrypha that assembled MAHAYANA doctrine in ways that would support a theory or practice that had no exact counterpart in Indian Buddhism. First, the AWAKENING OF
FAITH (DASHENG QIXIN LUN) reconstructed Buddhist orthodoxy by synthesizing three major strands of Indian doctrine—S´UNYATA (EMPTINESS), ALAYAVIJNANA
(storehouse consciousness), and TATHAGATAGARBHA
(womb/embryo of buddhas)—in order to posit an ontology of mind in which the mind could simultaneously be inherently enlightened and yet subject to ignorance. After its appearance in the sixth century, the Awakening of Faith became perhaps the most prominent example of the impact apocrypha had on the development of Chinese Buddhist ideology, as it became the catalyst for the development of the sectarian doctrines of such indigenous schools as Tiantai, Huayan, and Chan. The text is also a prime example of the ways in which an indigenous author selectively appropriated and ingeniously synthesized Indian materials in order better to suit a Chinese religious context. Second, the Jin'gang sanmei jing (The Scripture of Adamantine Absorption, or Vajrasamadhi-sutra) is an eclectic amalgam of a wide range of Mahayana doctrine, which sought to provide a foundation for a comprehensive system of meditative practice and to assert the soteriological efficacy of that system. The scripture is also one of the oldest works associated with the CHAN SCHOOL in China and Korea, and is thus historically significant. Unlike other apocrypha discussed elsewhere in this entry, one study suggests that this sutra is actually a Korean composition from the seventh century (Buswell 1989). This scripture, along with Japanese apocrypha mentioned earlier, is thus a barometer of the organic relationship that pertained between Buddhism in China and the rest of East Asia and demonstrates the pervasive impetus for indigenous scriptural creation throughout the region.

Other apocrypha incorporated local references and inferences in order to better relate certain Buddhist values and stances to the surrounding milieu. PRECEPTS are the bedrock of Buddhist soteriology and figure prominently as a theme among apocrypha, as, for example, in the FANWANG JING (BRAHMA'S NET SU -
TRA). This scripture reformulated the Mahayana bodhisattva precepts in part by correlating them with the Confucian notion of filial piety (xiao), a conspicuous maneuver that betrays both the Chinese pedigree of the text as well as its motive to reconcile two vastly different value systems. It also addressed problems arising from secular control over Buddhist institutions and membership—a blending of religious instruction and secular concerns that was not atypical of apocrypha, as we will see again below.

Other apocrypha that have precepts as a prominent theme specifically targeted the LAITY; such texts include the Piluo sanmei jing (The Scripture of the Absorption of Piluo), Tiwei jing (The Scripture of Tiwei), and Chingjing faxing jing (The Scripture of Pure Religious Cultivation). These apocrypha taught basic lay moral guidelines, such as the five precepts, the ten wholesome actions, and the importance of DANA (GIVING), all set within a doctrinal framework of KARMA (ACTION) and REBIRTH. These lay precepts are at times presented as the sufficient cause for attaining buddhahood, a radically simplified PATH that is no doubt intended to encourage the participation of the laity in Buddhist practice. These precepts are also often presented as being superior to the five constant virtues (wuchang) of Confucianism, or to any of the tangible and invisible elements of the ancient Chinese worldview, including the cosmological network of yin and yang, the five material elements, and the five viscera of Daoist internal medicine. The idea of filial piety is most conspicuous in the Fumu enzhong jing (The Scripture on Profound Gratitude toward Parents), which is based on the Confucian teaching of "twenty-four [exemplary types of]
filial piety" (ershihsi xiao). The text highlights the deeds of an unfilial son and exhorts him to requite his parents' love and sacrifice by making offerings to the three JEWELS (the Buddha, the dharma, and the SAN˙ GHA).

The scripture has been one of the most popular apocrypha since the medieval period.

The law of karma and rebirth mentioned above is a ubiquitous theme or backdrop of apocrypha. The text commonly known as the Shiwang jing (The Scripture on the Ten Kings) illustrated the alien Buddhist law to a Chinese audience by depicting the afterlife in purgatory. After death, a person must pass sequentially through ten hell halls, each presided over by a judge; the individual's postmortem fate depended on the judges' review of his or her deeds while on earth. This bureaucratization of hell was an innovation that mirrored the Chinese sociopolitical structure. This scripture's pervasive influence can be gauged from the many paintings, stone carvings, and sculptures of the ten kings—typically garbed in the traditional attire and headgear of Chinese officials—that were found in medieval East Asian Buddhist sites.

Given that apocryphal scriptures were products of specific times and places, it is no surprise that they also criticized not only the contemporary state of religion but also society as a whole, and even the state and its policies toward Buddhism. Such criticisms were often framed within the eschatological notion of the DECLINE OF THE DHARMA, which was adapted from Indian sources. The RENWANG JING (HUMANE KINGS SUTRA)
described corruption in all segments of society, natural calamities and epidemics, state control and persecution of Buddhism, and the neglect of precepts by Buddhist adherents. The suggested solution to this crisis was the perfection of wisdom (prajñaparamita), whose efficacy would restore order in religion and society and even protect the state from extinction. The scripture was popular in medieval East Asia, especially among the ruling class, not least because of its assertion of state protection. The Shouluo biqiu jing (The Scripture of Bhiks-u Shouluo) offered a different solution to eschatological crisis: It prophesized the advent of a savior, Lunar-Radiant Youth, during a time of utter disorder and corruption. Such a messianic message is of course not without precedent in Indian Buddhism—the cult of the future buddha MAITREYA is the ubiquitous example—but the suggestion of a savior in the present world might easily be construed as politically subversive, and as a direct challenge to the authority of the secular regime. This scripture is one of those lost apocrypha that was discovered among the Dunhuang manuscript cache some fourteen hundred years after the first recorded evidence of its composition.

The preceding coverage has touched upon only a small part of the story of Buddhist apocrypha. Even this brief treatment should make clear, however, that apocrypha occupy a crucial place in the history of Buddhism as a vehicle of innovation and adaptation, which bridged the differences between the imported texts of the received Buddhist tradition and indigenous religion, society and culture. As such, they also offer substantial material for cross-cultural and comparative studies of scripture and canon in different religious traditions.

See also: Daoism and Buddhism; Millenarianism and Millenarian Movements

Buswell, Robert E., Jr. The Formation of Ch'an Ideology in China and Korea: The Vajrasamadhi-Sutra, a Buddhist Apocryphon. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989.

Buswell, Robert E., Jr., ed. Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1990.

Jaini, Padmanabh S., and Horner, I. B. Apocryphal Birth Stories
(Paññasa-Jataka), 2 vols. London: Pali Text Society, 1985.

Kapstein, Matthew T. The Tibetan Assimilation of Buddhism:
Conversion, Contestation, and Memory. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Makita, Tairyo. Gikyo kenkyu (Studies on Suspect Scriptures).

Kyoto: Kyoto Daigaku Jinmon Kagaku Kenkyusho, 1976.

Makita, Tairyo, and Ochiai, Toshinori, eds. Chu goku senjutsu kyoten (Scriptures Composed in China); Chu goku Nihon senjutsu kyoten: kanyaku kyoten (Scriptures Composed in China and Japan, Scriptures Translated into Chinese [Extractions]); and Chu goku Nihon senjutsu kyoten: senjutsusho (Scriptures and Commentaries Composed in China and Japan). Nanatsu-dera koitsu kyoten kenkyu sosho (The Long Hidden Scriptures of Nanatsu-dera, Research Series), Vols.

1–5. Tokyo: Daito Shuppansha, 1994–2000.

Mochizuki, Shinko. Bukkyo kyoten seiritsushi ron (Study on the Development of Buddhist Scriptures). Kyoto: Hozo-kan, 1946.

Orzech, Charles D. Politics and Transcendent Wisdom: The Scripture for Humane Kings in the Creation of Chinese Buddhism.
University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998.

Teiser, Stephen F. The Scripture on the Ten Kings and the Making of Purgatory in Medieval Chinese Buddhism. Honolulu:
University of Hawaii Press, 1994.

Tsukamoto, Zenryu. Tsukamoto Zenryu chosakushu, Vol. 2:
Hokucho bukkyoshi kenkyu (Collected Works of Tsukamoto Zenryu, Vol. 2: Studies on the Buddhist History of Northern Dynasties). Tokyo: Daito Shuppansha, 1974.

Yabuki, Keiki. Meisha yoin: kaisetsu (Echoes of the Singing Sands: Explanations). Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1933.

Zürcher, Erik. "Prince Moonlight: Messianism and Eschatology in Early Medieval Chinese Buddhism." T'oung-pao 68 (1982), 1–59.

KYOKO TOKUNO

Arhat

The arhat (Sanskrit) or arahant (Pali) is a being who has attained the state of enlightenment that is the goal of THERAVADA and other MAINSTREAM BUDDHIST
SCHOOLS. The arhat is fully human yet has reached a transcendent state of wisdom and liberation that the texts describe as being almost identical with that of the Buddha. In this way, the arhat fulfills a dual role as both an ideal for imitation and an object of veneration.

As an ideal of imitation, the arhat represents the completion of the gradual PATH that leads from the stage of an ordinary person, characterized by ignorance, to that of an enlightened person endowed with wisdom. Theravada texts describe this path as having two levels: the mundane or worldly, and the supramundane. Theravada held that the path was open to all beings who could master the attainments required, and it subdivided the path into four stages that must be completed over many lifetimes. These four stages are termed the four paths (marga) or the four noble persons (arya-pudgala), and comprise (1) the path of stream-attainment (srotapanna marga), (2) the path of once-returning (sakrdagami marga), (3) the path of nonreturning (anagami marga), and (4) the path of the arhat. The division of the path into these stages extending over many lifetimes served to make the ideal of arhatship more viable for ordinary people.

The Buddhist CANON contains many sutras that spell out in detail the nature of the perfections that must be accomplished at each of the stages of the path in order to progress toward arhatship. The perfection of moral conduct (´sl la) constitutes the first requirement of the path. In the Visuddhimagga (Path to Purification), BUDDHAGHOSA (fifth century C.E.) explains that a person on the path must fulfill the PRECEPTS, living by compassion and nonviolence, living without stealing and depending on the charity of others, practicing chastity, speaking truth, and following all of the major and minor precepts. Having made progress in sl la, the aspiring arhat moves to perfect the restraint of sense faculties. Controlling the senses rather than allowing the senses to control him or her, the aspirant experiences a state of peace. The next stage involves the development of samadhi, or concentration, and here the chief obstacles to be overcome are the five hindrances (nl
varan-a), which include sensual desire, ill will, sloth and torpor, excitement and flurry, and DOUBT.

Closely related to this formulation of the states to be conquered is the list of mental fetters (sam- yojana) that must be abandoned in order to progress from the stage of stream-enterer to that of arhat. A person attains the fruit of stream-entry by eliminating the first three fetters: mistaken belief in a self, doubt, and trust in mere rites and RITUALs. To progress to the stage of the once-returner, a person must reduce lust, ill will, and delusion. The third noble person, the nonreturner, completes the destruction of the first five fetters by completely destroying sensual desire and ill will. To become an arhat one must proceed to eliminate the five remaining fetters, called higher fetters: desire for material existence, desire for immaterial existence, conceit, restlessness, and ignorance.

Having eliminated these negative states, the arhatto-be enters the successive jhanas (Sanskrit, dhyana)
or trance states of samadhi, and attains the mental factors ending in pure MINDFULNESS and equanimity. The Dl
ghanikaya contrasts persons who have reached this stage with ordinary persons by stating that those who attain this level are as happy as prisoners who have been set free or as people who have found their way out of the wilderness to safety (D.1.72f.). To move beyond this stage, the potential arhat perfects the six ABHIJNA (HIGHER KNOWLEDGES). The first three of these comprise what can be called miraculous powers:
the ability to do the miraculous deeds traditionally attributed to Indian holy persons, such as becoming invisible, flying through the air, walking on water, and other physical and psychic powers. The three remaining abhijña comprise the three knowledges: knowledge of one's previous lives, the "divine eye" (divyacaks-u) that allows one to see others' past lives, and knowledge of the destruction of the cankers. Having reached this stage, the arhat is described throughout the Pali canon as "one who has destroyed the cankers, who has done what was to be done, who has laid down the burden . . . and is liberated."
The detailed and somewhat formulaic canonical descriptions of the arhat's path serve both to present the path as an imitable goal and to emphasize how distant this goal is from the ordinary person. Theravada supplemented these normative descriptions of the path to arhatship with hagiographical accounts of the great arhats who had completed this path. The difficulty of the path implied that the figures who had completed it were greatly to be venerated. The canonical and commentarial stories of the great arhats describe them as performing meritorious deeds in their previous lives, which led to their having opportunities to hear and follow the dharma. Through hearing the dharma and practicing the path, these arhats reached the perfection of wisdom and compassion. Theravadin accounts praise these arhats for attaining various forms of perfection in relation to the world. Free from the snares of desire, the arhats were not attached to the material world. For example, the female arhat, Subha, who had overcome all attachments and was living as a nun in the forest, plucked out her eye and gave it to a pursuer who said that he was attracted to her because of her deerlike eyes. The stories of other arhats stress their perfection of qualities such as equanimity, nonattachment, and peace. Great arhats like Mahakassapa (Sanskrit, MAHAKAS´YAPA) and Añña-Kon-d-oñña were revered for their ability to teach the dharma, and other arhats were remembered for serving as advisers and counselors to the people. Veneration of these great arhats by ordinary persons at the lower levels of the path both leads to and is in itself imitation of the arhats' path to development.

Although the arhat plays a primary role in Theravada Buddhism, the ideal is also found in some MAHAYANA texts that mention a group of sixteen (or sometimes eighteen) great arhats. Mahayana sutras teach that the Buddha requested these sixteen arhats to remain in the world to teach the dharma until the next Buddha, MAITREYA, appears.

See also: Arhat Images; Bodhi (Awakening); Disciples
of the Buddha

Bond, George D. "The Arahant: Sainthood in Theravada Buddhism." In Sainthood: Its Manifestations in World Religions,
ed. Richard Kieckhefer and George D. Bond. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.

Horner, I. B. The Early Buddhist Theory of Man Perfected. London: Williams and Norgate, 1936.

Tambiah, S. J. "The Buddhist Arahant: Classical Paradigm and Modern Thai Manifestations." In Saints and Virtues, ed. John S. Hawley. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987.

GEORGE D. BOND

Arhat Images

The depiction of arhats (Chinese, luohan; Japanese, rakan; Korean, nahan) in painting and sculpture is a time-honored one in East Asian Buddhist art. Literally meaning "one worthy of honor," arhats are senior disciples of the Buddha who attained awakening through his teaching. After the sutra about sixteen "great" arhats, Da aluohan Nandimiduoluo suo shuo fazhuji (Record of the Abiding Law as Spoken by the Great Arhat Nandimitra, T.2030), was translated into Chinese in the mid-seventh century, worship centered on this select group, which eventually expanded from sixteen to eighteen and then to five hundred in number. These select arhats, said to reside in remote mountain fastnesses and believed to possess miraculous powers, had been given the charge to protect the buddhadharma until the buddha of the future, MAITREYA, makes his appearance, and this kalpa (or cycle) of existence comes to an end. From the late ninth century onward, arhats inspired a fervent cultic worship in Central Asia and throughout East Asia.

One clue that suggests why such worship was so enduring may be found in the Record of the Abiding Law. There the believer is instructed to show devotion to the arhats by supporting the monastic order.

The sutra states that such devotional actions call forth the arhats, although they disguise their "transcendent natures," to mingle amidst human beings, bestowing upon pious donors "the reward of that fruit that surpasses all others" (i.e., the attainment of buddhahood). Another factor that contributed to the flourishing of arhat worship in China was the probable An arhat, or enlightened disciple, with a fly whisk. (Chinese painting by Guanxiu, 832–912.) The Art Archive/Private Collection Paris/Dagli Orti. Reproduced by permission.

association of the miracle-working arhats named in the sutra and subsequently depicted in paintings and sculpture with the fabled but indigenous Daoist immortals, who were also thought to reside in remote realms and possess supernatural powers; indeed, the Sanskrit term arhat was first translated into Chinese by borrowing terms from the Daoist lexicon that refer to such immortals.

The beginnings of the depiction of the sixteen arhats named in the Record of the Abiding Law are obscure; the available visual evidence consists of mere fragments or later copies of paintings. Textual sources, however, indicate that by the latter half of the ninth century, as the arhats' cultic worship became well-established, painters of note, such as Guanxiu (832–912) and Zhang Xuan (tenth century), depicted the theme, apparently in the form of iconic portraits. By this time there appear to have been two approaches to depicting arhats: either as monks with Chinese facial features or as distinctly exotic, even grotesque beings. Guanxiu, a Chan priest and accomplished poet who was said to have derived inspiration for his painting from prayerinduced visions, was heralded by later historians as having been the first to portray the arhats, in the words of Huang Xiufu (late tenth/early eleventh century), as foreign in appearance, "having bushy eyebrows and huge eyes, slack-jawed and big-nosed," and in a landscape setting, "leaning against a pine or a boulder." Such characteristics can be seen in a set of sixteen hanging scrolls in the Imperial Household Agency, Tokyo, that is generally thought to best preserve Guanxiu's powerful conception. Guanxiu's radical vision was perpetuated in sets of arhat paintings produced throughout the medieval period in China and Japan.

By the latter half of the twelfth century the mode of representing arhats in the guise of more familiar, sinicized monks, albeit sometimes performing miraculous feats, included their placement in much more elaborate landscape settings and the suggestion of narrative implications far beyond the content of the Record of the Abiding Law. Skilled at conjuring up such dramatic renditions in ink and color on silk, professional Buddhist painters in cities like Ningbo in Zhejiang province created large sets of hanging scrolls that depicted what had now become the five hundred arhats. One of the most significant sets to survive from a Ningbo workshop is that produced in 1178 by Lin Tinggui and Zhou Jichang.

Arhats, because of their ascetic devotion to the dharma, became a favored subject of adherents to the CHAN SCHOOL. Whereas resplendent sets of paintings, like the one mentioned above, were hung in temple halls for public worship, renderings in ink monochrome and often with exceptionally delicate lineation, known as baimiao or plain line drawing, were enjoyed by monks and lay worshippers in more intimate and scholarly exchanges. From the twelfth century onward in China, but especially at times when the Chan school was revitalized by the presence and activity of prominent clerics, depictions of arhats in this more scholarly mode of painting reappeared with new vigor and subtle invention. As a complement to painted images, sculpted representations of arhats occupied temple halls as well.

Few early examples survive, however. Offering a glimpse of what must have been a vibrant tradition are five magnificent ceramic sculptures of arhats, slightly larger than lifesize and featuring a three-color glaze, that were found in a cave in Hebei province early in the twentieth century. From a presumed set of sixteen, they are thought to date to the late eleventh or early twelfth century. Sinicized portrayals, they reflect the characterization of the arhats as familiar monks; nevertheless, because of the talent of the nameless artisans who created them, they are imbued with a meditative authority befitting the arhats' mission to remain ever steadfast in protecting the dharma.

See Also: Arhat; Chan Art; Daoism And Buddhism Bibliography

De Visser, Marinus W. The Arhats in China and Japan. Berlin:
Oesterheld, 1923.

Fong, Wen. The Lohans and a Bridge to Heaven. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, Freer Gallery of Art, 1958.

Kent, Richard K. "Depictions of the Guardians of the Law: Lohan Painting in China." In Latter Days of the Law: Images of Chinese Buddhism 850–1850, ed. Marsha Weidner. Lawrence: Spenser Museum of Art, University of Kansas; Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1994.

Smithies, Richard, "The Search for the Lohans of I-chou
(Yixian)." Oriental Art 30, no. 3 (1984): 260–274.

Watanabe, Masako. "Guanxiu and Exotic Imagery in Rakan Paintings." Orientations 31, no. 4 (2000): 34–42.

RICHARD K. KENT

A Ryadeva

Aryadeva (ca. 170–270 C.E.) in his major work, Catuh-´ataka s (Four Hundred Verses), defends the MADHYAMAKA SCHOOL against Buddhist and Brahman-ical opponents. The commentary of CANDRAKIRTI (ca.

600–650 C.E.) on this text identifies Aryadeva as a Sinhala king's son who renounced the throne, traveled to South India, and became NAGARJUNA's main disciple.

Lang, Karen. Aryadeva's Catuh-´ataka: On the Bodhisattva's Cul- s tivation of Merit and Knowledge. Copenhagen, Denmark: Akademisk Forlag, 1986.

Sonam, Ruth. Yogic Deeds of Bodhisattvas: Gyel-tsap on Aryadeva's Four Hundred. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 1994.

Tillemans, Tom J. F. Materials for the Study of Aryadeva, Dharmapala, and Candrakl
rti, 2 vols. Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien, 1990.

KAREN LANG

A Ryas´U Ra

Aryas´ura was a fourth-century C.E. Sanskrit poet. His famous work, the JATAKAMALA (Garland of Jatakas),
contains thirty-four stories about the noble deeds of the Buddha in previous incarnations, exemplifying in particular the PARAMITA (PERFECTION) of generosity, morality, and patience. Written in prose interspersed with verse, it is one of the Buddhist masterpieces of classical Sanskrit literature.

See also: Jataka; Sanskrit, Buddhist Literature in

Khoroche, Peter, trans. Once the Buddha Was a Monkey: Arya S
´ura's Jatakamala. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989.

PETER KHOROCHE

Asan˙ Ga

Asan˙ ga (ca. 320–ca. 390) is regarded as the founder of the Yogacara tradition of MAHAYANA philosophy. His biography reports that he was born in Purus-apura, India, and converted to Mahayana from the HINAYANA,
later convincing his brother VASUBANDHU to make the same move. Together they systematized the teachings of Yogacara, authoring the main Yogacara commentaries and treatises. Asan˙ ga's many works include Abhidharmasamuccaya (A Compendium of Abhidharma), which presents and defines technical terms and usages, and the Xl
anyang shengjiao lun, extant only in Chinese translation, a text that summarizes the truly compendious Yogacarabhumi (Stages of Yogic Practice), with which he is also connected as author/editor. Other commentaries are attributed to him on important Yogacara and some Prajñaparamita and Madhyamaka works as well. By far his principal work is the Mahayanasam- graha (Summary of the Great Vehicle), in which he presents the tenets of Yogacara in clear and systematic fashion, moving step by step, first explaining the basic notion of the storehouse consciousness and its functional relationship to the mental activities of sensing, perceiving, and thinking, then outlining the structure of consciousness in its three patterns of the other-dependent (dependent arising applied to the very structure of consciousness), the imagined, and the perfected, which is the other-dependent emptied of clinging to the imagined. He then sketches how the mind constructs its world; he develops a critical philosophy of mind that, in place of ABHIDHARMA's naive realism, can understand understanding, reject its imagined pattern, and—having attained the perfected state of S´UNYATA (EMPTINESS)—engage in other-dependent thinking and action. Asan˙ ga thereby reaffirms the conventional value of theory, which had appeared to be disallowed by earlier Madhyamaka dialectic. He treats the practices conducive to awakening (perfections, stages, discipline, concentration, and nonimaginative wisdom) and finally turns to the abandonment of delusion and the realization of buddhahood as the three bodies of awakening. Asan˙ ga's work is a compendium of critical Yogacara understanding of the mind.

See also: Consciousness, Theories of; Madhyamaka
School; Yogacara School

Keenan, John P., trans. The Summary of the Great Vehicle by Bodhisattva Asan˙ ga (Translated from the Chinese of Paramartha). Berkeley, CA: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, 1992.

Lamotte, Étienne, ed. and trans. La Somme du Grand Véhicule d'Asan˙ ga (Mahayanasam- graha), Vol. 1: Version tibétaine et chinoise (Hiuan-tsang); Vol. 2: Traduction et commentaire. Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 1938–39. Reprint, 1973.

Rahula, Walpola, ed. and trans. Le compendium de la superdoctrine (Abhidharmasamuccaya) d'Asan˙ ga. Paris: École Française d'Extrême-Orient, 1971. Reprint, 1980.

JOHN P. KEENAN

Ascetic Practices

Buddhism arose in India at a time when a number of non-Vedic ascetic movements were gaining adherents.

These S´raman-ic traditions offered a variety of psychosomatic disciplines by which practitioners could experience states transcending those of conditioned existence. Accounts of the Buddha's quest for awakening depict the BODHISATTVA engaging in ascetic disciplines common to many S´raman-ic groups of his time.

The bodhisattva reportedly lived in the wilderness, practiced breath-control, gave little care to his manner of dress, and fasted for long periods, strictly controlling his intake of food. But these accounts are not entirely consistent. Most indicate that the bodhisattva practiced asceticism for a period of six years; others (namely the Sutta Nipata 446, and the An˙ guttara Nikaya 4:88) state that the period of ascetic practice was seven years in duration. All accounts depict the bodhisattva practicing a regimen characterized by abstemious self-control, but details differ. Some say that he went unclothed in the manner of some S´raman-ic groups, that he wore only animal skins or bark clothing, and that he subsisted on fruits and roots. Some indicate that his meals consisted only of a single grain of rice, or a single jujube fruit.

The most critical discrepancy in these accounts of the bodhisattva's experiments in asceticism is the fact that where early sources such as the Sutta Nipata praise asceticism, later accounts describe the bodhisattva reaching a point where he rejects asceticism and discovers the Middle Way. Later accounts link this discovery of a PATH between the extremes of selfindulgence and self-mortification to the achievement of BODHI (AWAKENING). The bodhisattva, according to these accounts, had reached such a point of emaciation that he could feel his spinal cord by touching his abdomen (e.g., Majjhima Nikaya 1:80, 1: 246). Fainting from hunger and near to death, the bodhisattva had to rethink his methodology. A critical juncture in his ascetic regimen occurred when he accepted an offering of rice boiled in milk and was rejected by his ascetic companions as a hedonist.

To understand why later accounts repudiate asceticism as a path to awakening and link the practice of the Middle Way to the achievement of awakening, it is necessary to consider the history of Buddhist engagement with rival religious groups and how polemics shaped the development of Buddhism in India. As Buddhism spread from its initial heartland, it became important that Buddhists take a stand on asceticism so as to clearly differentiate themselves from other nonVedic S´raman-ic groups. Rivalry with Jains was particularly intense, as Buddhists competed for support from more or less the same segment of the lay population that Jain monastics relied upon for their financial support. Hajime Nakamura (Gotama Buddha, pp. 63ff.) suggests that antiascetic sentiments began to be expressed as Buddhists responded to critical remarks made by Jains to the effect that Buddhist monastics were lazy and self-indulgent. Nakamura argues that the biographical tradition of the Buddha's discovery of the Middle Way after practicing extreme asceticism was developed in this polemical context. Other scholars have focused on internal developments within Buddhism and seen evidence of a historical shift away from early asceticism. Reginald Ray, for example, argues in Buddhist Saints in India (pp. 295–317) that ascetic practices were the central focus of Buddhism in early days, but later were marginalized with the growth of settled MONASTICISM.

Historical issues aside, there are other reasons for ambivalence within Buddhist traditions with regard to asceticism. On the one hand, ascetic practices are central to developing an attitude of being content with little, an important aspect of the salutary detachment that Buddhists seek to inculcate. But on the other hand, asceticism can be practiced for a variety of unwholesome, self-aggrandizing reasons. Because of concerns about possible misuse, ascetic practices have been regarded as optional rather than mandatory aspects of the path.

Lists of ascetic practices differ. In THERAVADA contexts, the classical list of ascetic practices (dhutan-ga)
includes thirteen items: wearing patchwork robes recycled from cast-off cloth, wearing no more than three robes, going for alms, not omitting any house while going for alms, eating at one sitting, eating only from the alms bowl, refusing all further food, living in the forest, living under a tree, living in the open air, living in a cemetery, being satisfied with any humble dwelling, and sleeping in the sitting position (without ever lying down). MAHAYANA texts mention twelve ascetic practices (called dhutagun-a). They are the same as the Theravada list except they omit two rules about eating and add a rule about wearing garments of felt or wool.

Several of the thirteen dhutan-ga are virtual emblems of the SAN˙ GHA in Theravada countries. For example, at the end of Theravada ordination ceremonies, members of the san˙ gha are instructed in the four ascetic customs known as the four resorts (Pali, nissaya): begging for alms, wearing robes made from cast-off rags, dwelling at the foot of a tree, and using fermented cow urine as medicine (as opposed to more palatable medicines like molasses and honey). These four practices, often mentioned in canonical texts, undoubtedly go back to the beginnings of Buddhism in India.

Studies of contemporary saints in Buddhist Asia
(such as those by Carrithers, Tambiah, and Tiyavanich) suggest that those who follow ascetic practices enjoy tremendous prestige. Bank presidents residing in Bangkok travel hundreds of miles and endure all kinds of hardships to visit and make offerings to WILDERNESS
MONKS of the Thai forest traditions. There is no denying that the Buddhist emphasis on moderation militates against extreme asceticism. But it is equally clear from ethnographic and textual studies that ascetic practices are deeply woven into the fabric of Buddhism.

See also: Diet; Robes and Clothing; Self-Immolation
Bibliography Cakraborti, Haripada. Asceticism in Ancient India. Calcutta:
Punthi Pustak, 1973.

Carrithers, Michael. The Forest Monks of Sri Lanka: An Anthropological and Historical Study. Delhi: Oxford Press, 1983.

Dantinne, Jean. Les qualities de l'ascete (Dhutagun-a). Brussels:
Thanh-Long, 1991.

Gombrich, Richard. Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo. New York: Routledge, 1988.

Nakamura, Hajime. Gotama Buddha. Tokyo: Buddhist Books International, 1977.

Ray, Reginald. Buddhist Saints in India: A Study in Buddhist Values and Orientations. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Tambiah, Stanley. The Buddhist Saints of the Forest and the Cult of Amulets: A Study in Charisma, Hagiography, Sectarianism, and Millennial Buddhism. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1984.

Tiyavanich, Kamala. Forest Recollections: Wandering Monks in Twentieth-Century Thailand. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997.

LIZ WILSON

As´Oka

As´oka (ca. 300–232 B.C.E.; r. 268–232 B.C.E.), the third ruler of the Indian Mauryan empire, became a model of KINGSHIP for Buddhists everywhere. He is known today for the edicts he had inscribed on pillars and rock faces throughout his kingdom, and through the legends told about him in various Buddhist sources.

In one of his edicts, As´oka expresses regret for the suffering that was inflicted on the people of Kalin˙ ga
(present-day Orissa) during his conquest of that territory. Henceforth, he proclaims, he will renounce war and dedicate himself to the propagation of dharma.

Just what he meant by this statement has been a subject of debate. Some have understood the word dharma here to mean the Buddha's teaching, and so have read As´oka's change of heart in Kalin˙ ga as a conversion experience. In a few subsequent inscriptions, it is true, As´oka does refer specifically to Buddhist sites (such as the Buddha's birthplace, which he visited in person) and to Buddhist texts, but, in general, for him, the propagation of dharma seems to have implied an active moral polity of social concern, religious tolerance, and the observance of common ethical precepts. In one edict, for instance, he orders fruit and shade trees to be planted and wells to be dug along the roads for the benefit of travelers. In others, he establishes medical facilities for humans and animals; he commissions officers to help the poor and the elderly; and he enjoins obedience to parents, respect for elders, and generosity toward and tolerance of priests and ascetics of all sects.

Throughout the ages, however, As´oka was best known to Buddhists not through his edicts but through the legends that were told about him. These give no doubt about his conversion to Buddhism and his specific support of the monastic community. In Sanskrit and Pali sources, As´oka's kingship is said to be the karmic result of an offering he made to the Buddha in a past life. In this life, it is his encounter with an enlightened Buddhist novice that changes him from being a cruel and ruthless monarch into an exemplary righteous king (dharmaraja), a universal monarch (cakravartin). As such, he undertakes a series of great acts of merit: He redistributes the relics of the Buddha into eighty-four thousand stupas built all over his kingdom; he establishes various Buddhist sites of PILGRIMAGE; he becomes a supporter of charismatic saints such as UPAGUPTA and Pin-d-ola; he fervently worships the bodhi tree at BODH GAYA; and he gives away (and then redeems) his kingship and all of his possessions to the SAN˙ GHA. In addition, in the Sri Lankan vam- sas (chronicles), he is said to purify the teaching by convening the Third Buddhist Council, following which he sends missionary-monks, including his own son Mahinda, to various lands within his empire and beyond (e.g., Sri Lanka).

These stories helped define notions of Buddhist kingship throughout Asia, and gave specificity to the mythic model of the wheel-turning, dharmaupholding cakravartin. From Sri Lanka to Japan, monarchs were inspired by the image of As´oka as a propagator of the religion, distributor of wealth, sponsor of great festivals, builder of monasteries, and guarantor of peace and prosperity. In particular, the legend of his construction of eighty-four thousand stupas motivated several Chinese and Japanese emperors to imitate it with their own schemes of relic and wealth distribution, which served to unify their countries and ritually reassert their sovereignty. See also: Councils, Buddhist; India; Sri Lanka

Barua, B. M. Asoka and His Inscriptions, 2 vols. Calcutta: New Age, 1946.

Li Rongxi, trans. The Biographical Scripture of King Asoka.
Berkeley, CA: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, 1993.

Nikam, N. A., and McKeon, Richard, eds. and trans. The Edicts of Asoka. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1966.

Strong, John S. The Legend of King As´oka. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1983.

Thapar, Romila. As´oka and the Decline of the Mauryas. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1961.

JOHN S. STRONG
LUN), being falsely attributed to him.

See also: Sanskrit, Buddhist Literature in

Johnston, E. H., ed. and trans. The Saundarananda of As´vaghos-a, 2 vols. London: Oxford University Press, 1928 and 1932.

Johnston, E. H., ed. and trans. The Buddhacarita or, Acts of the Buddha. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1993.

Lüders, Heinrich. "Das S´ariputraprakaran-a, ein Drama des As´vaghos-a." In Philologica Indica. Göttingen, Germany:
Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1940.

PETER KHOROCHE

As´Vaghos-A

As´vaghos-a (ca. 100 C.E.) was a Sanskrit poet and dramatist. As is the case with nearly all the writers of ancient India, legend and fictional anecdote take the place of biographical fact, but the association of As´vaghos-a with the Kushan king Kanis-ka is at least chronologically possible.

As´vaghos-a is the author of two long poems, among the earliest extant in Sanskrit: BUDDHACARITA (Acts of the Buddha) and Saundarananda, about the conversion of the Buddha's half-brother Nanda. Fewer than half of the twenty-eight cantos of the Buddhacarita survive complete in the original Sanskrit, bringing the story only as far as the Buddha's enlightenment, but Tibetan and Chinese translations preserve the entire work. Only fragments survive of As´vaghos-a's nine-act play, S´ariputraprakaran-a (The Matter [or Drama] of S´ariputra), about the conversion of S´ARIPUTRA and MAHAMAUDGALYAYANA, later to become two of the Buddha's main disciples. Of the other works attributed to As´vaghos-a, only the fragments of another drama are likely to be his.

The profound knowledge of brahmanical lore displayed in his writing supports the Chinese tradition that he was born a brahman and only later converted to Buddhism. Conversion is the main theme of two of his works and also figures prominently in the third. His avowed purpose in writing was to win converts to the Buddha's teaching by the charm of his art and the intensity of his conviction. As´vaghos-a's fame as a writer and the legend of his life contributed to his renown in East Asia and resulted in a number of works, such as the AWAKENING OF FAITH (DASHENG QIXIN

Atisha

Atisha (982–1054) was born to the ruler of a minor kingdom in Northeast India. He studied under the best Buddhist teachers of his time, including Jetari (whose name is also written Jitari) and Bodhibhadra. After some years of married life he entered the Buddhist order, where he was given the name Dpam- karas´rjñana
(Light of Wisdom). Atisha, the name by which he is better known, is an apabhram- ´as (proto-Bengali) form of the common Buddhist Sanskrit term atis´aya, which means "surpassing intention or kindness." In Tibet, Atisha is more commonly known as Jo bo rje (pronounced Jowojay), which conveys the idea of holiness and leadership.

According to later hagiographical accounts, after becoming a monk, Atisha studied in the four great monastic universities of the Pala dynasty (eighth to twelfth centuries): Nalanda, Otantapuri, Vikramas´la, and Somapuri. He then traveled to Suvarn-advpa (perhaps Sumatra in present-day Indonesia), where he met his most important teacher, Dharmakrtis´r, a Cittamatra (Mind Only) philosopher who taught Atisha MAHAYANA altruism (bodhicitta). Atisha returned to India when he was middle-aged, and the Pala king Nayapala appointed him abbot of Vikramas´la, where he launched a program of monastic renewal.

At the end of the tenth century, the king of Mnga' ris (Ngari) in far western Tibet, Ye shes 'od (Yeshay ö), sent a group of twenty-one Tibetans to India, among them the great translator Rin chen bzang po (958–
1055). Ye shes 'od was a descendant of the original Tibetan royal line that had ended in central Tibet in about 840, a date that marks the end of the first spread of Buddhism (snga dar) in Tibet. Rin chen bzang po's return to Mnga' ris after his travels in India is the traditional date for the beginning of the second spread
(sphyi dar) of Buddhism.

According to hagiographical accounts, late in his life Ye shes 'od told his son Byang chub 'od (Changchub ö, 984–1078) to invite Atisha, then the foremost Indian Buddhist scholar, to help further the spread of Buddhism in Tibet. Atisha accepted the invitation and arrived in Mnga' ris in 1042. He never returned to India, traveling and teaching extensively before his death in central Tibet in 1054.

In western Tibet Atisha collaborated with Rin chen bzang po on Tibetan translations of PRAJNAPARAMITA
LITERATURE. Atisha later collaborated in central Tibet with Nag mtsho tshul khrims rgyal ba (Nagtso Tsultrim gyalwa) on Tibetan translations of many fundamental texts of the Madhayamaka (Middle Way). Of his many Tibetan disciples the most important is 'Brom ston rgyal ba'i byung gnas (Dromtön Chökyi jungnay, 1008–1064), who founded Rva sgreng (Reting), the first monastery of the Bka' gdams (Kadam)
sect. The Bka' gdams, which evolved into the DGE LUG (GELUK) or Yellow Hat sect, is the Tibetan sect with which the name of Atisha is most closely associated.

Among Atisha's best known works is his Byang chub sgron me (Lamp for the Path), taught soon after arriving in Tibet. In it he classifies practitioners of Buddhism into three types (those of lesser, middling, and superior capacities), and he stresses the importance of a qualified guru, the need for a solid foundation of morality, the central place of Mahayana altruism, and an understanding of ultimate reality. He also sets forth the practice of TANTRA as a powerful technique for quickly reaching enlightenment. Atisha's works influenced all the later Tibetan Buddhist sects (BKA' BRGYUD, SA SKYA, and Dge lugs). Some later Dge lugs writers, influenced by TSONG KHA PA's Lam rim chen mo (Stages of the Path to Enlightenment, written in 1403) projected onto the historical Atisha a mythical perfect guru who became for them the symbol of their exclusive form of monasticism and scholastic learning. See also: Tibet

Chattopadhyaya, Alaka. Atis´a and Tibet. Calcutta: Indian Studies Past and Present, 1967. Eimer, Helmut. Rnam thar rgyas pa: Materialien zu eine Biographie der Atis´a (D
lpam˙ karas´r
ljñana). Wiesbaden, Germany: Harrassowitz, 1979.

Sherburne, Richard, trans. The Complete Works of Atis´a S
´r l D
lpam˙ kara Jñana. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan, 2000.

GARETH SPARHAM

Avada Na

As a genre of Buddhist literature, the Sanskrit term avadana (Pali, apadana; Chinese, piyu; Tibetan, rtogs par brjod pa's sde) denotes a narrative of an individual's religiously significant deeds. Often these narratives constitute full-fledged religious biographies, sometimes of eminent monastics, sometimes of ordinary lay disciples. The avadanas portray, frequently with thematic and narrative complexity, concrete human actions that embody the truths propounded in the doctrine (dharma) and the discipline (VINAYA).

Avadanas range from formulaic tales that simply dramatize the workings of KARMA (ACTION) and the efficacy of FAITH and devotion, to fantastical adventure stories, to the sophisticated art of virtuosi poets. Like modern novels and short stories, avadanas offer something for every taste. The avadana literature draws on diverse sources: actual lives, the biography of the Buddha and tales of his former births (JATAKA), biographical accounts in the canonical literature, and the vast, pan-Indian store of secular story-literature. Indian Buddhists composed avadanas from about the second century B.C.E. to the thirteenth century C.E. Thereafter, Buddhists elsewhere in Asia continued the tradition.

In India and beyond, avadana stories also inspired narrative painting.

Structurally, avadanas, like jatakas (which came to be considered a subcategory of avadana), consist of a story of the present (pratyutpannavastu), a story of the past (atl
tavastu), and a juncture (samavadhana) in which the narrator, always the Buddha or another enlightened saint, identifies characters in the past as former births of characters in the present. For the story of the past, some avadanas substitute a prediction (vyakaran-a) of the protagonist's spiritual destiny.

The earliest avadanas, like the Apadana and the Sthavl ravadana (ca. second century B.C.E.), are autobiographical narratives in verse attributed to the Buddha's immediate disciples. In contrast, biographical anthologies from the first to the fourth centuries C.E.,
such as the AVADANAS´ATAKA (A Hundred Glorious Deeds), Karmas´ataka (A Hundred Karma Tales), and DIVYAVADANA (Heavenly Exploits), are in mixed prose and verse and feature a much wider range of characters. The Avadanas´ataka stories are brief and formulaic, those of the Karmas´ataka less so, and those of the Divyavadana the most complex and diverse. The sixthto eighth-century Pali commentaries (at-t-hakatha) and several collections preserved only in Chinese contain many avadana and avadana-type stories.

Just as Hindu poets retold stories of heroes from the epics and Puran-as, Buddhist poets retold the lives of their own heroes. The second-century Kumaralata, in his Kalpanaman-d-itika Dr-s-t-antapan˙ kti (A Collection of Parables Ornamented by the Imagination), first adapted the prose-and-verse format to the demands of belles lettres. His successors from the fourth to the eighth centuries, A RYAS´URA, Haribhat-t-a, and Gopadatta, composed ornate poetry (kavya) in the form of bodhisattvavadanamalas (garlands of avadanas concerning the Buddha's previous births). Similarly, the eleventh-century Hindu poet Ks-emendra drew on the MULASARVASTIVADA VINAYA to compose the Bodhisattvavadana-kalpalata, which became important in Nepal and Tibet. The mostly unpublished verse avadanamalas (garlands of avadanas), which constitute a later subgenre, are anonymous works, composed in the style of Hindu Puran-as, that display MAHAYANA influences. Several of these retell stories from earlier sources, some in a distinctively Nepalese idiom.

As scholars increasingly recognize narrative as a mode of knowing distinct from, but in no way inferior to, philosophical discourse, they can look forward to learning much from a literary genre that has played an essential role in Buddhist self-understanding for more than two thousand years.

See Also: Sanskrit, Buddhist Literature In Bibliography

Burlingame, Eugene Watson, trans. Buddhist Legends, 3 vols.

Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1921; London:
Pali Text Society, 1979.

Chavannes, Edouard, trans. Cinq cents contes et apologues extraits du Tripitaka chinois, 4 vols. Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1910–1935.

Cutler, Sally Mellick. "The Pali Apadana Collection." Journal of the Pali Text Society 20 (1994): 1–42.

Feer, Léon, trans. Avadana-çataka: Cent légendes bouddhiques.
Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1891.

Handurukande, Ratna, ed. and trans. Five Buddhist Legends in the Campu Style. Bonn, Germany: Indica et Tibetica Verlag, 1984.

Hofinger, Marcel, ed. and trans. Le Congrès du Lac Anavatapta:
Vies de Saints Bouddhiques, Extrait du Vinaya des Mulasarvastivadin Bhais-ajyavastu. Vol. 1: Légendes des Anciens (Sthaviravadana). Vol. 2: Légendes du Bouddha (Buddhavadana).

Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium: Institut Orientaliste and Peeters Press, 1982–1990.

Iwamoto, Yutaka. Bukkyo setsuwa kenkyu josetsu (An Introduction to the Study of Buddhist Legends). Tokyo: Kaimei Shoin, 1978.

Jones, J. J., trans. The Mahavastu, 3 vols. London: Pali Text Society, 1949–1956.

Jones, John Garrett. Tales and Teachings of the Buddha: The Jataka Stories in Relation to the Pali Canon. London: Allen and Unwin, 1979.

Lamotte, Étienne. History of Indian Buddhism, tr. Sara WebbBoin. Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium: Institut Orientaliste and Peeters Press, 1988.

Nakamura, Hajime. Indian Buddhism: A Survey with Bibliographical Notes. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1987.

Pruitt, William, trans. The Commentary on the Verses of the Therl s. Oxford: Pali Text Society, 1998.

Ray, Reginald A. Buddhist Saints in India: A Study in Buddhist Values and Orientations. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Strong, John S. "The Buddhist Avadanists and the Elder Upagupta." Mélanges chinois et bouddhiques 22 (1985): 862–881.

Strong, John S. The Legend and Cult of Upagupta: Sanskrit Buddhism in North India and Southeast Asia. Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 1992.

Takahata, Kanga, ed. Ratnamalavadana: A Garland of Precious Gems or, a Collection of Edifying Tales, Belonging to the Mahayana. Tokyo: Toyo Bunko Oriental Library, 1954.

Tatelman, Joel. "The Trials of Yas´odhara and the Birth of Rahula: A Synopsis of Bhadrakalpavadana II–IX." Buddhist Studies Review 15, no. 2 (1998): 1–42.

Tatelman, Joel, trans. "The Trials of Yas´odhara: The Legend of the Buddha's Wife in the Bhadrakalpavadana." Buddhist Literature 1 (1999): 176–261.

Tatelman, Joel, trans. The Glorious Deeds of Purn-a. Richmond, UK: Curzon, 2000.

Willemen, Charles, trans. The Storehouse of Sundry Valuables.
Berkeley, CA: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, 1994.

Winternitz, Maurice. A History of Indian Literature, 2 vols., tr.

S. Ketkar and H. Kohn. Calcutta: University of Calcutta Press, 1927; New Delhi: Oriental Books Reprint Corporation, 1977.

JOEL TATELMAN

Avada Nas´Ataka

The Avadanas´ataka (A Hundred Glorious Deeds) is an anthology of one hundred biographical stories in Sanskrit from the first to second centuries C.E. The stories are thematically organized into ten "books" that portray the truth of the doctrine of KARMA (ACTION) and the power of religious DANA (GIVING), FAITH, and devotion. An earlier version is preserved in Chinese
(Taisho no. 200).

See also: Avadana; Divyavadana; Jataka

Bagchi, P. C. "A Note on the Avadanas´ataka and Its Chinese Translation." Visvabharati Annals 1 (1945): 56–61.

Fa Chow, trans. "Chuan Tsi Pai Yuan King and the Avadanas´ataka." Visvabharati Annals 1 (1945): 35–55.

Feer, Léon, trans. Avadana-çataka: Cent légendes bouddhiques.
Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1891. Reprint, Amsterdam: APAOriental Press, 1979.

Strong, John S. "The Transforming Gift: An Analysis of Devotional Acts of Offering in Buddhist Avadana Literature." History of Religions 18 (1979): 221–237.

JOEL TATELMAN
AVALOKITES´VARA. See Bodhisattva(s)
AVATAM- SAKA-SU TRA. See Huayan Jing

Awakening Of Faith (Dasheng Qixin Lun)

The Dasheng qixin lun (Treatise on the Awakening of Faith According to the Mahayana) is a Chinese apocryphal composition believed to have been written during the sixth century. The text is important for its appropriation of the TATHAGATAGARBHA, the doctrine of Buddha-nature, into the central teaching of Chinese Buddhist schools such as Huayan and Chan. The Dasheng qixin lun explains how ordinary, deluded beings can attain enlightenment without renouncing this worldly life. The text was reputed to have been written in Sanskrit by AS´VAGHOS-A (Chinese, Maming; first century C.E.) and then translated into Chinese in 550 by the Indian dharma master PARAMARTHA (Chinese, Zhendi; 499–569). However, no Sanskrit version of this text exists, and most scholars accept its indigenous Chinese provenance.

The Dasheng qixin lun is divided into five parts. In part one, the author explains his motives for writing the treatise. In part two, he outlines the significance of his discussion. In part three, he focuses on two aspects of mind to explicate the relationship between enlightenment and ignorance, nirvan-a and sam- sara, or the absolute and the phenomenal. In part four, he enumerates five practices that aid the believer in the awakening and growth of faith, with an emphasis on calmness and insight meditation. In part five, he describes the benefits that result from cultivating the five practices. The content of the Dasheng qixin lun is often summarized as "One Mind, Two Aspects, Three Greatnesses, Four Faiths, and Five Practices."
The composition of the Dasheng qixin lun represents a process of Sinicization of Indian Buddhism. The text seeks to synthesize tathagatagarbha and yogacara philosophies of mind by positing that one mind has two aspects: the absolute aspect, which is the equivalent of the tathagatagarbha, and the phenomenal aspect, which refers to the ALAYAVIJNANA (storehouse consciousness). Since the tathagatagarbha is the underlying ontological matrix upon which the phenomenal aspect of mind is grounded, the latter always has the potential to be transformed into the absolute mind. Ignorance is simply the manifestation of one's defiled modes of consciousness, which do not have distinct characteristics of their own and are not separate from the mind's true essence. To attain enlightenment, one needs only to free oneself from deluded thoughts and cultivate faith in one's inherently pure mind. Enlightenment is accordingly conceptualized as a process in which one fully actualizes one's initial awakening into one's true nature through religious cultivation and meditative practice.

The Dasheng qixin lun has exerted a profound impact on the development of East Asian Buddhism; numerous Buddhist exegetes in China, Korea, and Japan have written commentaries on it and have incorporated its thesis into their systems of thought. The terminology and hermeneutic of the Dasheng qixin lun represent a Chinese shift away from the apophasis of the Madhyamaka teaching of S´U NYATA (EMPTINESS) to the kataphasis of the doctrine of immanent Buddhanature. Its use of the paradigm of ti (essence) and yong
(function) in analyzing the relationship between the abstract and the phenomenal realms also plays an influential role in the Huayan teachings of lishi wuai
(unimpeded interpenetration between principle and phenomena) and shishi wuai (unimpeded interpenetration of all phenomena). Most importantly, through its explicit linkage of tathagatagarbha and alayavijñana, the Dasheng qixin lun succeeds in adapting the tathagatagarbha doctrine to the indigenous Chinese milieu. It assures the Mahayana ideal of universal salvation and affirms the sanctity of life in this world. Its assumption of the inherent purity and enlightenment in the minds of all sentient beings also provides an ontological basis for the Chan school's doctrine of "seeing one's nature and attaining Buddhahood"
(jianxing chengfo).

See also: Apocrypha; Chan School; China; Huayan School

Buswell, Robert E., Jr. The Formation of Ch'an Ideology in China and Korea: The Vajrasamadhi-sutra, a Buddhist Apocryphon. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989.

Buswell, Robert E., Jr., ed. Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1990.

Gregory, Peter N. Tsung-mi and the Sinification of Buddhism.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991.

Hakeda, Yoshito S., trans. and ed. The Awakening of Faith, Attributed to As´vaghos-a. New York: Columbia University Press, 1967.

DING-HWA HSIEH

Ayutthaya

Ayutthaya was a kingdom in what is now Thailand. It was ruled by thirty-six kings between 1350 and 1767. The art of Ayutthaya is typically divided into four phases associated with its major political eras: 1350 to 1488, 1488 to 1628, 1629 to 1733, and 1733 to 1767. The city was destroyed by the Burmese in 1767.

The two most important monasteries of the early periods were Mahathat (erected in 1384 by King Boromaraja I) and Ratchaburana (erected in 1424 by Boromaraja II). Like monasteries in the earlier kingdom of SUKHOTHAI, the alignment of the wihan (assembly hall), prang (tower shaped in Khmer fashion), and ubosot or bot (congregation and ordination hall) followed a single east-west axis. Smaller prangs and wihans were enclosed around the central tower within a rectangular gallery, where a row of buddha images was placed. The main prangs were generally marked halfway up by niches facing each cardinal direction, in each of which was placed a buddha image; each prang was crowned by a metal finial in the shape of a vajra (pronged ritual instrument). Relics, buddha images, and votive tablets were deposited in the prangs' relic chambers. For instance, exquisite gold royal regalia and vessels were found in the deposit of Wat Ratchaburana. Wat Chai Wattabaram, built by King Prasat Thong in 1630, is an example of the later phase of prang structure.

The Sri Lankan bell-shaped chedi popular in Sukhothai was used extensively in Ayutthaya. Notable Ayutthayan features are a higher base, rows of small columns around the railing on the top, and an elongated finial. A good example of this type is Wat Phra Sisanphet, erected in 1491 by King Ramathibodi II.

The only surviving complete late Ayutthayan monastery is Wat Naphramen, built in the middle of the sixteenth century. Its ubosot is rectangular, with thick walls, slit windows, and tall octagonal pillars crowned by lotus capitals. The ceiling is decorated with gold star clusters. The main image placed at the end of the hall is the only remaining large-scale seated and bejeweled bronze Buddha. The base of the ubosot, curved into a boat shape in early Ayutthaya, became straighter in the later phases.

See also: Monastic Architecture; Southeast Asia, Buddhist Art in; Thailand

Boisselier, Jean, and Beurdeley, Jean-Michel. The Heritage of Thai Sculpture. Bangkok, Thailand: Asia Books, 1987.

Woodward, Hiram W., Jr. The Sacred Sculpture of Thailand: The Alexander B. Griswold Collection, The Walters Art Gallery. Bangkok, Thailand: River Books, 1997.

PATTARATORN CHIRAPRAVATI
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Ba Miya N

Located 240 miles northwest of Kabul in present-day Afghanistan, Bamiyan was a point of intersection on the major thoroughfares of antiquity. References to Bamiyan as a religious center can be found in the writings of the Chinese pilgrim to India XUANZANG (ca.

600–664 C.E.). The site ultimately fell into disuse after its annihilation by Genghis Khan in 1222, an act of revenge for his son's death during the siege of the citadel Shahr-i-Zohak, which sits high above the Bamiyan valley. In the eighteenth century, Buddhist images at the site were used for artillery practice by the Mogul emperor Aurangzeb, and in the nineteenth century Bamiyan was explored by British archaeologists. The most extensive research done at Bamiyan was under the auspices of the French.

The trading post of Bamiyan sits in a lush valley beneath the mountains of the Hindu Kush, with a precipitous mountain at its back and an escarpment suitable for carving at its face. This escarpment came to be covered with innumerable grottos carved from the living rock, comprising Buddhist assembly halls, meditation caves, and icon niches. All told they cover at least one mile. Until 2001, there stood within carved niches a monumental fifty-three-meter buddha image at the western end, and a smaller thirty-five-meter buddha at the eastern end. Originally covered with brilliant pigments and gold, these buddha figures left a lasting impression on Xuanzang, as well as on the thirteenth-century Arab geographer Yakut. Both remarked upon the great buddha images of Bamiyan as being without compare elsewhere in the world.

There is debate as to the iconographic identity of the two images. It is generally argued that the smaller buddha figure represented the historical Buddha, S´akyamuni, largely because that is how the image is referenced in most of the chronicles of the times. The larger buddha is thought to have represented the universal buddha Vairocana. Written accounts of this statue as wearing a crown support this possible iconographic identification. This statue, like its smaller counterpart, displayed the drapery patterning that originated in Gandhara. Constructed no later than the sixth century C.E., both images were first carved out of the living rock, then completed using an additive technique employing wooden dowels to attach additional pieces, covered by clay and stucco, and lastly painted. The interior of the image niches were also covered with painted depictions reflecting the syncretic beliefs of the rulers of Bamiyan at the time. Both statues were missing their faces as early as the eighteenth century, with at least one scholar arguing that the faces were once covered by metal plates, which were easily removed.

The colossal buddhas of Bamiyan survived the vicissitudes of the various political changes in the region until March 2001. After issuing an edict against images and idolatry, the reigning Islamic fundamentalist Taliban regime in Afghanistan—after spurning attempts by international organizations to buy or preserve the statues—proceeded to destroy them. Two days of artillery barrages were required to successfully destroy what Aurangzeb had left behind. The niches that protected the buddha images still remain, their outlines forever an echo of what were once the most aweinspiring BUDDHA IMAGES in all of Asia.

See also: Huayan Art; Persecutions

Baker, P. H. B., and Allchin, F. R. Shahr-i Zohak and the History of the Bamiyan Valley, Afghanistan. Oxford: B.A.R., 1991.

Beal, Samuel, trans. Si-yu-ki: Buddhist Records of the Western World, Chinese Accounts of India, Vol. 1. Calcutta: Susil Gupta, 1957.

Flood, Finbarr Barry. "Between Cult and Culture: Bamiyan, Islamic Iconoclasm, and the Museum." Art Bulletin 84, no. 4
(2002): 641–659.

Godard, André, et al. Les antiquités bouddhiques de Bamiyan:
Memoires de la délégation archéologique Française en Afghanistan, Vol. 2. Paris: Éditions Van Oest, 1928.

Klimburg-Salter, Deborah E. The Kingdom of Bamiyan: Buddhist Art and Culture of the Hindu Kush. Naples and Rome: Istituto universitario orientale, Dipartimento di studi asiatici, 1989.

Rowland, Benjamin. The Art of Central Asia. New York: Crown, 1974.

KARIL J. KUCERA
drastically altered the temple's configuration and meaning.

Although Buddhist, the Bayon followed tradition in its merging of regional or ancestral gods with Buddhist and Hindu deities. VIS-N- U is found almost exclusively on the western side of the temple, S´iva more often on the south, and Buddhist imagery on the north and east. The Bayon was the last major Khmer monument to embrace the tradition that gave it birth, destined to wither and die in less than one hundred years. See also: Cambodia; Hinduism and Buddhism; Local Divinities and Buddhism; Southeast Asia, Buddhist Art in

Dufour, Henri. Le Bayon d'Angkor Thom, 2 vols. Paris: Commission archeologique de l'Indochine, 1910–1914.

Dumarçay, Jacques, and Groslier, Bernard-Philippe. Le Bayon.
Paris: École Française d'Extrême-Orient, 1967 and 1973.

ELEANOR MANNIKKA

Bayon

The Bayon is a twelfth-century royal Khmer (Cambodian) temple. One of Southeast Asia's most famous monuments, the Bayon is a densely crowded sandstone temple constructed under King Jayavarman VII (r.

1181–ca. 1220) at Angkor Thom in northwest Cambodia. This pyramid temple, a MAHAYANA site, marked the end of an ancient royal Khmer tradition dominated by Hindu gods.

Axial entrances on all four sides cross through a rectangular outer and inner gallery carved with bas-reliefs that glorify the king's history. On the upper elevation a series of connected structures leads to the massive, round central tower. Its dark interior once housed a large, naga-protected buddha. At its consecration, Jayavarman was symbolically joined to this buddha and imbued with a divine cast in the process. And at his death, the king's ashes would have been placed underneath this image, creating a certain conceptual kinship between the Bayon and a STUPA with its internal relics. The well-known guardian faces on the Bayon's fiftytwo towers wear characteristic choker necklaces and originally stared straight ahead. But when many had their eyes recut to gaze downward, Avalokites´vara became their most likely new identity. These recut eyes were one of several changes during construction that

Bha Vaviveka

Bhavaviveka was a MADHYAMAKA SCHOOL philosopher who lived from perhaps 500 to 570 C.E. His name may have been Bhavya or Bhaviveka, and he may have come from South India. Bhavaviveka's attack on the interpretation of Madhyamaka by Buddhapalita (c.

500 C.E.) led later Tibetans to refer to him as the founder of the Svatantrika-Madhyamaka. Bhavaviveka's works include the Prajñapradl pa (Lamp of Wisdom) on NAGARJUNA, and the Madhyamakahr-dayakarika (Verses on the essence of Madhyamaka) with Tarkajvala (Blaze of Reasoning, an autocommentary), an early encyclopedia of Indian philosophy.

Eckel, Malcolm D. To See the Buddha: A Philosopher's Quest for the Meaning of Emptiness. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992.

Iida, S. Reason and Emptiness: A Study of Logic and Mysticism.
Tokyo: Hokuseido Press, 1980.

Lopez, Donald S., Jr. A Study of Svatantrika. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 1987.

Ruegg, David S. The Literature of the Madhyamaka School of Philosophy in India. Wiesbaden, Germany: Harrassowitz, 1981.

PAUL WILLIAMS

Bianwen

Until the early twentieth century, with the discovery of a cache of important manuscripts at DUNHUANG,
Gansu Province, in the far northwest of China, bianwen (transformation texts) were completely unknown to scholars. Once literary historians became aware of them, however, they soon realized that these texts, which date to the Tang (618–907) and Five Dynasties (907–960) periods, filled a crucial gap in scholarly understanding of the development of Chinese popular literature. They are the earliest substantial specimens of vernacular writing in China, and they represent the earliest examples of prosimetric narratives in Chinese. That is to say, they are the first Chinese texts that alternate sung, declaimed, or intoned verse and spoken prose to advance a narrative.

As such, they had an enormous impact upon virtually all later performing arts (including full-scale operatic drama) and vernacular fiction in China. They also provide vital evidence for the sources of many popular tales of later times, and they embody firsthand data about storytelling in medieval China. Although the bianwen are not, as was once thought, promptbooks used in performance, they bear the marks of derivation from oral literature.

The wen in bianwen means text; the bian component, however, caused tremendous confusion during the first half-century of research on the genre. After intensive investigation involving comparisons with texts written in Sanskrit, Tibetan, and other languages, it has become clear that bian in bianwen refers to transformational manifestations evoked by spiritually powerful individuals (comparable to the Sanskrit terms nirman-a and r-ddhi.) The oral precedents of bianwen utilized picture scrolls as illustrative devices to enhance the performance, and bianwen are closely connected to the artistic genre known as BIANXIANG (TRANSFORMATION TABLEAUX). The earliest bianwen describe Buddhist subjects, but wholly secular themes, both historical and contemporary in nature, were soon added. See also: Chinese, Buddhist Influences on Vernacular Literature in; Entertainment and Performance

Mair, Victor H. T'ang Transformation Texts: A Study of the Buddhist Contribution to the Rise of Vernacular Fiction and Drama in China. Cambridge, MA: Council of East Asian Studies, Harvard University, 1989.

Pai, Hua-wen. "What Is 'pien-wen'?" tr. Victor H. Mair. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 44, no. 2 (1984): 493–514.

VICTOR H. MAIR

Bianxiang (Transformation Tableaux)

It is commonly assumed that bianxiang (transformation tableaux) are the matching illustrations for BIANWEN (transformation texts), a genre of popular Buddhist narratives that was discovered at DUNHUANG. There are, indeed, many similarities. For example, bianxiang are also associated with the cave temples of Dunhuang, both genres flourished during the medieval period, both were intended for the portrayal of Buddhist themes, and, above all, the bian of both genre names means "transformation" or "transformational manifestation." There are, however, significant differences. Whereas bianwen sometimes dealt with secular subjects, bianxiang are exclusively religious in nature. Furthermore, while bianwen are folkish in nature, bianxiang are often the products of high culture. Finally, whereas evidence for bianwen is restricted almost exclusively to the manuscripts from Dunhuang, evidence (largely textual) for bianxiang is related to localities spread over the length and breadth of China.

Bianxiang are also frequently confused with MAN--
D-ALA. Here, too, there are similarities and differences, but the situation is more complex than with bianwen,
despite the fact that bianxiang and man-d-ala are both artistic genres, since bianxiang may share features of man-d-ala and vice versa. Basically, whereas bianxiang connotes a narrative moment, event, place, or sequence of moments, events, or places pictorially or sculpturally represented, a man-d-ala is an object or icon, usually having a circular arrangement, intended to serve as the focus of worship or meditation.

The chief subjects of bianxiang are paradise scenes
(especially the Western Pure Land), depictions of the contents of famous sutras (particularly the LOTUS SU -
TRA), incidents from the life of the Buddha (especially his NIRVAN-A), deeds of various BODHISATTVAS (particularly Avalokites´vara) and ARHATS (e.g., S´ARIPUTRA),
and so forth. Bianxiang were favored by the adherents of the CHAN SCHOOL, and the tradition of painting bianxiang was transmitted to Japan, where it became an integral part of Buddhist popular culture. Vivid records of the commissioning and actual painting of bianxiang have been preserved, and they afford valuable insights into the motivation and organization of Buddhist devotees in medieval China.

See also: Hells, Images of; Pure Land Art; Sutra Illustrations
Bibliography Mair, Victor H. "Records of Transformation Tableaux (pienhsiang)." T'oung Pao 72, no. 3 (1986): 3–43.

Wu Hung. "What Is Bianxiang?—On the Relationship between Dunhuang Art and Dunhuang Literature." Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 52, no. 1 (1992): 111–192.

VICTOR H. MAIR

Biographies Of Eminent Monks (Gaoseng Zhuan)

"Biographies of Eminent Monks" is a genre of Chinese Buddhist writing consisting primarily of four biographical collections, all compiled by monks: (1) Biographies of Eminent Monks (Gaoseng zhuan), completed around 530 by Huijiao (497–554); (2) Further Biographies of Eminent Monks (Xu gaoseng zhuan), first draft completed in approximately 650 by DAOXUAN (596–667) with later additions in the 660s; (3) Biographies of Eminent Monks [Compiled] during the Song Dynasty (Song gaoseng zhuan), completed in 982 by ZANNING (919–1001); and (4) Biographies of Eminent Monks [Compiled] during the Ming Dynasty (Ming gaoseng zhuan), completed in 1617 by Ruxing (d.u.). Although there is some overlap in time between collections, in general each picks up where the last left off. Daoxuan, for example, wrote mostly on monks who lived after Huijiao's collection was completed.

Of the four books, Huijiao's has been the most influential and the most admired for its style. It has been one of the most widely read historical works by any Chinese monk.

Huijiao's Biographies of Eminent Monks established the format for the later versions. He divided the 275 biographies contained in his collection into ten categories: (1) "Translators"; (2) "Exegetes"; (3) "Divine Wonders," devoted to wonder-workers; (4) "Practitioners of Meditation"; (5) "Elucidators of the Regulations," devoted to scholars of the VINAYA or monastic rules; (6) "Those who Sacrificed Themselves," for monks who sacrificed their bodies in acts of charity or devotion; (7) "Chanters of Scriptures";
(8) "Benefactors," for monks who solicited funds for Buddhist construction and other enterprises; (9) "Hymnodists," devoted to monks skilled in intoning liturgy; and (10) "Proselytizers." At the end of each section, Huijiao appended a treatise in which he discusses the theme of the section. In his treatise on translators, Huijiao gives a brief history of the transmission of Buddhist scriptures and discusses the difficulties of translating Indian texts into Chinese. An introduction to the book lists previous collections of monastic biographies, and explains how Huijiao distinguished his work from them.

Subsequent works followed Huijiao's format with some changes. Most notably, Daoxuan combined the sections for hymnodists and proselytizers, and then added a section for "Protectors of the Dharma," devoted to monks who defended Buddhism from its enemies at court and elsewhere.

The compilers of the collections followed Chinese historiographical custom in the composition of their biographies. In general, they relied on previous sources, directly quoting them without attribution. Major sources included the texts of stele inscriptions, usually composed soon after a monk's death by a local literatus at the request of the monk's followers.

The compilers also drew on other literary accounts, including prefaces to works written by the monk in question, and collections of miracle stories; they occasionally based biographies on oral traditions concerning particular monks. In most cases, the original sources for the biographies are lost, but occasionally it is possible to reconstruct the sources for biographies in the later collections. As the title suggests, criterion for inclusion was based on a monk's "eminence," or rank. With a few exceptions, only monks regarded by the compilers as admirable are accorded biographies.

See Also: Biography; History Bibliography

Kieschnick, John. The Eminent Monk: Buddhist Ideals in Medieval Chinese Hagiography. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997.

Wright, Arthur F. "Biography and Hagiography: Hui-chiao's Lives of Eminent Monks." In Studies in Chinese Buddhism, ed. Robert M. Somers. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1990.

JOHN KIESCHNICK

Biography

Many religious traditions develop elaborate narratives about the life of the founding figure. Such sacred biographies often include accounts of mythic events and miracles that underscore the virtues and attainments of the founder. These narratives give shape to the history and legitimate the social institutions of emergent religious traditions. Buddhism has elaborated and embellished its biographical emphasis to create a sacred biography not only of the Buddha's final life but also of his earlier lives, the lives of his disciples, the lives of other enlightened beings, and ultimately the lives of all SENTIENT BEINGS who witness the Buddha's teaching. Biography may be understood as a core concept of the Buddhist tradition; it is a cultural idiom that continues to engender religious meaning in practice, doctrine, and belief. The importance of the Buddha's biography lies in the ways in which it has shaped the tradition in the centuries following his death (Reynolds). Indeed, Buddhist concern with life stories has generated biographical genres and modes of religious behavior that are articulated in oral narratives, classical and vernacular texts, visual art, and ritual, as well as in the cultural histories of Buddhist polities in much of Asia. The remainder of this entry describes some of the ways in which sacred biography has shaped the development of Buddhism in diverse cultural contexts.

Each of the major branches of Buddhism offers a different version of the life of the Buddha; these biographies are informed by doctrines specific to each school or lineage. Themes in the biographies of Gautama may illustrate not only his unique spiritual achievements, but also characteristics attributed to buddhas in general. In addition, biographical themes in the life or lives of the Buddha are often incorporated into the biographical narratives of other remarkable individuals, such as ARHATS, BODHISATTVAS,
or eminent monks.

There are differing versions of the Buddha's biography, and scholars cannot identify a single or "original" source in Buddhist literature. After his death, accounts of the Buddha's life and teaching were transmitted orally for several centuries. Gradually, the Buddha's message became codified and committed to written texts that eventually came to be known as the Buddhist CANON. Numerous passages in the Buddhist sutras and VINAYA refer to events and episodes of the Buddha's life, and there are many texts throughout the Buddhist tradition that describe mythic events and sacred qualities of the Buddha. The biographies that eventually emerged were initially not systematized or even organized in temporal sequence. It took some five centuries for the Buddha's biographical accounts to become standardized and formalized.

The Buddha'S Final Life

Certain mythic episodes are salient in many accounts of the Buddha's life, despite the diversity in the stories that make up the Buddha's biography. According to these accounts, Siddhartha's conception was immaculate, as a white elephant entered his mother's womb.

His birth was painless, and, taking his first strides, he announced that this was his final and culminating life. Brahmin astrologers whom his father had consulted prophesied that the child would become either a world conqueror (cakravartin) who rules over a social and political universe, or a buddha who transcends ordinary reality through spiritual enlightenment. Raised in luxury and tutored in the seclusion of the palace, Siddhartha eventually married Yas´odhara and fathered a son, RAHULA. Curious about life outside the palace, Siddhartha encountered the inescapable human condition of old age, sickness, and death. This insight led him to discover that human existence is conditioned by suffering. Having fulfilled his obligations as a householder, he resolved to leave his indulgent life and renounce society. He became a wandering mendicant and apprenticed himself to several gurus. Eventually, he realized that extreme asceticism does not lead to enlightenment, and he determined to follow a middle path between indulgence and asceticism. Like other buddhas before him, he resolved to meditate under a bodhi tree until he achieved NIRVAN-A. While he was seated in meditation, MARA, the Evil One, challenged him in vain with the promise of unlimited power, with attacks by his mighty army, and, finally, with his sensuous daughters. Rebuffing each offer, Gautama gained three knowledges (traividya; Pali, tevijja) on his path to enlightenment: He remembered all his past lives, he came to understand that the nature of one's existence is the result of past action, and finally, he gained complete knowledge of his liberation. The Buddha hesitated to preach, however, until the intervention of a god (deva) persuaded him to teach the dharma and to reveal his model for practice and the path to nirvan-a for others to follow.

In the course of a ministry that lasted more than forty years, the Buddha established the monastic order
(SAN˙ GHA) and preached to a growing early Buddhist community. A prominent lay supporter, King Bimbisara, donated land to establish the first permanent residence for monks. When the Buddha passed away and left the cycle of REBIRTH (SAM- SARA), he was given the funerary rites of a world conqueror, and his relics were enshrined throughout the Buddhist world. His disciples convened the first Buddhist Council shortly after his death to compile his teachings, and the Buddhist tradition began to take shape in the transition from the founder's charismatic life to the emerging institutional history and doctrinal developments. For instance, AS´OKA's cult of relics helped promote the institutionalization of the Theravada monastic lineage. Doctrinal interpretations of the bodies of the Buddha that are specific to the major branches of the tradition also correspond to their respective interpretations of the Buddha's sacred biography.

The story of the Buddha's culminating life in sam- sara illustrates central beliefs and doctrines of Buddhism, including Gautama's model for and path to enlightenment, his message, and the establishment of Buddhist institutions. The story also legitimates the veneration of the Buddha's relics and the STUPAS that enshrine them, as well as the veneration of icons and images that embody his biography. These sacred objects are closely associated with the Buddha's biography and establish his presence in rituals. They remind Buddhists of the Buddha's enlightenment and of his absence from the cycle of rebirth.

The Jataka Tradition

Central motifs of the sacred biography, especially the Buddha's remembrance of past lives in visions that culminated in his enlightenment, eventually developed into an elaborate genre of tales called JATAKA, which are stories of the Buddha's former lives. In the Pali tradition, jataka attained semicanonical status in compilations containing up to 550 such stories that recount the perfection of virtues by the buddha-to-be. These tales about the Buddha's past lives as a king, ascetic, monkey, or elephant do not follow a systematized sequence, but they do share a similar narrative structure. Generally, each story opens with a frame in the narrative present, namely the final life of Gautama Buddha, and identifies the place and occasion for the story about a past rebirth about to be recounted. The account then unfolds events in a former rebirth of the Buddha and concludes by explaining the outcome according to universal laws of Buddhist causality. The story of the former life becomes the dramatic stage upon which the consequences of moral action are illustrated. Jataka stories generally conclude by returning to the time of the Buddha's final life and identifying companions of the Buddha with dramatis personae in the story just recounted.

Perhaps the best-known jataka in the THERAVADA
world is the Vessantara Jataka, in which the buddhato-be, in his life as Prince Vessantara (Sanskrit, VIS´VANTARA), perfects the virtue of generosity (dana).

Vessantara gives away everything a king or householder might value: his prosperity, power, home, and even his family, only to have it all restored at the conclusion of the tale.

Jataka tales figure prominently in a variety of ways in Buddhist cultures; they appear in temple paintings, children's stories, movie billboards and, most recently, comic books. They offer abundant material for religious education. Central motifs in the biographies of the Buddha elucidate moral principles, values, and ethics, and certain well-known jataka tales serve a didactic purpose in teaching younger generations about the tradition. Jatakas are salient across Buddhist communities and the themes they recount readily resonate with other aspects of religious knowledge and practice.

As such, recounting certain jataka stories in public sermons or even representing them in paintings can serve as commentary on current social and political issues. Stories about the Buddha's former lives are also a form of entertainment. In Burma, for example, these stories have traditionally been the subject of popular theatrical performances that continue through the night.

Cultural Contexts Of The Biographical Genre

In visual art, biographical references can be found in Buddhist architecture, in sculptures and icons of the Buddha, and in the visual narratives of paintings and stone carvings. Paintings of jataka stories can be seen along walkways in monastery grounds and along the staircases leading to pilgrimage sites. Jataka paintings also often decorate the inner spaces of Buddhist temples. Certain hand gestures (MUDRA) or poses displayed in BUDDHA IMAGES refer to particular moments in his life, such as when he touched the earth as witness to his meritorious deeds at the time of his enlightenment or when he reclined at the moment of his departure from the cycle of rebirth. At BOROBUDUR in Java, a magnificent MAHAYANA Buddhist stupa from the seventh to the ninth century C.E., carved stone plates along the meditation path depict jataka scenes that have been "read" by scholars in much the same way one would read a textual narrative. Whatever the initial motivation for the creation of visual portrayals of events from the Buddha's biographies, such images serve as objects of meditation, contemplation, and ritual reminders of the Buddha.

Many Buddhist rituals invoke salient idioms from the Buddha's biography. For example, Burmese Buddhists, especially the Shan people, celebrate a boy's temporary initiation as a novice with a ritual reenactment of Siddhartha's splendorous life and departure from the palace. In Thailand, stories of the Buddha's life as Vessantara are chanted on ritual occasions and at the behest of devout lay patrons. Images of the Buddha are consecrated through an eye-opening ceremony, and a deferential protocol of behavior is required in front of consecrated images; one behaves as if one were in the Buddha's presence. Lastly, pilgrimages are undertaken to sites that commemorate episodes of the Buddha's life, as well as places that contain relics of the Buddha, such as BODH GAYA in northeast India, the site of the Buddha's enlightenment.

Biographies of the Buddha also give voice to local interpretations, and the Buddhist biographical genre includes numerous apocryphal jataka stories. Countless stories about the Buddha's many lives enrich the biographical idiom in local Buddhist traditions, chronicles, myths, and religious sites, thereby linking persons and places with the Buddha's pristine early community. One way this occurs is through relating universal biographical themes to particular local features. For example, the colossal Burmese Mahamuni was constructed, according to local myth, in the Buddha's likeness, and it is said to have been enlivened by him during a visit to the region now known as Arakan. Stories like this serve to legitimate not only the particular image, but, more significantly, all of its royal patrons and protectors through Burmese dynastic history. The Mahamuni complex further links the geographical and cultural periphery of lower Burma to central Buddhist concepts in the Buddha's biography (Schober). In the Theravada tradition, apocryphal stories, local traditions, and peripheral locations are thus brought together to construct and perpetuate biographical extensions of the Buddha's lives.

In the traditions of Mahayana and VAJRAYANA Buddhism, we find many life stories of other buddhas, bodhisattvas, and embodiments of enlightenment from the past, present, and even future. Such an expansion of the biographical genre made it possible to integrate preexisting religious and cultural values into Buddhist belief systems. In China, for example, Buddhist BIOGRAPHIES OF EMINENT MONKS (GAOSENG ZHUAN) are informed by biographical conventions borrowed from the indigenous Confucian tradition. Like their counterparts in other branches of Buddhism, biographies of eminent Chinese monks take up familiar themes (Kieschnick). Asceticism, miracle working, healing, and scholarship commonly figure in biographies of eminent monks to underscore how their lives emulate and perpetuate extraordinary events in the biography of the Buddha. Such stories emphasize links between teachers and their disciples in order to construct a lineage that, at least in principle, is believed to establish a historical connection to the idealized time of the Buddha. Biographies of famous monks also commonly recount miracles associated with relics or they describe extraordinary practices with which charismatic monks have been credited.

In this way, Buddhist sacred biography is a genre that seeks to demonstrate that the accomplishments that eminent monks achieve in later periods share features in common with the words and acts of the founder of Buddhism. Buddhist sacred biography thus locates the Buddha's life story with specific Buddhist communities. By linking the universal with geographic peripheries and particular cultures, Buddhist biography engages the religious imagination of Buddhists and contributes to the continuing vitality of the tradition.

See also: Buddha, Life of the, in Art; Jataka, Illustrations of

Kieschnick, John. The Eminent Monk: Buddhist Ideals in Medieval Chinese Hagiography. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997.

Reynolds, Frank E. "The Many Lives of the Buddha." In The Biographical Process: Studies in the History and Psychology of Religion, ed. Frank E. Reynolds and Donald Capps. The Hague, Netherlands: Mouton, 1976.

Schober, Juliane, ed. Sacred Biography in the Buddhist Traditions of South and Southeast Asia. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997.

JULIANE SCHOBER

Bka' Brgyud (Kagyu)

Bka' brgyud (pronounced Kagyu) may be translated as "oral lineage" or "lineage of the Buddha's word." Many traditions of Tibetan Buddhism use the term bka'
brgyud to describe the successive oral transmission, and therefore authenticity, of their teachings. The name Bka' brgyud, however, most commonly refers to the Mar pa Bka' brgyud (the oral lineage of Mar pa),
a stream of tantric Buddhist instructions and meditation practices initially brought to Tibet from India by the Tibetan translator MAR PA (MARPA) in the eleventh century. Although the Bka' brgyud subsequently developed into a complex structure of autonomous subsects and branch schools, later Western writings tended to describe it as one of four sects of Tibetan Buddhism, to be distinguished from the RNYING MA (NYINGMA),
SA SKYA (SAKYA), and DGE LUGS (GELUK). Another Tibetan typology of tantric traditions enumerates the Mar pa Bka' brgyud as one of eight streams of tantric instruction, the so-called sgrub brgyud shing rta chen po brgyad (eight great chariot-like lineages of achievement), which includes traditions such as the Rnying ma, the Bka' gdams of Atisha, and the Gcod instructions of MA GCIG LAB SGRON (MACIG LAPDON). Some Tibetan historians have referred to the lineage stemming from Mar pa with the near homonym Dkar brgyud (pronounced Kargyu), which means "white lineage," describing the white cotton robes worn by mendicant yogins of this tradition, and stressing their commitment to intensive meditation practice.

Each of the various Bka' brgyud subsects trace their lineage back to the primordial tantric buddha Vajradhara, who is considered an incontrovertible source of authentic Buddhist instruction. According to traditional accounts, the Indian MAHA SIDDHA (great adept)
Tilopa (988–1069) received visionary instructions from Vajradhara, later passing them on to his principal disciple, the Bengali scholar and adept NAROPA
(1016–1100). The latter transmitted his chief instructions (codified as the Na ro chos drug, or the Six Doctrines of Naropa) to Mar pa. Mar pa returned to Tibet, where he translated, arranged, and disseminated these practices, together with those of the meditational system of MAHAMUDRA, most famously to his yogin disciple MI LA RAS PA (Milarepa; 1028/40–1111/23). These early figures—the buddha Vajradhara, the Indians Tilopa and Naropa, and their Tibetan successors Mar pa and Mi la ras pa—form the earliest common segment of the Bka' brgyud lineage, a line of individuals largely removed from an institutionalized monastic setting. One of Mi la ras pa's foremost disciples, the physician-monk Sgam po pa Bsod nams rin chen (1079–1153), merged the instructions he received from this lineage with the monasticism and systematic exegetical approach he learned during his earlier training under masters of the Bka' gdams sect. Sgam po pa, therefore, appears to have spearheaded the true institutionalization of the Bka' brgyud, founding an important monastery and retreat center near his homeland in the southern Tibetan region of Dwags po.

For this reason, the many subsequent branches of the Bka' brgyud are also collectively known as the Dwags po Bka' brgyud.

The Bka' brgyud later split into numerous divisions, known in Tibetan as the four major and eight minor Bka' brgyud subsects (Bka' brgyud che bzhi chung brgyad), where the terms major and minor carry neither quantitative nor qualitative overtones, but rather indicate a relative proximity to the master Sgam po pa and his nephew Dwags po Sgom tshul (1116–1169).

The four major Bka' brgyud subsects follow from the direct disciples of these two masters. These include:

1. The Karma Bka' brgyud, also known as the Karma Kam˙ tshang, which is directed by the Karma pa hierarchs and originated with the first Karma pa Dus gsum mkhyen pa (1110–1193). This sect held great political power in Tibet from the late fifteenth to early seventeenth centuries and continues to be one of the most active among the four, especially in Eastern Tibet and in exile.
2. The Tshal pa Bka' brgyud, which originated with Zhang tshal pa Brtson grus grags pa (1123–1193).
3. The 'Ba' rom Bka' brgyud, which originated with
   'Ba' rom Dar ma dbang phyug (1127–1199) and forged early ties with the Tangut and Mongol Courts.
4. The Phag gru Bka' brgyud, which originated with the great master Phag mo gru pa Rdo rje rgyal po
   (1110–1170), who established a seat at Gdan sa thil Monastery in Central Tibet. This monastery, together with an ancestral home in nearby Rtses thang, became the center of the powerful ruling Phag mo gru family during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

The incipience of the eight lesser Bka' brgyud subsects is traced back to the disciples of Phag mo gru pa Rdo rje rgyal po. These include:

1. The 'Bri gung Bka' brgyud, which originated with 'Bri gung 'Jigs rten mgon po (1143–1217)
   and held great political influence during the thirteenth century.
2. The Stag lung Bka' brgyud, which originated with Stag lung thang pa Bkra shis dpal (1142–1210).
3. The Gling ras Bka' brgyud, which originated with Gling rje ras pa Padma rdo rje (1128–1288) and later became the 'Brug pa Bka' brgyud under his disciple Gtsang pa rgya ras Ye shes rdo rje
   (1161–1211). The latter subsect rose to prominence under royal patronage in Bhutan.
4. The G.ya' bzang Bka' brgyud, which originated with Zwa ra ba Skal ldan ye shes seng ge (d. 1207).
5. The Khro phu Bka' brgyud, which originated with Rgya tsha (1118–1195), Kun ldan ras pa
   (1148–1217), and their nephew Khro phu lotsava Byams pa dpal (1173–1228).
6. The Shug gseb Bka' brgyud, which originated with Gyer sgom Tshul khrims seng ge (1144–1204).
7. The Yel pa Bka' brgyud, which originated with Ye shes brtsegs pa (d.u.).
8. The Smar tshang Bka' brgyud, which originated with Smar pa grub thob Shes rab seng ge (d.u.).

Many of these subsects have since died out as independent institutional systems. A few, such as the Karma Bka' brgyud, 'Bri gung Bka' brgyud, and 'Brug pa Bka' brgyud, continue to play an important role in the religious lives of Tibetan Buddhists inside Tibet, across the Himalayan regions, and in Europe and the Americas since the Tibetan exile during the latter half of the twentieth century.

See Also: Tibet Bibliography

Guenther, Herbert V., trans. The Life and Teaching of Naropa.
Boston and London: Shambhala, 1986.

Gyaltsen, Khenpo Könchok, trans. The Great Kagyu Masters:
The Golden Lineage Treasury. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 1990.

Lhalungpa, Lobsang P., trans. The Life of Milarepa. New York:
Dutton, 1977. Reprint, Boston: Shambhala, 1984.

Richardson, Hugh. "The Karma-pa Sect: A Historical Note."
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1958): 139–164 and (1959): 1–18. Reprinted in High Peaks, Pure Earth: Collected Writings on Tibetan History and Culture, ed. Michael Aris. London: Serindia, 1998.

Smith, E. Gene. "Golden Rosaries of the Bka' brgyud Schools."
In Dkar brgyud gser 'phreng: A Golden Rosary of Lives of Eminent Gurus, compiled by Mon-rtse-pa Kun-dga'-dpal-ldan and ed. Kun-dga'-brug-dpal. Leh, India: Sonam W.

Tashigang, 1970. Reprinted in Among Tibetan Texts, ed. Kurtis R. Schaefer. Boston: Wisdom, 2001.

Torricelli, Fabrizio, and, Naga, Sangye T., trans. The Life of the Mahasiddha Tilopa. Dharamsala, India: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1995.

Trungpa, Chögyam, and the Nalanda Translation Committee, trans. The Rain of Wisdom. Boston: Shambhala, 1980.

Trungpa, Chögyam, and the Nalanda Translation Committee, trans. The Life of Marpa the Translator. Boston: Shambhala, 1986.

ANDREW QUINTMAN

Bodh Gaya

The Buddha attained complete and perfect enlightenment while seated on the diamond throne (vajrasana)
under the bodhi tree at Bodh Gaya. Also called the seat of enlightenment (bodhiman-d-a), this throne is said to be located at the earth's navel, the only place on earth that rests directly on the primordial layer of golden earth supporting the cosmos. Only there can the earth support a buddha undergoing full enlightenment without breaking apart. The bodhiman-d-a numbers among the numerous invariables in all buddhas' biographies, which have only three distinguishing features. These are the genus of their bodhi trees, and the places of their births and deaths. Hence, individual buddhas are identified with and by their particular bodhi trees, S´akyamuni's being the pipal tree
(ficus religiosa).

The enlightenment is further ritualized and solemnized by its being embedded in an elaborate sequence of actions, beginning with Siddhartha's decision to abandon physical austerities and to follow the middle way. Despite the site's extent, the ground is thick with sacred traces of the Buddha performing these actions. According to the Chinese pilgrims FAXIAN (ca. 337–418 C.E.) and XUANZANG (ca. 600–664 C.E.), individuals hailing from different places and eras erected STUPAs, pillars, railings, temples, and monasteries to memorialize deeds and places. An example is the jewel-walk, one of the seven spots where the Buddha spent one week of his sevenweek experience of enlightenment.

Though the emperor AS´OKA probably established Bodh Gaya and the bodhi tree as Buddhism's most sacred Buddhist PILGRIMAGE site and object, the earliest extant remains and inscriptions are S´un˙ gan (second to first century B.C.E.). Recording three S´un˙ gan noblewomen's donations to the King's Temple, its railing and the jewel-walk posts, these inscriptions inaugurate an ongoing domestic and foreign tradition of donations and repairs. Early inscriptions also record Sri Lankan, Burmese, and Chinese pilgrimage. For example, Sri Lankan donative activity began with King Meghavarman's building of the Mahabodhi Monastery
(ca. fourth century C.E.) to house Sinhalese monks. Beginning in the eleventh century, the kings of Burma sent several expeditions to repair the temple.

Muslim invaders vandalized Bodh Gaya, probably before the last Burmese repair in 1295. The site remained desolate until the seventeenth century, when a Mahant settled there. Gaining ownership of the site, he salvaged its archaeological remains to build a S´aivate monastery near the MAHABODHI TEMPLE. The nineteenth century saw the resurgence of foreign Buddhist pilgrimage and Burmese reparative expeditions. The latter inspired British interest, resulting in colonial excavation and rebuilding in the 1880s. In 1891 ANAGARIKA DHARMAPALA founded the Mahabodhi Society in Sri Lanka to reestablish Buddhist ownership of the site. A lengthy legal battle ended victoriously in 1949. Today, Bodh Gaya is a thriving center of international Buddhism, attracting millions of Buddhist pilgrims every year from all over the world. Continuing a long-standing tradition, Buddhist sects throughout Asia (Sri Lanka, Burma [Myanmar], Thailand, Vietnam, China, Japan, Tibet, Nepal, and Bhutan) have established flourishing missions and built and repaired monasteries and temples there.

See Also: Bodhi (Awakening) Bibliography

Ahir, D. C. Buddha Gaya through the Ages. Delhi: Sri Satguru, 1994.

Barua, Benimadhab. Gaya and Buddha-Gaya, Vol. 1: Early History of the Holy Land (1931). Varanasi, India: Bhartiya, 1975.

Barua, Dipak Kumar. Buddha Gaya Temple: Its History. Buddha Gaya, India: Buddha Gaya Temple Management Committee, 1975. Second revised edition, 1981.

Beal, Samuel, trans. Si-yu-ki: Buddhist Records of the Western World, Translated from the Chinese of Hiuen Tsiang (A.D. 629). London: Trubner, 1884. Reprint, Delhi: Oriental Books Reprint Corp., 1969.

Bhattacharyya, Tarapada. The Bodhgaya Temple. Calcutta:
Firma K. L. Mukhopadhyah, 1966.

Legge, James, trans. A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms, Being an Account by the Chinese Monk Fa-Hsien of His Travels in India and Ceylon (A.D. 399–414) in Search of the Buddhist Books of Discipline. Oxford: Clarendon, 1886. Reprint, New York: Paragon, 1965.

Leoshko, Janice, ed. Bodhgaya: The Site of Enlightenment. Bombay: Marg, 1988.

LEELA ADITI WOOD

Bodhi (Awakening)

The Sanskrit and Pali word bodhi derives from the Indic root √budh (to awaken, to know). It was rendered into Chinese either by way of transliteration, as puti
(Japanese, bodai; Korean, pori), or by way of translation. The most common among the many Chinese translations are jue (Japanese, kaku; Korean, kak; "to be aware") and dao (Japanese, do; Korean, to; "the way"). The standard Tibetan translation is byang chub (purified and perfected). Those who are attentive to the more literal meaning of the Indic original tend to translate bodhi into English as "awakening," and this is to be recommended. However, it has long been conventional to translate it as "enlightenment," despite the risks of multiple misrepresentation attendant upon the use of so heavily freighted an English word.

General Characterizations Of Bodhi

In the most general terms, bodhi designates the attainment of that ultimate knowledge by virtue of which a being achieves full liberation (vimoks-a, vimukti) or NIRVAN-A. Sometimes the term is understood to refer to the manifold process of awakening by which one comes variously and eventually to know the truth of things
"as they truly are" (yathabhutam- ), thereby enabling liberation from DUH-KHA (SUFFERING) and REBIRTH for both self and others. At other times bodhi is taken to refer to the all-at-once culmination of that process. In the latter sense, the term bodhi may be said to belong to the large category of names for things or events so ultimate as to be essentially ineffable, even inconceivable. However, in the former more processive sense, either as a single term standing alone or as an element in any number of compounds (bodhicitta, bodhisattva,
abhisam- bodhi, bodhicarya, etc.), bodhi is a subject of extensive exposition throughout which it is made clear that the term belongs more to the traditional categories of PATH (marga), practice (carya, pratipatti), or cause
(hetu) than to the category of fruition or transcendent effect (phala). Thus, despite a common tendency in scholarship to regard bodhi as a synonym for nirvan-a, vimoks-a, and so on, it is best to treat bodhi as analytically distinct in meaning from the various terms for the result or consequence of practice.

Although the term bodhi often refers to the liberating knowledge specifically of BUDDHAS (awakened ones), it is not reserved for that use alone; bodhi is also ascribed to other and lesser kinds of liberated beings, like the ARHAT. When the full awakening of a buddha is particularly or exclusively intended, it is common to use the superlative form, ANUTTARASAMYAKSAM- BODHI
(COMPLETE, PERFECT AWAKENING). In East Asian Buddhist discourse, particularly in the CHAN SCHOOL (Japanese, Zen), one encounters other terms (e.g., Chinese, wu; Japanese, satori) that are also translated as
"awakening" or "enlightenment." These other terms are perhaps related in meaning to bodhi, but they were very seldom used actually to translate the Indic word, are not admitted to be precisely synonymous with it, and in their common usages notably lack its sense of ultimacy or finality. They refer rather to certain moments or transient phases of the processes of realization arising in the course of contemplative practice. As such they are the focus of much dispute over their purportedly "sudden" or "gradual" occurrence.

Traditional accounts of bodhi found in or derived from South Asian sources are often connected to accounts of S´akyamuni's own liberating knowledge, attained in his thirty-fifth year, in the final watch of his first night "beneath the bodhi tree." He is said then to have achieved, in a climax to eons of cultivation extending through innumerable past lives, the ultimate knowledge (vidya) or ABHIJNA (HIGHER KNOWLEDGES)—that is, knowledge of the extinction of the residual impurities (asravaks-ayajñana; literally, "oozings" or "cankers") of sensual desire (kama), becoming (bhava), views (dr-s-t-i), and ignorance (avidya).

This extinguishing or purgative knowledge arises precisely in the immediate verification of the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS—that is, in the intuitive confirmation
(abhisamaya) of the truth of duh-kha (suffering), the truth of the origin (samudaya) of suffering in craving
(tr-s-n-a) and ignorance (avidya), the truth of the cessation (nirodha) of suffering, and the truth of the path
(marga) leading to the cessation of suffering. To the limited and questionable extent that one can conceive of bodhi as an experience, these knowings or extinctions are, so to speak, the content or object of S´akyamuni's experience of awakening, and the four noble truths are what it was that he awakened to. We may note in this classical account of bodhi the convergence of two modes of soteriological discourse—a discourse of purgation or purification signaled by the use of terms like eradication (ks-aya) and canker (asrava), and a discourse of veridical cognition, exemplified by such terms as knowledge (vidya) and abhijña. Bodhi is thus shown to be, at once, a cleansing and a gnosis, an understanding that purifies and a purification that illuminates.

The more systematic or scholastic traditions of Buddhism commonly expound bodhi in terms of its constituent factors (bodhipaks-a, bodhipaks-ikadharma).

These, of course, are components of awakening in the sense of an extended process or path rather than in the sense of a single, unitary culmination of a path. There are thirty-seven such factors, grouped in seven somewhat overlapping categories. The four "foundations of MINDFULNESS" (smr-tyupasthana) are mindfulness or analytical meditative awareness of the body (kaya), of feelings (vedana), of consciousness (vijñana), and of mind-objects (dharma). The four "correct eliminations" (samyakprahan-a) or "correct exertions"
(samyakpradhana) are the striving to eliminate evil that has already arisen, to prevent future evil, to produce future good, and to increase good that has already arisen. The four "bases of meditative power" (r-ddhipada) are aspiration (chanda), strength (vl rya), composure of mind (citta), and scrutiny (ml mam- sa). The five "faculties" (indriya) are FAITH (s´raddha), energy
(vl rya), mindfulness (smr-ti), concentration (samadhi),
and PRAJNA (WISDOM). The five "powers" (bala) are five different degrees of the five faculties ranging from the lowest degree sufficient to be simply a follower of the Buddha, through the higher degrees necessary to achieve the higher degrees of sainthood: status as a stream winner (´rota s panna), a once-returner (sakr-dagamin), a nonreturner (anagamin), and an arhat. The seven "limbs of awakening" (bodhyan˙ ga) are memory (smr-ti), investigation of teaching (dharmapravicaya), energy (vl rya), rapture (prl ti),
serenity (pras´rabdhi), concentration (samadhi), and equanimity (upeks-a). The final eight factors are the components of the noble eightfold path.

So manifold and complex a characterization of bodhi, as a process comprising multiple parts, serves to underscore the fact that awakening is clearly not an end divorced from its means, nor a realization separate from practice; rather it is the sum and the perfection of practice. This fact is often explicitly acknowledged in Buddhism—in assertions of the unity of realization and practice or in the variously formulated insistence that practice is essential to realization. Such claims must be kept in mind as cautions against the temptation to conceive of bodhi as a wholly autonomous, selfgenerated, and entirely transcendent "experience."
Indeed, it could serve even as warrant for banning the very use of modern, largely Western notions of "experience" (pure experience, religious experience, mystical experience, etc.) from all discussions of bodhi or analogous terms. To speak of "the experience of awakening," rather than of, say, the performance or the cultivation of awakening, is to risk reifying the process and, worse still, isolating it from the rest of Buddhism.

Bodhi In The Mahayana

The characterizations of awakening sketched above are common to the whole of Buddhism. Among notions of bodhi that are especially emphasized in MAHAYANA
one must note its conception as an object of noble aspiration. The ideal Mahayana practitioner, the BODHISATTVA, is essentially defined as one who aspires to bodhi, one who dedicates himself to the enactment of bodhi for himself but also and especially for all beings.

This is the sense of the word operative in the term bodhicittotpada, the arousal of BODHICITTA (THOUGHT OF
AWAKENING), a locution rich in conative significance that conveys the affective dimension, the emotive power, of liberating knowledge, as well as its necessary association with the virtue of KARUN-A (COMPASSION).

Also characteristic of Mahayana is a recurrent concern with identifying the source of the capacity for awakening. Is it natural or inculcated? In sixth-century China there appeared a text entitled the AWAKENING OF FAITH (DASHENG QIXIN LUN) that was attributed to AS´VAGHOS-A but was probably a Chinese contribution to the evolving tradition of TATHAGATAGARBHA (matrix or embryo of buddhahood) thought. This text coined the term "original awakening" (benjue), contrasting that with "incipient awakening" (shijue). The former refers to an innate potential awakening, a natural purity of mind (cittaprakr-tivis´uddhi) or underlying radiance of mind (prabhasvaratvam- cittasya),
which enables practice and so engenders the actualization of awakening. The latter refers to the process of actualization itself, by which one advances from the nonawakened state, through seeming and partial awakening, to final awakening. Drawing upon a usage of linguistics, we might speak of the pair as awakening in the mode of competence and awakening in the mode of performance. The notion of a natural enlightenment that abides as a potency in the very sentience of SENTIENT BEINGS (later called buddha-nature) and issues in the gradual enactment of actual awakening stood in contrast to alternative views found in certain traditions of the YOGACARA SCHOOL of Buddhism, according to which awakening is the outcome of the radical transformation of a mind (a´rayapara s vr-tti) that is naturally or inveterately defiled. This notion proved very fruitful throughout East Asian Buddhism but fostered in the Japanese Tendai (Chinese, Tiantai) school an especially powerful and enduring doctrine of ORIGINAL
ENLIGHTENMENT (HONGAKU) that left its mark on nearly all of medieval and early modern Japanese Buddhism. It also had profound ethical implications insofar as the notion of original or natural awakening was commonly invoked, or was said to be invoked, for antinomian or laxist purposes on the grounds that one's originally awakened condition rendered effortful practice otiose.

Comparable to the idea of original awakening, but even stronger and bolder, is the startling claim resonant in much of Chinese, Korean, and Japanese Buddhism that awakening is not merely potentially present in the mundane sentient condition but actually identical with the worst of that condition. This seemingly paradoxical assertion is classically conveyed in the aphorism, "the afflictions (kles´a) are identical with awakening." In conventional theory, bodhi is the eradication of the kles´a (affective hindrances like anger, lust, greed, etc.); the assertion that the kles´a and bodhi are one and the same would therefore seem, at least at first glance, to be not only heterodox but also perverse and self-contradictory. It appears to stand the conventional view of awakening on its head. However, justification for so seemingly outrageous a claim is to be found in the doctrine of S´UNYATA (EMPTINESS), according to which any sentient event or condition, being necessarily empty (´usnya) of self-nature or own being (svabhava), mysteriously incorporates all other sentient events or conditions. Hell entails buddhahood; evil entails good; and vice versa. Thus, even an impulse of lust or hatred harbors the aspiration for awakening, and awakening is not a condition or process that depends upon or consists in the complete extinction of imperfection.

The Sudden/Gradual Issue

The concept of original awakening was also central to Chan discourse about "sudden" (Chinese, dun; Japanese, ton) and "gradual" (Chinese, jian; Japanese, zen) awakening. Here the term for awakening is the Chinese word wu (read in Japanese as satori or go), and, as noted above, wu is to be distinguished from bodhi, although it is not wholly unrelated. The terms sudden awakening (dunwu) and gradual awakening (jianwu)
were, of course, instruments of polemic. Certain Chan traditions criticized others for being gradualist in their understanding and practice of awakening while claiming themselves to be subitist. The former, of course, is a term of disparagement, the latter a term of strong approbation. No school ever itself claimed to be gradualist; all laid claim to sudden awakening. In the eighth century the so-called Southern Chan school, derived from the teachings of the sixth patriarch HUINENG (ca.

638–713), claimed to offer sudden or all-at-once awakening while alleging that the so-called Northern School, derived from the teachings of Shenxiu (ca. 606–706), espoused a gradual or step-by-step, and thus ultimately bogus, awakening. The Northern School, which was actually as subitist as any, died out as a distinct Chan lineage, whereas the Southern School flourished to the point that all post-eighthcentury Chan derives from the Southern School and so adheres de rigueur to the position that true awakening comes suddenly or all at once. In effect this is simply a variation on the theme of original awakening, for the asserted suddenness or all-at-once character of awakening is really just a function of its being, as it were, always and already present in one's very nature as a sentient being. It need not be formed but only acknowledged, and acknowledgement is always all at once. It must be noted, however, that only in the most extreme and eccentric traditions of Chan did the claim of "sudden awakening" ever imply the actual rejection of effortful practice. Instead, such gradual practice was typically held to be necessary, but necessary chiefly as the sequel to a quickening moment of sudden awakening, functioning to extend what was glimpsed in sudden awakening so as to make it permanent, habitual, and mature.

Bodhi As "Enlightenment"

It was noted above that the most common English rendering of bodhi (or wu or satori) is "enlightenment."
There are grounds for such a translation. Some of the earliest usages of the word enlightenment show it to have meant something like spiritual illumination, and spiritual illumination is not so far from "awakening." However, the term enlightenment is also commonly employed in the West to designate an age in European intellectual and cultural history, roughly the eighteenth century, the dominant voices of which were those of philosophers like Voltaire, Condorcet, and Diderot, who all declared the supremacy of reason over faith, and the triumph of science and rational ethics over religion. Such thinkers were harshly dismissive of the kinds of piety, faith, asceticism, and mystical insight that we saw above to be among the components or factors of bodhi. To be sure, the awakening of the Buddha was not a suspension or an abrogation of reason, but neither was it simply an exercise of what Voltaire would have meant by reason.
Better then to use the more literal rendering of "awakening," which also has the advantage of conveying the concrete imagery of calm alertness and clear vision that the Buddhist traditions have always had in mind when speaking of bodhi.

Gethin, Rupert M. L. The Buddhist Path to Awakening: A Study of the Bodhi-Pakkhiya Dhamma, 2nd edition. Oxford: Oneworld, 2001.

Gregory, Peter N., ed. Sudden and Gradual: Approaches to Enlightenment in Chinese Thought. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1987.

Ruegg, David S. Buddha-nature, Mind, and the Problem of Gradualism in Comparative Perspective: On the Transmission and Reception of Buddhism in India and Tibet. London: School of Oriental and African Studies, 1989.

Stone, Jacqueline I. Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1999.

ROBERT M. GIMELLO

Bodhicarya Vata Ra

Bodhicaryavatara (Introduction to the Conduct That Leads to Enlightenment; Byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa) is, with CANDRAKIRTI's seventh-century Madhyamakavatara (Introduction to Madhyamaka),
the most important text integrating Madhyamaka philosophy into the bodhisattva path. The text is structured around meditation on the altruistic "awakening mind" or BODHICITTA (THOUGHT OF AWAKENING) and its development through PARAMITA (PERFECTION). The longest chapter is on PRAJNA (WISDOM) and treats philosophical analysis. Written by S´ANTIDEVA (ca.

685–763), the poem was popular in late Indian Buddhism and has been enormously important in Tibet.

See Also: Bodhisattva(S); Madhyamaka School Bibliography

Brassard, Francis. The Concept of Bodhicitta in S´antideva's Bodhicaryavatara.Albany: State University of New York Press, 2000.

Crosby, Kate, and Skilton, Andrew, trans. S´antideva: The Bodhicaryavatara. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.

Gyatso, Geshe Kelsang. Meaningful to Behold, tr. Tenzin Norbu.

London: Wisdom, 1986.

Wallace, Visna A., and Wallace, B. Allan, trans. A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life(Bodhicaryavatara). New York: Snow Lion, 1997.

Williams, Paul. Altruism and Reality: Studies in the Philosophy of the Bodhicaryavatara. Richmond, UK: Curzon, 1998.

PAUL WILLIAMS

Bodhicitta (Thought Of Awakening)

The English phrase "thought of awakening" is a mechanical rendering of the Indic term bodhicitta. The original term is a compound noun signifying "thought directed at or focused on awakening," "a resolution to seek and/or attain awakening," or "the mind that is (virtually or intrinsically) awakening (itself)." The concept is known in non-Mahayana sources (e.g.,
Abhidharmadl pa, pp. 185–186, 192) and occurs in transitional texts such as the MAHAVASTU, but gains its doctrinal and ritual importance in MAHAYANA and tantric traditions.

Technical Definitions

In its most common denotation the term bodhicitta refers to the resolution to attain BODHI (AWAKENING) in order to liberate all living beings, which defines and motivates the BODHISATTVA's vow. However, even this simple definition entails several layers of meaning and practice. The resolution to attain awakening can be seen as a state of mind or a mental process, but it is also the solemn promise (the vow as verbal act) embodied or expressed in particular ritual utterances, acts, and gestures (recitation of the vows, dedication of merit, etc.). Bodhicitta is also the motivating thought and sentiment behind the spiritual practice or career (carya) of the bodhisattva; as such, it is the defining moment and the moving force behind the course of action that follows and enacts the initial resolution (the first appearance of the thought, known as bodhicittotpada). As moving force and motivation it is also the mental representation of the goal (awakening) and the essential spirit of the practice (a usage sometimes rendered in English as "an awakened attitude"). Finally, the culmination of the intention of the vow and of the subsequent effort in the PATH—that is, awakening itself—may also be regarded as technically bodhicitta.
As a further extension of this usage, the term bodhicitta may also refer to the fundamental source or ground for the resolution, namely, innate enlightenment.

In a narrow psychological sense, bodhicitta is the first conscious formulation of an aspiration: to seek full awakening (buddhahood) in order to lead all SENTIENT BEINGS to liberation from DUH-KHA (SUFFERING).

Conceived as a wish, as an intention that arises or occurs in the mind, the bodhicitta is a sort of decision; but in the traditional Buddhist view of mental culture, feelings and wishes can be fostered or cultivated. Accordingly, the bodhicitta is generally believed to require mental culture and self-cultivation, perhaps as an integral part of the purpose it embodies. The continued cultivation of the intention, the practice or exercise of the thought of awakening, helps develop a series of mental states and behavioral changes that gradually approximate the object of the wish: full awakening as a compassionate buddha or bodhisattva.

Ritual Uses And Meanings

This practice of the thought of awakening begins with a RITUAL enactment, usually as part of the so-called sevenfold supreme worship (saptavidha-anuttarapuja),
which includes, among other things, the rituals of taking the bodhisattva vows and the dedication of merit.

Some Indian authors (e.g., A RYAS´URA and Candragomin) composed their own ritual for the production and adoption of the bodhicitta. In these liturgical settings the bodhicitta appears prominently as the focus of the ritual of the bodhisattva vow, which in many Mahayana liturgies replaced or incorporated earlier rituals for the adoption of the PRECEPTS or rituals preparatory for meditation sessions. Such rituals proliferated in East Asia and Tibet.

Although the model for many Tibetan liturgies was arguably a reworking of ritual elements in the S´iks-asamuccaya and the BODHICARYAVATARA of S´ANTIDEVA (ca. seventh century C.E.), the tradition combined a variety of sources in developing a theology and a liturgy of the thought of awakening. The Thar pa rin po che'i rgyan of Sgam po pa (1079–1153 C.E.) distinguishes the ritual based on S´antideva's teachings from the rituals from the lineage of Dharmakrti Suvarn-advpin of Vijayanagara (fl. ca. 1000 C.E.)—presumably received through ATISHA (982–1054 C.E.).

Most Mahayana traditions consecrate the initial thought as the impetus and hence the most important moment in the bodhisattva's career: the breaking forth of an idea, the aspiration to the good, and a rare and valuable event. This event, in both its internal, psychological form and its ritual, public form is called "giving rise to the thought of awakening," or, "causing the (first) appearance of a thought directed at awakening" ([prathama]-bodhicittotpada). In its most literal and concrete sense, this is the moment when a bodhisattva encounters, or creates the conditions for, the appearance of the earnest wish to attain awakening for the benefit of all sentient beings. In S´antideva's explanation, the vow as expression of bodhicitta is closely associated with the adoption of the precepts of the bodhisattva (bodhisattvasam- vara), which are seen as the means for preserving and cultivating the initial resolution. This close link is recognized in many other ritual plans; for instance, the repentance rites (wuhui,
"five ways to repent") of the TIANTAI SCHOOL follow an ascending hierarchy that is somehow parallel to the sevenfold act of worship but begins with confession (canhui) and culminates with the resolution (fayuan) to seek awakening for the sake of all living beings.

Indian Mahayana scholastic accounts assume for the most part that a concerted and conscious effort to cultivate the bodhicitta by setting out on the path (called prasthanacitta) is necessary for awakening. Nonetheless, the ritual expression of the vow (called
"the thought of the vow," pran-idhicitta), and the adoption of the bodhisattva precepts (sam- vara) in the presence of a spiritual mentor (kalyan-amitra), or before all the buddhas of the universe, is sometimes seen as a guarantee of eventual awakening. Some authors (notably S´antideva in his Bodhicaryavatara) conceive of bodhicitta as a force so potent that it appears to be external to the person's own will, effort, or attention. In this conception, once a person has given rise to the resolution, the bodhicitta is, as it were, awakening itself, present, in manifest or latent form, in that person's mental processes.

Thought Of Awakening As Awakened Thought

We may speak of a historical process whereby the abstract notion or the psychological reality of a resolution became an autonomous spiritual force. The process is already suggested in Mahayana sutras that glorify the bodhicitta as both the sine qua non of Mahayana practice and the essence or substance of awakening: It is a hidden treasure, like a panacea or powerful medicinal herb (see, for example, the
"Maitreyavimoks-a" chapter of the Gan-d-avyuha-sutra).

What may have been a hyperbolic celebration of the bodhicitta, however, soon took the form of a reification or deification of this mental state or sequence of mental states. The thought of awakening is present even if one lacks all virtue, like a jewel hidden in a dung heap; one who gives rise to the thought will be venerated by gods and humans (Bodhicaryavatara). And, in a metaphor chosen as the title for one of the fourteenth Dalai Lama's commentaries, the thought of awakening is like a flash of lightning in the dark night of human delusion. What is more, sutras and s´astras alike agree that the thought of awakening protects from all dangers the person who conceives of it.

Insofar as the bodhicitta is also the starting point for Mahayana practice proper, it is a precondition and a basis for the virtues of a buddha (the buddhadharmas), and hence, impels, as it were, all the positive faculties and states generated in the path. The thought of awakening hence manifests itself throughout the path, in all stages of the bodhisattva's development (Mahayanasutralam- kara, chap. 4, following the Aks-ayamatinirdes´a). The First Bhavanakrama of Kamalas´la states that the foundation (mula) for these virtues, and for the omniscience of a full buddha, is KARUN-A (COMPASSION), but, referring to the Vairocanabhisam- bodhi,
adds that bodhicitta is the generating and impelling cause (hetu) of buddhahood.

Furthermore, insofar as bodhicitta is the mind of awakening, it is a beginning that is an end in itself. To paraphrase Kamalas´la's Second Bhavanakrama, there are two types of bodhicitta, the conventional one of ritual and process, and the absolute one that is both the innate potency to become awakened and the mind that has attained the ultimate goal, awakening itself. The distinction between these two aspects or levels of bodhicitta is perhaps an attempt to account for the difference between the ritual and conventional enactment of a resolution, the spirit of commitment, the magnetic force of an ideal representation, and a sacred presence (awakening itself). Psychologically the idea may reflect a desire to understand how conviction and good intent can exist next to lack of conviction and a desire for what is not virtuous—in short how an ideal can be both a clear and heartfelt conviction and a distant goal.

The distinction between a provisional or conventional thought of awakening (sam- vr-tibodhicitta) and one that is or embodies the ultimate goal (paramarthabodhicitta) plays a central role in tantric conceptions of the "physiology" and "psychology" of ritual and meditation, in India and beyond. For it serves as a link between ritual convention and timeless truth, and between disparate branches of the traditionlinking, for instance, the sutra or paramita aspects of the path with the tantric stages, on the ground that all stages manifest some aspect of bodhicitta. This is arguably the most important function of bodhicitta as an explanatory or apologetic category in path theory and is highlighted in classic lam rim literature (for a contemporary presentation, see Gyatso).

The Thought As Icon

The thought of awakening is also a pivotal concept in Mahayana ethical speculation: In some ways bodhicitta is shorthand for the instinct of empathy and the cultivation of compassion as foundations for Buddhist involvement with SAM- SARA. It epitomizes important dimensions of intentionality, as attitude toward others and attitudes toward self, as well as intention as the direction in which transformative behavior moves.

A term so laden with meanings almost fits naturally as the core around which one could build further ritual tropes, as one can see in relatively early tantras like the Mahavairocana-sutra. The Guhyasamaja-tantra devotes its second chapter to bodhicitta, describing it as the solid core (sara, vajra) of the body, speech, and mind of all the buddhas. Since this ultimate reality is, not surprisingly, the emptiness of all things, the text implicitly builds a bridge between the ethical and ritual life of the practitioner's body, speech, and mind, and both the reality and its sacred embodiment in all buddhas.

Bodhicitta is also a force that empowers the practitioner, and therefore plays an important role in some tantric rites of initiation or CONSECRATION (abhis-eka).

A common homology imagines bodhicitta as masculine potency—UPAYA and the seed of awakening—and prajña as the feminine "lotus-vessel" that receives the bodhicitta. Thus, bodhicitta becomes bindu (the "droplets" of awakening) and hence the semen that stands for the generative power of awakening. Because bodhicitta as bindu or semen represents the male potency of awakened saints, it is not uncommon for a female participant (a yoginl present symbolically or in person)
to be seen as vidya or prajña, whereas bodhicitta stands for upaya. Classical Indian physiology assumed that females also have semen, hence the disciple receiving initiation ingested, symbolically or literally, the sexual fluids of both the guru (male) and the yoginl
(female)
as a way to give rise to the thought of awakeningthus generated, as it were, from the union of mother and father.

Summary Interpretations

The above tapestry shows how the concept of bodhicitta ties together liturgy, systematic theories of awakening and the path, and the foundations of Buddhist ethics.

It is a concept as important for the history of Mahayana ritual as those of the vow (pran-idhana) and the dedication of merit (pun-yaparin-amana). A social history of the concept would include its function as a secure solid ground outside social and sectarian differences: It is, as it were, a thin, but steely thread that links the specifics of ritual and theology with the idea of a timeless and ineffable liberating reality. As a source of authority, bodhicitta is both an inner drive and an untainted reality beyond individual differences.

Theologically, bodhicitta is, in part, a functional equivalent to the family of concepts encompassed by Hindu notions of prasada and Western concepts of grace: Bodhicitta stands for the mystery of the presence of the holy in an imperfect human being who is in need of liberation and imagines it, despite the unlikelihood of the presence of even the mere idea of perfection in such an imperfect being.

See Also: Original Enlightenment (Hongaku) Bibliography

Brassard, Francis. The Concept of Bodhicitta in S´antideva's Bodhicaryavatara. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2000.

Bstan 'dzin rgya mtsho (Tenzin Gyatso, Dalai Lama XIV). A
Flash of Lightning in the Dark of Night: A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, tr. the Padmakara Translation Group.

Boston and London: Shambhala, 1994.

Gyatso, Geshe Kelsang. Essence of Vajrayana: The Highest Yoga Tantra Practice of Heruka Body Man-d-ala. London: Tharpa, 1997.

Khunu Rinpoche. Vast as the Heavens, Deep as the Sea: Verses in Praise of Bodhicitta, tr. G. Sparham. Somerville, MA: Wisdom, 1999.

Kong sprul Blo gros mtha' yas (Lodro Thaye Kongtrul, Jamgon Kongtrul). The Light of Wisdom: The Root Text, Lamrim yeshe nyingpo by Padmasambhava . . . Commentary on the Light of Wisdom by Jamgon Kongtrul the Great. Boston: Shambhala, 1999.

Nanayakkara, S. K. "Bodhicitta." In Encyclopaedia of Buddhism,
Vol. 3, Fasc. 2, ed. G. P. Malalasekera, 1972.

LUIS O. GO´MEZ

Bodhidharma

Within the CHAN SCHOOL or tradition, Bodhidharma (ca. early fifth century) is considered the first patriarch of China, who brought Chan teachings from India to China, and the twenty-eighth patriarch in the transmission of the torch of enlightenment down from S´akyamuni Buddha. Bodhidharma is the subject of countless portraits, where he is represented as an Indian wearing a full beard with rings in his ears and a monk's robe, frequently engaged in the nine years of cross-legged sitting which he was loath to interrupt, even when a prospective disciple cut off his own arm to prove his sincerity. Modern scholars have come to doubt many of the elements in this legendary picture.

Of the ten texts attributed to Bodhidharma, the most authentic is probably an unnamed compilation one can provisionally call the Bodhidharma Anthology. This anthology opens with a biography and an exposition of his teaching, both composed by Tanlin, a sixth-century specialist in the Srl maladevl sim- hanada-sutra (Chinese, Shengman shizi hou jing; Sutra of Queen S´rl mala). Tanlin's biography presents Bodhidharma as the third son of a South Indian king. Of Bodhidharma's route to China, Tanlin says, "He subsequently crossed distant mountains and seas, traveling about propagating the teaching in North China." This more historically feasible Bodhidharma came to North China via Central Asia. Tanlin explains Bodhidharma's teaching as "entrance by principle and entrance by practice" (liru and xingru). "Entrance by principle" involves awakening to the realization that all SENTIENT BEINGS are identical to the true nature (dharmata)—if one abides in "wall examining" (biguan) without dabbling in the scriptures, one will "tally with principle." "Wall examining" has been the subject of countless exegeses, from the most imaginative and metaphorical (be like a wall painting of a bodhisattva gazing down upon the suffering of sam- sara) to the suggestion that it refers to the physical posture of cross-legged sitting in front of a wall. Later Tibetan translations gloss it as "abiding in brightness" (lham mer gnas), a tantric interpretation that also invites scrutiny.

"Entrance by practice" is fourfold: having patience in the face of suffering; being aware that the conditions for good things will eventually run out; seeking for nothing; and being in accord with intrinsic purity. The anthology also includes three Records (again the title is provisional) consisting of lecture materials, dialogues,

and sayings. Record I has a saying attributed to Bodhidharma: "When one does not understand, the person pursues dharmas; when one understands, dharmas pursue the person." Later Chan did not appropriate this saying for its Bodhidharma story.

Two other early sources of information on Bodhidharma deserve mention. The first is a sixth-century non-Buddhist source, the Luoyang qielan ji (Record of the Buddhist Edifices of Luoyang), which twice mentions an Iranian-speaking Bodhidharma from Central Asia. The second is the seventh-century Xu gaoseng zhuan (Further Biographies of Eminent Monks) by DAOXUAN (596–667). It contains a Bodhidharma entry (a slightly reworked version of Tanlin's piece), an entry on Bodhidharma's successor, Huike, and a critique of Bodhidharma's style of meditation. Here, Bodhidharma is said to have (1) come to China by the southern sea route, and (2) handed down a powerful mystery text, the LAN˙ KAVATARA-SUTRA (Discourse of the Descent into Lanka), to Huike. Holders of this sutra were thought to be capable of uncanny feats, such as sitting cross-legged all night in a snowbank. The later Chan picture of Bodhidharma incorporates both Daoxuan's southern sea route and his sacramental transmission of the Lan˙ kavatara. By the early eighth century, the first Chan histories had assembled these key elements as the Bodhidharma story, drawing principally upon Daoxuan's work.

See Also: China Bibliography

Broughton, Jeffrey L. The Bodhidharma Anthology: The Earliest Records of Zen. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.

Faure, Bernard. "Bodhidharma as Textual and Religious Paradigm." History of Religions 25, no. 3 (1986): 187–198.

Faure, Bernard. Le traité de Bodhidharma: Première anthologie du bouddhisme Chan. Paris: Le Mail, 1986.

Yanagida Seizan, ed. and trans. Daruma no goroku. Zen no goroku 1. Tokyo: Chikuma shobo, 1969.

JEFFREY BROUGHTON

Bodhisattva(S)

The term bodhisattva (Pali, bodhisatta; Tibetan, byang chub sems pa; Chinese, pusa; Korean, posal, Japanese, bosatsu) refers to a sattva (person) on a Buddhist marga (PATH) in pursuit of BODHI (AWAKENING) or one whose nature is awakening. In the Mahayana tradition, a bodhisattva is a practitioner who, by habituating himself in the practice of the PARAMITA (PERFECTION), aspires to become a buddha in the future by seeking ANUTTARASAMYAKSAM- BODHI
(COMPLETE, PERFECT AWAKENING) through PRAJNA
(WISDOM) and by benefiting all sentient beings through KARUN- A (COMPASSION). A bodhisattva is one who courageously seeks enlightenment through totally and fully benefiting others (parartha), as well as himself (svartha). A bodhisattva is also termed a mahasattva or "Great Being" because he is a Mahayana practitioner who seeks anuttarasamyaksam- bodhi and who is equipped with the necessities for enlightenment—pun-yasambhara (accumulation of merits) and jñanasambhara (accumulation of wisdom)—and the quality of upaya-kaus´alya (skillful means); that is, he knows how to act appropriately in any situation.

According to the Bodhisattvabhumi, the bodhisattvayana (spiritual path of a bodhisattva) is considered to be superior to both the ´ra s vakayana (spiritual path of the disciples) and the pratyekabuddhayana (spiritual path of a self-awakened buddha) because a bodhisattva is destined to attain enlightenment by removing the kles´ajñeyavaran-a (emotional and intellectual afflictions), whereas those on the other two spiritual paths aspire for NIRVAN-A, that is, extinction of emotional afflictions only.

The bodhisattva is known by different appellations; for example, in Mahayana-sutralam- kara XIX: 73–74, the following fifteen names are given as synonyms for bodhisattva:

1. mahasattva (great being) 2. dhl mat (wise)
2. uttamadyuti (most splendid) 4. jinaputra (Buddha's son) 5. jinadhara (holding to the Buddha) 6. vijetr- (conqueror) 7. jinan˙ kura (Buddha's offspring) 8. vikranta (bold) 9. parama´carya s (most marvelous)
3. sarthavaha (caravan leader) 11. mahayas´as (of great glory) 12. kr-palu (compassionate) 13. mahapun-ya (greatly meritorious) 14. l
   ´vara s (lord)
4. dharmika (righteous).

Bodhisattvas are of ten classes:

1. gotrastha (one who has not reached purity yet) 2. avatl rn-a (one who investigates the arising of the enlightenment mind)
2. as´uddha´aya s (one who has not reached a pure intention) 4. ´uddha s ´aya s (one who has reached a pure intention)
3. aparipakva (one who has not matured in the highest state)
4. paripakva (one who has matured in the highest state)
5. aniyatipatita (one who although matured has not yet entered contemplation)
6. niyatipatita (one who has entered contemplation)
7. ekajatipratibaddha (one who is about to enter the supreme enlightenment)
8. caramabhavika (one who has entered supreme enlightenment in this life).

Regarding the bodhisattva's practice, different texts use different categories to discuss the process.

For example, the Das´abhumika-sutra refers to the das´abhumi (ten spiritual stages) of a bodhisattva, while the Bodhisattvabhumi makes reference to twelve vihara (abodes), adding two vihara to the list of ten bhumis: gotravihara (abode of the bodhisattva family) and adhimukticaryavihara (abode of firm resolution), the latter of which continues throughout the next ten abodes. The last ten of the viharas essentially correspond to the ten bodhisattva stages of the Das´abhumika-sutra, although each has a name different from the names of the stages. In each of the ten stages of the Das´abhumika-sutra, a distinct paramita is practiced so that the bodhisattva gradually elevates himself to the final goal of enlightenment. The stages of practice according to the Das´abhumika-sutra, with their corresponding paramitas, are as follows:

1. pramudita-bhumi (joyful stage): danaparamita

(perfection of charity)

2. vimala-bhumi (free of defilements stage): ´sl laparamita (perfection of ethical behavior)
3. prabhakarl
   -bhumi (light-giving stage): dhyanaparamita (perfection of contemplation)
4. arcl s-matl
   -bhumi (glowing wisdom stage):
   ks-antiparamita (perfection of patience)
5. sudurjaya-bhumi (mastery of utmost difficulty stage): vl ryaparamita (perfection of energy)
6. abhimukhl
   -bhumi (wisdom beyond definition of impure or pure stage): prajñaparamita (perfection of wisdom)
7. duran˙ gama-bhumi (proceeding afar stage [in which a bodhisattva gets beyond self to help others]): upayakaus´alyaparamita (perfection of utilizing one's expertise)
8. acala-bhumi (calm and unperturbed stage):
   pran-idhanaparamita (perfection of making vows to save all sentient beings)
9. sadhumati-bhumi (good thought stage): balaparamita (perfection of power to guide sentient beings)
10. dharmamagha-bhumi (rain cloud of dharma stage): jñanaparamita (perfection of all-inclusive wisdom)
    However, the numbers of stages of a bodhisattva are inconsistent from sutra to sutra and from commentary to commentary. One finds fifty-two stages in the Pusa yingluo benye jing (Taisho no. 1485), fifty-one in the RENWANG JING (HUMANE KINGS SUTRA, Taisho no. 245), forty in both the FANWANG JING (BRAHMA'S
    NET SUTRA, Taisho no. 1484) and the Avatam- sakasutra (HUAYAN JING, Taisho no. 278), fifty-seven in the S´urangama[samadhi]-sutra (Taisho no. 642), fiftyfour in the Cheng weishi lun (Taisho no. 1591), four in the Mahayanasam- graha (She dasheng lun, Taisho no. 1594), and both thirteen and seven stages in the Bodhisattvabhumi (Pusa dichi jing, Taisho no. 1581).

There are other classifications of bodhisattvas, such as those who enter enlightenment quickly and those who enter gradually; those who are householders and those who are not, each divided into nine classes; those who are extremely compassionate, such as Avalokites´vara; and those who are extremely wise, such as Mañjus´r. MAITREYA bodhisattva is considered to be the future buddha who is prophesized to appear in this world. S´akyamuni himself is understood to have been a bodhisattva in his past lives and is so called in the accounts of his previous births (JATAKA).

In order to distinguish him from the s´ravakas and PRATYEKABUDDHAs, who benefit only themselves, a Mahayana bodhisattva is characterized as one who makes vows to benefit all sentient beings, as well as himself. In the Pure Land tradition, for example, according to the Larger SUKHAVATIVYUHA-SUTRA, the Bodhisattva Mahasattva Dharmakara makes fortyeight vows and becomes the Buddha of Infinite Light and Life (AMITABHA or Amitayus), who resides in the Western Quarter and functions as a salvific buddha.

Among the well-known bodhisattvas, Avalokites´vara and Maitreya are probably the most popular in East Asia. In the East Asian Buddhist tradition, Avalokites´vara, better known by the Chinese name Guanyin (Korean, Kwanseu˘m; Japanese, Kannon), is worshiped by both clergy and laity as a mother figure, a savior, and a mentor, who responds to the pain and suffering of sentient beings. In Tibet, Tenzin Gyatso, the fourteenth DALAI LAMA, is considered to be a reincarnation of Avalokites´vara.

Maitreya (Pali, Metteyya) bodhisattva, who is said to dwell in Tus-ita heaven, is known as the "future buddha" because he will appear in this world to reestablish Buddhism after all vestiges of the current dispensation of S´akyamuni Buddha have vanished.

Tradition holds that ASAN˙ GA went to Tus-ita to study

An image of the bodhisattva Avalokites´vara being worshiped by the donor of the painting. (Chinese painting from the caves of Dunhuang, tenth century.) The Art Archive/Musée Guimet Paris/Dagli Orti. Reproduced by permission.

under Maitreya, where he received five treatises from him that became the basis for establishing the YOGACARA
SCHOOL. Worship of Maitreya as the future buddha has also contributed to MILLENARIANISM AND MILLENARIAN MOVEMENTS in several Buddhist traditions.

Mañjus´r and Samantabhadra are bodhisattvas who are often depicted in a triad together with the primordial Buddha Vairocana. Samantabhadra stands on Vairocana's right side and Mañjus´r on his left.

Samantabhadra is also often shown seated on the back of a white elephant, holding a wish-fulfilling jewel, a lotus flower, or a scripture, exemplifying his role as the guardian of the teaching and practice of the Buddha.

Mañjus´r, by contrast, represents wisdom, and is depicted wielding a flaming sword that cuts through the veil of ignorance.

Buddhist scholars and savants of India, such as NAGARJUNA and VASUBANDHU, have been referred to as bodhisattvas; in China, DAO'AN, for example, is known as Yinshou pusa. In more modern times, founders of new Buddhist movements in China, Taiwan, Japan, and the United States are considered by followers to be bodhisattvas and, in some cases, even buddhas.

See also: Bodhisattva Images; Mudra and Visual
Imagery

Dayal, Har. The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1932.

Dutt, Nalinaksha, ed. Bodhisattva-bhumih-. Patna, India: K. P.

Jayaswal Research Institute, 1978.

Hardacre, Helen, and Sponberg, Alan, eds. Maitreya, the Future Buddha. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

Kawamura, Leslie S., ed. The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhism.
Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1981.

Ogihara Unrai, ed. Bodhisattva-bhumi: A Statement of Whole Course of the Bodhisattva. Tokyo: Sankibo Buddhist Book Store, 1971.

Yü Chün-fang. Kuan-yin: The Chinese Transformation of Avalokites´vara. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001.

LESLIE S. KAWAMURA

Bodhisattva Images

Although they play a fairly limited role in early Buddhism, BODHISATTVAS came to occupy a position of preeminence in later Buddhist literature. Moreover, visual representations of bodhisattvas comprise one of the largest and most important categories of imagery in Buddhist art. Despite this popularity, however, depictions of bodhisattvas, as with anthropomorphic depictions of BUDDHAS, apparently did not first appear until at least several centuries after the lifetime of the historical Buddha, S´akyamuni. Various explanations have been proposed to account for the relatively late emergence of the cult of images in Buddhism, but the textual and archaeological record remains inconclusive on several important fronts, such as the contentious question of when—and why—the earliest images of buddhas and bodhisattvas were created. While many aspects of the origin of the bodhisattva in the context of Buddhist art thus remain unresolved, the subsequent evolution and transmission of images of bodhisattvas are easier to chart.

Early Representations

Judged on the basis of surviving stone sculpture from India, which constitutes the largest block of early evidence, the iconography of buddhas and of bodhisattvas differs in several key respects. A second-century triad from Gandhara illustrates the typical characteristics of the two figural types. The central Buddha is depicted as an ascetic, with a simple coiffure, the plain robes customarily worn by a monk, and no other sort of adornment; the flanking bodhisattvas, by contrast, are depicted as very much of this world, with elaborate hairstyles and headdresses, rich robes, and the sorts of jeweled necklaces, bracelets, and earrings typically reserved for royalty. More than merely a reflection of stylistic preferences, these differences have long been interpreted as carrying deeper meaning. The simplicity of the Buddha's presentation, for example, can be seen as indicative of his status as one who has renounced the material world, while the ornamentation of the bodhisattva invokes analogies between earthly and spiritual power, and between material and spiritual abundance.

It should be noted that there are several other images, such as a red sandstone sculpture from Mathura, that seem to contradict this general categorization: Although the standing figure exhibits the lack of adornment associated with images of the Buddha, the inscription labels it very clearly as a bodhisattva. In fact, such representations are reflections of a popular early motif that emphasized S´akyamuni's status as a bodhisattva, both in previous lives and just prior to becoming a buddha. This tradition, however, was certainly overshadowed by more typical imagery of the so-called mahasattvas, or "Great Beings," as the wellknown bodhisattvas generally associated with MAHAYANA Buddhism were often called. It is this later ideal of powerful, transcendent figures dedicated to alleviating suffering in the human realm that underlies the development of the complex and multifaceted iconography of bodhisattvas that permeates the Buddhist world.

While there are, then, certain general characteristics shared by almost all bodhisattvas, there are also many specific individual traits that serve to distinguish one from another. Often these take the forms of particular attributes, such as the vase carried by MAITREYA, the thunderbolt (Sanskrit, vajra) held by Vajrapan-i, or the sword and book frequently given to Mañjus´r, while in other instances a bodhisattva might be paired with a specific animal mount, as are Samantabhadra and his elephant. In practice, however, this kind of straightforward iconographical identification is often made more difficult by the fact that many traits evolve over time, of course, or are transformed in different geographical regions; furthermore, some bodhisattvas can assume multiple physical forms, each with its own distinguishing characteristics. A closer look at some of the traditions of representation of Avalokites´vara, undoubtedly the single most popular bodhisattva in the pantheon, will help to illustrate the nature and scope of these complexities.

The Bodhisattva Of Compassion

The Bodhisattva Avalokites´vara (Perceiver of the Sounds of the World) appears frequently in Indian Buddhist literature and art, and in both arenas assumes a multiplicity of forms and plays a variety of roles. In some sutras, the Avalokites´vara is merely a background figure, so to speak, and pictorially and sculpturally he is often portrayed as a subordinate attendant to the Buddha; over time, however, he was increasingly represented in both mediums as the focus of attention.

What remains constant, and thus serves as a unifying element in the majority of literary and artistic depictions, is an emphasis on Avalokites´vara as the embodiment of infinite KARUN-A (COMPASSION). One concrete expression of this emphasis can be seen in the many literary accounts detailing how the bodhisattva can save someone from the perils of the world. Iconographically, this theme is reflected by such features as the multiple limbs and heads with which Avalokites´vara is often endowed (underscoring this special ability to help those in distress), and by the image of AMITABHA Buddha usually found in his headdress (alluding to the Western Paradise where Avalokites´vara may help one be reborn).

The popularity of Avalokites´vara spread to China
(where he is known as Guanyin) and other parts of East Asia (Japan, Kannon; Korea, Kwanseu˘m), and grew to such an extent that it essentially overshadowed that of all other bodhisattvas. Initially this was brought about in part by the widespread appeal of the LOTUS
SUTRA (SADDHARMAPUN- D-ARIKA-SUTRA), several early translations of which were made into Chinese, in which Guanyin figures prominently; in fact, chapter 25, which details some thirty-three different manifestations of Guanyin, was often published and circulated as an independent text. Many well-known depictions of Guanyin are based on imagery from the Lotus Sutra, and it is perhaps the elasticity of form described

The Bodhisattva Avalokites´vara—the Bodhisattva of Compassion—shown with a thousand arms, symbolizing his ability to help those in distress. (Chinese wood sculpture.) © Reunion des Musées Nationaux/Art Resource, NY. Reproduced by permission.

in the sutra that made it possible for different branches of Buddhism to be associated with different characteristic representations of the bodhisattva. Thus, to give just two examples: While PURE LAND BUDDHISM favored images of Guanyin leading souls to paradise, the CHAN SCHOOL preferred the so-called Water-Moon Guanyin and its allusions to the illusory nature of the phenomenal world.

Of all the developments associated with representations of Avalokites´vara, none has received as much scholarly attention as the gender transformation that Guanyin underwent in China. While it is true that bodhisattvas are theoretically beyond such dualities as male and female, early depictions of Guanyin often exhibit decidedly male characteristics (such as the mustache common in both Indian and Chinese portrayals),
while the Lotus Sutra also lists various specifically female forms that Guanyin is capable of assuming.

Whether influenced by these literary descriptions, or because compassion was perceived as a more feminine emotional trait, or in response to the cosmological tendency in traditional China to create yin/yang pairings of complementary forces such as wisdom and compassion, whatever complex combination of factors was at play, the outcome was that Guanyin emerged in China as the goddess of mercy and compassion, and retained that status throughout later East Asian artistic traditions.

Meanings Beyond The Text

Images of Avalokites´vara, despite their great variety and multiplicity, share a common emphasis on the virtue of karun-a, and exhibit remarkable continuity over time and location. To a great extent, this is due to a close correlation between text and image; indeed, the primary meanings for most representations of bodhisattvas derive from sutras and other literary sources. There are, however, many instances where bodhisattva imagery exhibits different patterns of development, and derives meaning from other arenas.

The Bodhisattva Ks-itigarbha, for example, who may have evolved from pre-Buddhist Indian earth gods, rarely appears in either art or literature in India. In China, by contrast, as the Bodhisattva Dizang, Ks-itigarbha is frequently depicted in illustrations of scenes of hell (though his popularity drops off remarkably after the thirteenth century), while in Japan, where he is known as Jizo, he has long been popularized as the protector of children. Lastly, as Chijang posal, he was one of the most important bodhisattvas in Korean Buddhism during the Choso˘n period
(1392–1910), and most traditional Korean monastic complexes had a special Ks-itigarbha Hall where paintings of Chijang and the Kings of Hell were the focus of ritual offerings on behalf of the deceased during the mourning period for the dead. Each of these instances demonstrates the frequently localized meanings of a given theme that can evolve apart from canonical textual sources.

On an even more particularized level, bodhisattva imagery has often been linked to historical individuals, a phenomenon that certainly can alter visual meaning in a number of ways. For example, BODHIDHARMA, the reputed transmitter of Chan Buddhism from India to China, is claimed in Chan tradition as an incarnation of Avalokites´vara. This may account for both the somewhat surprising frequency with which Avalokites´vara is depicted in images connected with Chan, as well as the structural similarities between such images as "Bodhidharma on a Reed" and the "White-robed Guanyin" or "Guanyin with Willows"—similarities that are clearly intended to appropriate the aura of the bodhisattva for the Chan patriarch. (In a similar vein, the DALAI LAMA of Tibetan Buddhism is also viewed as an incarnation of Avalokites´vara, and here, too, the identification certainly serves to reinforce claims of spiritual authority.) There are also well-attested examples that link secular, rather than religious, leaders with bodhisattvas. In China, the infamous Empress Wu Zetian (d. 706) of the Tang dynasty, for example, went to great lengths to encourage belief in the idea that she was an incarnation of the Bodhisattva Maitreya, and it has been claimed that various Buddhist images that she sponsored actually bear her own likeness. In the Qing dynasty, the Qianlong emperor (r. 1736–1795) had himself portrayed on multiple occasions as the Bodhisattva Mañjus´r, enshrined at the center of a complex MAN- D-ALA, while in the late nineteenth century the empress dowager Zixi cast herself as Guanyin in elaborate living tableaux that were preserved in photographs. Whatever religious motivations may lie behind such acts, the ends they served can justifiably be described as more political than religious.

In short, if many images of bodhisattvas, whether painted or sculpted, are informed by sincere attempts to convey the spiritual powers associated with these Great Beings whose superhuman exploits were made famous by Mahayana sutras, there are other images that attempt to borrow these connotations for different purposes. At the same time, there are also cases in which representations of bodhisattvas are so far removed from the context of Buddhism that they are essentially depleted of religious meaning altogether. For example, while it is difficult to determine whether the elegant blanc-de-chine ceramic images of Guanyin first popularized in the seventeenth century were originally admired and sought out primarily for their formal and aesthetic qualities, that certainly became the case for the avid collectors, mainly foreign, who started to amass them in the early twentieth century. In the end, even a bodhisattva is powerless in the face of commodification. See also: Buddha, Life of the, in Art; Hells, Images of; Mudra and Visual Imagery; Sutra Illustrations

Czuma, Stanislaw J. Kushan Sculpture: Images from Early India.
Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1985.

Huntington, Susan L. The Art of Ancient India: Buddhist, Hindu, Jain. New York: Weatherhill, 1985.

Hurvitz, Leon, trans. Scripture of the Lotus Blossom of the Fine Dharma. New York: Columbia University Press, 1976.

Murase, Miyeko. "Kuan-yin as Savior of Men: Illustration of the Twenty-fifth Chapter of the Lotus Sutra in Chinese Painting." Artibus Asiae 37, nos. 1–2 (1971): 39–74.

Schopen, Gregory. "Monks and the Relic Cult in the Mahaparinibbana-sutta." In Bones, Stones, and Buddhist Monks: Collected Papers on the Archaeology, Epigraphy, and Texts of Monastic Buddhism in India. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997.

Seckel, Dietrich. Buddhist Art of East Asia, tr. Ulrich Mammitzsch. Bellingham: Center for East Asian Studies, Western Washington University, 1989.

Whitfield, Roderick, and Farrer, Anne. Caves of the Thousand Buddhas: Chinese Art from the Silk Route. London: British Museum, 1990.

Yü, Chün-fang. Kuan-yin: The Chinese Transformation of Avalokites´vara. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001.

CHARLES LACHMAN

Body, Perspectives On The

The path to NIRVAN-A or awakening, for Buddhists, involves the entire human being as a psychophysical complex. Although known to distinguish physical processes from psychic processes for the purpose of analysis, Buddhists do not ascribe to the notion (articulated by other religious traditions originating in India) that within every person there exists an eternal nonphysical self that may be said to "have" or "occupy" a body. For Buddhists, physical processes are dependent upon mental processes and vice versa. Thus, Buddhist traditions utilize the body as an object of contemplation and as a locus of transformation.

Buddhist scriptures and meditation manuals present a wide variety of meditations that focus on the body. Many involve mindful awareness of everyday activity: MINDFULNESS of breathing; mindfulness of modes of deportment, such as standing and sitting; and mindfulness of routine activities, such as walking, eating, and resting. Others meditations are analytic in nature. The body may be broken down into its four material elements: earth or solidity, water or fluidity, fire or heat, and air or movement. Such analytic exercises are particularly helpful for overcoming the illusion of an enduring "self" (atman; Pali, attan). In the Majjhimanikaya (Group Discourses of Middle Length;
III. 90–1), the analysis of the body into its four material elements is compared to the quartering of an ox; once the ox is so divided, the generic concept of "flesh" diminishes recognition of the individuality of the ox.

Although members of other religious communities in ancient India also practiced such meditations on the physical elements of earth, water, fire, and air in the body, Indian Buddhists developed a uniquely Buddhist form of meditation on the body, which is praised in Buddhist scripture as the sine qua non of salvation. Called "mindfulness of the body," this contemplative technique entails breaking the body down into its thirty-two constituent parts, including internal organs such as the heart, the liver, the spleen, and the kidneys.

The anatomical analysis in this cultivation of mindfulness of the body is so detailed that some scholars credit members of the early Buddhist monastic order
(SAN˙ GHA) with a decisive role in the development of ancient Indian anatomical theory. Kenneth Zysk has argued that concern with ritual impurity limited the extent to which other (namely Brahmanical or protoHindu) religious specialists could serve as healers and carry out empirical studies based on dissection. Restrictions concerning the handling of bodily wastes from persons of different social classes and the disposal of dead bodies limited what Brahmanical caregivers could offer in the way of medical care and empirical research. With their relative, but certainly not absolute, indifference to Brahmanical purity strictures, members of the Buddhist san˙ gha acquired a great deal of empirical knowledge of bodily processes and led the way in medical advances.

The Ambiguity Of The Body

If Zysk is correct in asserting that Buddhist monastic communities in India were less hindered by constraints concerning the handling of bodily wastes and dead bodies, this is not to say that members of the Buddhist san˙ gha regarded the body as intrinsically valuable, nor that their conceptions of the body were untouched by concerns about bodily purity and pollution. Cultivating distaste for the body by noting with disgust the discharges from various apertures of the body constitutes an initial stage of psychophysical training practiced by monastics of virtually all Buddhist denominations.

With its orifices producing mucus, earwax, sweat, excrement, and the like, the body is conventionally imagined as a rot-filled pustule, a boil with many openings leaking pus. For MONKS and NUNS who are afflicted by sensual desire and who view bodily pleasures like eating, bathing, self-adornment, and sexual activity as inherently pleasing, developing a sense of aversion toward the body by visualizing it as a foul pustule or by contemplating corpses in various stages of putrefaction is recommended as an antidote to sensuality.

And if the generic human body is comparable to a leaky bag of filth, the female body is regarded as even more disgusting. This perception is perhaps due to the fact that it has an additional aperture lacking in males, an aperture prone to emitting periodic quantities of blood (Faure, p. 57). In any case, literary representations of meditations of the loathsomeness of the body tend to be overwhelmingly androcentric. Such narratives, embedded in hagiographies of various denominations, are filled with scenes of dying and diseased women observed by male spectators. Female spectators who appear in such narratives are depicted in ways that conform to the andocentric orientation of the genre. Male bodies almost never function as objects of contemplation for women in these narratives. Instead, women contemplating the foulness of the body observe their own aging bodies or those of other women. While Buddhist discourse holds all bodies to be impermanent and subject to disease, such hagiographies suggest there is nothing so effective as a female body to make this basic truth concrete.

As unsettling as many of these accounts may be, one should not assume that Buddhists are phobic about the body. The aversion such accounts induce is not an end in itself but a remedy for pleasure-seeking. Ultimately the outlook meditators seek is neither attraction nor revulsion but indifference. Contemplation of the foulness of the body is sometimes described as a "bitter medicine" that may be terminated once greed for bodily pleasures has been overcome. After having served its purpose as a counteractive practice, disgust for the body should ideally give way to a more neutral attitude. Moreover, in comparison with the bodies of nonhumans, the human body is a blessing. Buddhists across Asia recognize that human birth is rare, and many Buddhists regard human embodiment as an essential prerequisite for achieving awakening. Although human bodies may be of a gross material nature compared to those of divine beings dwelling in heavenly realms, humans enjoy occasions for awakening that gods and goddesses lack by virtue of the very sublime material conditions in which they live. Rebirth as a god or goddess is a worthy goal for LAITY, who may not be in immediate pursuit of awakening, but it holds little charm for those monks and nuns who do not wish to defer their awakening by hundreds of years. For them, embodiment as a human being is a valuable opportunity not to be wasted. Thus, much depends on the perspective when evaluating the status of the human body for Buddhists. If treated as an intrinsically valuable thing, the body can obstruct the experience of awakening, preventing one from seeing things as they really are. But when used instrumentally as a locus of meditation and insight, the body has immense value, more precious than a wishfulfilling jewel. Hence the Buddha is reported to have affirmed in the Sam- yuttanikaya (Connected Discourses; 1.62) that the body, with its attendant psychic processes, is the locus of salvation, the path to a transcendent, deathless condition.

Subtle Bodies, Salvific Bodies

Thus the body may present the face of a friend or a foe, depending on what goals one wishes to achieve in life and how well one invests the body's resources in achieving those goals. Monastic training, like a regimen of physical training, develops capacities unknown to those without self-discipline. If one dedicates oneself to the disciplined cultivation of Buddhist virtues
(i.e., salutary physical, moral, and cognitive states),
those virtues will be instantiated in the form and appearance of one's body. Buddhist texts promote the goal of bodily transformation, promising sweetsmelling, beautiful, and healthy bodies to those who cultivate virtue, even while teaching that in their natural condition all bodies are smelly, impermanent havens of disease and death. Given this emphasis on bodily transformation through the cultivation of virtue, it should come as no surprise that Buddhists advocate contact with and contemplation of the bodies of buddhas and saints such as ARHATs and BODHISATTVAs. Contact with such beings is salutary not just because such beings are virtuous and helpful, but because their discipline has transformed them to the point where their bodies exude medicinal effects. Like walking apothecaries, Buddhist saints are said to heal disease upon contact with the afflicted just as their words heal the disease (duh-kha) that according to Buddhists afflicts all unawakened beings.

Accounts of the salutary effects of seeing buddhas, arhats, and bodhisattvas—or even formulating the aspiration to have such experiences—are commonplace in many genres of Buddhist literature. Seeing their radiant skin, bright eyes, and decorous deportment engenders serenity and joy; the sight is said to be at once tranquilizing and stimulating. This Buddhist emphasis on the benefits of seeing the body of the Buddha or other religious virtuosi can in part be explained by the South Asian milieu in which Buddhism arose. Many South Asian religious traditions promote the practice of participatory seeing (dars´ana) whereby the observer participates in the sacrality of the observed by visual contact. If one cannot gaze upon the bodies of Buddhist saints, one can nevertheless recollect the features of the body of the Buddha. The contemplative practice of recollecting the extraordinary features of the body of the Buddha, with its thirty-two major and eighty minor distinguishing marks, is common to all Buddhist traditions. The Buddha is also embodied in his teachings (dharma). While some Buddhists insist that this body of teaching is the only proper object of reverence and that adoration of the physical form is misguided, Kevin Trainor notes that textual passages warning against attachment to the Buddha's physical form are outnumbered by passages advocating such devotion.

The Gift Of The Body

In accordance with the principle that the body has no intrinsic value, but gains value through the manner in which it is used, Buddhists extol the practice of offering one's body to others out of compassion. Tales of the former lives of the Buddha narrate many occasions in which the Buddha-to-be offered his flesh to starving animals at the expense of his life. Whereas THERAVADA Buddhists regard such altruistic practices as praiseworthy but not necessarily to be imitated, MAHAYANA Buddhists regard self-sacrifice as an essential component of the Buddhist path.

In addition to offering their bodies as food for starving beings, followers of the bodhisattva path also gain merit by burning the body as an act of religious devotion. The locus classicus for the practice of SELFIMMOLATION is an incident narrated in the LOTUS
SUTRA (SADDHARMAPUN-D-ARIKA-SUTRA). In a previous life, the bodhisattva Bhais-ajyaraja ingested copious amounts of flammable substances and then set fire to his body as an offering to the buddhas. The burning of the entire body or parts of the body, such as an arm or a finger, is highly celebrated in Chinese Buddhist texts composed from the fifth through the tenth centuries. The practice continues today in symbolic form in Chinese Buddhist monastic ordinations: The ordinand's eagerness to make such an offering is signaled by the burning of several places on the head with cones of incense. In preparing the body for immolation, Chinese Buddhists reportedly followed special grain-free diets that drew on Daoist traditions associated with the pursuit of immortality. James Benn has demonstrated that these grain-free diets were also used by Buddhist adepts in preparation for self-mummification, whereby the deceased adept's body would serve an iconic function as an object of worship.

Self-immolation has also been developed in interesting ways in Southeast Asia. During the Vietnam War, Vietnamese monks and nuns used self-immolation as a means of political protest. They attracted considerable attention to their cause by performing public selfimmolations in protest against the Diem regime, which had imposed restrictive measures on the practice of Buddhism and the activities of Buddhist monks and nuns.

When its sacrifice for the sake of others is advocated, the body is clearly an essential element of religious practice. However, even putting such heroic measures aside, one cannot embark on the bodhisattva path without regarding the body as an essential means of fulfilling one's bodhisattva vows. One of the central vows of the bodhisattva is a statement that one is eager to undergo billions of repeated embodiments in the cycle of REBIRTH (sam- sara) in order to help others achieve awakening.

In contrast to the Mahayanist emphasis on postponing final awakening for eons and eons, Buddhist tantra (VAJRAYANA) stresses speed of attainment, promising the achievement of buddhahood in one lifetime. The body is said to contain the seeds of buddhahood, the prerequisites for achieving full awakening in this lifetime. Hence the human body as a focus of practice is central to Vajrayana Buddhism. Practitioners regard the body as a microcosm of the universe, with all its gods, goddesses, and other powerful beings. Such beings are invoked and their powers harnessed for the goal of full awakening by touching various parts of the body using special hand gestures and by chanting MANTRAs or sacred utterances.

See also: Anatman/Atman (No-Self/Self); Buddhahood
and Buddha Bodies; Gender; Sexuality

Collins, Steven. "The Body in Theravada Buddhist Monasticism." In Religion and the Body, ed. Sara Coakley. New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Das, Veena. "Paradigms of Body Symbolism: An Analysis of Selected Themes in Hindu Culture." In Indian Religion, ed.

Richard Burghart and Audrey Canthe. London: Curzon, 1985.

Dissanayake, Wimal. "Self and Body in Theravada Buddhism."
In Self as Body in Asian Theory and Practice, ed. Thomas P. Kasulis with Roger T. Ames and Wimal Dissanayake. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993.

Faure, Bernard. The Red Thread: Buddhist Approaches to Sexuality. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998.

Pye, Michael. "Perceptions of the Body in Japanese Religion."
In Religion and the Body, ed. Sara Coakley. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Trainor, Kevin. Relics, Ritual, and Representation in Buddhism:
Rematerializing the Sri Lankan Theravada Tradition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Wijayaratna, Mohan. Buddhist Monastic Life According to the Texts of the Theravada Tradition, tr. Claude Grangier and Steven Collins. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990.

Williams, Paul. "Some Mahayana Buddhist Perspectives on the Body." In Religion and the Body, ed. Sara Coakley. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Zysk, Kenneth. Asceticism and Healing in Ancient India: Medicine in the Buddhist Monastery. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.

LIZ WILSON

Bon

Bon (pronounced pön) is often characterized as the indigenous, pre-Buddhist religion of Tibet. While not entirely untrue, such a description is misleading. There are clearly indigenous Tibetan elements in historical Bon, and some of these elements likely predate the arrival of Buddhism in Tibet. But because there was no effective Tibetan literary language before the introduction of Buddhism, there is scant evidence from which to reconstruct pre-Buddhist Bon. Moreover, because the Bon that is known from later sources (and exists to this day alongside Tibetan Buddhism) is a highly syncretic religious complex, deeply conditioned by its encounter with Indian (and probably other)
forms of Buddhism, it cannot rightly be considered either indigenous or pre-Buddhist. Historical Bon itself claims to be a direct descendant of—indeed identical with—a religion known as Bon that existed during the centuries before the introduction of Buddhism to Tibet in the eighth century.

The few extant sources from the royal dynastic period in Tibet do suggest the existence during this period of a religious formation that may have been known as Bon, whose priests were called bon po, and perhaps also gshen. As reconstructed from these sources, this earlyor proto-Bon seems to have included a strong belief in an afterlife and to have involved a system of funerary rites, animal sacrifices, and royal consecration ceremonies as primary foci. It thus bears little resemblance to later Bon.

There seems to have been some friction between proto-Bon and Buddhism in the dynastic period. Later sources from both traditions tell of Buddhist PERSECUTIONS of Bon, which the Buddhist king Khri srong lde btsan (pronounced Trisong Detsen; r. 755–797 C.E.) is said to have formally proscribed around 785.

Buddhists tell of a subsequent Bon persecution of Buddhism. Both accounts share many similar features (banishing of priests, hiding of books for later recovery, etc.), so the historicity of many of the details is open to doubt, although nearly contemporaneous documents preserved in DUNHUANG do indicate some tension between the traditions.

Later Bon considers its "founder" to have been the teacher Gshen rab mi bo (pronounced Shenrap Miwo), from the semimythical land of 'Ol mo lung ring. As in the MAHAYANA account of S´akyamuni Buddha, Gshen rab is said to have been an enlightened being who emanated in this world as the preordained teacher of the present world-age. Yet, unlike S´akyamuni, accounts of whom emphasize early renunciation of his kingdom and married life, Gshen rab is said to have remained a layman until late in life, working to propagate Bon as a prince, together with his many wives and offspring.

The documented historical period of Bon begins with the "rediscovery" of many allegedly ancient Bon scriptures by Gshen chen klu dga' (pronounced Shenchen Lugah, 996–1035) around 1017; these texts make up a substantial part of the current Bon CANON. Gshen chen klu dga' was a native of west-central Gtsang province, and the majority of early Bon institutions were centered in that area. He and his disciples created the scriptural and institutional base for Bon during the next four centuries. In 1405 Shes rab rgyal mtshan (pronounced Shayrap Gyeltsen, 1356–1415)
founded the monastery of Sman ri (pronounced Menree), which was to become the most important Bon center until the twentieth century. The eminent scholar of Bon, Per Kværne, has suggested that the Bon canon was fixed in this period, likely no later than 1450.

Bon was reputedly persecuted again under the rule of the fifth DALAI LAMA (1617–1682) and during the succeeding two centuries, during which time Bon monasteries were closed, destroyed, or converted, though some scholars downplay the extent of this persecution. The canon was subjected to further revision in the mid-eighteenth century by Kun grol grags pa (pronounced Kundrol Takpa, 1700–?), who prepared a detailed catalogue of its scriptures. Subsequently, in the nineteenth century, Bon experienced something of a resurgence. The primarily Buddhist Non-sectarian (ris med) Movement, in which the Bon teacher Shar rdza bkra shis rgyal mtshan (pronounced Shardza Tashi Gyeltsen, 1858–1935) collaborated, expressed collegial respect for Bon and vice versa. The importance of the great perfection (rdzogs chen) and rediscovered treasure (gter ma) teachings in both the Non-sectarian Movement and Bon provided the foundation for mutual recognition and cross-fertilization.

From this time until the present, there have been some who speak of Bon as the "fifth school" of Tibetan Buddhism, in addition to the RNYING MA (NYINGMA),
SA SKYA (SAKYA), BKA' BRGYUD (KAGYU), and DGE LUGS (GELUK).

There are in fact many similarities between Bon and the Tibetan Buddhist traditions, which make such an identification—while ultimately untenable—not entirely unreasonable. In fact, the basic teachings of Bon are virtually identical to those found in Tibetan Buddhism. Both traditions commonly refer to the ideal, enlightened being by the term sangs rgyas (Sanskrit, buddha) and to enlightenment itself by the term byang chub (Sanskrit, BODHI [AWAKENING]). In addition to these exact correspondences, one also sometimes finds the use of alternative, but functionally equivalent, terms. For instance, the term bon is contrasted with chos (dharma), a key word in Buddhist thought. Yet, bon occurs in Bon literature in exactly the same contexts as chos does in Buddhism; Bon texts speak, for example, of a "bon body" (bon sku), which is essentially the same as the Buddhist "dharma body" (chos sku), both serving as the first of a triad that includes the beatific body (longs sku) and the emanation body
(sprul sku). The structure of their canons is also similar. Like the Buddhists, the Bonpos divide their sacred scriptures into two classes—one containing scriptures of revealed word (in the case of Bon, those attributed to Gshen rab), the other the writings of later saints. In both traditions, the collection of revealed scriptures is known as the Bka' 'gyur (pronounced kanjur). The Buddhists refer to their collection of commentaries as the Bstan 'gyur (pronounced tanjur), while the Bonpos call theirs the Brten 'gyur (a homonym).

Although Bon appears in many respects to be a completely "buddhicized" tradition in its forms, doctrines, and practices, many old indigenous traditions remain in the core of Bon, especially with regard to COSMOLOGY, sacred narratives, and pantheon. Thus, though the Bon revealed in the sources available to scholars cannot be considered the indigenous, pre-Buddhist religion of Tibet, these distinctively Bon elements do provide a glimpse of what may have been some of the ancient religious forms of pre-Buddhist Tibet.

See also: Tibet

Karmay, Samten Gyaltsen, ed. and trans. The Treasury of Good Sayings: A Tibetan History of Bon. London: Oxford University Press, 1972.

Karmay, Samten Gyaltsen. The Arrow and the Spindle: Studies in History, Myths, Rituals, and Beliefs in Tibet. Kathmandu, Nepal: Mandala Book Point, 1998.

Kværne, Per. "The Canon of the Tibetan Bonpos." Indo-Iranian Journal 16 (1974): nr. 1, 18–56; nr. 2, 96–144.

Kværne, Per. "S´akyamuni in the Bon Religion." Temenos 25
(1989): 33–40.

Kværne, Per. "The Bon Religion of Tibet: A Survey of Research."
In The Buddhist Forum, Vol. 3, ed. Tadeusz Skorupski and Ulrich Pagel. New Delhi: Heritage, 1995.

Kværne, Per. The Bon Religion of Tibet: The Iconography of a Living Tradition. London: Serindia, 1995. Reprint, Boston: Shambhala, 2001.

Martin, Dan. Unearthing Bon Treasures: Life and Contested Legacy of a Tibetan Scripture Revealer, with a General Bibliography of Bon. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2001.

Snellgrove, David, ed. and trans. The Nine Ways of Bon: Excerpts from the gZi-brjid. London: Oxford University Press, 1967.

Reprint, Boulder, CO: Prajña Press, 1980.

CHRISTIAN K. WEDEMEYER

Borobudur

Borobudur is a monumental structure that was erected in the Kedu plain in south central Java, on the foundation of an older shrine of unknown form. Construction began about 790 C.E., and alterations continued to be made until approximately 850 C.E.

From above, Borobudur resembles a MAN- D-ALA, in that it consists of a large STUPA (burial mound) surrounded by three round terraces, on each of which are more stupas (108 in all); farther from the central stupa are four square terraces. In profile, the monument resembles a mountain, since the transition from each terrace is marked by a staircase rising to the next.

Reliefs (1,350 panels) illustrate texts, such as JATAKA
and AVADANA tales, the Mahakarmavibhan˙ ga, the LALITAVISTARA, the Gan-d-avyuha, and the Bhadracari. Niches atop the walls of the galleries contain BUDDHA IMAGES. These images exhibit different hand positions according to their location on the monument. These hand positions, or mudra, symbolize the conquest of illusion, charity, meditation, dispelling of fear, and teaching. The seventy-two stupas on the round terraces, which are hollow, contain images whose hand positions symbolize the Buddha's first sermon in Deer Park at Benares.

This combination of stupa, mountain, and man-d-ala was never replicated elsewhere, but its influence is visible in Cambodia and through that intermediary in Thailand and Burma (Myanmar). No inscriptions survive to tell us what the monument signified to the Javanese, but the ten relief series suggest that it may have functioned to enable selected individuals to pass symbolically through the ten stages on the PATH to becoming a BODHISATTVA. The form of Buddhism followed by the builders of Borobudur emphasized the role of bodhisattvas, but was less esoteric than later expressions in Java and Sumatra wherein such deities as Vajrasattva and Trailokyavijaya were emphasized. The bodhisattvas Mañjus´r and Samantabhadra play key roles in the texts narrated on Borobudur. These deities were also popular in East Asia at this time.

The monument's construction coincides with a period during which a dynasty known as the S´ailendra
(mountain lord) dominated central Java politically. Around 830 C.E. a Buddhist queen married a Hindu king of the Sañjaya line. The great Hindu monument of Loro Jonggrang at Prambanam was constructed between about 830 and 856. Narrative reliefs depicting the Ramayana and Kr-s-n-a texts on Loro Jonggrang may have been motivated by the desire to present a Hindu response to Borobudur. See also: Huayan Art; Indonesia, Buddhist Art in

Gómez, Luis, and Woodward, Hiram W., Jr., eds. Barabudur:
History and Significance of a Buddhist Monument. Berkeley, CA: Asian Humanities Press, 1981.

Miksic, John N. Borobudur: Golden Tales of the Buddhas. Berkeley, CA: Periplus Editions, 1990.

JOHN N. MIKSIC

Bsam Yas (Samye)

Founded around 779 C.E., Bsam yas (Samye) was Tibet's first monastery. Although a few temples of worship had been built earlier in Tibet, Bsam yas was the first fully functioning monastery. Upon its completion, the first seven Tibetan Buddhist monks were ordained by S´antaraks-ita, the famous abbot of the Indian monastery Vikramas´la. Soon after, the famous BSAM
YAS DEBATE was held, ostensibly to decide which form of Buddhism Tibetans would follow, that of India or that of China.

Bsam yas was built during the reign of King Khri srong lde btsan (r. 755–797), the second of the three great Buddhist kings of Tibet's early imperial period.

This king had invited S´antaraks-ita to Tibet to assist him in establishing Buddhism as the state religion. According to traditional accounts, when the king began work on his new monastery, local spirits who were opposed to the foreign religion created obstacles so numerous that not even the building's foundation could be laid. S´antaraks-ita, whose strengths lay in monastic learning and not in battling demonic forces, could not help. The king was forced to find someone trained in the arts of Buddhist tantra. S´antaraks-ita recommended the renowned master, PADMASAMBHAVA, from the kingdom of Ud-d-iyana in northwestern India. Upon Padmasambhava's arrival, the great tantrika quickly subdued the troublesome spirits, forcing them to take vows to forever protect Buddhism in Tibet.

Bsam yas played a central role in Khri srong lde btsan's lifelong project to make Buddhism the state religion of Tibet. At the time of its construction, the Tibetan empire was at the height of its power. In 763, Tibetans even occupied the Chinese capital of Chang'an, where they installed a puppet emperor for a brief time. Bsam yas was built as a symbol of Tibet's newfound international prestige, and the central cathedral's three stories were designed in the traditional architectural styles of India, China, and Tibet, respectively.

Bsam yas's universalism was further reflected in the layout of the whole monastic complex—a cosmogram of the Indian world system. According to this system, the central axis of Mount Sumeru is surrounded by four continents, one in each of the cardinal directions. Similarly at Bsam yas, around the central cathedral were built four buildings, their shapes corresponding to those of the continents.

The monastery was also built to represent a threedimensional MAN- D-ALA in a design modeled on the great Indian Buddhist monastery of Otantapuri, located in today's Bihar. The particular man-d-ala represented by Bsam yas seems to have been that of the Buddha Vairocana. Recent scholarship has suggested that the Tibetan imperial cult may have given special prominence to this deity, and that this close association was also reflected in the arrangement of Bsam yas.

According to early sources, a statue of Vairocana was originally positioned on the second floor as the central image; another Vairocana statue, this in his four-faced Sarvavid form, was installed on the top floor.

The same layout can still be observed. Bsam yas was severely damaged a number of times by fires (seventeenth century), earthquakes and more fires (nineteenth century), and Chinese invaders (twentieth century), but the restorations seem to have remained largely faithful to its original plan. The central cathedral was rebuilt in 1989 following the most recent desecrations, and renovations continued throughout the 1990s on other parts of the complex.

See Also: Tibet Bibliography

Chan, Victor. Tibet Handbook: A Pilgrimage Guide. Chico, CA:
Moon, 1994.

Kapstein, Matthew. The Tibetan Assimilation of Buddhism: Conversion, Contestation, and Memory. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Snellgrove, David, and Richardson, Hugh. A Cultural History of Tibet (1968). Boston: Shambala, 1995.

JACOB P. DALTON

Bsam Yas Debate

Among Western scholars, the Bsam yas Debate has generated more speculation than any other single event in Tibetan history. Around 797 C.E., a philosophical debate is said to have taken place at BSAM YAS (SAMYE), the first Buddhist monastery in Tibet. The debate was held in order to decide, in effect, which form of Buddhism would be adopted by the Tibetan royal courtthat of the Chinese CHAN SCHOOL or Indian Buddhism. The debate was presided over by the Tibetan king, Khri srong lde btsan (r. 755–797), and the two sides were represented by the Chinese master Huashang Moheyan
(Sanskrit, Mahayana) and the Indian scholar Kamalas´la, respectively. According to Tibetan sources, the Indian side was declared the winner; Moheyan and his disciples were banished from the country, and Indian Buddhism was established as the state religion.

The alleged victory for the Indian side has strongly shaped Tibetans' understanding of their own religious heritage.

The philosophical issue at stake was how enlightenment should be attained—immediately or after a period of extensive training. Thus, according to the famous history (Chos 'byung) composed by BU STON (BU TÖN) rin chen grub (1290–1364), Moheyan opened the debate by explaining that just as clouds, be they white or black, obscure the sky, so do all activities, be they virtuous or nonvirtuous, perpetuate REBIRTH in SAM- SARA. Therefore, he concluded, the cessation of all mental activity leads immediately to the highest liberation. Kamalas´la responded to this philosophical quietism by explaining the stages of analytic meditation.

He stressed that even nonconceptual wisdom results from a specific process of gradual analysis. Moheyan was soundly defeated, and some of his disciples were so humiliated that they committed suicide.

Bu ston's account, which is largely representative of the normative Tibetan historical tradition, is clearly a biased one. He frames his narrative with a prophecy made by S´antaraks-ita, the Indian master who helped to establish Bsam yas and ordained the first nine Buddhist monks in Tibet. Here, shortly before his death, S´antaraks-ita predicts a controversy between two Buddhist groups and instructs that his disciple, Kamalas´la of Nalanda, should be summoned to resolve the dispute. Bu ston's account then closes with a story vilifying Moheyan, in which the Chinese master sends some
"Chinese butchers" to murder Kamalas´la by squeezing his kidneys.

This Tibetan version of events has been complicated by the discovery of a Chinese work titled the Dunwu dasheng zhengli jue (Verification of the Greater Vehicle of Sudden Awakening). The text was unearthed from the caves at DUNHUANG, a region once frequented by Moheyan. A translation was first published by Paul Demiéville in his 1952 article, Le concile de Lhasa. The Chinese work purports to be a word-for-word record of the debate written by Wangxi, a direct disciple of Moheyan. Its version of events differs radically from those of the various Tibetan sources; in this version, Moheyan wins the debate. This discovery has led some scholars to doubt the very existence of the debate, suggesting that instead it should be viewed as indicative of an ongoing controversy through a series of only indirect encounters between Chinese and Indian factions at the Tibetan royal court. That said, it remains that all available sources agree that a debate of some kind did take place.

It is unclear whether Kamalas´la knew about the Chinese text when, apparently at the Tibetan king's request, he composed his three famous treatises summarizing the debate's central themes, each called a Bhavanakrama (Stages of Meditation). The Indian and Chinese works address many of the same topics, but part ways on a number of important points. The Chinese work, for example, gives considerable attention to the doctrine of TATHAGATAGARBHA (buddhanature), while Kamalas´la does not even mention it. Similarly, the Chinese work remains silent on a number of issues that are crucial to Kamalas´la's argument—the need to develop compassion and the stages of meditation are two examples. Both texts, it seems, reflect their authors' concerns with developments in their own countries more than with each other. It is unclear whether all three of Kamalas´la's works were composed in Tibet.

Indeed, the teachings of Moheyan should be understood within the context of eighth-century Chinese Chan, itself a milieu of highly charged polemics. According to other Dunhuang documents, Moheyan belonged to the lineage of the Northern school of Chan.

This school had already come under attack earlier in the eighth century by Shenhui (684–758) of the socalled Southern school, and its lineage continued to be contested from many sides throughout Moheyan's lifetime. Such a polarizing environment certainly would have influenced Moheyan, and the fragments of his teachings found at Dunhuang support the common view of him as extreme in his advocacy of immediate enlightenment.

In addition to its doctrinal ramifications, the Bsam yas Debate certainly had a strong political component. The nature of these more political concerns can be detected in yet another work that discusses the debate. The Sba bzhed (Testimony of Ba) is an early Tibetan account of the relevant period, purportedly written by a minister to Khri srong lde btsan. Several editions of the work exist, and all agree that the Indian side won. A close reading of the various Sba bzhed editions suggests that a central issue driving the debate may have been the Tibetan court's adoption of the Indian Buddhist cosmological framework. This framework, with its "lawlike operation of karma,"
may have offered eighth-century Tibetans an attractive foundation for political governance. According to this reading, it was the antinomian aspect of the popular Chinese teachings that threatened the new political order.

All such interpretations of the Bsam yas Debate remain, however, just that—interpretations. All we can say for certain is that the debate has served a number of different ends. In the later Tibetan tradition, the debate was used as evidence for India's importance as the only authentic source for Buddhist teachings. The debate also served as a weapon in polemical disputes between opposing Tibetan Buddhist groups. Perhaps the most well-known example of this trend appears in the writings of SA SKYA PAN- D-ITA (SAKYA PAN- D-ITA,
1182–1251). There, the author equates the Moheyan side with the Tibetan tradition of Rdzogs chen by criticizing the "Self-Sufficient White Remedy" (dkar po chig thub) doctrine of the BKA' BRGYUD (KAGYU) pa for being like the "Rdzogs chen of the Chinese tradition" (rgya nag lugs kyi rdzogs chen). Possible links between Chinese Chan and early Tibetan Rdzogs chen remain unclear, but the two teachings appear to bear some similarities, and these were certainly what caught the attention of later Tibetan polemicists.

See Also: Bodhi (Awakening); Tibet Bibliography

Demiéville, Paul. Le concile de Lhasa: une controverse sur le quiétisme entre bouddhistes de l'Inde et de la Chine au VIIIe siècle de l'ère chrétienne. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale de France, 1952.

Gómez, Luis O. "Indian Materials on the Doctrine of Sudden Enlightenment." In Early Ch'an in China and Tibet, ed.

Whalen Lai and Lewis Lancaster. Berkeley, CA: Asian Humanities Press, 1983.

Gómez, Luis O. "The Direct and Gradual Approaches of Zen Master Mahayana: Fragments of the Teachings of Mo-ho-yen."
In Studies in Ch'an and Hua-Yen, ed. Robert M. Grimello and Peter N. Gregory. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1983.

Jackson, David. "Sa skya pandita the 'Polemicist': Ancient Debates and Modern Interpretations." Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 13, no. 2 (1990):
17–116.

Kapstein, Matthew. The Tibetan Assimilation of Buddhism: Conversion, Contestation, and Memory. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Obermiller, Eugéne. History of Buddhism (Chos-hbyung) by Buston, 2 vols. Heidelberg, Germany: Harrassowitz, Leipzig, 1931, 1932.

Wangdu, Pasang, and Diemberger, Hildegard. Dba' bzhed: The Royal Narrative Concerning the Bringing of the Buddha's Doctrine to Tibet. Vienna: Verlag der osterreichischen akademie der wissenschaften, 2000.

JACOB P. DALTON

Buddha(S)

The term buddha, literally "awakened one," is one of many Indian epithets applied to the founder of the Buddhist religion. A buddha is defined, first and foremost, as one who has undergone the profoundly transformative experience known as NIRVAN-A and who, as a result, will never be subject to the cycle of birth and death again. Women and men who experienced this same awakening by following in the footsteps of the Buddha were referred to as ARHATs or "worthy ones," an epithet also applied to the Buddha himself. These disciples, however, were not themselves referred to as buddhas, for that term was reserved for those rare individuals who experienced BODHI (AWAKENING) on their own in a world with no knowledge of Buddhism.

Moreover, to attain awakening without the help of a teacher was not in itself sufficient to be classified as a buddha, for those who did so but did not teach others how to replicate that experience were known instead as PRATYEKABUDDHAs, a term variously explained as "individually enlightened" or "enlightened through
(an understanding of) causation." In addition to attaining nirvan-a without assistance from others, the classical definition of a buddha includes teaching others what one has found. A buddha is, in sum, not only the discoverer of a timeless truth, but the founder of a religious community.

It is possible—though far from certain—that the earliest Buddhist tradition knew of only one such figure, the so-called historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, also known as S´akyamuni (sage of the S´akya clan). But the notion that other buddhas had preceded him appeared at an early date, and may well have been assumed by S´akyamuni himself. Over the next four to five centuries Buddhists came to believe that other such buddhas would also appear in the distant future; some even claimed that buddhas were living at the present time, though in worlds unimaginably distant from our own. While the belief in past and future buddhas came to be accepted by all Buddhist schools, the idea of the simultaneous existence of multiple buddhas appears to have gained general currency only in MAHAYANA circles.

Buddhas Of The Past

The earliest datable evidence for a belief in the existence of buddhas prior to S´akyamuni comes from the time of King AS´OKA (ca. 300–232 B.C.E.), who claimed in one of his inscriptions to have enlarged the memorial mound (STUPA) of a previous buddha named Konakamana (Pali, Konagamana; Sanskrit, Konakamuni or Kanakamuni). No names of other buddhas are mentioned, and there is no way to determine whether As´oka viewed Konakamana as belonging to a larger lineage scheme. Within a century or so after As´oka's time, however—and possibly much earlier, depending on what dates are assigned to materials in the Pali canonother names had been added to the list as well. Seven buddhas. A wide range of literary, artistic, and epigraphical sources refers to "seven buddhas of the past," a list including S´akyamuni and six prior buddhas: Vipas´yin, S´ikhin, Vis´vabhu, Krakucchanda, Kanakamuni, and Kas´yapa. A terminus ante quem for the emergence of this tradition is again supplied by an inscription, in this case on a stupa railing at Bharhut in north-central India (ca. second century B.C.E.),
where S´akyamuni's predecessors (with the exception of S´ikhin, where the railing has been damaged) are mentioned by name. The same six buddhas, together with S´akyamuni, are prominently featured on the gateways to the great stupa at SAN
CI (ca. first century B.C.E.).

Subsequently, they appear, both in artistic works and in inscriptions, at a host of other Buddhist sites.

The widespread agreement on both the number and sequence of these previous buddhas in surviving sources—including canonical scriptures preserved in Pali and Chinese that can be attributed to several distinct ordination lineages (nikayas)—suggests that the list of seven was formulated at an early date. More specifically, it points to the likelihood that this list had been standardized prior to the first major schism in Buddhist history, the split between the selfproclaimed "Elders" (Sthaviras) and "Majorityists"
(Mahasam- ghikas, or Great Assembly), which took place between a century and a century and a half after the Buddha's death.

The most detailed discussion of S´akyamuni's predecessors in early (i.e., non-Mahayana) canonical literature is found in the Pali Mahapadana-suttanta
(Dl ghanikaya, sutta no. 14) and in other recensions of the same text preserved in Chinese translation (Taisho 1[1], 2, 3, 4, and 125[48.45]). Here the lives of the seven buddhas, from Vipas´yin (Pali, Vipass) to S´akyamuni himself, are related in virtually identical terms, from a penultimate existence in the Tus-ita heaven, to a miraculous birth, to the experience of nirvan-a and a subsequent preaching career. Only in minor details—such as the names of their parents, their life spans, and the caste into which they were born—can these biographies be distinguished.

Implicit in this replication of a single paradigmatic pattern is the assumption that all buddhas-to-be (Sanskrit, BODHISATTVA) must carry out an identical series of practices, after which they will teach a dharma identical to that of their predecessors. In subsequent centuries this would lead to the idea that by replicating the deeds of S´akyamuni and his predecessors in every detail, other Buddhists, too, could strive to become buddhas rather than arhats.

Not all the members of this list of seven, despite their parallel life stories, appear to have played equally significant roles in cultic practice. If we divide the list into subgroups of "archaic" buddhas said to have lived many eons ago (Vipas´yin, S´ikhin, and Vis´vabhu), and "ancient" buddhas described as preceding S´akyamuni in the present eon (Krakucchanda, Kanakamuni, and Kas´yapa), a clear pattern can be discerned. While the ancient buddhas are all associated with known geographical locations, the towns where the archaic buddhas are said to have lived have no clear historical referent. When the Chinese monk FAXIAN (ca. 337–ca. 418) visited India at the beginning of the fifth century C.E., for example, he was taken to three towns in northeast India (all within range of the city of S´ravast),
where the ancient buddhas were said to have lived, and he was shown stupas said to contain their remains. No comparable pilgrimage sites connected with the three archaic buddhas are mentioned, either in Faxian's report or in those of subsequent Chinese visitors. Based on surviving images and inscriptions, as well as on further data found in the travel accounts of Faxian and later Chinese pilgrims, J. Ph. Vogel has suggested that the buddha Kas´yapa may have been an especially popular object of veneration.

Twenty-five buddhas. An expanded version of the list of seven, totaling twenty-five buddhas in all, is attested in the Pali Buddhavam- sa, though it appears to be little known outside the THERAVADA tradition. This list extends still further into the past to begin with the buddha DIPAM- KARA, in whose presence the future S´akyamuni made his initial vow to attain buddhahood.

Although the story of Dpam- kara is not included in the Pali collection of JATAKA tales recounting S´akyamuni's former lives, it does appear in the Nidanakatha,
an introduction to that collection that is generally assigned to the fifth century C.E. and quotes directly from earlier sources such as the Buddhavam- sa and the Cariyapit-aka. The story is frequently depicted in art from the Gandhara region, though it is virtually absent from other Buddhist sites, suggesting that it may have originated at the northwestern fringes of the Indian cultural sphere.

Though no occurrence of the list of twenty-five buddhas of the past has yet been identified in Mahayana scriptures, the first buddha in this series, Dpam- kara, plays a significant role in these texts. Since S´akyamuni Buddha was portrayed as having made his initial vow to become a buddha in the presence of Dpam- kara, this motif became quite common in the writings of advocates of the bodhisattva path in subsequent centuries.

Buddhas Of The Future

The earliest lists of multiple buddhas referred only to S´akyamuni and his predecessors. Around the turn of the millennium, however, a shorter list of fiveconsisting of four buddhas of the past (the ancient buddhas Krakucchanda, Kanakamuni, Kas´yapa, together with S´akyamuni) along with one buddha of the future (MAITREYA; Pali, Metteyya)—was compiled.

The weight of this tradition is still anchored firmly in the past, but the door was now open to speculation on other buddhas who might also appear in the future. Besides introducing a buddha-of-the-future for the first time, this list was also innovative in its optimism about the nature of the present age, for these five figures were labeled buddhas of the bhadrakalpa (fortunate eon).

The list of five buddhas remained standard in the Theravada tradition, but a longer list of one thousand buddhas of the bhadrakalpa frequently appears in Mahayana scriptures. An intermediary list, consisting of five hundred buddhas of the bhadrakalpa, appears to have circulated mainly in Central Asia. In all of these systems Maitreya holds pride of place as the next buddha to appear in our world. Like all buddhas-to-be, he is said to be spending his penultimate life in the Tus-ita heaven, from which he surveys our world to determine the right time and place to be born.

Estimates varied as to the amount of time that would elapse between our own age and the coming of Maitreya. One of the most common figures was 5.6 billion years; other traditions offered a figure of 560 million. While many Buddhists worked to acquire merit in order to be born here on earth in that distant era when Maitreya would at last attain buddhahood, others strove to be reborn more immediately in his presence in the Tus-ita heaven. Still others strove for visionary encounters with Maitreya, through which they could see him in his heavenly realm even before departing from this life.

Buddhas Of The Present

All of the traditions discussed above share the assumption that only one buddha can appear in the world at any given time. Each buddha is portrayed as having discovered a truth about reality (i.e., an understanding of the dharma) that had, prior to his time, been utterly lost. Since a buddha can appear, therefore, only in a world without any knowledge of Buddhism, only one such figure can exist at a time.

This restriction applies, however, only if one posits the existence of just one world system, and around the turn of the millennium some Buddhists began to articulate a new view of the universe that consisted not of one, but of hundreds or thousands of such worlds. This made possible, for the first time, the idea that other buddhas might currently be living and teaching, albeit in worlds unimaginably distant from our own. Scriptures reflecting this perspective speak of other world systems located "throughout the ten directions"—that is, in the four cardinal directions, the four intermediate directions, the zenith, and the nadir.

Many Indian texts refer simply to these buddhas of the ten directions in the aggregate, but occasionally particular figures are named, some of whom appear to have gained a strong following in India. By far the most prominent are the buddha AKS-OBHYA, said to dwell in a world known as Abhirati (extreme delight) far to the east, and the buddha AMITABHA (also known as Amitayus), dwelling in the land of Sukhavat (blissful)
in the distant west. These two figures, together with others currently presiding over comparably glorious realms, have come to be known in English-language studies as celestial buddhas.
The term celestial buddha has no precise equivalent in Sanskrit (nor for that matter in Chinese or Tibetan), yet it can serve as a convenient label for those buddhas who are presently living and teaching in worlds other than our own and into whose lands believers may aspire to be reborn. Conditions in these lands are portrayed as idyllic, comparable in many respects to Buddhist heavens; indeed, this comparison is made explicit in scriptures describing the worlds of celestial buddhas, such as the Aks-obhyavyuha and the larger SUKHAVATIVYUHA-SUTRA. Yet these realms are not heavens in the strict sense, but "amputated" world systems, shorn only of the lower realms (durgati) of hellbeings, animals, and ghosts.

In addition to inhabiting such glorious placessaid to be the by-product of their activities as bodhisattvas, and in some cases (most notably in the

The buddha Amitabha, a celestial buddha who resides in the Western paradise of Sukhavatl. (Vietnamese sculpture, eighteenth or nineteenth century.) © Reunion des Musées Nationaux/Art Resource, NY. Reproduced by permission.

Sukhavatl vyuha) described as resulting from specific
"world-designing" vows—celestial buddhas, like the archaic buddhas of our own world, are described as having immensely long life spans. Yet the factors that elicited these seemingly parallel circumstances are not the same. In the case of the archaic buddhas, their long life spans are the corollary of their being placed at a point in the cycle of evolution-and-devolution where human life spans in general stretch to between sixty thousand and eighty thousand years; the same is true of the future buddha Maitreya, who is scheduled to appear in our world when the maximum life span of eighty thousand years has again arrived (Nattier 1991). In the case of celestial buddhas, on the other hand, their long life spans are necessitated by their role as the presiding buddhas in other realms to which believers from other worlds might aspire to be reborn.

Such an aspiration for rebirth makes sense, of course, only if the believer is confident that the buddha in question will still be alive when he or she arrives.

Celestial buddhas are not, however, described as immortal; the Aks-obhyavyuha makes much of Aks-obhya's eventual parinirvan-a and autocremation, while early translations of the Sukhavatl vyuha make it clear that Avalokites´vara will succeed to the position of reigning buddha of Sukhavat after Amitabha has passed away. Thus the lives of these buddhas—while far more glorious in circumstances and far longer in duration—still echo the pattern set by S´akyamuni.

Other developments would subsequently take place, such as the claim that S´akyamuni Buddha had already attained nirvan-a prior to his appearance in this world and the concomitant assumption that his life span was immeasurably, though not infinitely, long, and the even grander claim that all buddhas who appear in this or any other world are merely manifestations of an eternal dharma-body. Throughout most of the history of Buddhism in India, however, buddhas continued to be viewed as human beings who had achieved awakening as S´akyamuni did, even as the list of their qualities and their attainments grew ever more glorious.

See also: Buddhahood and Buddha Bodies; Lotus
Sutra (Saddharmapun-d-arlka-sutra); Pure Lands

Gómez, Luis O. The Land of Bliss: The Paradise of the Buddha of Measureless Light. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1996.

Harrison, Paul M. The Samadhi of Direct Encounter with the Buddhas of the Present: An Annotated English Translation of the Tibetan Version of the Pratyutpanna-BuddhaSam- mukhavasthita-Samadhi-Sutra. Tokyo: International Institute for Buddhist Studies, 1990.

Nattier, Jan. Once upon a Future Time: Studies in a Buddhist Prophecy of Decline. Fremont, CA: Asian Humanities Press, 1991.

Nattier, Jan. "The Realm of Aks-obhya: A Missing Piece in the History of Pure Land Buddhism." Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 23, no. 1 (2000): 71–102.

Norman, K. R. "The Pratyeka-Buddha in Buddhism and Jainism." In Buddhist Studies Ancient and Modern: Collected Papers on South Asia, no. 4, ed. Philip Denwood and Alexander Piatigorsky. London: Centre of South Asian Studies, University of London, 1983.

Sponberg, Alan, and Hardacre, Helen, eds. Maitreya: The Future Buddha. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

Vogel, J. Ph. "The Past Buddhas and Kas´yapa in Indian Art and Epigraphy." In Asiatica: Festschrift Friedrich Weller, ed. Johannes Schubert and Ulrich Schneider. Leipzig, Germany:
Harrassowitz, 1954.

JAN NATTIER

Buddhacarita

The Buddhacarita (Acts of the Buddha) by AS´VAGHOS-A
is a second-century C.E. biography recounting in ornate verse the life of the Buddha from his birth to the distribution of his relics. The epic poem comprises twenty-eight chapters, only fourteen of which are extant in the original Sanskrit. The remainder are preserved in Tibetan and Chinese translations.

See also: Buddha, Life of the; Sanskrit, Buddhist Literature in

Beal, Samuel, trans. The Fo-sho-hing-tsan-king: A Life of Buddha, by As´vaghosha Bodhisattva. Reprint edition, Delhi:
Motilal Banarsidass, 1964.

Johnston, E. H., trans. "The Buddha's Mission and Last Journey (Buddhacarita, xv to xxviii)." Acta Orientalia 15 (1937):
26–32, 85–111, 231–292.

Johnston, E. H., trans. The Buddhacarita, or, Acts of the Buddha.
Reprint edition, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1972.

JOHN S. STRONG

Buddhada Sa

Buddhadasa (Ngeaum Panich, 1906–1993), a Thai Buddhist monk and scholar, was a prolific commentator on the Pali literature of the THERAVADA school and an influential preceptor of ENGAGED BUDDHISM.

Ordained at the age of twenty-one, Buddhadasa became widely known for his critical intellect, his interest in meditation, and his gifts as a teacher. He founded Suan Mokh (Garden of Liberation), an important monastery and international center for engaged Buddhist thought and training in Thailand. In his voluminous writings, Buddhadasa developed the ideas of dhammic socialism, spiritual politics, fellowship of restraint (san˙ gamaniyama), and interfaith dialogue based on Buddhist principles of selflessness, interdependence, and nonattachment.

Jackson, Peter A. Buddhadasa: A Buddhist Thinker for the Modern World. Bangkok, Thailand: Siam Society, 1988.

Santikaro, Bhikkhu. "Buddhadasa Bhikkhu: Life and Society through the Natural Eyes of Voidness." In Engaged Buddhism: Buddhist Liberation Movements in Asia, ed. Christopher S. Queen and Sallie B. King. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996.

Swearer, Donald K., ed. Me and Mine: Selected Essays of Bhikkhu Buddhadasa. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989.

CHRISTOPHER S. QUEEN

Buddhaghosa

The most famous and prolific of the Pali commentators and exegetes, Buddhaghosa was active at the beginning of the fifth century C.E. According to the Mahavam- sa (Great Chronicle), he was an Indian brahmin of considerable scholarly genius who hailed from the kingdom of Magadha. He was converted to Buddhism by a monk named Revata and went to Sri Lanka at his teacher's instigation to study the Sinhalese commentaries at the Mahavihara Monastery. The monks there tested him by asking him to explicate two dharma verses. The result was the Visuddhimagga
(Path of Purity), a work that remains the greatest compendium of THERAVADA thought ever written and that has had a lasting impact on the tradition. In three parts, the Visuddhimagga thoroughly and systematically treats all aspects of the topics of morality, meditation, and wisdom.

Buddhaghosa subsequently went on to write commentaries on many works of the Pali CANON. Chief among them are separate commentaries on the Vinayapit-aka (Book of the Discipline); on the Dl gha, Majjhima, Sam- yutta, and An˙ guttara nikayas (the books of long, middle, kindred, and gradual sayings); and on the books of the ABHIDHARMA. In these works, which contain both exegeses of words and contextual excursi, Buddhaghosa succeeded in more or less defining the ways scholars have read the Theravada canonical texts ever since. Buddhaghosa's life story may also be found, greatly embellished, in a late Pali chronicle known as the Buddhaghosuppatti (The Development of the Career of Buddhaghosa).

Gray, James, ed. and trans. Buddhaghosuppatti or the Historical Romance of the Rise and Career of Buddhaghosa. London: Luzac, 1892. Reprinted, 1999.

Law, Bimala Churn. Buddhaghosa. Bombay: Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1946.

JOHN S. STRONG

Buddhahood And Buddha Bodies

The term buddhahood (buddhatva) refers to the unique attainment of buddhas that distinguishes them from all other kinds of holy being. Buddhahood constitutes the fullest possible realization of ultimate reality and total freedom from all that obscures it, together with all qualities that flow from such a realization. Buddhahood is described in two closely related ways: in terms of its distinctive characteristics, and in terms of buddha "bodies."

Characteristics Of Buddhahood

Early Buddhist texts ascribe qualities to S´akyamuni Buddha that distinguish him from other ARHATs (those who have realized NIRVAN-A) and that render him the supreme teacher of the world. He was said to possess ten unmatched powers of penetrating awareness, four peerless forms of fearlessness, and supreme compassion for all beings. His body was endowed with thirtytwo marks of a great person (mahapurus-a), the fruit of immeasurable virtue from previous lives (Dl
ghanikaya 3.142–179). As the outflow of his enlightenment he also possessed supernormal powers (r-ddhis) superior to those of others; these included the power to project multiple physical forms of diverse kinds (nirman-as), to control physical phenomena, to know others' minds and capacities, to perceive directly over great distances and time, and to know and skillfully communicate the freedom of nirvan-a (Majjhimanikaya 1.69–73; Makransky, pp. 26–27). S´akyamuni's enlightened qualities exemplify those possessed by all prior buddhas and by all buddhas to come, qualities that enable each buddha to reintroduce the dharma to the world in each age.

Buddha Bodies (Kayas)

The Indic term kaya refers to the physical body of a living being. It therefore carries the secondary meaning of a collection or aggregate of parts. In Buddhist texts over time, kaya came to include a third meaningbase or substratum, since one's body is the base of many qualities. The term also came to connote the embodiment of ultimate truth in enlightened knowledge and activity. Buddha embodied in dharma and in forms. For early Buddhist traditions, S´akyamuni's body with thirty-two special marks constituted his primary physical expression of enlightenment. But his power to manifest himself to others extended beyond the confines of his physical body, since he created a "mindmade" body (manomayakaya) to teach his deceased mother in a heaven, and occasionally projected copies of his body, or created diverse forms, to carry out enlightened activities (nirman-a). All such manifest forms were referred to as rupakaya, the embodiment (kaya)
of the Buddha in forms (rupa).

Of special importance was the dharma, the truths that the Buddha had realized and taught, encapsulated in the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS, the very source of the charismatic power expressed through his physical body and teaching. Metaphorically, the dharma itself was understood as his essential being, his very body. So the Dl ghanikaya (Group of Long Discourses) says that the Buddha instructed his disciples, when asked their family lineage, to reply, "I am a true son of the Buddha, born of his mouth, born of dharma, created by the dharma, an heir of the dharma. Why? Because buddhas are those whose body is dharma (dharmakaya),
(3.84).

After the Buddha's physical death, the distinction between his dharma body (dharmakaya) and his form body (rupakaya) grounded two legacies of communal practice (Reynolds 1977, p. 376). "Body of dharma"
(dharmakaya) referred especially to the corpus of teachings the Buddha bequeathed to his monastic SAN˙ GHA, whose institutional life centered on the recitation, study, and practice of them. On the other hand, the relics from the cremation of the Buddha's physical body (rupakaya) were placed in reliquary mounds
(STUPAs) at which laity (and monks and nuns as well)
practiced ritual forms of reverence for the Buddha modeled on forms of devotion shown to him during his lifetime.

In THERAVADA and Sarvastivada traditions, dharmakaya also referred to the Buddha's supramundane realizations, his powers of awareness, fearlessness, compassion, and skillful means, as noted above. Here dharmakaya refers to the Buddha's "body of dharma(s),"
where dharmas are pure qualities of enlightened mind (Makransky, p. 27). The power of Buddha's nirvan-a in the world.
Scholastics of those schools maintained that the Buddha's final nirvan-a at his physical death was an unconditioned attainment, a total passing away from the conditioned world of beings. Yet many practices of Buddhist communities seem to have functioned to mediate the power of the Buddha's nirvan-a to the world long after he was physically gone. Stupas containing relics of the Buddha, when ritually consecrated, "came alive" for devotees with the presence of the Buddha, representing the Buddha not only as the field of merit for offerings, but as a continuing source of salvific power for the world. Thus, many stories tell of Buddhist devotees who witnessed miraculous events or had spontaneous visions of the Buddha at stupas. The distribution of the Buddha's relics among many stupas over time cosmologized the Buddha, ritually rendering the power of his dharmakaya (his attainment of nirvan-a) pervasively present to the world through his rupakaya (physical embodiment) in many stupas
(Strong, p. 119). Statues and paintings of the Buddha had similar ritual functions, while also serving as support for meditative practices that vividly brought to mind the qualities of the Buddha while visualizing his physical form (buddhanusmr-ti). Accomplished meditators were said to have visions and dreams of the Buddha, and to experience the Buddha's qualities and powers as vividly present in their world. All such ritual and yogic practices functioned to render the salvific power of his nirvan-a, even after he was physically gone, a continuing presence in the sam- saric world.

Several schools deriving from Mahasam- ghika tradition appear to have given doctrinal expression to these patterns of understanding. They asserted that the Buddha was wholly supramundane, that his salvific power was all-pervasive, and that his body that had perished at the age of eighty was just a mind-made (manomaya) or illusory creation (nirman-a), not his real body. Rather, his real body was pure and limitless, its life endless.

Theravada and Sarvastivada scholastics had claimed that the Buddha's final nirvan-a had destroyed the sole creative cause of his sam- saric experience (defiled karma), resulting in a final nirvan-a beyond creation or conditionality. But the Mahasam- ghikas, by asserting that the Buddha's rupakaya was pure and limitless, seemed to be saying that his long BODHISATTVA practice of prior lives had not only destroyed the impure causes of his SAM- SARA, but functioned as pure creative cause for his nirvan-ic attainment to embody itself limitlessly for beings. Along similar lines, the LOTUS SUTRA
(SADDHARMAPUN-D-ARIKA-SUTRA), an early MAHAYANA
scripture, declared the Buddha's life and salvific activity to span innumerable eons, beyond his apparent physical death. Pure buddha fields and celestial buddhas. This understanding of a buddha's nirvan-a as not just the cessation of defilement but also the manifestation of vast salvific power was developed in a wide range of Mahayana scriptures of early centuries C.E. The centrality of bodhisattvas in Mahayana sutras, each of whom vows to become a buddha, supported a new Buddhist cosmology of multiple buddhas simultaneously active throughout the universe. Each such buddha wields enlightened power within his own field of salvific activity for the beings karmically connected to him. On the path to buddhahood, therefore, bodhisattvas vow to "purify" their fields, by collecting immeasurable amounts of merit and wisdom (as pure creative causes for their buddha fields), by training other bodhisattvas in similar practices, and by transferring their merit to other beings so they may be reborn in such fields (Williams, pp. 224–227). The purest such fields are heavenly domains of buddhas of infinite radiance, power, and incalculable life span, such as AMITABHA or AKS-OBHYA, buddhas whose pure fields
(or PURE LANDS) consist of jeweled palaces and radiant natural scenes, where all conditions are perfect for communicating and realizing enlightenment. Those born near such a celestial buddha, either by the power of their own practice or by faith in the power of such a buddha, make quick progress to enlightenment. Late fourth-century C.E. Mahayana treatises, such as the Mahayanasutralam- kara (Ornament of Mahayana Scriptures) and Abhisamayalam- kara (Ornament of Realization), created a new vocabulary for such celestial buddhas, referring to them as sambhogakaya, the perfect embodiment (kaya) of buddhahood for supreme communal enjoyment (sambhoga) of dharma (Nagao, pp. 107–112). The unrestricted nirvan-a of the buddhas and the three buddha kayas. These Mahayana understandings developed within a nexus of other developing doctrines. Prajñaparamita (Perfection of Wisdom) sutras and early Madhyamaka treatises declared all phenomena to be empty of substantial independent existence
(svabhavas´unya), hence illusory. When bodhisattvas attain direct knowledge of that truth, they realize that all things in their intrinsic emptiness have always been in nirvan-ic peace, that sam- sara is undivided from nirvan-a. Through such wisdom, the bodhisattva learns to embody the freedom and power of nirvan-a while continuing to act skillfully within sam- sara for the sake of others. When this bodhisattva path of wisdom and skillful means is fully accomplished, its simultaneous participation in sam- sara and nirvan-a becomes the essential realization of buddhahood. This is referred to in Yogacara and later Madhyamaka treatises as a buddha's "unrestricted nirvan-a" (apratis-t-hita nirvan-a); it is unrestricted because it is bound neither to sam- sara nor to a merely quiescent nirvan-a, but possessed of limitless and spontaneous activity, all-pervasive and eternal, radiating its power to beings throughout all existence, drawing them toward enlightenment (Makransky, pp. 85–87).

In the Perfection of Wisdom sutras, the term dharmata (literally "thinghood") refers to the real nature of things, undivided in their emptiness yet diverse in their appearance. In treatises that formalized the concept of the buddhas' unrestricted nirvan-a, the dharmata of all things as the limitless field of the buddhas' enlightened knowledge and power came to be referred to as dharmakaya, now meaning the buddhas' "embodiment of dharmata" (of ultimate reality; Makransky, pp. 34–37, 199–201). Dharmakaya, as the nondual awareness of the emptiness of all things, is undifferentiated among buddhas, yet serves as the basis for diverse manifestations. It is therefore also etymologized as the undivided basis (kaya) of all the buddha qualities (dharmas). A synonym for it in such treatises was svabhavikakaya, meaning the buddhas' embodiment (kaya) of the intrinsic nature (svabhava) of things.

The celestial sambhogakaya buddhas, then, represent the primary manifestation of dharmakaya, perfectly embodying the nonduality of appearance (rupa)
and emptiness (dharma). For this reason, the sensory phenomena of sambhogakaya pure fields—gentle breezes, flowing rivers, even the birds—continually disclose the nirvan-ic nature of things to the bodhisattva assemblies arrayed there.

But formulators of the buddhas' unrestricted nirvan-a, as noted above, understood the dharmakaya's salvific activity to radiate to beings of all realms, not just to those in pure buddha fields. Such all-pervasive buddha activity is carried out by innumerable manifestations within the empty, illusory worlds of beings.

In Yogacara and later Madhyamaka treatises, the limitlessly diverse ways that buddhahood was said to manifest in Mahayana scriptures came to be classified under the term nirman-akaya, meaning buddhahood embodied in diverse, illusory manifestations (nirman-a).

As such, nirman-akaya encompasses three broad categories. First, since the world itself in its empty, illusory nature is undivided from nirvan-a, any aspect of the world has the potential to disclose the essence of buddhahood (to function as nirman-akaya) when a person's mind becomes pure enough to notice. Second, buddhas and advanced bodhisattvas have great power to project illusory replicas and visionary forms to beings (nirman-as) to help guide them toward enlightenment. Such illusory projections further support the disclosure of all things as illusory appearances of empty reality. Third, all sorts of beings who serve to communicate the buddhas' truths function as agents of buddha activity, hence as nirman-akaya, from supreme human paradigms like S´akyamuni to the innumerable bodhisattvas of Mahayana scriptures who carry out much of the Buddha's teaching and salvific activity, and who appear in all walks of life and as all types of beings.

Thus developed the basic Mahayana doctrine of three buddha kayas—dharmakaya, sambhogakaya, and nirman-akaya—which informed the buddhalogies that developed throughout Asia, contributing to the Huayan, Tiantai, Zhenyan, Chan, and Jingtu traditions of China, thence Korea and Japan, and to all Tibetan Buddhist traditions. Some scholars, seeking to analyze the relationship between transcendental and phenomenal aspects of buddhahood, divided the three kayas into four. So XUANZANG in seventh-century China distinguished two aspects of sambhogakaya, while Haribhadra in eighth-century India divided dharmakaya in two by reference to conditioned and unconditioned aspects (Makransky, pp. 216–218).

In Indian Yogacara and later Madhyamaka treatises, the three kaya doctrine was associated with a developmental model of path: Buddhahood is to be attained by the radical transformation of all aspects of a person's defiled consciousness into buddha kayas and wisdoms. Mahayana texts whose central teaching was buddha nature (TATHAGATAGARBHA), on the other hand, emphasized a discovery model of path: Buddha kayas manifest automatically as the mind is purified, for the very essence of mind (buddha nature) is already replete with their qualities (Nagao, pp. 115–117).

Tantric Buddhist traditions of India, East Asia, and Tibet drew upon both such models. The teaching of buddha nature undergirds the "three mysteries" uncovered by tantric praxis, through which the practitioner discovers that his or her body, speech, and mind are undivided from those of the buddhas, which are one with the three kayas. Tantric traditions have also drawn upon Yogacara and Madhyamaka models of transformation to construct homologies expressed in MAN-D-ALAs. Indian and Tibetan praxis of highest yoga tantras engages four energy centers in the body, which frame correspondences between the fourfold aspects of the unenlightened person, the fourfold aspects of path that ultimately transforms them, and four resultant buddha kayas, all of which take visual expression in the four directions of the man-d-ala. Within such a system, a fourth kaya representing highest tantric attainment is added to the prior three kayas, and is designated by terms such as sahajakaya, "embodiment of co-presence
(of nirvan-a and sam- sara)," or mahasukhakaya, "embodiment of great bliss" (the tantrically embodied bliss of nondual wisdom and means; Snellgrove, p. 251).

Japanese PURE LAND BUDDHISM (Jodoshu, Jodo Shinshu) has emphasized the transcendental power of buddhahood embodied in the sambhogakaya Amitabha. Because this is the period of the DECLINE
OF THE DHARMA (mappo), it is argued, people are no longer able to accomplish the path through their own power but must rely upon the buddha Amitabha, whose power to take the devotee into his pure field at death is received in faith through recitation of his name
(NENBUTSU [CHINESE, NIANFO; KOREAN, YO˘MBUL]). Zen traditions, on the other hand, based upon the doctrine of buddha nature, have emphasized the immanence and immediacy of enlightenment. Through Zen practice, it is said, buddhahood complete with all kayas is to be discovered intimately within one's present mind, body, and world. So the Japanese eighteenth-century Zen teacher HAKUIN EKAKU wrote, "This very place, the pure lotus land; this very body, the buddha body."
See also: Buddhanusmr-ti (Recollection of the Buddha); Relics and Relics Cults

Griffiths, Paul J. On Being Buddha: The Classical Doctrine of Buddhahood. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994. La Vallée Poussin, Louis de, trans. and ed. Vijñaptimatratasiddhi: La Siddhi de Hiuan-tsang. Paris: Geuthner, 1928–1948. Makransky, John J. Buddhahood Embodied: Sources of Controversy in India and Tibet. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997.

Nagao, Gadjin. "On the Theory of Buddha-Body (Buddhakaya)." In Madhyamika and Yogacara: A Study of Mahayana Philosophies, Collected Papers of G. M. Nagao, tr. and ed. Leslie S. Kawamura. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991.

Reynolds, Frank. "The Several Bodies of Buddha: Reflections on a Neglected Aspect of Theravada Tradition." History of Religions 16, no. 4 (1977): 374–389.

Reynolds, Frank E., and Hallisey, Charles. "The Buddha." In Buddhism and Asian History, ed. Joseph M. Kitagawa and Mark D. Cummings. New York: Macmillan, 1989.

Sharf, Robert H. Coming to Terms with Chinese Buddhism. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2002.

Snellgrove, David. Indo-Tibetan Buddhism. Boston: Shambhala, 1987.

Strong, John S. The Legend of King As´oka: A Study and Translation of the As´okavadana. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1983.

Williams, Paul M. Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations. New York: Routledge, 1989.

JOHN J. MAKRANSKY

Buddha Images

Buddha images—whether they are Indian, Thai, Chinese, or Japanese—are usually readily recognizable. The date an image was created rarely confuses its identification as Buddhist because the iconography of the Buddha image has remained constant almost from the earliest invention of the image type, even though the style of the figure has varied depending on date and geographical location. The term iconography refers to the forms or characteristics of an image, whereas style refers to the ways in which these forms or characteristics are crafted or made. The iconography of the Buddha image includes representing the Buddha as a MONK, wearing a monk's robe, and with his hair shaved. A monk wears two or three simple items of clothing, including an untailored and unsewn undercloth (antaravasaka), a rectangular cloth worn like a skirt that reaches to the ankles and is folded under at the waist or belted with a piece of cloth. An upper garment (uttarasan˙ ga), a second rectangular cloth held behind the back and thrown over the shoulders like a shawl, is worn over the undercloth. There are two ways to wear it, either covering both shoulders or under the right armpit. A third cloth, which is rarely worn, except in cold climates, is sometimes folded and placed over the left shoulder during special ceremonial occasions. The actual monk's robes are dyed in shades of yellow. This simple attire can usually be discerned on Buddha images, although artists tended to arrange the cloth in various decorative ways, such as producing a perfectly symmetrical fall of the robe on both sides of the body, or fashioning the folds in rhythmic patterns.

Monks shave the HAIR on their heads and faces, and the Buddha performed the tonsure on himself when he left his palace and courtly life for that of a wandering mendicant. With a stroke of his sword he removed his long topknot, and some texts note that the remaining hair formed small curls that turned toward the right. Indian artists by the second century C.E. depicted the Buddha's hair as small ringlets over the head, which came to be called snail-shell curls. In some artistic traditions, these curls developed into rows of small bumps.

The Buddha, however, was not simply a monk; he was born a great man (mahapurus-a) and was identified as such by certain bodily signs (laks-an-a). Some of these, such as his sweet voice, could not be produced in art, but others, such as his cranial protuberance, could be depicted. The extent to which the artists attempted to reproduce the laks-an-a varied according to place and time, but the cranial bump became standard for most images.

There are, of course, many different buddhas, but the Buddha of our historic period, S´akyamuni, was a human being, and it is overwhelmingly S´akyamuni who is represented in the earliest images in India. Thus, he consistently has two arms, unlike images of Hindu deities from the same period, who often have multiple arms. Also associated with S´akyamuni Buddha are certain hand positions (mudra) and postures. One popular early type depicted the Buddha seated with his legs crossed and his right hand held up with the palm out.

Although artistic depictions of these gestures and postures developed over time and came to be associated with certain narrative events, they are highly restricted in number and reappear again and again.

Thus, the shared iconography—the monk's robe, shaved hair, certain bodily marks, and limited hand positions and body postures—have made it possible for the Buddha image, no matter the style, to be identifiable across time and geography. Two of the most intriguing, yet controversial, questions regarding Buddha images are when they were first made and why. The earliest images were produced in two locations in South Asia: Mathura, a city sixty miles south of Delhi, and Gandhara, a region centered on Taxila in present-day Pakistan. The first Buddha image is usually believed to have been created around the first century C.E. The Buddha image types produced in these two regions were radically different in style. Although the iconographic parameters outlined above were generally followed in both places, the Gandhara images are related to Western classical (Roman and Hellenistic) art, whereas the Mathura images are related to the north Indian style seen in earlier anthropomorphic sculptures of various local or pan-Indian deities, such as YAKS-As.

The early Mathura type, such as the nine-foot-tall Buddha dedicated by the monk Bala, is a monumental image that stands with knees locked, staring straight ahead, his left arm akimbo with a fist on his hip. The robe is thin and transparent, revealing the body. The Gandhara type, on the other hand, wears all three garments, completely masking the body underneath, the emphasis being on the pattern of the heavy, deep folds of fabric.

It is clear to scholars today, however, that the earliest images were probably not as sophisticated and well-defined as those described above, and some scholars have begun to identify groups and individual images that suggest an earlier development. While these images vary considerably, they share a modest size and nascent iconography that includes the uttarasan˙ ga worn not as a covering robe but, like a layman, as a bunched shawl.

Also at issue is the interplay of the development of the Buddha image with that of images of other anthropomorphic deities of the same period—both Hindu and Jain. All three religions were practiced in Mathura, and some of the earliest images developed there. Of the three religious groups, the Jains probably produced the first anthropomorphic icons at Mathura; these are tiny figures of their naked Jinas on stone reliefs dated to as early as the second century B.C.E. It seems reasonable to expect that the three religions interacted and competed at Mathura, with their anthropomorphic images developing together. Indeed, images from Mathura shared the same style, whether Jain, Buddhist, or Hindu.

Given such evidence, it is likely that the first small, rather indifferent, Buddha figures were created around the first century B.C.E. It is unlikely that such figures were the focus initially of worship or an icon cult, although by around 100 C.E., when the Bala and Gandhara Buddha images were created, such cults were certainly in place.

Still, assuming the Buddha lived in the fifth century B.C.E., it is of interest that no anthropomorphic images of the Buddha existed until some four hundred years after his death. This early period was not without Buddhist art, however. Although the famous King AS´OKA of the third century B.C.E. was predisposed to Buddhism, the only artwork from his reign that might be labeled Buddhist is the single lion capital with a wheel
(cakra) from Sarnath. But from the mid-second and first centuries B.C.E., there is an explosion of Buddhist art associated with stupas, including those at Bharhut and SAN
CI. At these and other sites, extensive narrative reliefs depicting the Buddha's life stories and past lives
(JATAKA) were carved in stone. However, even though

the Buddha as a human being could be shown in such jataka scenes, he is not represented in any reliefs of this period. The absence of the Buddha in anthropomorphic form is called aniconic in art historical literature.

How to interpret this absence is at the center of extensive scholarly debate, but the initial absence accentuates the importance of Buddha images created later.

The early Buddhist sites in India clearly show that the STUPA (and thus the relic enshrined therein) was the focus of worship. Other symbolic forms, such as the tree or the wheel, were also worshiped. There were extensive narrative reliefs associated with these sites, particularly with stupas. Eventually, anthropomorphic images began to be used in depictions of the Buddha's life stories. It appears that interest in the anthropomorphic images lay more in their narrative function, and not in their function as icons. The popularization of an icon cult may have been an innovation of a few clerics, most particularly the monk Bala and his associates, who placed enormous Mathura Buddha images at several sites in northern India. Very quickly, however, the Buddha image became widespread in South Asia.

A single image, without any narrative context, is difficult to "read." Certain places and periods had favorite image types, and the different Buddhist schools, such as THERAVADA and MAHAYANA, used and interpreted Buddha images in different ways. Nevertheless, the actual images themselves remain iconographically consistent.

For example, the favorite form that the Buddha image takes, whether standing or seated, what arm positions are shown, and how the robe is worn, have been shown to be determined not so much by religious concerns but by artistic traditions. Various regions and periods favor certain dominant types of Buddha images, with a limited number of secondary forms. Theravada Buddha images are extremely limited in their iconography. Almost all seated images in Sri Lanka, for example, are in meditation. Mahayana Buddhism uses the different hand gestures of seated Buddha images to construct systems of five, six, and seven image MAN- D-ALA. However, the fact that an image might be in earth-touching gesture, for example, is not itself sufficient to tell us whether it is S´akyamuni at the moment of calling the earth to witness or rather the Mahayana Buddha AKS-OBHYA. There is no difference artistically. This issue calls into question whether we can even speak of Mahayana art, at least in terms of Buddha images. Rather it is context, not iconography, Statue of the Buddha at the eighth-century grotto shrine of So˘kkuram near Pulguksa, South Korea. © Carmen Redondo/Corbis. Reproduced by permission.

that defines the image. Likewise, the Buddha images reflect no difference in the way the different bodies of the Buddha (the trikaya) are represented. It is only when we move to the VAJRAYANA Buddhist systems, such as those of Nepal and Tibet, with new definitions of the Buddha and his body, that the art becomes clearly differentiated. See also: Bodhisattva Images; Buddha, Life of the, in Art; Jainism and Buddhism; Mudra and Visual Imagery; Robes and Clothing

Coomaraswamy, Ananda Kentish. The Origin of the Buddha Image. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1972.

Dehejia, Vidya. "Aniconism and the Multivalence of Emblems."
Ars Orientalis 21 (1991): 45–66.

Ghose, Rajeshwari, with Puay-peng Ho and Yeung Chun-tong.

In the Footsteps of the Buddha: An Iconic Journey from India to China. Hong Kong: University Museum and Art Gallery, University of Hong Kong, 1998.

Griswold, A. B. "Prolegomena to the Study of the Buddha's Dress in Chinese Sculpture, Part I." Artibus Asiae 26 (1963): 85–131.

Huntington, Susan L. "Aniconism and the Multivalence of Emblems: Another Look." Ars Orientalis 22 (1992): 111–156.

Huntington, Susan L., and Huntington, John C. Leaves from the Bodhi Tree: The Art of Pala India (8th–12th Centuries) and Its International Legacy. Seattle, WA: Dayton Art Institute, 1989.

Lohuizen-de Leeuw, Johanna Engelberta van. "New Evidence with Regard to the Origin of the Buddha Image." In South Asian Archaeology 1979: Papers from the Fifth International Conference of the Association of South Asian Archaeologists in Western Europe Held in the Museum für Indische Kunst der Staalichen Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz Berlin, ed. Herbert Härtel. Berlin: D. Reimer, 1981.

Lyons, Islay, and Ingholt, Harald. Gandharan Art in Pakistan.
New York: Pantheon Books, 1957.

Menzies, Jackie, ed. Buddha: Radiant Awakening. Sydney, Australia: Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2001.

Pal, Pratapaditya, ed. Light of Asia: Buddha S´akyamuni in Asian Art. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1984.

Quintanilla, Sonya. "Ayagapatas: Characteristics, Symbolism, and Chronology." Artibus Asiae 60 (1990): 79–137.

Schopen, Gregory. "On Monks, Nuns, and 'Vulgar' Practices:
The Introduction of the Image Cult into Indian Buddhism." Artibus Asiae 49 1/2 (1988–1989): 153–168.

Snellgrove, David L., ed. The Image of the Buddha. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1978. Zwalf, W., ed. Buddhism: Art and Faith. London: British Museum, 1985.

ROBERT L. BROWN

Buddha, Life Of The

The term buddha (literally, "awakened") refers to a fully enlightened being who has attained perfect knowledge and full liberation from REBIRTH. Buddha is not a proper name but a general term that may be applied to all enlightened beings. Therefore, the historical Buddha may be designated using this term from the time of his enlightenment (bodhi) only. Before that moment, he was a BODHISATTVA, one who was on the way of obtaining full enlightenment. At the same time, the term buddha is used as an honorary title for the founder of the Buddhist religion, the only buddha living in the current historical period.

The Dates Of The Historical Buddha

There is no reliable information concerning the dates of the historical Buddha's life that has been unanimously accepted by Buddhist tradition and by scholars. Traditional dates of the parinirvan-a (the decease of the Buddha) range widely from 2420 B.C.E. to 290 B.C.E. The dates proposed by scholars who contributed to a 1988 symposium in Göttingen, Germany, on The Dating of the Historical Buddha, vary from 486 B.C.E. (the so-called corrected long chronology) to 261 B.C.E.

The THERAVADA tradition calculates the death of the Buddha to have occurred in 544 or 543 B.C.E., 218 years before the consecration of King AS´OKA (ca. 300–
232 B.C.E.) as calculated by this tradition. Taking into account the obvious error in this chronology, which was discovered when exact dates for King As´oka became known, most Western and Indian scholars calculate 487 or 486 B.C.E. as the date of the Buddha's death. However, early Buddhist texts from mainland India belonging to the Mulasarvastivada tradition, as well as two references in the earliest historiographic work of the Theravada tradition (the Dl
pavam- sa or The Chronicle of the Island [of Sri Lanka]) date this event to one hundred years before the rule of King As´oka, or 368 B.C.E. (the so-called short chronology). In addition, later Tibetan and East Asian Buddhist texts provide a considerable variety of earlier dates.

The lists of the so-called patriarchs are of great importance for a reliable calculation of the dates of the historical Buddha. All early Buddhist traditions list only five patriarchs, not enough for an interval of 218 years between the Buddha's parinirvan-a and King As´oka. In Indian tradition, information about the succession of teachers was much more reliably handed down than any dates. For this and many other reasons, including the state of development of Indian society at the time of the Buddha, we may conclude that the Buddha passed away at a later date than that handed down by Theravada tradition, including its variant, the corrected long chronology. Although the available information does not allow scholars to arrive at an exact dating, it is safe to suppose that the Buddha passed away some time between 420 B.C.E. and 350 B.C.E. at the age of approximately eighty years.

Sources For The Biography Of The Historical Buddha

On the basis of the available sources it is possible to reconstruct a fairly reliable biography of the man who was to become the Buddha. The sources are the canonical texts of the Theravada, the SARVA STIVADA AND
MULASARVA STIVADA, and the DHARMAGUPTAKA traditions. Only the Theravada texts are fully extant in the original Indian version in Pali; the texts of the other traditions are fully extant only from Chinese or Tibetan translations and partially from incomplete Sanskrit texts. These texts do not provide coherent biographies of the historical Buddha, but they do offer considerable autobiographical and biographical information that was handed down during the first three to five centuries after the death of the Buddha. Oral tradition of the Buddha's teaching in various local dialects was responsible for minor differences in these traditions and for the insertion of mythic lore, which shall not be considered in the following summary of the Buddha's biography.

The Life Of The Future Buddha

Before his departure from home. The historical Buddha was born into the S´akya family, which belonged to the ks-atriya (noble) caste, considered by Buddhists to be the highest caste. He was later known by the honorary title S´akyamuni, which means "sage of the S´akya clan." The S´akyas were not kings, but they formed a class of nobles within a republican system of government that held regular meetings of the members of the leading families. The future Buddha belonged to the Gautama clan, so he was later on known as Gautama Buddha. His individual name was Siddhartha (Pali, Siddhattha), his father's name was S´uddhodana (Pali, Suddhodana), and his mother's name was Maya. Detailed information on Maya is mainly derived from later literature. The family resided in Kapilavastu (Pali, Kapilavatthu) at the foot of the Himalayas near the present-day Indian-Nepalese border.

The future Buddha is said to have been born in Lumbin, also near the Indian-Nepalese border. In 248 B.C.E., As´oka placed a pillar with an inscription commemorating the birth of S´akyamuni Buddha (the socalled Rumminde inscription) in Lumbin. Therefore, it is certain that during the time of As´oka this place was identified as the birthplace of the Buddha. Lumbin is considered to be one of the four main Buddhist pilgrimage sites on the Indian subcontinent.

Because Maya died shortly after Siddhartha was born, the future Buddha was raised by MAHAPRAJAPATI
GAUTAMI (Pali, Mahapajapat Gotam), the younger sister of his mother and second wife of S´uddhodana.

The autobiographical passages of the early texts describe in much detail the luxurious conditions of the bodhisattva's life in his home. Siddhartha was married to Yas´odhara (Pali, Yasodhara), who is also called Rahulamata (mother of Rahula) in the early texts. RAHULA was their only son. The bodhisattva Siddhartha was not satisfied with his sumptuous life because he realized that, like all beings, he was subject to old age, disease, and death. This perception caused him, at the age of twenty-nine, to abandon his home, don monk's robes, shave his head, and go forth to live as a homeless ascetic. Early texts explicitly state that he did this "though his parents did not consent and wept full of affliction." The legend that Gautama left his home in secret is of later origin.

A noteworthy account of an early contemplative experience of the bodhisattva before he left his home is reported in the Mahasaccaka-sutta of the Majjhimanikaya in the Pali scriptures. Here, the Buddha is said to have reported that he had already experienced the first DHYANA (TRANCE STATE) as a youth when he sat under a rose apple tree while his father conducted a ceremony.

Ascetic life and austerities. After he left home, Gautama visited the leading yoga masters of the period:
Arad-a Kalama (Pali, A-lara Kalama) and Udraka Ramaputra (Pali, Uddaka Ramaputta). When Gautama did not attain salvation under their direction, he went to a site near the river Nairañjana (Pali, Nerañjara) and engaged in extreme ASCETIC PRACTICES (Sanskrit, dus-karacarya; Pali, dukkarakarika) for six years, hoping to reach his goal in this way. Five other ascetics joined him as followers. However, when he finally understood that this extreme austerity would not lead to salvation, that it was fruitless, he ended these efforts, ate a substantial meal, took a bath in the river, and sat down under a tree of the botanical species ficus religiosa, which Buddhists thereafter called the bodhi tree. It was here, seven years after he had left home, that he obtained BODHI (AWAKENING), perfect enlightenment, and thereby became a samyaksambuddha, or "fully enlightened one."
The period of teaching and dissemination. After enlightenment, the Buddha remained in meditation for several days. In the beginning he was hesitant to preach the way to liberation that he had discovered (his dharma) because he doubted that others would understand it. However, he finally decided to preach, and he set out toward the city of Benares (Varan-as). On the way, he met Upaka, a follower of the Ajvika group of ascetics, but Upaka did not take the Buddha's words seriously and went his own way. The Buddha then reached R-s-ipatana (in other texts called R-s-ivadana; Pali, Isipatana) near Benares, and here he delivered his first sermon, the famous Dharmacakrapravartanasutra (Pali, Dhammacakkappavattana-sutta), the discourse at Benares by which the wheel of the dharma was "Set into Motion." In this sermon, the Buddha explained the middle way between the extremes of luxury and asceticism, the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS (the truth of suffering, the truth of the origin of suffering, the truth of the extinction of suffering, and the truth of the eightfold PATH leading to the extinction of suffering), as well as the impersonality of all beings. The site where the Buddha delivered this sermon is now known as Sarnath, and it is one of the most important Buddhist places of PILGRIMAGE.

The Buddha accepted his first disciples on this occasion and thereby established the SAN˙ GHA, the Buddhist monastic community. He continued teaching his doctrine for the next forty-five years. The Buddha's itinerary extended from his hometown Kapilavastu and S´ravast in the north, to Varan- as (Benares),
Rajagr-ha (Rajgir), Vais´al (Besarh), Kaus´ambi (Kosam), Nalanda, and several other places in the Ganges basin.

Later commentarial texts provide exact information about the places where the Buddha took up residence during the rainy season of each particular year of his teaching period, but it is doubtful that the dates provided in these texts are reliable.

A number of important events occurred during this period, including the conversion of S´ARIPUTRA (Pali, Sariputta) and MAHAMAUDGALYAYANA (Pali, Mahamogallana), who became the Buddha's two chief disciples; the ordination of MAHAKAS´YAPA (Pali, Mahakassapa), who was to become the convener of the First Buddhist Council (san˙ gl ti or san˙ gayana) in Rajagr-ha after the Buddha's demise; and the visit of the Buddha to his home town, where he met his father S´uddhodana and his foster mother Mahaprajapat Gautam, and where his son Rahula and several other members of the S´akya family joined the san˙ gha.

Among them was UPALI, who was considered the most proficient monk in questions of monastic discipline and who acted as expert in this capacity during the First Buddhist Council. A NANDA, a member of the S´akya clan and a cousin of the Buddha, accompanied the Buddha during the last decades of his life. He was instrumental in persuading the Buddha to admit women into the san˙ gha, thus establishing the Bhiks-un-l San˙ gha.
Among the important lay followers of the Buddha was Bimbisara, the king of Magadha. The Buddha was five years older than Bimbisara, and Bimbisara is reported to have become a follower of the Buddha fifteen years after his accession to the throne. Bimbisara dedicated the Ven-uvana (Pali, Vel-uvana) grove near his residence at Rajagr-ha to the Buddhist san˙ gha; it become the first arama (place of permanent residence for monks). Until he was imprisoned by his son, Bimbisara did whatever he could to promote the Buddhist community.

The Buddha's adversary was his cousin DEVADATTA,
who was ordained when the Buddha visited Kapilavastu. However, Devadatta later attempted to take the Buddha's place and provoked a schism in the san˙ gha.

Devadatta was supported by Ajatas´atru, King Bimbisara's son. Devadatta and Ajatas´atru even tried to kill the Buddha, but they failed. Ajatas´atru then dethroned his father and imprisoned him with the order that he should be starved to death. Traditional Buddhist chronology dates the beginning of Ajatas´atru's reign to the eighth year before the Buddha's death. It seems that Ajatas´atru, most probably for political reasons, supported the Buddha during his last years; the Buddha's public support was too great to oppose. The last days of the Buddha. Although the chronological order of the events described in the preceding paragraphs remains uncertain, there is reliable information about the last days in the life of the historical Buddha. This information is handed down in the MAHAPARINIRVAN-A-SUTRA (Pali, Mahaparinibban-sutta),
which is available in several versions that differ only on minor points. The account begins with the visit of King Ajatas´atru's minister, Vars-akara (Pali, Vassakara), on the mountain Gr-dhrakut-a (Pali, Gijjhakut-a).

Vars-akara had been sent by the king in order to ask the Buddha if a campaign against the Vr-ji (Pali, Vajj)
confederation would be successful. The Buddha responded by explaining the seven conditions necessary for the prosperity of a state, which he had earlier taught to the Vr-jians. After Vars-akara's departure, the Buddha explained to the monks the analogous conditions of prosperity of the san˙ gha.

After he delivered a sermon in Pat-aliputra (modern Patna) and crossed the river Ganges, the Buddha traveled toward Vais´al, where he converted the courtesan A mrapal (Pali, Ambapal). At that time, the Buddha also met leading members of the Licchavi confederation, but different texts vary in their versions of this event. Afterwards, the Buddha visited Ven-ugramaka (Pali, Belugama or Beluvagamaka), where he spent the rainy season with A nanda. There the Buddha fell ill and was near death, but he recovered. At that time A nanda asked the Buddha if there were additional instructions that the Buddha had not yet revealed to his disciples. The Buddha declared that he had completely and openly explained his dharma.

From Vais´al the Buddha traveled in the direction of Kus´inagara (Pali, Kusinara). In Pava he accepted a meal from the smith Cunda, which caused a diarrhea that led to his death. The Buddha reached Kus´inagara
(Pali, Kusinara), where he admonished his disciples to continue their endeavor toward the final goal without cessation, and he passed away.

Early Legendary Expansions

The preceding paragraphs reduce the record of the Buddha's life to its historical essence. This account relies on comparative studies of the ancient texts; these include studies of the various early traditions of the Mahaparinirvan-a-sutra, the Mahavadana-sutra, and other texts by Ernst Waldschmidt and André Bareau, as well as similar investigations made by other scholars. The existing texts include a multitude of legendary stories that crept in and, step by step, changed the original character of the biography of the Buddha. These compilations were written down in their final form centuries after the Buddha's death and only after a long period of oral transmission.

Although there is no coherent biographical text of the life of the Buddha in the early canonical works, later texts provide full biographies, and such works are available from various Buddhist traditions. In these works, the Buddha's biography is extended by a multitude of myths and legendary accounts. All these accounts begin by describing former existences of the Buddha; most begin with the story of the former buddha DIPAM- KARA, who existed many kalpas (world periods) ago. When the ascetic Sumedha met Dpam- kara, Sumedha took the vow to become a buddha himself in a future age and he received Dpam- kara's confirmation by a prophecy (vyakaran-a). He thereby became a bodhisattva who was eventually to be reborn as the historical Gautama Buddha. During the subsequent kalpas, Dpam- kara confirmed the bodhisattva's vow and received confirmation from the buddhas of these kalpas. Finally, he was reborn in the Tus-ita heaven, where he decided to descend to the human world.

In the human world, the bodhisattva was reincarnated as the son of Maya, the wife of King S´uddhodana. Several miracles are associated with the bodhisattva's conception and birth. For example, the conception took place even though Maya had not had sexual relations with S´uddhodana. This myth parallels the Christian belief in the supernatural conception of Jesus. There was an earthquake on the day of the conception because a mahasattva (great being) was to come into human existence. The brahmins at the court of S´uddhodana predicted that Maya's son would become either a buddha or a universal monarch
(cakravartin), and several other miracles were observed at that time. The bodhisattva is said to have entered into the womb of Maya through the right side of her chest in the shape of a white elephant.

Maya decided to visit her parents in the village of Devad-aha. Before arriving there, she gave birth to the bodhisattva in the grove of Lumbin. On the same day, the bodhisattva's future wife and his horse Kanthaka were also born. The king named the prince Siddhartha, which means "he whose aims are fulfilled." The traditional biographies report that the bodhisattva lived in great luxury, and his palaces and other aspects of his life are described in detail. The bodhisattva made Yas´odhara his first wife, but he is said to have had a number of other wives as well.

Knowing the prophecy that the prince Siddhartha would become either a buddha or a cakravartin, his father did everything he could to keep the prince from seeing signs of old age, sickness, or death. However, during visits to the park Siddhartha witnessed a very old man, a sick man, a corpse, and finally an ascetic. After this he received news of the birth of his son Rahula.

Then one night he witnessed his consorts splayed in disgusting array, and he decided to leave the worldly life. He ordered his charioteer Channa to saddle his horse Kanthaka, he entered his wife's room for a last look at her and at their son, and then he took his leave from the world (pravrajya). This story of the four sights definitely does not belong to the earliest traditions of the life of the historical Buddha, but it became a constituent of all biographies of the Buddha at an early date. Originally it was derived from the legendary biography of a former buddha that is narrated in the Mahavadana-sutra in the form of a sermon of the Buddha.

At the time of his departure from his home, the bodhisattva was twenty-nine years old. After following the instructions of several teachers mentioned earlier, and after undergoing extreme ascetic practices, the bodhisattva obtained full enlightenment (samyaksambodhi) under the bodhi tree at BODH GAYA.

MARA, the evil one, is said to have tried to prevent the Buddha from teaching his doctrine to humankind. But the Buddha had become invincible by the power of his perfections, and he successfully repelled Mara.

From the moment the Buddha decided to teach the dharma, he was the Samyaksambuddha, the "Fully Enlightened Buddha" of the current world period.

The records of the Buddha's first sermon at Benares are certainly based on historical reminiscences. Some of the many events that are narrated in the various biographies of the Buddha do, in fact, have a historical background, especially those events that occurred during his period of teaching. However, all these stories were greatly exaggerated and many stories were invented in the later period. Among them, the JATAKA
and AVADANA stories are important. These stories claim to be narratives of the Buddha's former existences, before he was reborn in his last existence. Such stories are already found in later parts of the canonical collections of Buddhist scriptures, but many new stories of this kind were invented up till the medieval period. Similarly, the Buddha's supernatural powers are also described in early canonical texts, but many additional supernatural faculties are described in later texts.

While some features are more or less common to all biographies of the Buddha, there are many differences in the details. Complete biographies of the Buddha seem to have been compiled no earlier than the second century C.E., as Étienne Lamotte points out in Histoire du bouddhisme indien: Des origines à l'ère s´aka (pp. 725–736). The most famous biography of the Buddha is the BUDDHACARITA, which was composed by the poet AS´VAGHOS-A, a brahmin who was converted to Buddhism. This work was widely read in Buddhist countries and transcended sectarian doctrinal differences. A Buddha biography from the Mulasarvastivada tradition, probably the most widespread of the socalled schools (nikaya) of Buddhism in medieval India, has come down to us in a Tibetan translation. This text was translated into English by W. W. Rockhill in 1884. Another famous biography of the Buddha composed in mainland India is the LALITAVISTARA. It professes to be a work of the Sarvastivada school of HINAYANA Buddhism, but in fact shows strong influence of early MAHAYANA Buddhism. This is also true of the MAHAVASTU which, though a work of the MAHASAM- GHIKA SCHOOL of mainstream Buddhism, shows many characteristics of "Mahayana-in-the-making" or "semi-Mahayana." Several other Indian texts of this genre have survived in Chinese translations only.

The Theravada tradition of Buddhism includes short biographies of the Buddha in late canonical texts that may have been composed in India and brought to the Island of Sri Lanka in the first or second century C.E., at the latest. The earliest available comprehensive biography of the Buddha in this tradition, however, is the Jatakanidana (ca. fifth or sixth century C.E.). It forms the introduction of the commentary on the jataka stories. Descriptions of the life of the Buddha in East Asian and in Central Asian traditions are greatly influenced by the legendary accounts as handed down in the later Indian tradition because they are largely based on translations of Sanskrit texts composed in mainland India.

Buddhas Of Earlier Ages

As mentioned earlier, a buddha is not a unique being; there were and will be buddhas in the past and in the future. However, there is only one buddha in the world at any time. The texts describe the biographies of many buddhas who lived in earlier periods. The mythical biographies of six buddhas of antiquity are described in a sermon preached by the historical Buddha. This sermon is found in all parallel versions of the early Mahavadana-sutra (Pali, Mahapadana-suttanta). Later Mahayana texts and Theravada literature have increased the number of buddhas of antiquity more and more.

The Cult Of The Relics Of The Buddha

When the historical Buddha passed away, his funeral rites were performed in accordance with traditional practice. The cremation was carried out by the Mallas, who lived in Kus´inagara. The bones left after the cremation were divided because King Ajatas´atru and other influential personalities claimed a share of the relics. The relics were enshrined in several STUPAS, and soon the cult of stupas developed into an important feature of Buddhism. It is believed that relics of the Buddha were later further divided and distributed to many sacred places. Besides the corporeal relics, material objects used by the Buddha, including his alms bowl, were venerated as relics and deposited in stupas.

Buddhas Of The Future

Though the dharma as taught by the Buddha is eternal and immutable, the tradition of the dharma and the process by which it was handed down in the world is subject to the universal law of impermanence. After a certain period, the dharma will disappear from this world, and it will not be known until it is rediscovered by the next buddha. Thus, to be a buddha is not only a personal quality of a particular being, but rather a task to be fulfilled by any bodhisattva in one of the innumerable kalpas. As with the buddhas of the past, there are similarities in the various biographies of the buddhas who are expected to appear in future ages.

These biographies are largely modeled on the main features of the life and legend of the historical Buddha.

The next Buddha to appear in the world is MAITREYA. Throughout the centuries, many texts dealing with prophecies concerning the coming of Maitreya were composed.

Types Of Buddhas

The historical Buddha, the founder of the Buddhist religious tradition, was a samyaksambuddha (Pali, sammasambuddha); that is, he has reached NIRVAN- A
by his own efforts without receiving instruction from anyone else. The Buddha was fully enlightened and thus was able to preach the dharma to others. There is another type of buddha: the PRATYEKABUDDHA (Pali, paccekabuddha), who obtains nirvan-a by his own efforts but is not able to teach the way to salvation to other beings.

In the Mahayana tradition, buddhas are supernatural beings who have descended to the human world out of compassion. There are several classes of transcendental buddhas and transcendental bodhisattvas.

They are brought into relation with particular buddha fields (buddhaks-etra), which they are supposed to rule.

These buddhas and bodhisattvas (e.g., AKS-OBHYA,
AMITABHA or Amitayus, Avalokites´vara, Bhais-ajyaguru, Mañjus´r, etc.) became the main object of veneration in Mahayana Buddhism. In the later development of Mahayana, the concept of A di-buddha, representing ultimate reality, was developed. It is to be found particularly in the texts of the KALACAKRA system.

Epithets Of The Buddha

Buddhist literature offers several synonyms for the term buddha, as well as epithets mainly or exclusively used to refer to buddhas. An ancient term for a buddha is TATHAGATA (thus come/gone one). As R. O.

Franke pointed out, this term refers to an old messianic expectation that an enlightened being would appear in this world (pp. xiv–xxix). Some epithets relate to particular qualities of buddhas, such as samyaksambuddha
(a perfect enlightened one); other terms relate to the buddhas' intellectual or moral qualities, for example sarvajña (omniscient). The most famous list of epithets Frauwallner, Erich. "The Historical Data We Possess on the Person and Doctrine of the Buddha." East and West 7 (1956):
309–312. Reprinted in Frauwallner, Erich. Kleine Schriften,
ed. G. Oberhammer and E. Steinkellner. Wiesbaden, Germany: Steiner, 1982.

B UDDHA , L IFE OF THE
for the Buddha is found in the ancient sutras announcing the coming of a tathagata. The epithets listed there are bhagavat (elevated), arhat (holy), samyaksambuddha (fully enlightened), vidyacaran-asam- panna
(endowed with knowledge and good moral conduct),
sugata (who has gone the right way), lokavid (who knows the world), anuttara (who cannot be surpassed), purus-adamyasarathi (the charioteer of men that need to be tamed), and ´assta devamanus-yanam (the teacher of gods and men). The Mahavyutpatti, a classical Buddhist lexicographical work, lists as many as eighty epithets for the Buddha.

See also: Buddha, Life of the, in Art; Paramita (Perfection)

Bareau, André. Recherches sur la biographie du Buddha, 3 vols.

Paris: Presses de l'École Française d'Extrême-Orient, 1971–1995.

Bechert, Heinz, ed. Die Sprache der ältesten buddhistischen Überlieferung: The Language of the Earliest Buddhist Tradition.
Göttingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1980.

Bechert, Heinz, ed. The Dating of the Historical Buddha. Vols.

1–3. Göttingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1991–1997.

Carrithers, Michael. The Buddha, 12th edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.

Dutoit, Julius. Die dus-karacarya des Bodhisattva in der buddhistischen Tradition. Strassburg, Germany: Trübner, 1905.

Ebert, Jorinda. Parinirvan-a: Untersuchungen zur ikonographischen Entwicklung von den Anfängen bis nach China. Wiesbaden, Germany: Steiner, 1985.

Edwardes, Michael. A Life of the Buddha, from a Burmese Manuscript. London: Folio Society, 1959.

Foucaux, P. E., trans. Le Lalitavistara, 2 vols. Paris: Musée Guimet, 1884–1892.

Foucher, A. La vie du Bouddha d'après les textes et les monuments de l'Inde. Paris: Maisonneuve, 1949. Available in English as The Life of the Buddha According to the Ancient Texts and Monuments of India, tr. Simone Brangier Boas. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1963.

Franke, R. O. D
lghanikaya: Das Buch der langen Texte des buddhistischen Kanons. Göttingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1913.

Hirakawa, Akira. A History of Indian Buddhism, tr. Paul Groner.

Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1990.

Johnston, E. H., ed. and trans. [As´vaghos-a]. The Buddhacarita or Acts of the Buddha, 2 vols. Lahore: University of the Panjab, 1935–1936. Reprint in 1 vol., Delhi: Motilal Barnassidass, 1972.

Jones, J. J., trans. The Mahavastu, 3 vols. London: Luzac, 1949–1956.

Klimkeit, Hans-Joachim. Der Buddha: Leben und Lehre. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1990.

Krom, Nicolaas Johannes, ed. The Life of Buddha on the Stupa of Barabudur According to the Lalitavistara Text. The Hague, Netherlands: Nijhoff, 1926.

Lamotte, Étienne. "The Buddha, His Teachings, and His Sangha." In The World of Buddhism: Buddhist Monks and Nuns in Society and Culture, ed. Heinz Bechert and Richard Gombrich. London: Thames and Hudson, 1984.

Lamotte, Étienne. Histoire du bouddhisme indien: Des origines à l'ère s´aka. Louvain, Belgium: Publications Universitaires, 1958. Available in English as History of Indian Buddhism: From the Origins to the Saka Era, tr. Sara Webb-Boin. Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium: Institut Orientaliste, 1988.

Mukherjee, Biswadeb. Die Überlieferung von Devadatta, dem Widersacher des Buddha in den kanonischen Schriften. München: Kitzinger, 1966.

Nakamura, Hajime. Gotama Buddha. Los Angeles and Tokyo:
Buddhist Books International, 1977.

Nakamura, Hajime. Indian Buddhism: A Survey with Bibliographical Notes. Tokyo: Kansai University, 1980.

Ñanamoli, Bhikkhu, ed. and trans. The Life of the Buddha, as It Appears in the Pali Canon. Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society, 1972.

Narada Maha Thera. The Buddha and His Teachings, 2nd edition. Singapore: Stamford Press, n.d.

Oldenberg, Hermann. Buddha: Sein Leben, Seine Lehre, Seine Gemeinde, 13th edition. Stuttgart: Cotta, 1959. Available in English as Buddha: His Life, His Doctrine, His Order, tr. William Hoey. Delhi: Indological Book House, 1971.

Rockhill, William Woodville. The Life of the Buddha and the Early History of His Order, Derived from Tibetan Works. London: Kegan Paul, 1884.

Saddhatissa, Hammalawa. The Life of the Buddha. London: Allen and Unwin, 1976.

Schumann, Hans Wolfgang. Der historische Buddha. Köln, Germany: Diederichs, 1982.

Silva-Vigier, Anil de. The Life of the Buddha Retold from Ancient Sources: Illustrated with 160 Works of Asian Art. London: Phaidon, 1955.

Snellgrove, David L. The Image of the Buddha. New Delhi:
Vikas/UNESCO, 1978.

Thomas, Edward J. The Life of Buddha as Legend and History,
6th edition. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1960.

Waldschmidt, Ernst. Die Überlieferung vom Lebensende des Buddha: Eine vergleichende Analyse des Mahaparinirvan-asutra und seiner Textentsprechungen, 2 vols. Göttingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1944–1948.

Waldschmidt, Ernst. Die Legende vom Leben des Buddha. Berlin:
Wegweiser, 1929. Reprint, Graz, Austria: Verlag für Sammler, 1982.

Wieger, Léon. Bouddhisme chinois. Vol. 2: Les vies chinoises du Buddha. Paris: Cathasia, 1913.

Windisch, Ernst. Mara und Buddha. Leipzig, Germany: Hirzel, 1895.

Zafiropulo, Ghiorgo. L'illumination du Buddha: Essais de chronologie relative et de stratigraphie textuelle. Innsbruck, Austria: Institut für Sprachwissenschaft, 1993.

HEINZ BECHERT

Buddha, Life Of The, In Art

Because no single account of the Buddha's life survives, many Indian texts, most notably the LALITAVISTARA and the BUDDHACARITA, have been used to inspire artists seeking to represent important events from the Buddha's biography. Narrations were also composed in China and ancient Tibet. The number of events that are codified as important varies from four to 108. Events that could be associated with particular sites in northeast India usually formed the core of the lists; for example, the Buddha's birth in Lumbin, his enlightenment in BODH GAYA, his first sermon in Sarnath, and his death in Kus´inagara. The Buddha's previous lives are extensively presented as instructive examples or parables, so the JATAKAs (birth stories) also inspired countless artworks portraying the "life" of the Buddha. Different Buddhist traditions and different countries chose from among these stories the ones that spoke to their particular needs. The life of the Buddha as narrated in art also became a model for characterizing the lives of other Buddhist teachers and deities. The transcendent buddhas of the MAHAYANA and VAJRAYANA
traditions, for example, are characterized as concrete manifestations of S´akyamuni by depicting them with attributes and gestures linked to particular events in the Buddha's life.

It can be argued that since texts refer to the Buddha's life to teach particular doctrines, they put their own spin on the events. The same could be said about the visual arts because choices must be made about

which events to emphasize and how to interpret their meaning. However, the visual images that are used by all schools and regions to narrate the Buddha's life seem to provide a more resonant level of clarity to the Buddha's teachings than could be achieved with texts alone.

From The Dream Of Queen Maya To The Great Renunciation

The Buddha's mother, Queen Maya (sometimes Mahamaya, "Great Illusion"), dreamt that a silvery-white elephant, holding a white lotus flower in its trunk, entered her right side. Brahmanic priests asked to interpret the dream foretold the birth of a son who would become either a great monarch or a sage. This miracle is portrayed only on early Indian STUPA reliefs in which Maya reclines with a small elephant floating above her.

The symbolism of the elephant probably resonated with early patrons as the pan-Indian symbol of supreme royalty and of the life-giving rain from thunderclouds.

Maya gave birth to the future Buddha at Lumbin, a village in southern Nepal. She entered a grove of trees, reached up to grasp a branch, and the prince emerged from her right side. This miraculous birth is often depicted on aniconic reliefs that include no image of the baby. Maya is shown as a nearly nude Indian fertility spirit called a ´aslabhañjika, a yaks-l who stands in a dance posture holding the branch of a tree.

Beginning in the second century C.E. in the Gandhara region in present-day Pakistan, a tiny child is shown emerging from her side. In artworks from China and Japan, Maya is shown as a fully clothed dancer with a baby diving out of her long right sleeve.

The Buddha cuts his hair as he renounces the world. (Tibetan painting, eighteenth century.) The Art Archive/Musée Guimet Paris/Dagli Orti (A). Reproduced by permission.

After the child is born, he is bathed by two streams of water. In Indian depictions, the water comes either from jars held by gods or from the trunks of elephants. In Southeast Asia, the water flows from the mouths of mythical serpents called nagas. In the Himalayas and East Asia, dragons take over this role. The art of each region uses whichever local creature represents the power of water to confer royal status (the abhis-eka ritual) and to purify. In Japan there is an annual lustration ceremony of the baby Buddha called Kanbutsu.

The Buddha's life as the prince Siddhartha Gautama is depicted as one of sheltered dalliance and a time of training in the skills needed to rule a kingdom. When he was about twenty-nine years old, after he has had a son appropriately named Rahula (fetter), Siddhartha is motivated to leave the palace to seek an understanding of the suffering he sees in the world. This event, which is frequently depicted in the art of South and Southeast Asia, is called the "great renunciation" because it represents the enormous sacrifice of his princely lifestyle. Siddhartha rides out on a horse whose hooves are supported by demigods (YAKS-As) so that the horse makes no noise to wake Siddhartha's family. In aniconic representations the horse has no rider, but a parasol above the horse indicates Siddhartha's presence. In South and Southeast Asia the fact that the Buddha was born to be a prince and renounced this privileged life is of great importance because by this act he denied both caste and royal obligations, and affirmed the value of seeking enlightenment.

From The Search For Truth To Enlightenment

Siddhartha practiced yogic austerities almost to the point of death in his supreme effort to gain higher states of consciousness. Artists in the Gandhara region sculpted an image of this emaciated figure in what would be called today a superrealistic style. Every bone, vein, and hollowed surface of his body is shown in glaring detail. The CHAN SCHOOL of East Asia also celebrates this stage of the Buddha's life in paintings of a scruffy figure emerging from the mountains and in sculptures of an emaciated, bearded figure in deep thought, although not in a traditional meditation posture. The THERAVADA and Chan view of the Buddha's life honors the extremes in his search for truth as he pushed his body and mind to their farthest limits.

When starvation did not reveal the truth to Siddhartha, he took nourishment offered by a girl named Sujata—an event sometimes shown in Indian reliefs and Southeast Asian paintings, and he vowed to sit beneath a fig tree in meditation until he became enlightened. Images of the Buddha S´akyamuni seated in a meditation posture, which appear throughout Buddhist Asia, refer to this vow.

While meditating beneath the bodhi tree, the name it acquired after his enlightenment, Siddhartha was assaulted by MARA, the Buddhist god of death and desire. Called the Maravijaya, or conquest of Mara, this event is a common subject of sculptures and paintings in all parts of Buddhist Asia. Mara, often riding an elephant, leads both his armies of demons and his beautiful daughters in an effort to distract Siddhartha from his vow. The Buddha is often shown seated in meditation in the midst of these figures with his right hand reaching down to touch the earth (bhumispars´a-mudra) as he asks the earth to bear witness to his perfection and utter commitment to becoming a buddha, an awakened or enlightened one immune to death or desire. Mara is thus defeated. The earth-touching gesture alone also refers to the defeat of Mara and signifies the moment when Siddhartha Gautama becomes the Buddha. On aniconic monuments, the Buddha's

County Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Michael Phillips. Reproduced by permission. The center of this image shows the Buddha in the bhumispars´a-mudra at the moment of his enlightenment beneath the bodhi tree. Beginning below the Buddha's left knee, counterclockwise, the events represented are: birth and first seven steps at Lumbinl; miracle at Sankisya; first sermon at Sarnath; monkey offering honey; the Buddha's parinirvan-a surrounded by disciples; Buddha preaching to his mother; miracle at S´ravastl; taming the mad elephant; and the emaciated Buddha during his search for truth.

enlightenment is represented by an empty seat beneath a tree.

After the Buddha was enlightened, he remained in meditation for seven weeks. During this time a torrential rain occurred and the serpent king (nagaraja)
named Mucalinda protected the Buddha from the storm by lifting him above the waters and spreading his seven hoods out over the Buddha's head. Images of this event are common in Cambodia where the naga is especially revered and seen to be the protector of the Cambodian king. During the Khmer empire in the early thirteenth century, a cult was introduced around this image, possibly to honor King Jayavarman VII (r.

ca. 1181–1219) as both a living buddha and as the protector of his kingdom. After this king's reign ended, there was an iconoclastic reaction in Cambodia to Jayavarman's use of the images to have himself worshiped as a god.

From The First Sermon To The ParinirvaN- A

The Buddha delivered his first sermon at the Deer Park in Sarnath. Images showing him with the "turning the Wheel of the Dharma" gesture (dharmacakra-mudra) refer to this event. The importance of this gesture is that the Buddha is setting in motion the FOUR NOBLE
TRUTHS and revealing the middle path by which anyone can transcend the sufferings of living in the world.

This image further represents all of the Buddha's teachings as expounded by the various miracles and doctrines, and is therefore used in art throughout Asia. A
wheel alone can also symbolize the dharmacakra and the first sermon, especially if it is surrounded by two deer to indicate the context of the teaching. This symbol is commonly sculpted on Mahayana and Vajrayana monasteries or temples, as well as on early aniconic monuments.

The Buddha taught and performed miracles for more than forty years after his enlightenment. Any standing Buddha image, often displaying the protection (abhaya) and giving (varada) gestures, can be viewed as representing this stage in S´akyamuni's life.

The walking Buddha image in Thailand represents the impact of this part of the Buddha's life especially well. The aniconic version of the Buddha's ministry is equally eloquent: footprints to represent the Buddha's continued presence in this world. The great miracle at S´ravast, when the Buddha multiplied himself before a congregation to demonstrate that his potential exists everywhere, is a frequent subject in South Asian and Chinese arts, especially in painting, where it may simply be shown as a whole mural of identical buddhas.

When he was approaching nearly eighty years old, the Buddha S´akyamuni traveled to a city called Kus´inagara and died. In the texts this event is called his parinirvan-a, the Buddha's complete or final achievement of NIRVAN-A. The primary symbol of the Buddha's parinirvan-a is the STUPA, the commemorative monument to his death; as the stupa form evolved into the mchod rten (chorten), dagoba, and the pagoda, it retained this symbolism. Images of the Buddha's parinirvan-a show him reclining on his right side with his head resting on his right hand. Depictions of this "posture" vary in size, from tiny to colossal: Huge sculptures of the parinirvan-a can be found in India, Sri Lanka, and many sites in East and Southeast Asia. A colossal image was erected at the archaeological site of ancient Kus´inagara in the twentieth century. The meaning of the stupa and the reclining Buddha encompasses the promise that any human being can achieve nirvan-a like the Buddha if they follow his last teaching: "work toward enlightenment with diligence."
See also: Buddha, Life of the; Central Asia, Buddhist Art in; China, Buddhist Art in; Dunhuang; India, Buddhist Art in; Indonesia, Buddhist Art in; Jataka,
Illustrations of; Mudra and Visual Imagery; Sañcl; Southeast Asia, Buddhist Art in; Sri Lanka, Buddhist Art in; Theravada Art and Architecture

Cummings, Mary. The Lives of the Buddha in the Art and Literature of Asia. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1982. Dehejia, Vidya. "On Modes of Visual Narration in Early Buddhist Art." Art Bulletin 71 (1990): 374–392.

Dehejia, Vidya. "Aniconism and the Multivalence of Emblems."
Ars Orientalis 21 (1991): 45–66.

Dehejia, Vidya. Discourse in Early Buddhist Art: Visual Narratives of India. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1997.

Ghose, Rajeshwari, ed. In the Footsteps of the Buddha: An Iconic Journey from India to China (exhibition catalogue). Hong Kong: University Museum and Art Gallery, University of Hong Kong, 1998.

Huntington, Susan L. "Early Buddhist Art and the Theory of Aniconism." Art Journal 49, no. 4 (1990): 401–408.

Huntington, Susan L. "Aniconism and the Multivalence of Emblems." Ars Orientalis 22 (1992): 111–156.

Karetzky, Patricia E. Early Buddhist Narrative Art: Illustrations of the Life of the Buddha from Central Asia to China, Korea and Japan. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2000.

Pal, Pratapaditya. Light of Asia: Buddha S´akyamuni in Asian Art.
Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1984.

GAIL MAXWELL

Buddha Nusmr-Ti (Recollection Of The Buddha)

Buddhanusmr-ti (recollection of the Buddha) is the first of a set of up to ten anusmr-tis (acts of recollection or calling to mind) that are used for both meditative and liturgical purposes. The full set of ten anusmr-tis comprises Buddha, dharma, san˙ gha, morality, liberality, deities, respiration, death, parts of the body, and peace.

Buddhist practitioners focus their minds on these subjects by reciting a set text or formula listing their salient qualities. The recollection of the Buddha was the most important anusmr-ti, eventually becoming an independent practice.

Initially the relevant formula comprised the socalled ten epithets or titles of the Buddha, in that practitioners were instructed to recall that the Buddha was indeed worthy, correctly and fully awakened, perfected in knowledge and conduct, blessed, knower of the world, supreme, trainer of humans amenable to training, teacher of gods and humankind, Buddha, and lord. This credal rehearsal of the Buddha's qualities was held by authorities like BUDDHAGHOSA (fifth century C.E.) to purify the mind of defilements and prepare it for advanced meditation. However, other benefits were also ascribed to the practice, so that buddhanusmr-ti was, for example, thought useful for apotropaic purposes, for warding off fear and danger, as well as for generating merit.

At some stage buddhanusmr-ti was augmented to include the calling to mind not only of the Buddha's virtues but also his physical appearance. Iconography probably influenced this process, which by the second century C.E. had given rise to the Mahayanist pratyutpannasamadhi, a full-fledged visualization of the spiritual and physical qualities of any buddha of the present age, not just Gautama. This meditation incorporated the earlier form of buddhanusmr-ti, whose text remained the nucleus of the mental operations required, even though its recitation was eventually shortened to the invocation of the buddha's name. In Chinese Buddhism, consequently, buddhanusmr-ti is known as nianfo, in which the element nian refers both to thinking about the buddha (fo) and reciting him, or rather his name. Nianfo came primarily to refer to invocation of the name of AMITABHA, on account of the importance of that buddha's cult in East Asia. The words Namu amituo fo (hail to the Buddha Amitabha)
have accordingly become a prime liturgical and ritual formula for Chinese Buddhists, who have used them in communal worship, in personal devotions, even as a Buddhist greeting when answering the telephone. Similar developments have occurred in Korea and Japan. Even Buddhists who are not devotees of Amitabha have been deeply influenced by this practice, one example of this being the invocation of the DAIMOKU, or the sacred title of the LOTUS SUTRA (SADDHARMAPUN-D-ARIKA-SUTRA), by followers of the NICHIREN SCHOOL.

The persistence of buddhanusmr-ti and its derivatives testifies to the central importance in Buddhism of the relationship between those who seek salvation and the awakened teacher who shows them the PATH, and it reflects the belief that focusing the mind on the qualities of the awakened one helps aspirants to liberation move closer toward realizing those qualities themselves. The latter notion is explicitly developed in MAHAYANA Buddhism, and even more so in VAJRAYANA,
where it informs the tantric practice of "deity yoga." See also: Buddha(s); Chanting and Liturgy; Nenbutsu
(Chinese, Nianfo; Korean, Yo˘mbul)

Conze, Edward. Buddhist Meditation. Allen and Unwin: London, 1956. Harrison, Paul. "Commemoration and Identification in Buddhanusmrti." In In the Mirror of Memory: Reflections on Mindfulness and Remembrance in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism, ed. Janet Gyatso. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992.

PAUL HARRISON

Buddhavacana (Word Of The Buddha)

The term buddhavacana (word of the Buddha) is the designation used by Buddhists to describe the contents of the Buddhist CANON, the Tripit-aka. By designating the Tripit-aka the "word of the Buddha," Buddhism identifies its scriptures with the dharma of the Buddha and thereby makes an important claim about the authority and authenticity of the canon. While employing this term to support the authority of the scriptures, however, Buddhists have explained the meaning of buddhavacana in two different ways. One explanation holds that the Tripit-aka is literally the word of the Buddha, spoken by him and committed to memory by his immediate disciples at the First Council just after his death. This literal interpretation maintains that the Tripit-aka contains all the teachings that the Buddha gave from his first words after his enlightenment to his last teachings before his parinirvan-a.

Another explanation, however, suggests a more liberal interpretation of the meaning of the "word of the Buddha." The roots of this interpretation go back to the Mahapadesa-sutta of the Pali canon (Dl ghanikaya, 123f.), which sets out a procedure and criteria for determining which teachings should be accepted as the
"word of the Buddha." This sutra explains that if one receives a teaching from a variety of sources, including the Buddha, a SAN˙ GHA gathering, or a wise teacher, then one should test it by comparing it with an established core of teachings (sutta and vinaya). If the teaching in question proves consistent with the authoritative core of teachings then it can be declared to be the "word of the Buddha." This second explanation makes the wisdom of the Buddha, rather than the historical career of the Buddha, the basis for the authority of the canon.

See Also: Councils, Buddhist; Hermeneutics; Scripture Bibliography

Bond, George D. The Word of the Buddha: The Tipit-aka and Its Interpretation in Theravada Buddhism. Colombo, Sri Lanka: Gunasena, 1982.

Lamotte, Étienne. "La critique d'authenticite dans le bouddhisme." India Antique (1947): 216–232. Leyden, Netherlands: Brill, 1947. English translation by Sara Boin-Webb,
"The Assessment of Textual Authenticity in Buddhism."
Buddhist Studies Review 1, no. 1 (1983): 4–15.

GEORGE D. BOND

Buddhist Studies

Buddhist studies as an umbrella term for the disinterested or nonapologetic inquiry into any aspect of Buddhism or Buddhist traditions generally refers to the modern, academic study of Buddhism in all forms.

This approach became possible only with the development in post-Enlightenment Europe of the notion of a comparative study of religions; as a product of this tradition, Buddhist studies has always assumed an outsider's perspective, even when the scholars carrying out such studies are themselves Buddhists. The field is therefore an inherently etic, rather than emic, enterprise. This is what separates Buddhist studies, also sometimes referred to as Buddhology, from the practice of Buddhism, or from what some today call Buddhist theology.

Major Trends

Several major trends may be noticed in the modern study of Buddhism, among which is a tendency to emphasize scriptures, doctrine, and history, with relatively less attention devoted to areas such as RITUAL and material culture. These trends may be attributed to a combination of individual and social-historical factors.

Until recently most Westerners who studied Buddhism were first trained in the Western classics, and many were Christian missionaries, or at least deeply familiar with Christian history and thought. Thus, their attempts to locate in Buddhism features parallel to those they recognized in Christianity led them to concentrate their attentions in particular directions. The geographical regions of Buddhism that have received scholarly attention may also be closely mapped against political history: Colonialism and other aspects of Western expansion into Asia, including missionary activity, account for English scholarly interest in India and Ceylon, French interest in Southeast Asia, and German and Russian interest in Central Asia, and therefore for the comparative emphasis placed on those regions by scholars from those countries. Likewise, Japanese interest in Chinese Buddhism may be correlated not only to geographic proximity and to the fact that Japanese Buddhism traces its roots directly to China, but also to the period of Japanese military occupation of China before and during World War II,
although these same factors apply in the case of Korea, which has nevertheless received considerably less Japanese scholarly attention.

In this light, it is no surprise that, for example, serious studies of Japanese Buddhism by Western scholars were a rarity until the post–World War II era, since the country itself was for most intents and purposes inaccessible to outsiders. Likewise, the tremendous flowering of studies of Tibetan Buddhism since the early 1960s is a direct result of the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1950, and the subsequent escape to India and beyond of the DALAI LAMA and tens of thousands of other refugees in 1959, thus bringing the literary and living resources of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition into significant contact with outsiders for the first time. Among the most pronounced recent trends in contemporary Buddhist studies is a reduced emphasis on philological or textual studies and a greater stress directed toward cultural or theory-oriented work.

Traditional Approaches

Of course, Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike have examined and reflected upon the tradition from a variety of perspectives from a very early period. Traditional Buddhist histories attest to a long-standing and keen interest by Buddhists in their own history: Such histories include the Ceylonese Dl pavam- sa (Chronicle of the Island) and Mahavam- sa (Great Chronicle) and other histories in Pali; similar Southeast Asian works, often in vernacular languages; Tibetan works, including the famous histories (Chos 'byung) of BU STON and Taranatha, as well as many other, often local, histories; and numerous Chinese, Korean, and Japanese works. While such histories tend to concern themselves with such matters as the relations between the Buddhist monastic communities and political rulers, a different although sometimes related genre of literature, the doxography or classification of tenets, attempts instead to provide a "history" of Buddhist doctrine. Perhaps the oldest clear example of such a text is Bhavaviveka's Tarkajvala (Blaze of Reasoning), but the genre reaches its full glory in the Tibetan grub mtha' and Chinese panjiao doxographical literatures. Such texts, however useful, are not histories as such, since their views on the developments of thought or what we would call intellectual history are polemical and not chronological; nor are they disinterested catalogues of doctrines or teachings, since they invariably seek to establish the ultimate primacy of the positions held by their authors. From the non-Buddhist perspective, texts such as Arabic "universal histories" and the accounts of early Christian missionaries have also noticed and described Buddhism since medieval times.

Most scholars of Buddhism concentrate on the study of Buddhism in one particular cultural area, be it India, China, Tibet, or the like. There are good reasons why this is so. Since Buddhism is so fully integrated into the cultural matrix of every land in which it is found, to study the Buddhism of a certain region requires not only a command of the relevant language or languages of a culture area, but also a knowledge of its history, literature, and so on. Although less common today, when many Buddhist scholars consider themselves first and foremost students of Buddhism, in earlier generations those who studied Indian Buddhism were primarily Indologists, as those who studied Chinese Buddhism were Sinologists. While familiarity with the wide range of cultural facts about India and China, respectively, allowed such scholars to approach Buddhism within its cultural context, there is also much to be learned by examining Buddhism across cultural boundaries, laying emphasis upon its translocal unity rather than on, or in addition to, its local particularity. The latter approach tends to locate the study of Buddhism nearer to religious studies, the history of religions, or comparative religion than it does to area studies.

To a great extent, modern Buddhist studies has emphasized the investigation of ancient texts and their doctrinal contents, with significantly less effort having been put into tracing the place of Buddhism within its broader social context, or into observation of the activities of contemporary Buddhists. The latter lack of emphasis may be seen even in the case of scholars who reside for long periods in Buddhist environments. Thus the great Hungarian scholar Alexander Csoma de Ko´´rös (1784–1842), who spent several years of intense study in Tibet, produced a number of extremely valuable studies concerning the mountain of Buddhist literature that he read there, but he recorded virtually nothing of what he must have observed of Buddhist monastic or lay life. This is an imbalance that still remains to be redressed sufficiently.

Focus On India

Until recently, India, the land of Buddhism's birth, was the prime focus of the majority of scholarly attention paid to Buddhism. This tendency may be attributed directly to the widespread idea that the essence of a tradition is to be discovered in its origins, with subsequent developments demonstrating little more than the decay of a once pristine core. This idea in turn is fundamentally based on the evangelical Protestant anti-Catholicism of the nineteenth century, as can be seen clearly, for instance, in the case of the great pioneer of Indian and Buddhist studies, F. Max Müller
(1823–1900). This Protestant view may also be seen in the priority given to studies of the earliest Buddhist scriptures. It can hardly be a coincidence that so many of those European scholars who first began to pay attention to the later, especially philosophical, literature of Buddhism were Belgian and French Catholics, rather than English or German Protestants. Japanese scholars, for different historical reasons, were traditionally more concerned with aspects of the later phases of Buddhism, until influenced by Protestant agendas beginning in the late 1800s. In particular, the significant attention they and other scholars from traditionally Buddhist cultures have given to doctrine may be explained at least in part as a result of their research having evolved from a fusion of traditional sectarian scholarship with modern Western-influenced methodologies.

The rigorous study of Indian Buddhism began with the investigation of its literature in Pali and Sanskrit. Among the most important early publications on Pali were Viggo Fausbøll's 1855 edition of the DHAMMAPADA (Words of the Doctrine) and from 1877 the JATAKA (Birth Stories of the Buddha), and Robert Caesar Childer's 1875 A Dictionary of the Pali Language.
The accessibility of these texts tended to significantly influence the ways in which the most ancient Buddhist tradition was imaginatively reconstructed, and still does even today. In 1881 T. W. Rhys Davids (1843–
1922) founded the Pali Text Society in London, and it is to this society that we owe almost all publications of Pali literature in the West, and most of the published translations of that literature. Recognition must also be given to the philological contributions of Danish scholars, chief among them the massive project of the Critical Pali Dictionary begun in 1924 and ongoing.

Given its historically heavy bias toward textuality, among the most significant landmarks in the history of Buddhist studies must be counted the editions and translations of Buddhist scriptures and related materials. The publication in Japan between 1924 and 1935 of the Taisho edition of the Chinese Buddhist CANON
marks a watershed. For the first time, scholars attempted to apply notions of textual criticism to the vast corpus of Chinese Buddhist canonical literature, and to organize its presentation in a scientific fashion; this edition is the standard one in use today. Likewise, the Japanese photo-reprint edition of a complete Tibetan Buddhist canon (the Peking Bka' 'gyur [Kanjur] and Bstan 'gyur [Tanjur]) in the early 1960s for the first time made these treasures widely available to scholars.

Owing to the disappearance of Buddhism from India in roughly the thirteenth century, none of what may have been the Sanskrit canonical collections of Buddhist literature has survived in its entirety, and its treatment has correspondingly been less systematic and comprehensive. The study of this literature began in 1837, when the British government resident in Nepal, Brian Houghton Hodgson (1800–1894), sent eighty-eight Buddhist Sanskrit manuscripts to Paris. These immediately came under the scrutiny of Eugène Burnouf (1801–1852), who in the fifty-one years of his life produced an astonishing body of work, the value of which persists to the present day. He was one of the first Europeans to study the Pali language carefully, which prepared him well for his work on the Sanskrit materials. Burnouf's Introduction à l'histoire du Buddhisme Indien (1844) made extensive use of these texts, as did his copiously annotated translation of the LOTUS SUTRA (SADDHARMAPUN- D-ARIKA-SUTRA), published in 1852. These works, along with Hendrik Kern's history of Indian Buddhism (1882–1884) and Émile Senart's (1847–1928) study of the life of the Buddha
(1873–1875), were among the first careful scientific investigations of Buddhism carried out on the basis of a good knowledge of relevant sources.

Burnouf, who was perhaps not incidentally Müller's teacher, may be seen as the father of a Franco-Belgian school of Buddhist scholarship, for just as the regions that were studied may be roughly mapped against a political background, so too may we notice national or regional traditions of scholarship on Buddhism. To this Franco-Belgian school belong, among others, the Indologists Léon Feer (1830–1902), Senart, Sylvain Lévi (1863–1935), Louis de la Vallée Poussin (1869–
1938), Alfred Foucher (1865–1952), and Étienne Lamotte (1904–1983), as well as the Sinologists Edouard Chavannes (1865–1918), Paul Pelliot (1878–1945),
and Paul Demiéville (1894–1979). Most of these individuals in fact contributed significantly to more than one field, while nevertheless standing firmly in the philological rather than the more recent cultural studies camp. Feer, for example, edited, translated, and studied texts in Pali, Sanskrit, and Tibetan, as well as other languages, while Lévi contributed to Indian, Chinese, Tibetan, and Central Asian studies.

At almost the same time that Davids and Burnouf were engaged in their textual studies, archaeological investigations of Buddhist sites by Alexander Cunningham (1814–1893), James Burgess (1832–1917),
and James Fergusson (1808–1886), among others, were being carried out across India. In the north in particular, efforts to trace the locations central to the Buddha's life were guided by the archaeologists' reading of the recently translated travel account of XUANZANG (ca. 600–664), a Chinese monk who visited India in the seventh century. This way of using non-Indian materials is typical: Until comparatively recently, texts in Chinese and Tibetan were studied much less for their own sake than for the light they might shine on India, and in fact the majority of texts in Chinese and Tibetan to which attention was been paid by scholars were translations into those languages of texts of Indian origin, rather than native works. It is only since the 1980s that significant interest has been directed both at indigenous works and at the ways in which translations work not as calques of foreign texts but as localized adaptations of those works.

Despite this archaeological research, strictly historical studies of Indian Buddhism have been significantly less common than doctrinal investigations, one exception being studies devoted to AS´OKA. From the time of James Prinsep's initial decipherment in 1834, the inscriptions of the emperor As´oka have fascinated researchers. Subsequently, scholars such as Georg Bühler
(1837–1898), J. F. Fleet (1847–1917), Sten Konow (1867–1948), and Heinrich Lüders (1869–1943) paid careful attention to these and other more strictly Buddhist Indian inscriptions, although it was not until quite recently that attempts have been made to comprehensively collect these materials. In a number of innovative studies since about 1975, Gregory Schopen has revived interest in these vital sources. Inscriptional studies of Southeast Asian sources were carried out mostly by French scholars, while it is to Japanese scholars that we owed most of our materials on Chinese Buddhist inscriptions until very recently, when Chinese scholars themselves have taken up the task of their collection and study.

In significant respects, the directions taken by Buddhist studies have been steered by chance factors. Early interest in Pali scriptures was not due only to the idea that they reflect the oldest, and thus the most original and pure, state of Buddhism, or to the fact that by virtue of being written in an Indo-European language they seemed linguistically less foreign to Europeans than texts in Chinese or Tibetan. It was also essential that the texts themselves be physically accessible, something that was possible primarily due to the European colonial presence in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. Correspondingly, it was Hodgson's gifts to Burnouf, and the existence of other manuscript collections in European libraries, along with the fact that Müller was encouraged in this direction by his Japanese students, especially Takakusu Junjiro (1866–1945), that facilitated and inspired early studies of MAHAYANA scriptures. The influences on research priorities, particularly of Japanese ways of understanding Buddhist traditions, deserve to be further investigated. Great assistance was rendered to the investigation of Indian Mahayana literature by Franklin Edgerton's publication in 1953 of a dictionary and grammar of Buddhist Sanskrit; its importance can be judged by the fact that the dictionary is used even by scholars of Japanese and Chinese Buddhism.

Occasional chance discoveries of manuscript materials have also had an important impact on research agendas. The so-called Gilgit manuscripts, discovered from a stupa in what is now Pakistan and published by Nalinaksha Dutt between 1939 and 1959, the Sanskrit materials discovered largely by German expeditions in Central Asia (and published primarily in the series Sanskrithandschriften aus den Tufanfunden), and the DUNHUANG manuscripts, mostly in Chinese and Tibetan, kept centrally in London, Paris, and Beijing, along with more recent finds in Afghanistan and in Japanese monasteries, have permitted scholars to uncover aspects of Buddhist thought and practice that had remained entirely unknown, had become obscured in later traditions, or had even been intentionally suppressed. The Dunhuang collections in particular, along with the wall paintings adorning the caves at the site, have proven so important that an entire field of Dunhuang studies has sprung up around their investigation. In addition to the Lotus Sutra, so imporant in East Asian Buddhism and the recipient of much scholarly attention since the days of Burnouf, the PRAJNAPARAMITA LITERATURE has also been much studied, most notably by Edward Conze (1904–1979).

Although Western philosophers and historians of philosophy have rarely shown interest in Buddhist thought, this is one of the most active areas in Buddhist studies. The foremost scholar of Indian Buddhist thought was without a doubt la Vallée Poussin, who, in addition to producing significant editions of Pali texts, edited, translated, and studied Madhyamaka texts such as CANDRAKIRTI's Prasannapada (Clear-Worded Commentary) and Madhyamakavatara (Introduction to the Madhyamaka) and Prajñakaramati's Bodhcaryavatarapañjika (Commentary on S´antideva's Introduction to the Practice of the Bodhisattva), and texts of the logicians such as DHARMAKIRTI's Nyayabindu (Drop of Logic). La Vallée Poussin also translated with copious annotation VASUBANDHU's ABHIDHARMAKOS´ABHAS-YA (Treasury of Abhidharma) and Xuanzang's Yogacara compendium, the Vijñaptimatratasiddhi (Establishment of the Doctrine of Mere Cognition). In this way he almost singlehandedly provided the basis for much of the subsequent study of Buddhist thought. Others who contributed importantly to this project include Lévi, who published a number of important Sanskrit texts, including some central to the YOGACARA SCHOOL, his Japanese student Susumu Yamaguchi (1895–1976),
Gadjin Nagao, and Lamotte. Philosophical investigations of the Yogacara and Madhyamaka traditions continue to occupy many scholars, among whom D. S.

Ruegg and Lambert Schmidthausen have produced outstanding work. Considerable attention has also been given to the later Indian logical tradition since the days of Theodore Stcherbatsky (1866–1942) in the pre–World War II period. Thanks to the efforts of Erich Frauwallner (1898–1974), especially in the decade after the war, Vienna became the center of such studies, carried on now by Ernst Steinkellner and his students and colleagues, including many young Japanese researchers.

Tantric Buddhism, whether that of India, Tibet, China, or Japan, has received comparatively little attention from scholars, no doubt due, in part, to the extreme difficulty of the subject. Its potentially titillating aspects have, predictably, attracted many who are more concerned with seeing in these traditions either esoteric truths or licentiousness, rather than properly understanding them as highly developed forms of the practical application of the complex philosophical systems developed out of the Madhyamaka and Yogacara systems. Numerous publications purport to address the topic of TANTRA, particularly in Tibetan Buddhism, but the utility of most of these works is open to serious doubt.

Tibetan Buddhism

For a long time, Tibetan Buddhist studies concentrated almost exclusively on making available Indian literature that had been translated and transmitted in Tibetan, despite the fact that among the very earliest scholars in the field were Isaak Jakob Schmidt (1779–1847), Anton von Schiefner (1817–1879), and W. P. Wassiljew (1818–1900), Russians familiar with the living monastic traditions of Mongolia in which were preserved the tradition of Tibetan Buddhist scholarship. Studies such as those of Stcherbatsky and his pupil Eugène Obermiller (1901–1935) on Madhyamaka philosophy and logic as well as historiography, while deeply indebted to Tibetan scholarship, nevertheless kept their prime focus on India, and the same may be said to some extent of the work of the Japanese pioneers of Tibetan studies, although Teramoto Enga (1872–1940), Kawaguchi Ekai (1866–1945), Aoki Bunkyo (1886–1956), and Tada Tokan (1890–1967) all also spent time studying in Tibet itself. Especially since the massive Russian collections have never been widely accessible, the Japanese collections of Tibetan literature accumulated by these travelers, including both Tibetan translations of canonical materials and native works, were the most important resources available until the last quarter of the twentieth century.

Although some scholars, such as Giuseppe Tucci
(1894–1984), had indeed studied Tibetan Buddhism itself, rather than merely seeing in Tibetan translations an otherwise unavailable source of Indian materials, it was the flow of Tibetans fleeing Tibet in 1959 that was decisive for the development of the study of indigenous Tibetan traditions, especially since many of the refugees were highly educated native scholars who were eager to share their knowledge with researchers in England, the United States, and Japan. When the Tibetans fled, moreover, they brought with them libraries of theretofore inaccessible textual materials that, thanks almost single-handedly to the efforts of E. Gene Smith of the U.S. Library of Congress, were reprinted and distributed around the world, making possible for the first time widespread access to the treasures of the Tibetan Buddhist literary tradition. A secondary factor in the development of Tibetan Buddhist studies has been the tremendous religious growth of Tibetan Buddhism itself in the West, made possible primarily by the presence of these refugee Tibetans, and the high profile of the DALAI LAMA on the world stage. Since this has contributed to a general interest in Tibet, one side effect has been an increasing interest in the academic study of Tibetan Buddhism. The same may be said for Zen Buddhism, in which the popularity of the religious practices has had the additional result of inspiring further scholarship on the tradition.

Chinese Buddhism

What was true for Tibetan Buddhist studies also applies to many studies of Chinese Buddhist materials, namely that they were often engaged in with the goal of supplementing the study of Indian Buddhism, rather than for their own sake. This was the case with such works as the comparative catalogues correlating Chinese translations with their Pali counterparts, or catalogues of Chinese translations of Indian texts. Yet significant investigations of Chinese Buddhism also have a long history. The combined efforts of scholars such as Tang Yongtong (1894–1964), Tsukamoto Zenryu (1898–1980), Demiéville, and Erik Zürcher have allowed us to begin to understand the overall trends of Buddhism in China, and the development of a true Chinese Buddhism, while recent studies by Antonino Forte, Michel Strickmann (1942–1994), and Victor Mair, among others, have opened up new avenues of inquiry into topics such as relations between the Buddhist monastic establishment and the state, esoteric traditions, and the role of Buddhism in the evolution of Chinese vernacular literature.

The CHAN SCHOOL of Buddhism, usually known in the West by the Japanese pronunciation Zen, has elicited much attention, although relatively little of this interest has translated into critical scholarship. Japanese scholars belonging to both the Rinzai and Soto schools have, of course, always been keenly interested in their own traditions, but it was the discovery early in the twentieth century in the Dunhuang manuscript collections of theretofore completely unknown Chan texts that shattered traditional mythologies, motivating a series of studies by scholars such as Hu Shih
(1891–1962), Yabuki Keiki (1879–1939), and the famous D. T. SUZUKI (1870–1966), as a result of which it became more and more difficult to accept as fact the Zen tradition's own stories about itself. A more recent generation of scholars, prominent among them young Americans, was inspired and taught by Yanagida Seizan, Iriya Yoshitaka (1910–1998), and others, and continues to contribute to a radical rethinking of all aspects of the Chan school.

Japanese Buddhist Studies

Most research on Japanese Buddhism until quite recently has been limited to sectarian histories and doctrinal studies, although historians have also taken note of Buddhism as a social force in Japanese history. Traditional Japanese scholarship produced superb works of synthesis, including those concerning works of Indian origin in Chinese translation. Many of these have been of tremendous assistance to modern scholarship, as is the case with Saeki Kyokuga's 1887 annotated edition of the encyclopedic Abhidharmakos´a; La Vallée Poussin's debt to this work can be seen on every page of his outstanding multivolume French translation (L'Abhidharmakos´a de Vasubandhu, 1923–1931).

The bulk of Japanese scholarly attention, however, has been devoted to the background of contemporary Japanese schools, both proximately within Japan and more remotely in their Chinese antecedents. Thus scholars of Kegon, the Japanese branch of the HUAYAN SCHOOL, have studied the HUAYAN JING in Chinese translation, works of the Huayan patriarchs, and the works of Japanese Kegon scholars, while Tendai scholars have studied the Lotus Sutra, and works of ZHIYI
(538–597) and later TIANTAI SCHOOL masters, and of SAICHO (767–822) and his successors. In the course of such studies, generally little attention is given to other schools or to contextual data. While the value of such works, including for the study of Chinese Buddhism, should not be underestimated, by the same token its limitations must be recognized. Despite excellent Japanese scholarship on Indian and Tibetan Buddhism beginning in the late nineteenth century, it was only well into the twentieth century that Japanese scholars began to apply anything like the same approaches to their own traditions, and even today most Japanese scholarship on Japanese Buddhism would be better classified as theology (shu gaku) than Buddhist studies.

Among the most important research materials resulting from this modern traditional scholarship are the editions of canonical works of the various sects; some of these works, such as the Dainippon Bukkyo Zensho
(1912–1922), cross over lineage boundaries, while others, such as the collected works of great founders such as DO GEN (1200–1253), KUKAI (774–835), SHINRAN
(1173–1263), and so forth, do not. This said, it is hard for those not familiar with the Japanese language to appreciate how truly vast and comprehensive is Japanese scholarship on Buddhism, much of which is not limited at all to the Buddhism of Japan. Momentous projects, such as Ono Genmyo's multivolume annotated bibliography of almost all Buddhist literature then known (Bussho kaisetsu daijiten, 1932–1935), or Mochizuki Shinko's almost simultaneous publication of a massive encyclopedia of Buddhism (Bukkyo daijiten, 1932–1936), remain basic and essential research tools for the study of Buddhism, despite the advances the intervening years of study have brought.

Japanese dictionaries of Buddhist technical vocabulary too, beginning with that of Oda Tokuno (Bukkyo daijiten, 1917) and including notably the more recent work of Nakamura Hajime (Bukkyogo daijiten, 1981), have no good parallels in works in other languages.

Buddhist studies in other traditionally Buddhist countries has been less active. Certainly Sri Lankan scholars have devoted considerable attention to multiple aspects of THERAVADA Buddhism, particularly in Sri Lanka itself. The same might be said to some extent of scholars in other Southeast Asian countries, not to mention the studies of Korean Buddhism undertaken by Korean scholars, and very recently of Tibetan Buddhism by Tibetans. That much of this work is published in little-known languages, however, limits its broader influence.

Anthropological Studies

Somewhat unexpectedly, perhaps, the area of the Buddhist world that has received the most attention from anthropologists has been Southeast Asia, including Sri Lanka. These studies consider not only MONASTICISM, but the status of Buddhist institutions in lay society, Buddhism and politics, and other issues. The living traditions of Chinese Buddhism received some attention from Japanese scholars, especially during the period of Japanese occupation, while the meticulous studies of Johannes Prip-Møller (Chinese Buddhist Monasteries, 1937) and the later investigations of Holmes Welch (especially The Practice of Chinese Buddhism: 1900–1950, 1967) have recorded a world that has now almost entirely disappeared. Surprisingly little work has been done on the contemporary Buddhism of Japan, despite the ease of access to monasteries and lay Buddhist centers, or on Tibet, although attention paid to the latter has increased recently. Despite considerable interest in the Buddhist monastic codes (VINAYA) from the earliest days of Buddhist studies through the recent work of Hirakawa Akira
(1915–2002) and Schopen, little has been done to compare these classical prescriptive codes with actual Buddhist monastic practices.

Buddhist Art

The study of Buddhist art deserves its own treatment, in part because, unfortunately, it has yet to find its rightful place in the mostly text-based field of Buddhist studies. It remains true that most art historians are not sufficiently familiar with Buddhist literature or thought, and that most Buddhist scholars have, at best, only a passing familiarity with the tools and methods of art historians, although some pioneering art historians, such as Foucher, were thoroughly familiar with literary sources as well, and some textualists, such as Dieter Schlingloff, work comfortably with art historical materials. Nevertheless, it is impossible to understand Buddhism in any cultural context without an appreciation of its varieties of artistic expression. Beginning with the first modern encounters with Buddhist arts, however, scholars have attempted to understand their meaning and role. A great deal of attention has been given to the sculpture of the Gandharan region, most notably because of its obvious strong Greek influence, to Chinese monumental sculpture, Southeast Asian sculpture, Japanese sculpture and painting, and to Tibetan painting and bronze images. Studies remarkable for their depth and breadth include the Japanese multivolume examinations of the YUN'GANG and LONGMEN cave complexes, Tucci's monumental study of Tibetan art (Tibetan Painted Scrolls, 1949), and Dutch studies of the BOROBUDUR monument in Java.

Fields such as the study of Buddhist music and dance have been almost entirely ignored, despite their obvious centrality in Buddhist WORSHIP and the daily life of both monastic and lay Buddhism in all cultural contexts. Likewise, it is only recently that Buddhist ritual has drawn the attention of investigators.

Thematic studies have occupied an important place in Buddhist studies. Chief among the topics of discussion for many years were the character of the Buddha, the date at which he lived, and the meaning of NIRVAN-A. More recently, issues such as the meaning of S´UNYATA (EMPTINESS) in the MADHYAMAKA SCHOOL,
the status of experience and enlightenment in Chan, and, self-reflexively, how Buddhist studies itself should be carried out, have attracted considerable attention.

It is likely that in the years to come, such more conceptual and theoretical studies, as well as comparative investigations, will become more common.

See Also: Languages Bibliography

Beal, Samuel. The Romantic Legend of S´akya Buddha. London:
Trübner, 1875.

Beal, Samuel. Si-yu-ki: Buddhist Records of the Western World.
London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1906.

Burgess, James. Report on the Buddhist Cave Temples and Their Inscriptions: Archaeological Survey of Western India 4. London: Trübner, 1883.

Burnouf, Eugène. Introduction à l'histoire du Buddhisme Indien.
Paris: Imprimerie Royal, 1844.

Burnouf, Eugène. Le Lotus de la Bonne Loi. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1852.

Cunningham, Alexander. The Bhilsa Topes: Or, Buddhist Monuments of Central India: Comprising a Brief Historical Sketch of the Rise, Progress, and Decline of Buddhism; with an Account of the Opening and Examination of the Various Groups of Topes around Bhilsa. Bombay: Smith, Taylor; London: Smith, Elder, 1852.

Edgerton, Franklin. Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Grammar and Dictionary. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1953.

Griffiths, Paul J. "Recent Work on Classical Indian Buddhism."
Critical Review of Books in Religion 6 (1993): 41–75.

Jong, J. W. de. A Brief History of Buddhist Studies in Europe and America. Tokyo: Kosei, 1997.

Kern, Hendrik. Geschiedenis van het Buddhisme in Indie. Haarlem: H. D. Theenk Willink, 1882–1884.

La Vallée Poussin, Louis de. Bouddhisme: Opinions sur l'histoire de la dogmatique. Paris: Gabriel Beauchesne, 1909.

La Vallée Poussin, Louis de. L'Abhidharmakos´a de Vasubandhu.
Paris: Geuthner, 1923–1931. Reprint, Brussels: Institut Belge des hautes Études Chinoises, 1971.

Lamotte, Étienne Paul Marie. Histoire du bouddhisme Indien,
des origines à l'ére s´aka (1958). Reprint, Louvain, Belgium: Université de Louvain, Institut Orientaliste, 1976. English translation, History of Indian Buddhism: From the Origins to the Saka Era, tr. Sara Webb-Boin. Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium: Université de Louvain, 1988.

Lamotte, Étienne Paul Marie. Le Traité de la grande Vertu de Sagesse. Louvain, Belgium: Université de Louvain, 1944–1980.

Lopez, Donald S., Jr., ed. Curators of the Buddha: The Study of Buddhism under Colonialism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995.

McRae, John R. "Chinese Religions: The State of the Field." Part 2: "Living Religious Traditions: Buddhism." Journal of Asian Studies 54, no. 2 (1995): 354–371.

Müller, F. Max. Buddhist Texts from Japan. Anecdota Oxoniensia, Texts, Documents, and Extracts, Chiefly from Manuscripts in the Bodleian and Other Oxford Libraries. Aryan series, Vol. 1, Part 1. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1881.

Nagao, Gadjin. "Reflections on Tibetan Studies in Japan." Acta Asiatica 29 (1975): 107–128.

Obermiller, Eugène (Evgenni Eugen'evich). History of Buddhism. (Chos 'byung) by Bu-ston: Part 1: The Jewelry of Scripture. Part 1: The History of Buddhism in India and Tibet.
Heidelberg, Germany: Harrassowitz, 1931–1932.

Prip-Møller, Johannes. Chinese Buddhist Monasteries: Their Plan and Its Function as a Setting for Buddhist Monastic Life.

Copenhagen, Denmark: Gads Forlag; London: Oxford University Press, 1937.

Strickmann, Michel. "A Survey of Tibetan Buddhist Studies."
Eastern Buddhist 10, no. 1 (1977): 128–149.

Sueki, Yasuhiro. Bibliographical Sources for Buddhist Studies:
From the Viewpoint of Buddhist Philology. Tokyo: International Institute for Buddhist Studies, 1998–2001.

Takakusu Junjiro. A Record of the Buddhist Religion as Practised in India and the Malay Archipelago (A.D. 671–695) by I-Tsing. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1896.

Welch, Holmes. The Practice of Chinese Buddhism: 1900–1950.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1967.

JONATHAN A. SILK
BURMA. See Myanmar

Burmese, Buddhist Literature In

Belonging to the Sino-Tibetan family of languages, Burmese constitutes the primary language of the largest ethnic group in Myanmar (Burma). Burmese comprises two distinct styles, each with its own set of linguistic particles to mark the syntactical relations between words. Generally speaking, colloquial Burmese is used when people meet and talk; literary Burmese is used for published materials. And yet, colloquial Burmese sometimes appears in printed form, as in books that contain dialogue. Likewise, literary Burmese may be used in some spoken contexts, such as when news is read on the radio.

For purposes of this survey, the discussion of Burmese Buddhist literature will be divided into two parts: The first part distills developments in Burmese Buddhist literature from the twelfth century up to and extending into the nineteenth century; the second part focuses on relevant developments from the nineteenth century onwards.

Twelfth To Nineteenth Centuries

Inscriptions or kyok ca (stone-writings) make up the only form of extant Burmese writing prior to the midfifteenth century, and they continue to be an important form of writing throughout Myanmar's pre-British colonial period (the British completed their military conquest of Myanmar in 1885; Myanmar gained independence in 1948). The earliest Burmese inscriptions come from Pagan, a major city-state in central Myanmar that reached the zenith of its political and cultural development in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The inscriptions, primarily in prose, often record the meritorious deeds of kings and other laypeople, in particular the construction and donation of monastic and other religious buildings. The inscriptions also sometimes record Buddhist laws set down by kings. The earliest Buddhist law inscription, an edict on theft, dates to 1249.

The sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries witnessed the development of a large body of legal materials composed in manuscript form in Burmese, Pali, and other languages (e.g., Mon). These legal materials attempt to encode, legislate, and offer precedents for Buddhist practice. Common to the legal literature were rajasat, which were laws set down by kings, and dhammasat, which were law texts written, for example, by monks.

Historical and biographical materials, such as rajavan˙ (historical accounts of the lineages of kings), are yet another type of Burmese literature with Buddhist elements in pre-nineteenth-century Myanmar. These materials recount the exploits and intrigues of rulers and others, their lines of descent, and their acts of Buddhist patronage. Rajavan˙ have been written since the fifteenth century. However, the first rajavan˙ to attempt to offer a continuous history of Myanmar was U Kala's Maharajavan˙ krl
(Great Chronicle), which appeared around 1724 (Herbert and Milner, p. 13).

Burmese Buddhist poetic literature appears in the historical record from about 1450 onwards. Among the poetic forms are pyui', lengthy and embellished translations of Pali texts that deal with an event or series of events in the Buddha's life or previous lives (jatakas). A famous example of pyui'-type poetry is the Kui khan pyui' (the pyui' in nine sections), which was authored by a monk in 1523 and based on a jataka tale about a king who wanted an heir.

Finally, Burmese commentaries such as nissayas have been composed since the mid-fifteenth century.

Nissayas were used to communicate in Burmese the inflections, syntax, and meanings of Pali texts and passages. Nissayas and other commentaries continue to play a prominent role in the teaching and transmitting of Pali texts and ideas up through and extending beyond the nineteenth century.

Nineteenth To Twenty-First Centuries

Despite, and partly due to, the political and economic challenges that have confronted Myanmar since the nineteenth century (e.g., colonial conquest, military rule, prolonged economic stagnation), the country has witnessed an efflorescence of Burmese Buddhist literature. As with the various types of Buddhist literature mentioned above, contemporary literature exhibits strong continuities with the conceptual and textual world of the THERAVADA Pali canon, as well as with the Buddhist literary traditions of South and Southeast Asia.

In the contemporary period, there are four types of Burmese Buddhist literature that overlap with and extend several of the pre-nineteenth-century types. By no means exhaustive of available contemporary Burmese literature, the four highlight the range of literature readily accessible to those wishing to investigate Buddhist culture and practice in Myanmar. They are: (1) historical and biographical literature, (2) commentarial literature, (3) legal literature, and (4) devotional and meditational literature. Each type of material has been and continues to be used pedagogically, ritually, ethically, and politically.

Contemporary historical and biographical literature addresses the development and spread of Buddhism. Topics include the building of pagodas and other religious monuments, the activities of Buddhist-minded leaders, and the lives of various monks and laypeople. Overall, contemporary Burmese Buddhist histories and biographies participate in a predominant tradition of South and Southeast Asian religio-historical writing, which includes the vam- sa literature of Sri Lanka and the tamnan literature of Thailand, as well as components of the kyok ca and rajavan˙ literatures of Myanmar. An example of contemporary Burmese historical writing is Mahadhamma San˙ kram- 's Sasanalan˙ kara ca tam (Ornaments of the Dispensation),
written in 1831 and considered by many Burmese to be an authoritative discussion of the history of Buddhism in Myanmar. Phui Kya's Kyon˙ to ra Rvhe kyan˙ Cha ra to bhu ra krl theruppatti (Life of the Kyauntawya Shwegyin Sayadaw, 1925) offers a short but informative biography of a monk who became abbot at the Kyauntawya Monastery in Yangon (Rangoon), the capital of Myanmar.

Commentarial materials fall into at least two broad categories. One category consists of materials written in the nissaya style of word-by-word translation. Such writings appear in a large number of contexts, including, for example, monastic cremation volumes like Bhaddanta Indacara Antimakharl
(Reverend Indacara's Final Journey, 1993), which includes nissaya passages that explain the Pali notion of sam- vega (religious emotion).

A second category of commentary consists of treatises on portions of the Pali canon and other Buddhist texts. An example of a commentarial treatise is Arhan˙
Janakabhivam- sa's Kuiy kyan˙ - abhidamma, which typifies the exposition of abhidhamma (metaphysics) prevalent in contemporary Myanmar. Since its first publication in 1933, Janakabhivam- sa's text has seen several editions and an English translation by U Ko Lay, Abhidhamma in Daily Life (1999).

Contemporary legal materials include vinicchaya literature, which concerns rulings given by learned monks. These rulings are promulgated within different monasteries and monastic courts. Whether a given vinicchaya is accepted by civil authorities, monks, and laypeople as legally valid is by no means a certainty; however, when a monastic court has been appointed by the state, and the civil and monastic authorities in question agree upon a decision, the chances for general acceptance increase.

A representative example of vinicchaya literature hails from 1981, when a body of monks made a ruling on rebirth theory, which was published as a massive tome, complete with documentary photographs, titled Lu se lu phrac vadanuvada vinicchaya (Court Decision on Transmigration). Vinicchaya literature, as well as the contexts in which it is produced and deployed, could be profitably studied in light of Burmese Buddhist legal sources (e.g., rajasats, dhammasats) and culture dating to precolonial Myanmar.

Devotional and meditative literature includes handbooks focused on different aspects of daily practice associated with the Buddha and his teachings. Such handbooks help explain the meaning and dynamics of devotional and meditative activity. Examples include U Tan˙ Cui's Pu tl cip naññ (Method of Reciting Stanzas, 1999) and Muigh Ññhan˙ Cha ra to's Vipassana a lup pe cañ tara krl
(Way of Vipassana Practice, 1958). The latter volume discusses the intricacies of VIPASSANA (SANSKRIT, VIPAS´YANA; insight)
MEDITATION, which has become popular in South and Southeast Asia, as well as in the West.

In closing, it should be emphasized that there are several kinds of material that fall outside the types discussed here. These materials include novels, such as Gurunanda's Samavati e* tac bhava sam- sara (The Life of Samavati, 1991), which draws its story about a queen from the fifth-century philosopher BUDDHAGHOSA's commentary on the DHAMMAPADA (a work of verse in the Pali canon). Clearly, a vast literature awaits those willing to engage the complexities of Burmese and the Burmese Buddhist world.

See also: Myanmar; Myanmar, Buddhist Art in; Pali, Buddhist Literature in

Bhe Mon˙ Tan˙ , U . Mranma ca pe samuin˙ (History of Burmese Literature). Yangon, Myanmar: Sudhammavat, 1955.

Chulalongkonmahawitthayalai, et al. Comparative Studies on Literature and History of Thailand and Myanmar. Bangkok, Thailand: Institute of Asian Studies, Chulalongkorn University, 1997.

Herbert, Patricia, and Milner, Anthony, eds. South-East Asia:
Languages and Literatures, a Select Guide. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1989.

Hla Pe. Burma: Literature, Historiography, Scholarship, Language, Life, and Buddhism. Pasir Panjang, Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1985.

Houtman, Gustaaf. "The Biography of Modern Burmese Buddhist Meditation Master U Ba Khin: Life before the Cradle and past the Grave." In Sacred Biography in the Buddhist Traditions of South and Southeast Asia, ed. Juliane Schober. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997.

Huxley, Andrew. "Studying Theravada Legal Literature." Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 20, no.

1 (1997): 63–91.

Janakabhivam- sa, Arhan˙ . Abhidhamma in Daily Life, tr. and ed.

U Ko Lay. Yangon, Myanmar: Aung Thein Nyunt, 1999.

Khin Maung Nyunt. An Outline History of Myanmar Literature:
Pagan Period to Kon-baung Period. Revised edition. Yangon, Myanmar: Ca pe Biman, 1999.

Kratz, E. Ulrich, ed. Southeast Asian Languages and Literatures:
A Bibliographical Guide to Burmese, Cambodian, Indonesian, Javanese, Malay, Minangkabau, Thai, and Vietnamese. London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 1996.

Smyth, David, ed. The Canon in Southeast Asian Literatures: Literatures of Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Thailand, and Vietnam. Richmond, UK: Curzon, 2000.

JASON A. CARBINE

Bu Ston (Bu Tön)

Bu ston rin chen grub (pronounced Bu tön rinchendrub, 1290–1364) was the most illustrious member of Zhwa lu Monastery in Gtsang (Tsang), located in west central Tibet. He was also the Tibetan scholar most active in collating and editing the Tibetan Buddhist CANON, the Bka' 'gyur and Bstan 'gyur. The Bka' 'gyur (Kanjur) is the collection of Tibetan translations of works attributed to the Buddha. The Bstan 'gyur (Tanjur) is the collection of Tibetan translations of important Buddhist commentaries and other related materials. The formation of the Bka' 'gyur and Bstan 'gyur began with the collecting of manuscripts and translations of Buddhist texts into Tibetan in the early ninth century. The process culminated in the early fourteenth century when, according to the Blue Annals (a translation of Gzhon nu dpal's Deb ther sngon po), manuscripts scattered over many monasteries and temples in Tibet were gathered together in Snar thang (Narthang) Monastery.

Bu ston then took the Snar thang version of the canon to Zhwa lu, where he checked the translations against Indian originals, added other works, and produced a Bka' 'gyur and an authoritative version of the Bstan 'gyur. The Bka' 'gyur and Bstan 'gyur that Bu ston edited is the origin of the majority of the extant Tibetan canons. The categories under which he grouped the various texts are the most widely used and admired. He gives a detailed description of his work in his Chos 'byung (History of Buddhism), partially translated into English by the Russian scholar Eugène Obermiller in the 1930s.

Bu ston was a conservative editor. As D. S. Ruegg says in The Life of Bu ston Rinpoche (1966), "Bu ston . . . follows an objective criterion of authenticity which can be accepted by any editor" (p. 28). In practice this led Bu ston to exclude some tantras accepted as authentic by the RNYING MA (NYINGMA), or Old School, of Tibetan Buddhism on the grounds that no original Indian version could be located.

Bu ston's collected works (gsung 'bum) include more than two hundred titles in seventeen volumes.

Besides his work on the canon, Bu ston composed important commentaries on the yoga set of tantras and on the KALACAKRA Tantra. He also wrote a well-known commentary on the Perfection of Wisdom sutras called Lung gi nye ma, as well as a commentary on the Abhidharmasamuccaya of ASAN˙ GA. Even before Bu ston, Zhwa lu Monastery was known for its expertise in these two areas, and a Zhwa lu school of Tibetan Buddhism is mentioned in earlier histories. After Bu ston, the Zhwa lu school went into decline and was largely eclipsed by the SA SKYA (SAKYA), BKA' BRGYUD
(KAGYU), and DGE LUGS (GELUK) sects, but the tradition of studying Bu ston's works continued. It became so widespread that the study of Bu ston's works (bu lugs) became a minor tradition in itself.

Bu ston's views were highly influential in his day
(for example, TSONG KHA PA's Sngags rim chen mo— partially translated into English by Jeffrey Hopkins as Tantra in Tibet—draws heavily on Bu ston's work on the yoga tantras) and remain so today. Bu ston's works are still the central texts for study in a number of Tibetan monasteries.

See Also: Tibet Bibliography

Eimer, Helmut, ed. Transmission of the Tibetan Canon: Papers Presented at a Panel of the 7th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Graz 1995. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1997.

Obermiller, Eugène, trans. History of Buddhism. Heidelberg, Germany: Harrassowitz, 1931–1932.

Ruegg, David Seyfort, trans. The Life of Bu ston Rinpoche. Rome:
Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estreme Oriente, 1966.

GARETH SPARHAM

Cambodia

Cambodia in the twenty-first century understands itself as a THERAVADA Buddhist nation. While this selfconscious identification as a Theravada nation is fairly recent, the history and development of Buddhism in the region that constitutes present-day Cambodia extend back nearly two millennia. During this time numerous transformations occurred that led scholars to suppose that the Khmer Buddhism of today is markedly different from Khmer Buddhism even two centuries ago, before the rise of modern Buddhist institutions in Cambodia. Certain major continuities are also evident in the past two millennia: the intertwining of Buddhist, brahmanist, and spirit practices and understandings; the close ties between religion and political power; and the important role of Buddhist ideas in the articulation of social and ethical values.

The region known today as Cambodia was inhabited two thousand years ago by Khmer-speaking peoples who appear to have congregated in small chiefdoms referred to as Funan by the Chinese. Archeological evidence suggests that Indian merchants, explorers, and monks imported Buddhism into this region at least as early as the second century C.E. The exact manner of the importation of Buddhism, along with other Indian ideas, into Southeast Asia, a process called Indianization, is not fully understood. A consensus has emerged among many historians, however, that Indians probably never established a political and economic process akin to modern colonization by Europeans in Southeast Asia; nor is there thought to have been a large-scale movement of Indian emigrants to Southeast Asia.

Rather, many aspects of the language, arts, and literature, as well as philosophical, religious, and political thought of Indians, were adopted, assimilated, and transformed by Southeast Asians during the first centuries C.E., possibly through a combination of economic, diplomatic, and religious contacts both with India and Indians directly, and also through the cultural medium of other Southeast Asian courts and traders.

Buddhist and brahmanic practices coexisted and became intertwined with local animist traditions and spirit beliefs in the Khmer regions from the second century onward. Buddhist missionaries and pilgrims were active during this period, which may have contributed to the introduction of Buddhism into Southeast Asian courts. Chinese histories indicate that at least one Buddhist from Funan, a monk named Nagasena, traveled to China in the sixth century. Chinese monks traveling to India by sea stopped en route to visit many sites in present-day Southeast Asia. While no indigenous Buddhist texts from this early period remain, items discovered by archeologists at the site of Oc-Eo (a port city during the Funan era) include Buddha images associated with the MAHAYANA tradition. Chinese records from the period describe Buddhist, S´aivite, and spirit cults and practices among the Khmer, with the central court rituals seemingly concerned with devotion to S´iva, especially through the worship of S´iva-lingam.

Epigraphic evidence for the Buddhist presence begins to appear in the seventh century, during the period referred to as pre-Angkor, when the Khmer regions were apparently dominated by a group of chiefdoms or kingdoms referred to in Chinese records as Chenla. It is difficult to characterize the nature of religious life during this period. Recent historiography on the pre-Angkor period resists the tendency of older scholarship to overinterpret limited epigraphic evidence or conflate European or Indian models of KINGSHIP and society onto the Khmer context. Inscriptions from the period, predominantly in Khmer and Sanskrit, suggest that the pre-Angkorian rulers were for the most part devotees of S´iva or VIS-N- U, but this does not mean that an Indian-like "Hinduism" was in existence. Drawing on persuasive linguistic evidence, the historian Michael Vickery has pointed to the practice among pre-Angkor Khmer of attributing Indian names to their own indigenous deities. Most preAngkor rulers appear to have tolerated and to varying degrees supported Buddhism in their courts, but to what extent Buddhism was known beyond the courts is difficult to gauge. Iconography and historical records from the period suggest that Buddhist influences were being felt from India, China, Sri Lanka, and other parts of Southeast Asia, such as Dvaravat and Champa, with more than one form of Buddhism in evidence. Numerous Avalokites´vara figures, as well as a reference to "Lokes´vara" (Avalokites´vara) appearing in an inscription dated 791 from the Siemreap area of present-day Cambodia, indicate the presence of Mahayana ideas.

Yet some early Pali inscriptions have also been found along with Sri Lankan and Dvaravat style Buddha images showing Theravada influence.

By the end of the pre-Angkor period, kings were expanding their territories and centralizing political and economic authority, while at the same time seeking to align themselves with deities perceived to hold universal power. The Khmer political concept of a close association between king and deity, known in Sanskrit inscriptions as the devaraja cult, must have grown out of indigenous traditions linking rulers and local deities of the earth. It developed more fully during the Angkor period, from the ninth through thirteenth centuries, starting with the kingship of Jayavarman II (r.

802–854). Inscriptions speak of Jayavarman's patronage of a devaraja cult that associated him with S´iva, either as "god-king" or as a devotee of S´iva, "king of the gods." While the exact relationship between king and deity denoted by this phrase remains controversial among scholars, there is no doubt that the power of kings and deities were closely interwoven in a cult that became a model for the later Angkorian kings. From readings of inscriptions, Angkorian art, and other historical accounts, scholars have surmised that the considerable political and economic influence wielded by Angkorian kings was inseparable from their associations with fertility and agriculture, their superior moral status, and their roles as protectors and propagators of religious devotion, associations that were carried into the later Buddhist kingships. This range of powers was embodied in their building projects, typically of reservoirs, images, and mountain temples, such as Angkor Wat, the fabulous temple built by Suryavarman II
(r. 1113–ca. 1150) and dedicated to Vis-n-u.

During the Angkorian period, a fuller picture of Buddhism emerges. While most of the earlier Angkorian kings were S´aivite or devotees of the combined S´iva-Vis-n-u deity Harihara, Mahayana Buddhism was also becoming increasingly intertwined with kingship. Yas´ovarman, regarded as the founder of Angkor
(889–900), built three hermitages outside of his capital dedicated to S´iva, Vis-n-u, and the Buddha. Rajendravarman II (r. ca. 944–ca. 968), Jayavarman V (r. ca.

968–ca. 1001), Suryavarman I (r. 1001–1050), and Jayavarman VI (r. 1080–1107) were all patrons of Mahayana Buddhism, though their reigns too remained syncretic. Mahayana Buddhism came to the forefront, however, during the reign of Jayavarman VII (r. 1181– ca. 1218), considered to be the "last great Angkorian king." The complex reasons for Jayavarman VII's promotion of Buddhism over other Angkorian cults, historian David Chandler suggests, may have stemmed from an apparent estrangement from the Angkor court as well as a period spent in Champa, where Mahayana Buddhism was influential. After repelling several bloody Cham invasions, Jayavarman VII responded to the suffering in the aftermath of war with public works intended to embody his compassion: roads, rest houses, hospitals, and reservoirs. His temples Ta Prohm and Preah Kan, built to honor his parents in combination with the goddess of wisdom, Prajñaparamita, and the bodhisattva Lokes´vara (symbolizing compassion), contained inscriptions enumerating the thousands of people connected with each temple complex. The BAYON
temple in the center of his capital contained a central image of the Buddha, with four-faced images of the bodhisattva Lokes´vara on its towers and exteriors.

This image has sometimes been interpreted as a likeness of the king as well, possibly representing a Buddhistic extension of the devaraja concept to linking of king and BODHISATTVA. Following Jayavarman, Buddhism and kingship have remained closely intertwined in Cambodia.

During the eleventh through thirteenth centuries, the same period that Islamization was occurring in maritime Southeast Asia, Theravada Buddhism rose to prominence throughout mainland Southeast Asia. Scholars are unable to wholly account for the spread of Theravada Buddhist ideologies and practices during

this period, but historiography in general is moving away from a clear-cut demarcation between Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism in Southeast Asia, as well as the idea that one form of Buddhism simply and rapidly supplanted the other. More likely, given the syncretic traditions in Southeast Asia, different Buddhist ideas and practices became intermingled, just as Buddhism itself became interwoven with spirit worship. Theravada Buddhism had coexisted with other forms of Buddhism for centuries but became gradually more influential as the Theravada kingdoms of Pagan and SUKHOTHAI (in present-day Myanmar and Thailand)
developed into larger regional powers. As the dominant influence of Angkor waned, increasing contact with these kingdoms may have contributed to the spread and authority of Theravada ideas in the Khmer regions. A Khmer prince, possibly a son of Jayavarman VII, is supposed to have been among a group of Southeast Asian monks who traveled to Sri Lanka for study at the end of the twelfth century; he was ordained in the Mahavihara (also known in Southeast Asia as "Sinhalese") order, a lineage they carried back to Pagan. In post-Angkorian Cambodia, it has been suggested, a backlash against the extravagant Mahayana expressions of Jayavarman VII led to a "Hindu revival," and Theravadins may have used this as an opportunity to assert their own interpretations and practices. During the course of the next two centuries, Theravada Buddhism became assimilated into all levels of Khmer society and synthesized in court and villages with older brahmanic and spirit practices, such as agricultural fertility rites and the worship of neak ta (local spirits).

The post-Angkorian or "middle period," dated by Ashley Thompson from the end of Angkorian influence (the thirteenth through fourteenth centuries) until the mid-nineteenth century, was until recently perceived as one of decline by scholars fixated on the disappearance of the great civilization of Angkor. Recent scholarship tends to view the middle period in terms of multiple shifts: The population and agricultural centers of the kingdom shifted geographically south; cultural influences moved from, as well as to, the Thais; religious devotion continued to be syncretistic but with an emphasis on Theravada forms and ideas, as reflected in the wooden Theravada viharas built adjacent to Angkorian brahmanic stone temples and the shift in iconography from images of Indian deities to images of the Buddha; Pali replaced Sanskrit as the language of inscriptions and literature; Khmer also came increasingly to be used, and much of the classical Khmer literature was composed during this time. Theravada ideas of kingship, MERIT AND MERITMAKING, and KARMA (ACTION); a growing emphasis on the biography of the Buddha; and a COSMOLOGY and ethical orientation expressed in ideas about birth, REBIRTH, and moral development in the three-tiered world of the Trai Bhum are reflected in the art, epigraphy, and literature of the period. At Nogor Vatt, for instance, a sixteenth-century inscription translated by Thompson refers to the merit produced by a royal couple, the king's subsequent rebirth in Tus-ita heaven, and his resolve to become an ARHAT at the time of the Buddha MAITREYA. Buddhist iconography from the period focused on the depiction of the Buddha, and vernacular literary compositions such as the Ramkerti transformed its hero into a Buddhist bodhisattva.

The eighteenth and much of the nineteenth centuries in Cambodia were a period of almost continual warfare and unrest, with the Khmer trying to repel invasions from both their Siamese and Vietnamese neighbors. Historical sources from the period suggest that the Buddhist material culture that had been developed during the middle period was widely damaged or destroyed as a result of warfare and social chaos. Beginning in 1848, when Ang Duong (r. 1848–1860) was installed on the Khmer throne by the Siamese, a renovation of Khmer Buddhism was initiated that would last for at least a century. During the rest of the nineteenth century, Khmer Buddhists rebuilt damaged monasteries and monk-scholars traveled to Bangkok to copy lost manuscripts and study Pali.

The two most prominent Khmer monks of the nineteenth century were Samtec Sangharaj Den (1823–
1913), who became the san˙ gha head in 1857, and Samtec Sugandhadhipat Pan (1824–1894), the monk who is attributed with the importation of the Thammayutnikai to Cambodia. Both were educated and ordained in Bangkok, which served as the regional center for Buddhist education during this period. Den was captured as a prisoner of war by the Siamese army as a young boy and sent to Bangkok as a slave, where he served in the entourage of Prince Ang Duong. He was ordained as a novice at the age of eleven and by the time he ordained as a monk in 1844, had already won attention for his intellectual pursuits. In 1849 Ang Duong requested that Den be sent to Cambodia to head up the restoration of Buddhism in the kingdom, which he undertook until his death in 1913. He resided at Vatt Un-n-alom in Phnom Penh, the chief Mahanikai temple. Pan was born in 1824 in Battambang (a Khmer province under Siamese control until 1907) and was ordained as a novice there. In 1837 he went to Bangkok to study Pali, and eventually ended up as a student at Wat Bovoranives under Mongkut. The date of his return to Cambodia and the founding of the Thammayut sect in Cambodia has been attributed both to the reigns of Ang Duong and Norodom (r. 1860–1904), either in 1854 or 1864. Under Norodom, Pan constructed the seat of the Thammayut order at Vatt Bodum Vaddey in Phnom Penh. In the 1880s he sent a delegation of Khmer monks to Ceylon to obtain relics and a Bo tree to plant in the new monastery. He died in 1894, with the title of "Samtec Sugandhadhipat," the chief of the Thammayut order and the second highest monastic rank in the kingdom.

The new Khmer Buddhism that began to emerge in this period was probably unlike the older Buddhism it replaced. François Bizot has argued that in spite of the presence of Pali inscriptions and literature, Theravada Pali scholarship was in fact not well established in Cambodia before the nineteenth century, that canonical Tipit-aka texts were not widely used, and that tantric teachings were more prominent in Cambodia than in other Theravada areas of Southeast Asia. If this theory is correct, traces of this older Khmer Buddhism were increasingly destroyed after the mid-nineteenth century, and new ideas of Theravada orthodoxy took its place. This newly emerging Buddhism had Siamese, Khmer, and French sources and influences.

Although the Thammayutnikai imported from Siam and patronized by the royal family never took wide hold outside of urban areas, its reformist ideas influenced young Khmer monks in the more traditional Mahanikai order in Cambodia. These young monks, led in particular by Chuon Nath (1883–1969)
and Huot Tath (1891–1975), pushed for a series of innovations in the Khmer san˙ gha beginning in the early twentieth century: the use of print for sacred texts
(rather than traditional methods of inscribing manuscripts); a higher degree of competence in Pali and Sanskrit studies among monks; a vision of orthodoxy based on understanding of VINAYA texts for both bhikkhu and laypersons; and modernization in pedagogical methods for Buddhist studies. These reforms were not uniformly accepted within the Khmer san˙ gha.

Early attempts by Nath to introduce print were met with resistance from established san˙ gha officials and led to increasing factionalism between modernists and

traditionalists within the Mahanikai that continued into the 1970s. The reformist efforts led by modernist monks did, however, coincide with both the pedagogical ideologies and political interests of French colonial administrators who backed Nath and Tath in an effort to reinvigorate Buddhist education within the protectorate. The French administration took on the role of san˙ gha patron in part to foster European models of scientific education but also, fearing Siamese influence, to stem the flow of Khmer Buddhist literati to Bangkok. The modernist agenda also countered the influence of cosmologically oriented Buddhism in the provinces, where French rule in the late nineteenth century was plagued by peasant insurrections connected with predictions of a Buddhist dhammik (righteous ruler) who would usher in the epoch of the Buddha Maitreya.

By 1930, when the Buddhist Institute was established under the directorship of French curator Susanne Karpelès, most of the modern Buddhist institutions in Cambodia were in place. For the next forty-five years, the Buddhist Institute led the development of modern Buddhism in Cambodia, issuing frequent publications of critical editions of texts in Khmer and Pali, as well as scholarly and popular studies related to Buddhism and Khmer literature and history, many of which appeared in its important publication, Kambujasuriya. Besides its prominent role in articulating a modern Khmer expression of Buddhism, the Buddhist Institute became a site for imagining Khmer nationalism, and monks were among the most prominent dissidents against the French colonial regime. The institute also helped give rise to the development of the Communist Party in Cambodia.

Mean (Son Ngoc Minh) and Sok (Tou Samouth), later leaders of Khmer communism, were both recruited by Karpelès for Buddhist education. In spite of this early connection between Buddhism and the Communist Party, once the Khmer Rouge took power in April 1975, they quickly sought to eradicate Buddhism in Democratic Kampuchea. Many monks were executed or forced to disrobe, Buddhist monasteries were destroyed or appropriated for other purposes, and Buddhist text collections were discarded. Nearly two million people died as a result of Khmer Rouge policies enacted between 1975 and 1979.

Since the Vietnamese invasion of 1979 that brought an end to the Khmer Rouge regime, Buddhism has slowly reemerged in Cambodia, in some ways resembling pre-1970 Buddhism and in other ways quite altered. The subsequent governments of Cambodia since The promenade at Angkor Wat, 1997. AP/Wide World Photos. Reproduced by permission.

1979 have gradually lifted initial restrictions on Buddhist participation and expression, pre-1970 san˙ gha organization has been restored and many temples (vatt) have been rebuilt, often from contributions from Khmer living in other countries. New research by anthropologist John Marston suggests that older strains of Khmer Buddhist thought, such as millenarianism and tensions between modernists (smay) and traditionalists (puran-), have reemerged in this new period.

Political leaders continue to situate themselves as patrons of the san˙ gha in order to gain legitimacy. On the other hand, the loss of so many monks, intellectuals, and texts, as well as an entire generation of young laypeople raised without any religious education at all, is seen by contemporary Buddhist leaders as a major obstacle to the rebuilding process and an irreparable break with the past. In addition, the traumatic experience of so much of the population has in some cases ushered in new kinds of cynicism and questioning of basic Buddhist truths, such as the efficacy of the law of karma (action). At the same time, other Khmer identify even more strongly with Buddhism. Many seek to remember the dead through merit-making ceremonies or to ease traumatic memories through meditation practice. New global Buddhist ideas in the form of ENGAGED BUDDHISM (such as Buddhist-led care for AIDS patients), human rights education, and conflict mediation techniques, taught through the medium of Buddhist concepts, are also reaching contemporary Khmer Buddhists. One of the best-known monks of the post-Khmer Rouge period, Maha Ghosananda, a student of Gandhian ideas, began leading peace marches across Cambodia in 1989. These marches, known as dhammayatra (dharma pilgrimages), have crossed war zones and called attention to injustices in contemporary society.

See also: Communism and Buddhism; Khmer, Buddhist Literature in; Southeast Asia, Buddhist Art in

Ang Choulean. Les êtres surnaturels dans la religion populaire khmère. Paris: Cedoreck, 1986.

Bhattacharya, Kamaleswar. "The Religions of Ancient Cambodia." In Sculpture of Angkor and Ancient Cambodia: Millennium of Glory, ed. Helen Ibbitson Jessup and Thierry Zephir.

Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1997.

Bizot, François. Le Figuier à cinq branches. Paris: École française de l'Extrême-Orient, 1981.

Buddhist Institute. Biography of Samdech Preah Sanghareach Chuon-Nath, the Chief of Mahanikaya Order. Phnom Penh, Cambodia: Buddhist Institute, 1970.

Bunchan Mul. "The Umbrella War of 1942." In Peasants and Politics in Kampuchea, 1942–1981, ed. Ben Kiernan and Chanthou Boua. London: Zed Press; Armonk, NY: Sharpe, 1982.

Chandler, David. A History of Cambodia, 3rd edition. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2000.

Chau-Seng. L'Organisation Buddhique au Cambodge. Phnom Penh, Cambodia: Université Buddhique Preah Sihanouk Raj, 1961.

Coedès, George. The Indianized States of Southeast Asia, ed. Walter F. Vella and tr. Susan Brown Cowing. Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii, 1968.

Forest, Alain. Le culte des genies protecteurs au Cambodge: analyse et traduction d'un corpus de texts sur les neak ta. Paris: Editions L'Harmattan, 1992.

Harris, Ian. "Buddhism in Extremis: The Case of Cambodia."
In Buddhism and Politics in Twentieth-Century Asia, ed. Ian Harris. London: Pinter, 1999.

Keyes, Charles F. "Communist Revolution and the Buddhist Past in Cambodia." In Asian Visions of Authority: Religion and the Modern States of East and Southeast Asia, ed. Charles F. Keyes, Laurel Kendall, and Helen Hardacre. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1994.

Khin Sok. Le Cambodge entre le Siam et le Viêtnam (de 1775 à 1860). Paris: École Française d'Extrême-Orient, 1991.

Kiernan, Ben. How Pol Pot Came to Power. London: Verso, 1985.

Leclère, Adhémard. Le bouddhisme au Cambodge. Paris: E. Leroux, 1899.

Mabbett, Ian. "A Survey of the Background to the Variety of Political Traditions in South-east Asia." In Patterns of Kingship and Authority in Traditional Asia, ed. Ian Mabbett. London: Croom Helm, 1985.

Mabbett, Ian, and Chandler, David. The Khmers. Oxford: Blackwell Press, 1995.

Osborne, Milton E. The French Presence in Cochinchina and Cambodia: Rule and Response (1859–1905). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1969.

Porée-Maspero, Eveline. Étude sur les rites agraires des Cambodgiens, Vols. 1–3. Paris: Mouton, 1962.

Reid, Anthony, ed. Southeast Asia in the Early Modern Era:
Trade, Power, and Belief. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1993.

Tarling, Nicholas. The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia, Vol.

1: From Early Times to ca. 1800. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Thompson, Ashley. "Changing Perspectives: Cambodia after Angkor." In Sculpture of Angkor and Ancient Cambodia: Millennium of Glory, ed. Helen Ibbitson Jessup and Thierry Zephir. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1997.

Thompson, Ashley. "Introductory Remarks between the Lines:
Writing Histories of Middle Cambodia." In Other Pasts: Women, Gender, and History in Early Modern Southeast Asia, ed. Barbara Watson Andaya. Manoa: University of Hawaii Press, 2000.

Vickery, Michael. Society, Economics, and Politics in Pre-Angkor Cambodia: The 7th–8th Centuries. Tokyo: Centre for East Asian Cultural Studies for Unesco, Toyo Bunko, 1998.

Yang Sam. Khmer Buddhism and Politics 1954–1984. Newington, CT: Khmer Studies Institute, 1987.

ANNE HANSEN
CAMBODIA, BUDDHIST ART IN. See Southeast Asia, Buddhist Art in

Candrakirti

Candrakrti (ca. 600–650 C.E.) is best known as a Madhyamaka-school Indian philosopher and commentator. Little is known of his life, though later Tibetan biographies associate him with the north Indian monastic university of Nalanda. His two major works are the Madhyamakavatara (Introduction to Madhyamaka) and Prasannapada (Clear Words).

The Madhyamakavatara is a versified introduction to Madhyamaka thought, organized into ten chapters that correspond to the ten perfections (paramita) mastered by Mahayana BODHISATTVAS. The sixth chapter, corresponding to the perfection of wisdom, is the longest and most important. In it, Candrakrti refutes a variety of Buddhist and non-Buddhist views, and explores the meaning of such basic Buddhist ontological categories as the two truths, no-self, and emptiness.

The Prasannapada is a prose commentary on the Madhyamakakarika (Verses on the Middle Way; second century C.E.), Nagarjuna's foundational MADHYAMAKA
SCHOOL text. In his commentary, Candrakrti brilliantly adumbrates Nagarjuna's critique of philosophical categories, and insists, contrary to his predecessor Bhavaviveka (ca. 490–570 C.E.) that the Madhyamika philosopher must avoid syllogistic reasoning, and must defeat opponents solely through drawing out the absurd consequences of their own statements. This methodological approach was later known as Prasan˙ gika
(consequentialist) Madhyamaka, in contradistinction to the approach that favored using formal inference to establish Madhyamaka views independently, the Svatantrika.

Candrakrti was influential among later Indian Madhyamikas, but achieved his greatest fame in Tibet, where he came to be regarded by many as the Madhyamaka commentator par excellence. He was particularly important for the founder of the DGE LUGS
(GELUK) tradition, TSONG KHA PA (1357–1419), who placed his work at the center of monastic education on Madhyamaka, and made him a thinker whose views are discussed and debated by Tibetan scholars to this day.

Huntington, C. W., and Wangchen, Geshé Namgyal. The Emptiness of Emptiness: An Introduction to Early Indian Madhyamika.
Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1989.

Sprung, Mervyn; Murti, T. R. V.; and Vyas, U. S., trans. Lucid Exposition of the Middle Way: The Essential Chapters from the Prasannapada of Candrakl
rti. Boulder, CO: Prajña Press, 1979.

ROGER R. JACKSON

Canon

There is no such thing as the Buddhist canon. In fact, the concepts of canon and canonicity are especially problematic in Buddhism, given the wide geographical spread and great historical variety of the religion, together with the absence of any central authority. If the term canon is defined loosely as a more or less bounded set of texts accorded preeminent authority and sanctity, then each Buddhist school or tradition to evolve developed its own canon in the process. While agreeing on the centrality of the notion of BUDDHAVACANA
(WORD OF THE BUDDHA) as capable of leading others to awakening, Buddhists may and do differ over what actually constitutes this buddhavacana.
In view of the perennial possibility of disagreement and misunderstanding, Buddhists formulated explicit guidelines for authenticating religious teachings as true buddhavacana and interpreting them correctly. These guidelines include the four great authorities (mahapades´a), which directed that teachings were to be accepted as authentic if they were heard from (1)
the Buddha himself; (2) a SAN˙ GHA of elders; (3) a group of elder monks specializing in the transmission of dharma (i.e., sutra), VINAYA or matr-kas (the matrices or mnemonic lists that became the ABHIDHARMA);
or (4) a single elder specializing therein. But teachings heard from any of these authorities could only be accepted if they conformed with existing scriptural tradition (i.e., with the sutra and vinaya), and also, according to a variant formulation, if they did not contradict the nature of things (dharmata). Another set of principles, not subscribed to by all Buddhist groups, held that in receiving and interpreting teachings one should follow the four refuges or reliances (pratis´aran-a), relying on the dharma taught in preference to the person teaching it, the meaning (or spirit) of it rather than the letter, sutras of definitive or explicit meaning (nl tartha) rather than implicit meaning requiring interpretation (neyartha), and direct understanding (jñana) rather than discursive knowledge (vijñana).

Even while emphasizing seniority and tradition, these interpretative principles place a higher premium on content and its realization than they do on form and obedience to it. Truth (dharma) emerges as the primary value, ever the same whether buddhas arise to preach it or not, independent of particular formulations by particular people, so that eventually the statement "All that the Buddha has said is well said" is turned around: Whatever is well said (i.e., true) is the word of the Buddha. Canonicity is therefore defined in functional terms: If a teaching is meaningful, if it is in line with the dharma, and if it tends to eliminate the defilements and lead to liberation, then any product of inspiration (pratibhana) may be accepted as the word of the Buddha. Under such conditions, innovations inevitably crept in, some of them rejected as not being the true word of the Buddha, but some of them finding acceptance, especially if they accorded in spirit with existing belief. It was in this way that the Mahayana sutras eventually came to be accepted by some Buddhists as buddhavacana, as did the Buddhist tantras after them. Thus Buddhism functioned from early on with what is almost a contradiction in terms, an "open canon," in which commonly accepted principles of authenticity take the place of a rigidly defined and bounded set of texts in a given linguistic form. The latter would have been well-nigh impossible in any case because Buddhism functioned in a situation of regional and linguistic diversity, with Buddhists living in autonomous self-governing communities.

Form, Content, And Transmission

Agreement in such circumstances was by consensus, despite occasional attempts by kings and emperors to enforce orthodoxy. Several so-called councils (sam- gl ti, group recitations) are supposed to have been held as the fledgling san˙ gha tried to maintain unity on what was to be accepted as the true word of the Buddha or the correct interpretation of the rules of discipline. The first council at Rajagr-ha took place after the death of the Buddha. At this council, the disciple A NANDA recited the sutras (discourses delivered by the Buddha, or others accorded equivalent authority), and UPALI
recited the vinaya (rules of discipline for renunciants). The community accepted their recounting of these two bodies of texts, with only some monks dissenting.

Yet even this account of a san˙ gha relatively united as to what the Buddha had taught may oversimplify history. Later councils (at Vais´al, Pat-aliputra, etc.) were occasions for more serious disagreements, which led to the formation of the different nikayas by sects or schools each recognizing the validity of its own ordination lineage only. In India it appears that each nikaya came to transmit its own set of sacred texts, initially dividing them into sutra and vinaya. In some schools, the sutra and vinaya were supplemented from about the second century B.C.E. onwards by the abhidharma, an even more variable set of texts (seven for the Sarvastivadins, a different seven for the Theravadins, and so on), which systematized the teachings in terms of the particular categories they fell under. Some schools rejected this third category, but for most the notion of the canon as consisting of the three baskets (tripit-aka) of sutra, vinaya, and abhidharma became standard. The tripit-aka of one school, as far as scholars know, was never the same as that of the next, although the loss of the literature of most schools makes it difficult to be certain about the extent of difference. Nevertheless, there are certain commonalities. For example, the sutra-pit-akas were divided into sections (nikayas, agamas) according to such criteria as length, subject, or numerical category (there was also a miscellaneous category, for texts that did not fit any of these). The vinayas were divided into rules for men and rules for women, these being ordered according to the seriousness of the offense, with other sections devoted to particular aspects of community life (ordination, official acts, property, etc.).

The resulting collections of texts, which are referred to as canons, were therefore quite varied, extensive, and structurally complex.

One of the primary functions of the Buddhist order was to preserve and transmit all this literature, at first orally, then in writing, from generation to generation, even though Buddhists have always had a keen sense of the fragility of this enterprise. They believe that this effort is bound to fail in the end, due to human weakness, so that the work of a buddha will need to be done over and over again. Different groups of renunciants took responsibility for the transmission of different sections of their school's canon, committing them to memory, although occasionally people with prodigious mental powers mastered the whole canon. One consequence of this "division of labor" is that the same text can occur in two or more different places in a given canon. Oral transmission also led to extreme redundancy and repetition, the same formulas and blocks of text recurring in many different contexts.

From about the first century B.C.E. onward the texts began to be committed to writing, on palm leaf, birch bark, and other materials. This was only partially successful in preserving the texts for posterity, and most have been lost. The only canon to survive in its en-

tirety is that of the Theravadins, written in the Pali language. It shows that some schools kept their scriptures in ancient tongues, but in the extant fragments of other schools' canons it is apparent that a continuous process of Sanskritization was under way. The use of various Indian languages is another sign of the absence of any central authority. In one sense all Buddhist scriptures, even those in Pali, are translations; it is not known what language(s) the Buddha himself spoke, but he is supposed to have sanctioned his followers' use of their own dialects for transmitting his teachings. The Buddhist canon is thus thoroughly multilingual. Parts of the canons of many Indian schools are extant in Chinese or Tibetan translation, as well as in Sanskrit fragments displaying different degrees of regularization from earlier Prakritic or Middle Indic dialect forms to classical Sanskrit. Thus the vinayas of six schools have survived, as well as parts of the sutra-pit-akas of the Sarvastivadins, the DHARMAGUPTAKAs, and the MAHASAM- GHIKAs. Abhidharma texts from various schools, in particular the Theravadins and the Sarvastivadins, also survive. But while manuscripts continue to be found, the greater part of the Indian Buddhist canons has no doubt vanished forever. Buddhist teachings, which emphasize the inevitability of transformation and loss, have themselves succumbed to it.

Even when it was fully extant, it is unlikely that many Buddhists ever knew their canon in its entirety, as a Muslim might know the Qur'an or a Christian the Bible. The Buddhist scriptures are simply too extensive, so that most members of the order would have been familiar with and used only a small number of them, a functional partial canon as opposed to an ideal complete one. Scholars also believe that Buddhists belonging to different mainstream or S´ravakayana schools would have accepted much of what the other groups transmitted as canonical, agreeing on the broad principles, and differing only on particular points of doctrine, and, more importantly, on points of monastic discipline. Some of the most heated disputes in the history of the order were over the vinaya. With the advent of the MAHAYANA, with its prodigious outpouring of new scriptures, the scope for disagreement increased, and the bounds of the Buddhist canon became less distinct. The Mahayana canon was even more open than the mainstream one, and followers of that path are in most cases unlikely to have known more than a tiny fraction of the literature it generated. The same is true of tantric Buddhism, with its many classes of tantras, ritual and soteriological texts, which outnumbered even the Mahayana sutras.

Buddhist Canons Outside India

The complexity of this picture increased still further when Buddhism spread beyond the greater Indian cultural area. Although the Pali canon of the Theravadins eventually established itself as the standard in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, in Central Asia and China different schools coexisted, and the Mahayana orientation was dominant. The Chinese translated scriptures belonging to these different schools and to this new movement with great zeal, the result being that the Chinese Buddhist canon took on a rather different shape. At first the work of bibliographers and cataloguers, later the product of imperial decree, authorized and funded by the court, the Chinese Buddhist canon (Dazangjing, literally "Great Storehouse Scripture") was a far more comprehensive collection. It eventually included Chinese translations of texts from the tripit-akas of different Indian schools and of huge quantities of the Mahayana sutras and Buddhist tantras produced in India from approximately the first century C.E. onward, as well as commentaries and treatises, texts written in China, biographies of monks and nuns, lexicographical works, and even the catalogues of Buddhist scriptures themselves. The sheer number and diversity of texts made the use of the tripartite structure of the tripit-aka unfeasible. What is more, the Chinese retained different translations of the same text, often produced many centuries apart, affording modern scholars an excellent view of how texts and translation techniques developed over time.

Thus the Chinese Buddhist canon, which became the standard in Korea and Japan as well, is vast. It has appeared in numerous editions, many of them made with imperial patronage, although the one most often consulted by scholars today is the Taisho shinshu

daizokyo (New Edition of the Buddhist Canon Made during the Taisho Reign), published in Japan from 1924 to 1934 in one hundred volumes, each of which runs to about a thousand pages (eighty-five volumes of texts containing 2,920 works, twelve volumes of iconography, and three of catalogues). Yet, immense as it is, the Taisho is not the only edition; many others have survived as well, and thus "the Chinese Buddhist canon" is itself an abstraction of many highly variable collections. This proliferation of editions was in part due to state involvement, as each successive set of rulers sought to legitimate themselves politically as patrons of religion, or aspired for reasons of piety to the merit that the propagation of the buddhadharma generates.

These ideological considerations were instrumental in stimulating the invention and spread of PRINTING TECHNOLOGIES in East Asia, long before they were known in the West. Thus the world's oldest printed works are Buddhist texts, and from the tenth century onward the earlier manuscript copies of the Chinese Buddhist canon were replaced by printed editions, first using carved wooden blocks, then movable metal type. The production of these editions required resources that in those days only states could muster, although in recent times wealthy religious and commercial organizations have also become involved.

The same is true of Tibet, where in the fourteenth century the efforts of cataloguers trying to make sense of the sheer diversity of Buddhist texts combined with the interests of political authorities, intent on their own kind of order, to produce the first of many editions of the Tibetan canon, the Old Snar thang. Unlike the Chinese, the Tibetans were generally disinclined to preserve multiple translations of the same text, but their canon (upon which the Mongolian canon is also based) is equally vast. It has two major divisions, the Bka' 'gyur (the Word Translated; i.e., buddhavacana) and the Bstan 'gyur (the Teachings Translated; i.e.,
commentaries and other treatises). The Bka' 'gyur includes the three subdivisions of vinaya (that of the Mulasarvastivada school), sutra (predominantly Mahayana sutras, in their various categories), and TANTRA
(also arranged in various classes). The Bstan 'gyur also reflects these categories. The arrangement of all these texts differs according to edition, and sometimes one edition carries works not found in another.

As is the case with the Chinese canon, the Tibetan translations preserve much that is lost in Sanskrit. Some of the most prestigious editions (Peking, Sde dge, Snar thang, etc.) have been mass-produced woodblock prints; others have been manuscript productions, written by hand on expensive papers with ink made of precious metals and enclosed between ornate covers studded with jewels. The resources expended on this activity have been enormous, and the results are objects of great beauty. For Tibetans, as for other Buddhists, the sanctity of the canon derives from the sanctity of the liberating truth it contains and of the person who uttered it, and therefore the scriptures too are the focus of worship and veneration. They are not like any other books, but embody a special power, and must therefore be treated with reverence and respect, in a way similar, but not identical, to the way in which Jews approach the Torah, Christians the Bible, and Muslims the Qur'an.

Canon and canonicity are therefore never the same from one religion to the next, even if common themes can be found. Furthermore, the Buddhist canon turns out to be a large family of collections of texts in different languages and from different places, all sharing descent from a common set of forebears—the divergent oral reports of what the Buddha had taught, which were circulating among his disciples at his death some time in the fifth century B.C.E. Not unitary in content or linguistic expression even at the beginning, it is unimaginably diverse in both respects two and a half millennia later, as it continues to grow with editions and translations into English and other modern languages. At the same time, the Buddhist canon is unified by a common concern with setting out the path to salvation. Just as the waters of the ocean, however vast, have the same taste of salt at any point, so too all A Tibetan book, printed from hand-carved woodblocks. © Tiziana and Gianni Baldizzone/Corbis. Reproduced by permission.

the many teachings of the Buddha have a single taste everywhere, that of liberation. And as to the path by which liberation is attained, Buddhists are fond of quoting the verse (Udanavarga 28.1):
Not doing any evil, accomplishing what is good, Purifying one's own mind: this is the teaching of the Buddha.

See also: A gama/Nikaya; Apocrypha; Catalogues of Scriptures; Councils, Buddhist; Languages; Scripture

Davidson, Ronald M. "An Introduction to the Standards of Scriptural Authenticity in Indian Buddhism." In Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha, ed. Robert E. Buswell, Jr. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1990.

Grönbold, Günter. Der buddhistische Kanon: Eine Bibliographie.
Wiesbaden, Germany: Harrassowitz, 1984.

Harrison, Paul. "A Brief History of the Tibetan Bka' 'gyur." In Tibetan Literature: Studies in Genre, ed. Roger Jackson and José Cabezón. New York: Snow Lion, 1996.

Lamotte, Étienne. "La critique d'authenticité dans le bouddhisme." In India Antiqua (1947): 213–222. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 1947. English translation by Sara Boin-Webb, "The Assessment of Textual Authenticity in Buddhism." Buddhist Studies Review 1, no. 1 (1983): 4–15.

Lamotte, Étienne. "La critique d'interprétation dans le bouddhisme." Annuaire de l'Institut de Philologie et d'Histoire Orientales et Slaves 9 (1949): 341–361. English translation by Sara Boin-Webb, "The Assessment of Textual Interpretation in Buddhism." In Buddhist Hermeneutics, ed. Donald S. Lopez, Jr. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1988.

Lancaster, Lewis. "Buddhist Literature: Canonization." In The Encyclopedia of Religion, ed. Mircea Eliade, Vol. 2. New York: Macmillan, 1986.

Norman, K. R. Pali Literature: Including the Canonical Literature in Prakrit and Sanskrit of All the H
lnayana Schools of Buddhism. Wiesbaden, Germany: Harrassowitz, 1983.

Pagel, Ulrich. "Buddhism." In Sacred Writings, ed. Jean Holm.

London and New York: Pinter, 1994.

Ray, Reginald. "Buddhism: Sacred Text Written and Realized."
In The Holy Book in Comparative Perspective, ed. Frederick M. Denny and Rodney L. Taylor. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1985.

von Hinüber, Oskar. A Handbook of Pali Literature. Berlin: de Gruyter, 1996.

PAUL HARRISON

Catalogues Of Scriptures

Catalogues of scriptures (jinglu) are bibliographical records of Chinese Buddhist literature of Indian, Central Asian, and indigenous provenance. Their beginnings can be traced with reasonable certainty to the mid-third century C.E., a century after the translation of Buddhist literature began in China. Compilation of catalogues in China continued throughout subsequent centuries, generating a total of approximately eighty catalogues by the end of the eighteenth century, though only one-third of them are extant today. Catalogues were also compiled in Korea and Japan whenever recensions of the Sinitic Buddhist CANON were introduced and domestic editions compiled. Most Chinese catalogues were private undertakings by a single individual, usually a monk, although a few are official, state-sponsored compilations made by a group of learned monks appointed for the task. Buddhist catalogues were a natural outgrowth of the Chinese secular bibliographical tradition that was in place by the first century C.E., and their compilation is a quintessentially East Asian phenomenon, there being nothing equivalent to them in Indian Buddhist literature. The catalogues offer indispensable source material for reconstructions of Buddhist history in not only East Asia but India as well.

Some 80 percent of the catalogues date from the Tang dynasty (618–907) or earlier, from the period when the substantial part of the translations of Buddhist scriptures into Chinese was accomplished. The primary goal of this group of catalogues was the verification of textual history and authenticity, and the determination of canonicity—a function of the conditions of the time when new translations were continually being added to a still-fluid Buddhist canon, and texts of indeterminate history or questionable identity proliferated. The fact that texts were disseminated at this time through hand-copying was a factor in this proliferation, for anyone with the means and inclination could, and often did, write new manuscripts and portray them as authentic Buddhist SCRIPTURE. Thus the catalogues of this period were both prescriptive and proscriptive in function, in that they classified texts to be either included in or excluded from the canon. In a real sense, they held the key to the fate of texts and, by extension, the formation of the Buddhist canon in China. By contrast, post-Tang catalogues were essentially descriptive and were indexes to the printed canons, merely listing their established and fixed entries.

The Chu sanzang jiji (A Compilation of Notices on the Translation of the Tripit-aka, ca. 515) by Sengyou (445–518) is not only the earliest extant catalogue, but also preserves part of an even earlier catalogue by the renowned monk-scholar DAO'AN (312–385). The value of this catalogue also derives from the fact that it set the standard for cataloguing methods by employing a minute typological classification based on textual and doctrinal characteristics. Most of the cumulative list of divisions and categories of Buddhist literature that appear in medieval catalogues originated in the work of Sengyou: new or old translations; anonymous and variant translations; spurious scriptures; abridged scriptures; extant and nonextant translations; MAHAYANA and HINAYANA literature in the three divisions of scripture, discipline, and treatise; translator known or unknown. Indigenous compilations, such as prefaces to scriptures, histories of Buddhism, biographies of monks and translators, and Buddhist catalogues themselves were also included to illustrate the proper transmission of Buddhism and its literature.

The Lidai sanbao ji (Record of the Three Treasures throughout Successive Dynasties, 597) by Fei Changfang
(d.u.) introduced a chronological catalogue of translations arranged according to the dates and dynasties of translators, an innovation that was adopted in subsequent catalogues. Unfortunately, Fei also altered or fabricated numerous translator and author attributions to minimize the number of scriptures of questionable pedigree, as a way of ensuring the credibility of the Buddhist textual transmission. This catalogue was a case where criteria for textual authenticity were compromised for polemical reasons. A statecommissioned catalogue, the Da-Zhou kanding zhongjing mulu (Catalogue of Scriptures, Authorized by the Great Zhou, 695), kept many of Fei's arbitrary attributions and helped create an enigmatic category of scriptures that were both inauthentic and yet canonical.

The Kaiyuan shijiao lu (Record of S´akyamuni's Teachings, Compiled during the Kaiyuan Era, 730) by Zhisheng (d.u.) was the most critical and thorough catalogue in its evaluation of textual histories and represented the culmination of the art of Buddhist cataloguing that had begun nearly half a millennium earlier. Its influence is evident in the contents and organization of East Asian printed canons, all the way up to the modern standard edition, the Taisho shinshu daizokyo (1924–1934). However, even this catalogue, with all its critical apparatus, accepted some of the problematic attributions that originated in the Lidai sanbao ji. Thus, despite the wealth of invaluable historical material they contain, not all catalogues, or the attributions included therein, are uniformly dependable. Their data must be used cautiously, by thoroughly cross-referencing information found in the different extant catalogues.

See Also: Apocrypha; Printing Technologies Bibliography

Hayashiya Tomojiro. Kyoroku kenkyu (Studies on Buddhist Catalogues). Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1941.

Kawaguchi Gisho. Chu goku Bukkyo ni okeru kyoroku kenkyu
(Studies on Buddhist Catalogues in Chinese Buddhism). Kyoto: Ho zo kan, 2000.

Tokuno, Kyoko. "The Evaluation of Indigenous Scriptures in Chinese Buddhist Bibliographical Catalogues." In Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha, ed. Robert E. Buswell, Jr. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1990.

KYOKO TOKUNO

Cave Sanctuaries

Cave sanctuaries are manmade structures built into natural or excavated caves in the side of a mountain, canyon wall or cliff. Found in India and Afghanistan, at various sites along the SILK ROAD in CENTRAL ASIA,
and in China, cave sanctuaries range from single chambers to enormous monastic compounds that include halls for worship and teaching, living quarters for monks and travelers, and spaces such as kitchens and libraries. As way stations for travelers, these sites played an important role in the development and dissemination of Buddhism.

The genesis of cave sanctuaries is unclear. They may have their roots in the ancient Indic tradition of asceticism, whose adherents had long made use of such natural structures in pursuit of their renunciatory lifestyles. The earliest rock-cut caves in India were excavated in the third century B.C.E. during the rule of AS´OKA at sites such as Lomas Rishi and Sudama in Bihar province. It should be noted that an inscription on the entrance to the Lomas Rishi cave states that it was dedicated for the use of the Ajvakas, a prominent ascetic group. Both Lomas Rishi and Sudama were simple structures consisting of an inner circular chamber housing a STUPA, and a rectangular outer hall, presumably a place where devotees could congregate for lectures and other forms of teaching.

Located about 105 miles south of Bombay, the caitya or worship hall at Bhaja is more complicated.

Extending about sixty feet into the mountainside and approximately twenty-nine feet high, it consists of an apsidal chamber bracketed by tall columns on both sides. The wooden ribs appended to the ceilings of the central and side aisles have no structural purpose but reflect the use of prototypes of wood, bamboo, and thatch in the construction of the earliest cave sanctuaries. The columns help to define the path for traditional circumambulation (pradaks-in-a) of the stupa placed at the rear of the chamber. Vihara 19 at the same site consists of two large inner chambers that were used communally and smaller individual quarters. Each cell contains a raised rock-cut bed with a pillow and a small niche in the wall used for holding a lantern.

The caitya hall at Karli was built between 50 and 75 C.E. It is 124 feet long, 46.5 feet wide, and 45 feet high, and contains thirty-six columns capped with couples seated on kneeling elephants. The façade was elaborately carved with a large horseshoe-shaped arch that defined the primary window.

Twenty major sites and numerous minor sites patronized by individual travelers and wealthy artistic and commercial guilds were constructed in western India from 100 B.C.E. to 200 C.E. However, the region is best known for AJAN- T-A, a group of twenty-six caves built by the ruling elite on both sides of the Waghora River in the late fifth century C.E. Ajan-t-a is renowned for its delicate but powerful sculptures, such as those seen on the façade of cave 19, and its extraordinarily beautiful wall paintings, many of which record events from the past lives (JATAKA) of the historical Buddha, S´akyamuni. Representations of bodhisattvas, worship images in the residential halls, and the addition of seated buddhas at the front of the stupas in the caitya halls illustrate contemporaneous changes in Buddhist thought. Other important centers in western India are found at Aurangabad and in some structures at Ellora.

MAN- D-ALA-like compositions, female deities, and the depiction of bodhisattvas with multiple heads in the sixth- and seventh-century caves at Aurangabad reflect further changes in the religion.

Noted for its (now destroyed) colossi, BAMIYAN
(mid-sixth to seventh century C.E.) in Afghanistan is the most extensive Buddhist site in that country. One of the enormous standing buddhas was about 183 feet high, while the other measured about 127 feet. The famous seventh-century Chinese pilgrim XUANZANG (ca. 600–664) records a third colossus, representing a

buddha in final transcendence, or parinirvan-a, as part of the original construction. Bamiyan and the neighboring sites of Kakrak and Foladi are also noted for a distinctive school of painting that combined Indian, Sassanian Persian, and other elements.

From the fourth to the eighth century, over two hundred caves were constructed at the Central Asian site of Kizil near the city of Kucha in what is now the Xinjiang Uighur autonomous region of China. Kizil and related sites such as Kumtura (about a hundred caves) and Kizilgara (forty-six caves) were patronized by the rulers of Kucha, a prominent oasis kingdom on the northern branch of the Silk Road. Many of the caves have a unique structure consisting of a front chamber linked to a back chamber by two small arcades. Sculptures and paintings in shades of gold, blue, and green cover the wall. Preaching scenes or encapsulated representations of jataka stories are standard.

Some of the earliest representations of the transcendent Buddha Vairocana are also found at these sites.

Caves found farther east in the Turfan area include those at Toyok and Bezeklik. Both have suffered substantial depredations.

China has the largest numbers of cave sanctuaries in Asia, and several of the most famous are found in Gansu, a province in the northwest with links to the Silk Road that played a seminal role in the introduction of Buddhism to China. Dating from the fourth to the fourteenth century, the nearly five-hundred decorated caves at Mogao and those at related sites near the city of DUNHUANG provide invaluable information for the development of Chinese Buddhist art. Some of the earliest caves have a pillar in the center thought to derive from the stupas in early Indian construction. Later chambers are open or have low-lying platforms at the back. Early imagery includes sculptures of buddhas and bodhisattvas and paintings of past-lives stories. Representations of paradises and illustrations based on prominent texts are found in caves dating from the sixth to the eighth century, while those excavated in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries contain seminal imagery for later Tibetan art. Comparable developments are found in the Yulin grottoes, the Western Thousand Buddha Caves (Xiqianfodong), and the Eastern Thousand Buddha Caves (Dongqianfodong) in the same region. The Binglinsi caves near Lanzhou and the Maijishan caves near Tianshui, which also contain both paintings and sculptures, are among the larger sites in Gansu.

The fifty-three caves at YUN'GANG in Shansi province are renowned for the five colossal sculptures that dominate caves 16 through 20. Built in the late fifth century under the patronage of the Northern Wei (386–534) rulers, the Yun'gang caves share the iconography found in contemporaneous structures at Dunhuang, but they contain no paintings, only sculptures.

LONGMEN near Luoyang in Hebei province was begun in the early sixth century. Longmen houses over two thousand caves, some large, some small, as well as thirty-six hundred inscriptions. About one-third of the caves were constructed during the Northern Wei and the rest during the Tang dynasty (618–907). The Fengxiansi, which was begun under the rule of the Tang emperor Gaozong (r. 649–683) and finished around 675, is the most famous at the site. Four guardians, two bodhisattvas, and two monks attend a fifty-foot-high seated buddha. The figures are noted for elegant and The late-seventh-century Fengxiansi at Longmen, Henan Province, China. The seated Buddha is fifty-five feet high. © Robert D. Fiala,

Concordia University, Seward, Nebraska. Reproduced by permission.

careful carving. Other centers, many of which were begun after the dissolution of the Northern Wei empire in the mid-sixth century, include Gongxian and Xiangtangshan in Hebei, Tianlongshan in Shansi, and other sites in Shandong. Numerous smaller excavations, often consisting of a single cave, are also known at many sites in northern China. A few sites are also found in the south.

Although not common after the tenth century, cave sanctuary construction flourished in the southwestern province of Sichuan during the Tang and Song (960–1279) dynasties. Several centers are found near Dazu. The Sichuan caves contain distinctive imagery including scenes of daily life, Chan OXHERDING PICTURES, and icons common in later esoteric traditions.

Carefully assembled with cut-stone panels, SO˘KKURAM, located on top of Mount T'oham on the eastern outskirts of Kyo˘ngju, is a Korean response to Indian cave sanctuaries. In contrast to India and China, there were no natural caves in Korea, or at least none suitable, and So˘kkuram was entirely manmade. Constructed between 751 and 774, So˘kkuram has a round main hall that opens to a rectangular anteroom. A large free-standing buddha seated in the center of the main hall is attended by bodhisattvas, guardians, and other figures carved on the walls in high relief. See also: Monastic Architecture

Caswell, James, O. Written and Unwritten: A New History of the Buddhist Caves at Yungang. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1988.

Chu goku Sekkutsu (The Grotto Art of China). A series in Japanese and Chinese on major Chinese sites. Beijing: Wenwu Chubansha; Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1980–.

Dehejia, Vidya. Early Buddhist Rock Temples: A Chronology.
Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1972.

Howard, Angela Falco. Summit of Treasures: Buddhist Cave Art of Dazu, China. Trumbull, CT: Weatherhill, 2001.

Mitra, Debala. Buddhist Monuments. Calcutta: Sahitay Samsad, 1971.

DENISE PATRY LEIDY
CELIBACY. See Sexuality

Central Asia

Unlike most regions of the world, there is no universally accepted definition of what constitutes "Central Asia." The region will be defined in this entry as constituting the network of oasis towns comprising the ancient SILK ROAD, stretching from Afghanistan to DUNHUANG. The grasslands inhabited by nomadic peoples to the north, and the Tibetan highlands to the south—together commonly referred to as Inner Asia— have separate histories and will be treated elsewhere in entries on TIBET and MONGOLIA.

A natural dividing point between western and eastern Central Asia is Kashgar, the westernmost city in the Tarim basin. Located at the western edge of what is today the People's Republic of China, this city serves as a logical boundary for discussions of this region in both ancient and modern times.

Western Central Asia

The earliest evidence of a Buddhist presence in this region dates from the time of King AS´OKA (mid-third century B.C.E.), who left inscriptions in Greek and Aramaic at Qandahar and Laghman (both in modern Afghanistan). Though not specifically Buddhist in content—As´oka's explicit discussions of Buddhism are restricted to a relatively small area in and around the territory of ancient Magadha—they do provide concrete evidence that Afghanistan had come under the control of a Buddhist ruler.

In the territory of Gandhara (northern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan) and Bactria (northern Afghanistan and southern Uzbekistan), Buddhist temple complexes excavated at Airtam, Kara-tepe, Fayaz-tepe, and Dalverzin-tepe (in some cases accompanied by inscriptions by their donors) offer testimony to the importance of Buddhism in the region during the Kushan period (ca. late first to third centuries C.E.) and possibly before (Rhie). Even farther to the west, excavations in the Merv oasis (the easternmost part of ancient Parthia in modern Turkmenistan) have yielded archaeological remains of Buddhist temples, as well as Buddhist scriptures in Sanskrit dating from the fourth to the sixth centuries, including a VINAYA text belonging to the Sarvastivada school (Utz). Monasteries excavated at Adzhina-tepe and other sites in southern Tadjikistan provide evidence of the survival of Buddhism in the region down to at least the eighth century (Stavisky).

Afghanistan has also been the site of two spectacular manuscript finds in recent years (though the precise spots of the discoveries are not known): the British Library collection, dating from the first century C.E. (Salomon 1999 and 2000), and the Schøyen Collection, containing texts from the second to seventh centuries C.E. (Braarvig et al. 2000 and 2002). The British Library manuscripts include both canonical scriptures (possibly associated with the DHARMAGUPTAKA school) and local compositions; the Schøyen collection includes a number of well-known MAHAYANA scriptures. The fact that all of these texts are written in Prakrit or Sanskrit rather than translated into local vernaculars (with the exception of a fragmentary text in Bactrian, whose precise nature is uncertain) is typical of those few Buddhist texts found throughout the region, where Buddhists seem to have been content to read and transmit their scriptures in the "church languages" of India
(Nattier).

In contrast to the territories of Gandhara, Bactria, and eastern Parthia, where Buddhism flourished for many centuries, in the territory of ancient Sogdiana (northern Uzbekistan) Buddhist motifs appear only as minor elements in non-Buddhist artistic productions, confirming the reports of Chinese travelers that attest to almost no Buddhist presence in the region. Though several figures of Sogdian ancestry played key roles as missionaries and translators during the formative period of Chinese Buddhism (if the Chinese ethnikon Kang does indeed correspond to Sogdian, about which there is some controversy), and though one Buddhist site may now have been identified in Sogdiana
(Stavisky), at present it appears that Sogdian Buddhism was essentially an expatriate phenomenon.

Other parts of western Central Asia, such as Ferghana and Khwarezm, seem to have had little or no Buddhist population at all.

Buddhists in Gandhara appear to have flourished during the first century C.E. under the patronage of the Sakas (referred to in Indian sources as S´akas), an Iranian-speaking people whose sponsorship of Buddhist donations is well attested in inscriptions, and who are mentioned in the British Library fragments by name. Under the Kushan (Sanskrit, Kus-an-a) dynasty
(ca. late first to third centuries C.E.) Buddhism continued to receive significant support as well. Legends of the conversion of the Kushan ruler Kanishka (Sanskrit, Kanis-ka) to Buddhism, however, are probably no more than that, for no inscription describes him as a Buddhist (or even as making a donation to a Buddhist community) and the justly famous images of the Buddha on his coins comprise a distinct minority in a vast sea of Iranian, Greek, and Indian deities. Recent archaeological findings, which point to a drop in trade between Bactria and Sogdiana during the Kushan period, suggest that, rather than providing a conduit for the transmission of Buddhism to East Asia, the Kushans may instead have erected a barrier on their eastern frontier
(Naymark). If this is the case, it would explain the silence of Chinese sources concerning Kanishka and his successors, and it would suggest that it may have been their Saka predecessors rather than the Kushans themselves who facilitated the initial diffusion of Buddhism to eastern Central Asia and China.

It has sometimes been suggested that the invasion of the Hephthalite Huns (late fifth to early sixth centuries C.E.) dealt a serious blow to Buddhism in western Central Asia, but accounts by Chinese travelers, such as Songyun (early sixth century) and XUANZANG (ca. 600–664), report that Buddhism continued to prosper despite the damage done during the Hephthalite conquest. Xuanzang singles out the Lokottaravada branch of the MAHASAM- GHIKA SCHOOL as being particularly influential at BAMIYAN, where two colossal Buddha statues (fifty-three and thirty-five meters in height), destroyed by the Taliban in 2001, may have expressed the distinct buddhological views of this school.

A more significant threat to the fate of Buddhism in the region was the long-term expansion of Islam. Beginning in the seventh century, western Central Asia began to experience significant Arab incursions, and by the end of the tenth century, Buddhism had largely disappeared even in Gandhara itself (Stavisky).

Eastern Central Asia

A Buddhist presence in northern China is documented in historical and literary sources beginning in the middle of the first century C.E., and on this basis scholars have inferred that Buddhists must have passed through eastern Central Asia—that is, the territory of the Tarim basin (modern Xinjiang in the People's Republic of China)—no later than the beginning of the first millennium C.E. Despite the proximity of this area, which would later host several flourishing Buddhist citystates, records of the initial phase of Buddhist teaching and translation activity in China do not mention the presence of missionaries from eastern Central Asia (nor for that matter from India itself), but instead from western Central Asian territories such as Parthia, Sogdiana, and the Kushan realm (Zürcher).

The earliest evidence of a Buddhist presence in the Tarim basin—aside from a manuscript of the Dharmapada (in Gandhar language and Kharos-t-h script)
found near Khotan, which has been assigned to the second century C.E. but may have been imported from elsewhere—dates from approximately two centuries later. A cache of civil documents written in the Gandhar language and the Kharos-t-h script from the kingdom known to the Chinese as Shanshan (centered at Miran, in the southeastern part of this region) has been dated to the early third century C.E., and it attests to the existence of an incipient Buddhist SAN˙ GHA, though apparently without any full-time and celibate clergy.

By the fourth century C.E. a significant Buddhist presence had been established in the Tokharian-speaking city-states of Kucha and Agni on the northeastern route, where the Sarvastivada school was especially prominent. Buddhism flourished under royal patronage and numerous monasteries and convents were founded. A substantial number of texts in Sanskrit were imported and subsequently copied locally, most of them of Sarvastivada affiliation. In contrast to the standard practice in western Central Asia, however, Buddhists in the Tarim basin began to translate scriptures into their own vernacular languages around the beginning of the sixth century C.E. The Tokharians appear to have been the first to make this move, and texts in both Agnean (Tokharian A) and Kuchean (Tokharian B) dating to around 500 to 700 C.E. have been discovered. This local literature continues to be mainly Sarvastivada in content; among cultic figures, the future Buddha MAITREYA appears to have been an object of special interest.

Despite the conversion to the Mahayana of KUMARAJIVA (350–409/413 C.E., a native of Kucha and later a famous translator of Buddhist texts into Chinese), few followed his lead, and non-Mahayana teachings remained the norm in Kucha and Agni until at least the seventh century. In the kingdom of Khotan (in the southwestern Tarim basin), by contrast, Mahayana traditions found an early and fervent following. The ascendancy of the Mahayana is reported already in FAXIAN's travel report (early fifth century) and The Book of Zambasta, an anthology of Buddhist texts recast in Khotanese poetry (early eighth century), which makes it clear that Mahayana Buddhism was preferred.

With the fall of the Uygur kingdom in Mongolia in 842 C.E., Turkic-speaking peoples began to pour into the Tokharian territories of the northeast (though some non-Uygur Turks had preceded them). Initially they adopted local Sarvastivada traditions, sometimes in combination with Manichaean traditions brought with them from Mongolia. With the growth of Chinese influence, however, the Uygurs increasingly drew on Chinese Mahayana scriptures and practices. Most of later Uygur literature—including such famous works as the SUVARN- APRABHASOTTAMA-SUTRA, the LOTUS SUTRA (SADDHARMAPUN- D-ARIKA-SUTRA), and the Vimalakl
rtinirdes´a—is translated from the Chinese
(Elverskog).

Buddhism continued to flourish in eastern Central Asia down to the beginning of the eleventh century, when the Muslim conquest of Khotan in 1004 signaled the beginning of the end of Buddhist dominance in the region. These territories are today populated almost entirely by Turkic-speaking Muslims, who have little knowledge of the flourishing Buddhist cultures that preceded them.

See also: Central Asia, Buddhist Art in; Gandharl, Buddhist Literature in; Islam and Buddhism; Mainstream Buddhist Schools; Persecutions; Sarvastivada and Mulasarvastivada

Braarvig, Jens; Hartmann, Jens-Uwe; Kazunobu Matsuda; and Sander, Lore; eds. Buddhist Manuscripts in the Schøyen Collection, Vol. 1. Oslo, Norway: Hermes, 2000.

Braarvig, Jens; Harrison, Paul; Hartmann, Jens-Uwe; Kazunobu Matsuda; and Sander, Lore; eds. Buddhist Manuscripts in the Schøyen Collection, Vol. 2. Oslo, Norway: Hermes, 2002.

Elverskog, Johan. Uygur Buddhist Literature. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 1997. McRae, John R., and Nattier, Jan, eds. Buddhism across Boundaries: Chinese Buddhism and the Western Regions. Honolulu:
University of Hawaii Press, 2004.

Mémoires de la Delegation Archeologique Française en Afghanistan.

Paris: De Boccard, 1928 (and subsequent volumes in the series).

Nattier, Jan. "Church Language and Vernacular Language in Central Asian Buddhism." Numen 37, no. 2 (1990): 195–219.

Naymark, Aleksandr. "Sogdiana, Its Christians and Byzantium:
A Study of Artistic and Cultural Connections in Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages." Ph.D. diss. Indiana University, 2001.

Rhie, Marylin Martin. Early Buddhist Art of China and Central Asia. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 1999.

Rosenfield, John. Dynastic Arts of the Kushans. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967.

Salomon, Richard. Ancient Buddhist Scrolls from Gandhara: The British Library Kharos-t-h l Fragments. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1999.

Salomon, Richard. A Gandhar l Version of the Rhinoceros Sutra:
British Library Kharos-t-h l Fragment 5B. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2000.

Sims-Williams, Nicholas. New Light on Ancient Afghanistan: The Decipherment of Bactrian. London: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 1997.

Stavisky, Boris. "The Fate of Buddhism in Middle Asia." Silk Road Art and Archaeology 3 (1993–1994): 113–142.

Utz, David. "Arsak, Parthian Buddhists, and 'Iranian' Buddhism." In Buddhism across Boundaries: Chinese Buddhism and the Western Regions, ed. John R. McRae and Jan Nattier. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2004.

Zürcher, Erik. "Han Buddhism and the Western Region." In Thought and Law in Qin and Han China: Studies Dedicated to Anthony Hulsewé on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday, ed. W. L. Idema and E. Zürcher. Leiden, Netherlands:
Brill, 1990.

JAN NATTIER

Central Asia, Buddhist Art In

More than half a million years ago, plate movements of the earth's crust, by thrusting up the Himalayas and the Tibetan plateau, prevented monsoons from reaching the interior and desertified the area to the north; yet glacial melt streams from the Kunlun mountains and the Tianshan range created extensive fertile oases along the edges of the Taklamakan desert. In De la Grèce à la Chine (1948), René Grousset memorably described the SILK ROAD as a chaplet or rosary of oasis towns strung around this great desert. Even today, the Keriya river supports well-spaced pastoral households over 250 kilometers into the desert, but at one time, the ease of growing fruit and grains led to the existence of settled and prosperous kingdoms, where Buddhism flourished from the third century C.E. onward. Sideby-side with translations of the scriptures, the arts of architecture, sculpture, and painting had their own contribution to make to this exchange of ideas.

Architecture

The practice of Buddhism by communities of monks required places remote enough for undisturbed meditation, yet close enough to centers of population whose devotional activities could support them. Cells for the monks, undecorated save perhaps for a single image of the Buddha in meditation, and larger shrines

for images of the Buddha and narratives of his life and teachings, could easily be hollowed out of the soft rocks and gravel or sand conglomerates of the region: At some sites hundreds of caves survive, often with a great deal of their painted imagery (Kizil and other sites near Kucha, Toyuq, Bezeklik, and DUNHUANG). The architecture ultimately derives from India, but at Dunhuang, the early caves and individual niches show features typical of Chinese wooden architecture, such as the transverse front chamber with simulated gable ceiling.

Architectural monuments include great stupas
(Rawak, Endere) and monastic buildings (Keriya, Tumshuk, Miran, Gaochang, Beiting). Architectural style, particularly of CAVE SANCTUARIES, depends on the topography and characteristics of the natural materials at each site. The basic plan consisted of an anterior cell with the main image centrally placed opposite the entrance, and a smaller rear chamber, lower in height, with entrances on either side of the main image, allowing circumambulation (pradaks-in-a) around it.

Wall Paintings

Both cave sanctuaries and constructed buildings were decorated with wall paintings, a great many of which have survived, although many have been removed from their original sites to museums in London, Paris, New Delhi, Saint Petersburg, and Seoul. Mineral pigments were used.

Two Buddhist sanctuaries along the Keriya River were excavated in the mid-1990s. The two buildings were constructed of wooden pillars with reed and clay walls, with a central chamber two meters square, surrounded by a 1.5-meter wide corridor. Although the walls had collapsed to a height of some twenty to ninety centimeters, the scattering of painted fragments and of fallen timbers enabled one sanctuary to be reconstructed almost in its entirety. In the lower register were mural paintings of life-size standing buddhas in Indian style, three on each side (except on the entrance wall), each buddha with two small buddhas in the upper corners, while in the upper part of each wall was a series of smaller panels, each with two smaller seated buddhas in gray or orange robes, one above the other.

Sculptures

Except at Dunhuang, few sculptures remain in situ; archaeological explorers removed many of them early in the twentieth century. Throughout the region, the stucco images are intimately related to the mural dec-
Two Adoring Bodhisattvas. A wall painting at Kizil, China. (Central Asian/Chinese, seventh century.) Freer Gallery of Art Library.

Reproduced by permission.

oration: Aureoles and nimbi are regularly painted on the walls behind them, and share the same style. Often, it is these painted features alone that survive, clearly indicating whether the lost image was seated or standing.

Rawak stupa, some sixty kilometers north of Khotan, still stands in a rectangular enclosure whose corners are oriented to the cardinal directions and whose walls were lined with large and small clay sculptures attached to a wooden armature. Once the form had been built up in clay, the surface was smoothed and coated with a final thin layer of gypsum plaster, and painted, using the same pigments employed for the mural paintings. Aurel Stein in 1900 and 1901 and Emil Trinkler in 1930 both made partial excavations of the site, but because of the fragility of the unbaked clay sculptures, some remain buried beneath the sands.

In the whole region of the Taklamakan, clay stucco was the most common form of sculpture. Major elements of the imagery were often produced with the aid of molds, some of which have survived: They range from decorative details and miniature BUDDHA IMAGES to heads and individual body parts, such as hands and feet, and even whole figures of up to about a quarter or a third life-size, such as a complete seated buddha excavated near Khotan. From Tumshuk, near Kucha, come three almost complete tableaux, each about eighty centimeters in height and sixty centimeters wide, illustrating crucial episodes in individual JATAKA stories, evidently composed using a number of such molds.

A folding carved wooden shrine depicting Amitabha Buddha with the eight great bodhisattvas. (Central Asian, ca. 850–950.) The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri. Reproduced by permission.

Small wooden images dating from the fifth century C.E. onward have been found at sites such as Toyuq and Gaochang. These images furnished a means for the dissemination of iconography and style, and include both single images and narrative scenes. Several examples exist in triptych form, in which hinged panels with smaller narrative scenes flank the central image; when closed, they are fastened by means of a clasp, protecting the images within and presenting a tall smooth exterior.

Kucha

Kucha, on the northern route, is surrounded by Buddhist monuments. The cave temples of Kizil, some sixty kilometers to the west, are lavishly decorated with wall paintings. The sixth-century C.E. dating proposed by Albert von Le Coq and Ernst Waldschmidt is slow to be discarded in favor of Su Bai's dating, supported by carbon-14 tests at the site, which suggest a thirdcentury C.E. start.

Shrines at Kizil have an entrance leading directly into a barrel-vaulted longitudinal chamber, with the main image in a niche directly opposite. Large preaching scenes appear on the lateral walls below a balcony of heavenly figures, while the vault, springing from a corbel, depicts individual preaching scenes or jataka stories in a diamond lattice. For purposes of pradaks-in-a or ritual circumambulation of the main image, a lower vaulted passage leads to a narrow rear chamber in which the Buddha's parinirvan-a is depicted in mural paintings or in sculptured form. The final element in the iconographical program is a half-circular lunette over the entrance, often portraying MAITREYA, the buddha of the future, sometimes with twin niches beneath for smaller stucco or clay sculptures. The largest caves at Kizil, with a colossal central image, had up to five successive balconies with sculptures instead of paintings on the lateral walls.

Sites along the southern route include Niya, Miran, Endere, and Loulan; those along the north include Karashahr, Gaochang, Bezeklik, and Toyuq. The two routes rejoined near the Chinese border west of Dunhuang, where at least one of the fifth-century Northern Wei caves (cave 257) displays a narrative depicted with iconography and style similar to the same narrative at Kizil (cave 224), the only major difference being the placing of the story on the crown of the vault in Kizil, and at waist level on the side walls in Dunhuang. On this occasion at least, the same craftsmen must have worked at both sites, changing the placement to suit the local architectural schema. At the Chinese end of the Silk Road, the huge natural cave (no. 169) at Binglingsi, on the Yellow River near Lanzhou, bears a date of 420 C.E. The larger than life-size clay sculptures modeled on wooden armatures are closely related in style to contemporary stone sculptures at Mathura, showing how rapid was the transmission of both iconography and style, with the necessary adaptation to local materials.

See also: Bamiyan; Central Asia; China; China, Buddhist Art in; Monastic Architecture

Baumer, Christoph. Southern Silk Road: In the Footsteps of Sir Aurel Stein and Sven Hedin. Bangkok, Thailand: Orchid Press, 2000.

Debaine-Francfort, Corinne; Idriss, Abduressul; et al. Keriya,
mémoires d'un fleuve: archéologie et civilisation des oasis du Taklamakan. Suilly-la-Tour: Editions Findakly; Paris: Electricité de France, 2001.

Giès, Jacques, and Cohen, Monique. Sérinde, terre de Bouddha:
dix siècles d'art sur la route de la soie. Paris: Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1995.

Gropp, Gerd. Archäologische Funde aus Khotan ChinesischOstturkestan: die Trinkler-Sammlung im Übersee-Museum.
Bremen, Germany: Röver, 1974.

Härtel, Herbert, and Yaldiz, Marianne. Along the Ancient Silk Routes: Central Asian Art from the West Berlin State Museums. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1982.

Howard, Angela Falco. "In Support of a New Chronology for the Kizil Mural Paintings." Archives of Asian Art 44 (1991): 68–83.

Maillard, Monique; Jera Bezard, Robert; and Gaulier, Simone.

Buddhism in Afghanistan and Central Asia. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 1976.

Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle de Paris. La route de la soie. Paris:
Arthaud, 1985.

Nara Prefectural Museum of Art. The Silk Road and the World of Xuanzang. Tokyo: Asahi Shimbun, 1999.

Whitfield, Roderick; Agnew, Neville; and Whitfield, Susan. Cave Temples of Mogao: Art and History on the Silk Road. Los Angeles: Getty Conservation Trust, 2000.

RODERICK WHITFIELD
CEYLON. See Sri Lanka

Chan Art

From the point of view of art history, the CHAN
SCHOOL (Japanese, Zen; Korean, So˘n), more than any other form of Buddhism, has long been associated with distinctive modes of visual representation. Looking at Japan, for instance, such disparate forms as architecture, ceramics, tea ceremony, gardens, sculpture, and painting have been viewed as elements of a broad and unified Zen aesthetic that cuts across traditional boundaries. Since there is no category or concept of "Chan art" in surviving texts from the Tang (618–907) or Song (960–1279) dynasties, however, when the Chan school achieved its peak popularity, the historical origins of this aesthetic in China remain murky, at best. Indeed, in light of this lack of sources, scholars have had to develop their own criteria and definitions. A closer look at how these conceptions have evolved, particularly with regard to painting, may help illuminate the larger question (and problem) of how to define Chan art.

Western interest in art forms connected with Chan Buddhism was a natural outgrowth of the broader interest in Chan and Zen that began in the early 1900s and blossomed over the course of the century. One of the first scholars to identify Chan art (especially Chan painting) as a specific subcategory of Buddhist art was the eminent British Asianist Arthur Waley, whose Introduction to the Study of Chinese Painting (1923) contained a chapter titled "Zen Buddhism and Its Relation

to Art" that proved to be enormously influential. (Waley, as was typical at the time, uses the Japanese term Zen rather than Chan, even when he is writing about China.) In particular, Waley's focus on the notion of painting as a vehicle for the expression of religious ideals provided a model approach that continues to be employed in many discussions of Chan art, even if some historians of art and religion have challenged some of its underlying assumptions.

Following Waley's example, it became common to define Chan art primarily in terms of subject matter, focusing on images (such as representations of BODHIDHARMA, the putative founder of Chan in China) that derive from Chan history and literature. Such works often carry additional meanings relating to Chan doctrine or ideology, as well. For example, the great many surviving paintings that depict the early Chan patriarchs might be interpreted as a pic-

torial counterpart to the concern with issues of lineage and transmission that figures so prominently in early Chan textual sources. In a similar vein, images of monks carrying hoes or chopping bamboo have frequently been related to the premium that Chan is said to place on the value of manual labor. While these kinds of explanatory strategies are relatively straightforward, most attempts to define Chan art also introduce other important issues concerning Chan ideals that merit further scrutiny—in particular, iconoclasm and self-expression.

Art And Iconoclasm

One of the most distinctive attributes of Chan, as characterized in popular accounts, is its emphasis on eccentric and iconoclastic behavior, and images that celebrate these qualities are among the most commonly cited examples of Chan art. This repertoire would include portraits of such Tang dynasty figures as Hanshan and Shide—the wild poet of Cold Mountain and his impish sidekick—and the monk Bird's Nest, who took up residence in a tree, as well as other subjects equally noted for their unconventional appearance and frequently outlandish conduct.

In several well-known instances, the notion of iconoclastic behavior is not merely figurative. One painting, attributed to the thirteenth-century painter Liang Kai and executed in monochrome ink in an abbreviated manner, purportedly shows the sixth Chan patriarch HUINENG (638–713) tearing up sutras with apparent gusto and evident glee. Another work, by the early fourteenth-century painter Yintuoluo, depicts "The Monk from Danxia Burning a Wooden Image of the Buddha." In most situations, one would expect such acts of desecration to be met with shock and disapproval, but what is noteworthy in this context is that ripping up a sacred text and burning a religious statue are presented not as acts of blasphemy but rather as manifestations of spiritual nonattachment. The philosophical basis for this view is cleverly demonstrated by the literary accounts of the incident depicted in Yintuoluo's painting.

Once, the monk from Danxia was staying at the Huilin Monastery. The weather was very cold, so the Master took a wooden statue of the Buddha and made a fire with it. When someone criticized him for doing so, the Master said: "I burned it in order to extract the sacred relics it contained." The man said: "But how can you extract the sacred relics from an ordinary piece of wood?" The Master replied: "Well, if it is nothing more than a piece of wood, then why scold me for burning it?" (Fontein and Hickman, pp. 36–37)
Another Japanese depiction of Bodhidharma. (Japanese scroll painting, late sixteenth century.) © Copyright The British Museum. Reproduced by permission.

Quite apart from the obviously intentional humor of the anecdote (and of its pictorial representation), this inversion of sacred and profane is clearly meant to demonstrate in a graphic way the Chan school's avowed independence from words and images.

Art And Expression

In the examples cited thus far, Chan art is essentially defined as a function of representation: Subject matter (or, more precisely, the correlation between pictorial content and Chan doctrine) is given precedence over style and authorship. A somewhat different, though complementary, approach, postulates that there are levels of meaning that can be generated by

artistic practice as well as by artistic product—levels of meaning, that is, that are a function of the creative act itself. From this perspective, an explicit connection would be drawn between the so-called splashed ink (pomo) mode of painting, characterized by rough and seemingly improvisational brushwork, and the emphasis on intuition, immediacy, and sudden enlightenment commonly associated with orthodox Chan teachings. In other words, the meaning of such works is located in the manner of execution, and does not depend on nor arise from any particular subject matter or iconography.

Some writers go even further, suggesting that there are artworks that embody Chan content (or essence) in a way that transcends issues of subject matter, style, and function altogether. According to this account, a new kind of painting developed in China during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in the Chan monasteries clustered around the West Lake in Hangzhou.

Executed by monk-painters, such works came to be seen both as a form of religious practice and as a record of the painter's spiritual achievement. As the wellknown art historian Michael Sullivan describes it, "In seeking a technique with which to express the intensity of his intuition, the Chan painter turned to the brush and . . . proceeded to record his own moments of truth" (p. 148). From this point of view, in short, the unique and ineffable quality of Chan painting is nothing less than the embodiment of the enlightened mind of the painter.

The artist who is most often used to exemplify this ideal is the thirteenth-century Chinese monk Fachang, better known as Muqi, whose Six Persimmons is undoubtedly the most frequently reproduced and bestknown example of Chan painting. Although this small, sketchy, monochrome painting might not seem like much at first glance, it has been repeatedly hailed as the greatest Chan painting of all time. Appropriately enough, it was Waley who first rhapsodized about the work, declaring Six Persimmons to be endowed with "a stupendous calm" (p. 231). For Waley, as for later commentators, this quality stands as a manifestation of the painter's spiritual achievement, as a living expression of the painter's original mind (Pallis, p. 44).

Put bluntly: Six Persimmons is a great Chan painting, the argument goes, because Muqi was profoundly awakened.

Ultimately, this idea of the work of art as the physical embodiment of the spiritual realization of its maker lies behind the claims that a somewhat unlikely activity such as archery, say, can be a form of Chan art.

That is, if the absence or presence of Chan essence in a painting depends upon the painter's own achievement, it then follows that virtually any activity or product, so to speak, will be similarly endowed. From there it is only a small step to the countless books and web sites that make Zen art forms (in some cases facetiously, to be sure) of everything from photography, writing, and psychoanalysis, to smoking, ice resurfacing, and procrastination.

Chan Art As Anti-Art?

If Chan art from Waley onward has been characterized as diverging from other forms of Buddhist art both in terms of what it represents and how it represents it, it has also been portrayed as functioning differently from the norm. In comparison to traditional Buddhist art, which emphasizes the replication of set iconographical subjects and styles that conform to a canonical ideal, the Chan emphasis on iconoclasm—both figurative and literal—constitutes a kind of anti-Buddhist art. As one scholar puts it, "In (Chan/) Zen Buddhism, cult images in the traditional sense play as little a part as classic Mahayana sutras. After all, (Chan/) Zen is looking for
'independence from holy scriptures' and 'a special transmission outside traditional doctrines.'" Thus, while cult images and icons are worshiped by other Buddhists, the Chan practitioner "ridicules the popular worship of relics" (Brinker 1996, pp. 38–39). Like claims about the Chan school itself, in short, Chan painting is presented here as unfettered by orthodox tradition.

A serious challenge to the basic assumptions of such interpretations has been offered by T. Griffith Foulk and Robert H. Sharf (1993/1994) in a detailed study of portraits of Chan abbots (a large and important subset of Chan-associated images). As they show quite convincingly, such portraits played an important role in Chan funerary and memorial rituals, and they conclude that "the portrait of the abbot, like the living abbot on his high seat, is thus properly viewed as a religious icon—it is a manifestation of buddhahood and a focus for ritual worship. As such, the portrait is functionally equivalent to the mummified remains of the abbot, to the relics of the Buddha, or to a stupa, in that it denotes the Buddha's presence in his very absence" (p. 210).

Their assertion—that Chan painting here functions very much like orthodox Buddhist painting does elsewhere—parallels several studies of Chan institutional history, which similarly conclude that Chan monasticism, contrary to popular perception, did not radically differ from supposed mainstream practices. That is, regardless of lineage or school affiliation, all Buddhist monks in the Song period took part in similar practices and rituals (e.g., studying and chanting sutras, engaging in seated meditation) that were essentially part of the very structure of the monastic institution as a whole, and thus did not vary much between designated Chan monasteries and other establishments (Foulk, pp. 220–221).

Foulk, T. Griffith. "Sung Controversies Concerning the
'Separate Transmission' of Ch'an." In Buddhism in the Sung,
ed. Peter N. Gregory and Daniel A. Getz, Jr. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1999.

C HAN A R T
From the perspective of art history, the relative lack of differentiation in terms of day-to-day activities and procedures between Chan monks and non-Chan monks suggests the likelihood of comparable continuity with regard to the images employed in support of those same activities. It suggests, that is, that Chan painting and Buddhist art, far from constituting inverse categories, should instead be understood as largely coextensive. If the popular conception of Chan and Zen doctrine as irrational and free from orthodox strictures is essentially a modern misreading (Sharf), so, too, must the prevailing definitions of Chan art as unfettered embodiments of the enlightened mind be seen as the result of the same false premises. There is little question that Chan visual culture served particular rhetorical and ideological claims, but we must also recognize that Chan art served the same sorts of iconic, ritual, and social functions as orthodox Buddhist art traditions. See also: China, Buddhist Art in; Japan, Buddhist
Art in; Korea, Buddhist Art in; Zen, Popular Conceptions of

Brinker, Helmut. Zen in the Art of Painting, tr. George Campbell. New York: Arkana, 1987.

Brinker, Helmut. Zen: Masters of Meditation in Images and Writings, tr. Andreas Leisinger. Zurich, Switzerland: Artibus Asiae, 1996.

Fontein, Jan, and Hickman, Money. Zen Painting and Calligraphy: An Exhibition of Works of Art Lent by Temples, Private Collectors, and Public and Private Museums in Japan, Organized in Collaboration with the Agency for Cultural Affairs of the Japanese Government. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1970.

Foulk, T. Griffith, and Sharf, Robert H. "On the Ritual Use of Ch'an Portraiture in Medieval China." Cahiers d'ExtremeAsie 7 (1993/1994): 149–219.

Hisamatsu Shin'ichi. "On Zen Art." Eastern Buddhist new series 1, no. 2 (1966): 21–33.

Munsterberg, Hugo. Zen and Oriental Art. Rutland, VT: Tuttle, 1965.

Pallis, Tim. "Nanrei Sohaku Kabori and His Teaching of Shikan One: A Remembrance." FAS Society Journal (Summer 1992): 37–45.

Seckel, Dietrich. Buddhist Art of East Asia, tr. Ulrich Mammitzsch. Bellingham: Center for East Asian Studies, Western Washington University, 1989.

Sharf, Robert H. "The Zen of Japanese Nationalism." In Curators of the Buddha: The Study of Buddhism under Colonialism, ed. Donald S. Lopez, Jr. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995.

Sullivan, Michael. The Arts of China, 3rd edition. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984.

Waley, Arthur. An Introduction to the Study of Chinese Painting.
London: Ernest Benn, 1923.

Weidner, Marsha, ed. Latter Days of the Law: Images of Chinese Buddhism 850–1850. Lawrence, KS: Spencer Museum of Art, 1994.

CHARLES LACHMAN

Chan School

The doctrinal assumptions of the Chan school are that all beings possess a potential to become a buddha, and that potential can be realized through MEDITATION or through the removal of obstructing preconceptions and attachments. Dissatisfied with existing meditation practices and complex philosophies, Chan proposed a direct "seeing" of one's inherent buddhahood, accomplished through such means as challenging repartee, intensive meditation, and puzzling gong'an (Japanese KO AN; Korean, kongan). Such techniques made the role of the teacher paramount. To symbolize that the Chan teacher was the true, legitimate heir to the Buddha, Chan claimed for its teachers an unbroken lineal succession to the enlightened mind of the Buddha via the Indian monk BODHIDHARMA (ca. early fifth century C.E.).

Meditators and ascetics from the late sixth century, hoping to replicate the enlightenment of S´akyamuni Buddha, sought a distinctive MAHAYANA meditation practice and list of precepts appropriate for BODHISATTVAS. They coalesced into several lineages of monks united in attempts to create genealogies from Bodhidharma. The pupils of Hongren (601–674) obtained a following among the metropolitan elite of Tang China, which resulted in contests for lineage legitimacy. These were ignited around 730 by Shenhui
(684–758), who accused his rivals of teaching gradual enlightenment, not suitable for Mahayana adherents.

His propaganda prompted a redefinition of Chan. Shenhui's own lineage, which he claimed derived from Hongren via HUINENG (638–713), whom he titled the Sixth Patriarch, became known as the Southern Lineage (nanzong). Shenhui combined Buddhist genealogies with a Chinese imperial mourning lineage (zong) to forge a link between himself, Huineng, and the Buddha via Bodhidharma. This linkage was refined later into a unilinear genealogy of twenty-eight Indian and six Chinese patriarchs (zu). The term Chanzong, in the sense of a Chan lineage, was first used in the 780s and soon became the main identifier for the traditions called Chan (Korean, So˘n; Japanese, Zen; Vietnamese, Thieˆ`n).

The word chanwas originally part of the term channa,
a Chinese transcription of the Sanskrit term DHYANA
(TRANCE STATE), but even the earliest Chan texts devalued the four dhyanas, samadhi, and other meditative states as mere elimination of sensation, a tranquility easily disturbed after withdrawing from those states. Shenhui redefined chan as prajñaparamita (the perfection of wisdom). The PLATFORM SUTRA OF THE SIXTH PATRIARCH (LIUZU TAN JING), a text from the 780s attributed to Huineng, defined chan as the buddha-nature or the ability to "internally see the fundamental nature and not be confused." Eventually chan was equated with the essence of Buddhism. Huineng, who had his own sutra, was seen as a buddha-incarnate, implying thereby that only the Chan lineage transmitted the true, verifiable understanding of the Buddha himself.

Doctrinal And Behavioral Bases

The doctrinal foundation of Chan was a mixture of TATHAGATAGARBHA (buddha-nature) ideas and prajñaparamita analysis. The earliest texts mention a pure, original buddha-nature (foxing) inherent in everyone, which becomes obscured by mental pollutants or ignorance. As a result of ambiguities in Chinese translations concerning the tathagatagarbha, disputes arose over whether meditation was needed to "see the
(buddha-)nature" (jianxing) by removing the pollution, or whether detachment from habitual conceptualization allowed this buddha-identity to emerge naturally. This issue was related to whether the realization was a gradual buildup to a breakthrough of
"becoming buddha" (chengfo) or an instantaneous all-at-once enlightenment (wu) or "being buddha"
(jifo). After Shenhui, Chan lineages favored the latter, although some accused Shenhui of intellectualizing the process. It was agreed, as in the Platform Sutra,
that samadhi (ting) and prajña (hui) are indivisible, an idea reinforced by the NIRVAN-A SUTRA, which stated that "because the samadhi and prajña of the buddhas are equal, they clearly see the buddhanature."
The search for ethical conduct or precepts suitable to Mahayana in sixth- and seventh-century China was not meant to replace the VINAYA precepts of mainstream Buddhism, but to supplement them. Some thought bodhisattva precepts to be the true spirit of Buddhism. The Nirvan-a Sutra attracted Chan's interest by stating that only recipients of the bodhisattva precepts could see the buddha-nature. The bodhisattva precepts advocated intention rather than formal observance, such that KARUN-A (COMPASSION) could override a basic Vinaya precept like that against lying. They therefore inspired Chan. The Platform Sutra preached the "formless precepts" and the nonexistence of transgression in the (pure) mind. One's own (buddha-)
nature is thus the nature of the precepts.

Chan tradition claims that the first monastic code of conduct for Chan was issued by Huaihai (749–814)
on Mount Baizhang. His reputed saying, "A day without work is a day without food," encapsulated three themes: the antiformalism derived from the bodhisattva precepts; the preexisting Chinese monastic custom of monks doing physical labor despite Vinaya prohibitions; and agrarian self-sufficiency. Although a distinctive Chan canon or "pure rules" (Chinese, qinggui) may have only appeared in the eleventh century, general procedures for the operation of the monastery on Mount Baizhang probably took form over hundreds of years, giving Chan a sense of institutional independence as an order within the SAN˙ GHA. This development did not make Chan a separate sect or denomination, for its clergy still obeyed the Vinaya and precepts, and their practices overlapped with those of other schools. They often inhabited the same monastery with non-Chan clergy. Yet as early as the 850s, the visiting Japanese Tendai (Chinese, Tiantai) monk, Enchin, characterized them as maintaining "this mind is the buddha as their theme, the mind with no attachments as their practice, and the dharmas are empty as their meaning. They transmit the robe and bowl from the time of the Buddha, which things are passed from master to disciple" as symbols of the confirmation of enlightenment.

Developments In China

As Chan gained a larger following, it developed a specialized literature and branch lineages that tended to use differing techniques and contrasting styles. The subtlety, ambiguity, and lack of set forms in Chan teachings required an audience with a sophisticated grasp of Buddhism for it to be understood. Despite their rhetoric, Chan monks were well educated in Buddhist scriptures, as required for the state certification of monks that was commonly imposed in East Asia. They encouraged a liberal or meditative interpretation of the scriptures, despising scholastic literalism.

The earliest Chan texts were mostly treatises (lun)
on topics such as expedient means and the mind, commentaries on popular sutras, hagiographical collections, hymns, and apocryphal sutras. These forms all merged in the Platform Sutra of the 780s, which incorporated a pseudo-hagiography of Huineng, sermons, a genealogy, dialogues, and verses of transmission. Initially controversial, it became the principal Chan scripture during the Song dynasty (960–1279).

The figure of Huineng became a crux, for two lineages from him, via DAOYI (MAZU; 709–788) and Shitou Xiqian (700–791), led to two branches that subsumed or superseded all other lineages. Daoyi taught the immanence of "this mind is the buddha," in which enlightenment could occur amid everyday happenings, and so "the ordinary mind is the Way." Daoyi's heirs spread across China and even into Korea. The Mazu style, later dubbed patriarchal Chan (zushi Chan) to contrast with the intellectual TATHAGATA
Chan (rulai Chan) of Shenhui, was distinguished by shouts and blows, sharp repartee, and the use of everyday events as opportunities for enlightenment. This was epitomized by Linji YIXUAN (d. 866), an heir to the style, who demanded a critical attitude, even toward Buddhism and his own teachings, and selfconfidence to act upon that attitude: "If you meet the Buddha, kill him." For Yixuan, enlightenment was an urgent necessity of the current moment.

Xiqian's branch tended to eremitic austerity and poetic expression of sophisticated doctrine. This branch, including the Caodong house of Dongshan Liangjie (807–869) and Caoshan Benji (840–901), expressed stages of understanding and enlightenment in diagrams, often circles, to illustrate the dialectical progress toward complete enlightenment in a return to the source, the untrammeled mind. These evolved into the popular OXHERDING PICTURES. An intellectual codification of Chan practice was even introduced into the radical, iconoclastic Linji house, with formulations such as the four selections of the person and environment or the three phrases.

Systematization

As Chan grew from a small, minority movement in the seventh century into a popular and major part of the Buddhist establishment by the twelfth century, it took on more Chinese features, and had to accommodate itself more to the state and the needs of a broad and diverse audience. Chan consequently developed a characteristically Chinese Buddhist literature and it coalesced into several distinct branches with their own techniques, styles, and literatures.

Chan teachers' words were written down as early as the seventh and eighth centuries. Shenhui's dialogues used colloquial language, which may have influenced the forerunners of the "recorded sayings" texts attributed to Daoyi, Huangbo Xiyun (d. 850), and Zhaozhou Congshen (778–987). Covertly recorded by pupils and recompiled to include verses and brief biographies, these sermons and dialogues in colloquial Chinese depict mundane happenings. They differ from Buddhist commentaries and treatises in literary Chinese, and were less structured. These discourse records (Chinese, yulu) constitute the bulk of Chan literature, especially from the Song dynasty onward.

The intellectualization of Chan dates back to Guifeng ZONGMI (780–841) of the Shenhui lineage, which systematically characterized and ranked the Chan lineages, and correlated them with doctrinal formulations. Zongmi wrote many sutra commentaries and incorporated Huayan philosophy into Chan.

In reaction to the increasing popularity and immense wealth of the Buddhist order, which included Chan, Emperor Wu (r. 841–846) launched the xenophobic Huichang persecution of Buddhism on economic and rationalist grounds. Clergy were laicized and monasteries confiscated. The differing reactions to the persecution, and the geographic dispersion of some Chan groups, induced self-reflection; concerns about succession within specific monasteries reinvigorated interest in genealogy. As membership had grown, the lineages (zong) subdivided into houses (jia) descended from Huineng. From the late ninth century, masters issued certificates of inheritance, occupation of a monastery by a lineage gained significance, styles of teaching diverged, and the split of China into ten states in the early tenth century promoted regional differences. Monks began to ask teachers about their "house style" (jiafeng) around this time. Fayan Wenyi (885–958)
identified five houses—Caodong, Linji, Yunmen, Guiyang, and Fayan—and described them in terms of the verbal jousts or wenda (questions and answers) between masters and pupils. He attacked their sectarianism and lack of doctrine as all style and no substance.

The Fayan house, versed in Huayan philosophy, led Chan in the tenth and eleventh centuries, producing some of the most important Chan scholars. Yongming YANSHOU (904–975) harmonized Chan and doctrine (jiao), and melded Chan with nianfo (recollection of a buddha's name). Daoyuan (n.d.) compiled the Jingde chuandeng lu (Records of the Transmission of the Lamplight [of enlightenment compiled during the] Jingde Reign, 1104), a genealogically arranged set of brief hagiographies primarily concerned with recording the words of enlightenment occasions (jiyu).

The Fayan house was not alone in its influence, however. The momentarily popular Yunmen house also contributed to the gong'an evolution through the sayings of its founder, Yunmen Wenyan (864–949), as it picked out earlier enlightenment exchanges (nian'gu), commented on them (zhuyu; Japanese, jakugo), and provided substitute answers to questions and dialogues (daiyu, bieyu). Eventually the Fayan, Yunmen, and Linji houses combined to create the gong'an, originally meaning legal precedents. From the enlightenment dialogues in chuandeng lu, Yunmen and Linji monks selected cases, to which they appended verses. These juxtapositions of colloquial dialogues and literary poems morphed into collections like the Biyan lu (Blue Cliff Record) by Keqin (1063–1135). He and Wuzu Fayan (1024–1104), who made famous the Zhaozhou wu (Japanese, mu; English, no) gong'an,
promoted each gong'an as a singular aid to an instantaneous enlightenment. Fayan advised practitioners to concentrate on the wu word only, and not think of the entire dialogue on the buddha-nature. ZONGGAO (1089–1163), who took up the wu topic, supposedly burnt his master's Biyan lu anthology because students were infatuated with its literary qualities. This was a period when "lettered Chan" (wenzi Chan), and indulgence in Chan literature, was popular. Led by Huihong (1071–1128), a poet of the Huanglong faction of the Linji house, this type of Chan was denigrated by Zonggao as mere bookishness. He said Huihong's gong'an ignored daily life and were only random poetical cases. Zonggao, in contrast, directed attention to one word only, wu, or Wenyan's "dried shit-stick," in order to assist the many lay followers by simplifying contemplation practice.

Concentration on wu would lead to a breakthrough.

This single word was called a huatou (key word or critical phrase) and "examining the key word" (kanhua) was touted as a shortcut method. It had to be experienced, like the sword of the barbarian enemy, as an immediate problem of life and death. This contemplation became mainstream Chan practice in China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, for it could be used even during everyday activities.

Zonggao attacked MOZHAO CHAN (SILENT ILLUMINATION CHAN) as the heresy of quietism, which lacks self-doubt. The barb was aimed at Hongzhi Chengjue (1091–1157) of the Caodong house, and at meeting the demands for a patriotic Buddhism after the loss of North China to the Jürchens in 1126. Asserting that the mundane law is the same as the Buddha Law, Zonggao maintained that one had to be active, not pacifist and quietist. This patriotic Chan resulted in the building of the "Five Mountain and Ten Monasteries" network, wherein the state appointed Chan abbots, whose sermons and rituals were for the salvation of the state and sentient beings.

Modern Chan

Having long been part of the Buddhist establishment, Chan became less distinguishable from Buddhism in general after the Song dynasty. While it maintained the distinctively Chan technique of kanhua, it also adopted elements of the Pure Land devotions, and fought the rising tide of syncretism.

The state Chan and gong'an practice extended into the Yuan dynasty (1279–1368), which codified the qinggui (pure rules) in 1336. The qinggui and the preceding Song-dynasty codes evidence increasing monastic bureaucracy, hierarchy, and prayers for emperors. The 1336 code essentially remained the rule book for Chan thereafter, and the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) mandated it as the code for all monks, Chan or not. Gaofeng Yuanmiao (1238–1295) clarified the technique of DOUBT in kanhua, stating that one first needed a basis in FAITH, then furious determination, and finally intense doubt. His pupil Zhongfeng Mingben (1263–1323) combined kanhua and Yanshou's nianfo Chan, and ZHUHONG (1532–1612) developed it. By the late Ming, disputes between the Caodong and Linji houses discredited Chan monks, so lay Chan adherents rose to prominence in the succeeding Manchu Qing dynasty (1644–1912). While many followed the ways of Zhuhong and DEQING (1546–1623), laymen like Qian Qianyi (1582–1684) claimed that Chan had been so formalized that "today's Chan is not Chan, but simply gong'an . . . blows and shouts . . . theories of expedient means."
In the twentieth century, monastic Chan was revived by Xuyun (ca. 1840–1959) and other reformers, but was largely confined to the large monasteries of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Linji Chan membership was generally nominal, lineage outranked doctrine. Since the 1980s, there has been a resurgence of interest in Chan, mostly an intellectual curiosity about this most Chinese form of Buddhism. Monastic routine. Descriptions of monastic routine in the first half of the twentieth century show that sitting in meditation and concentration on huatou were the norm. Although prayers for rain, funeral ceremonies, and anniversaries of Chan and monastic founders played a part, meditation was still the prime practice in major Chan monasteries. With the exception of administrators and service-providers, the other monks lived, meditated, and slept in the chantang (Japanese, zendo; meditation hall), also called sengtang (monks' hall). Contemplatives sat on meditation benches lining the walls, and exercised between meditation sessions by circumambulating in the vacant center, which contained only an image of Bodhidharma or MAHAKAS´YAPA. During intensive meditation periods, monks typically meditated nine hours per day, slept five hours, rising at 3:00 A.M. and retiring at 10:00 P.M. The monks could consult the abbot or instructor regarding their meditation practice. Summer was for pilgrimage, consultations with other teachers, or relaxation. Similar routines are maintained in Korea, Japan, and Vietnam.

Internationalization

The use of Chinese script, the firm establishment of Buddhism for several centuries, and a desire to reform Buddhism were preconditions for the acceptance of Chan Buddhism. Consequently, importation was made with the assistance of elites. All traditions later attempted to antedate the earliest transmission to create an aura of antiquity and further national pride.

Korea (So˘n). After scholastic and devotional Buddhism were firmly established in Korea, monks traveling to China from the Korean state of Silla began to encounter Chan in the early to mid-eighth century. Chan attracted Korean attention once the exploits of Musang (684–762), a scion of the royal house of Silla, who became a famous Chan master in Sichuan, were reported in Korea. Musang had been an early teacher of Mazu Daoyi, and a considerable number of Silla monks, including To˘ui (d. 825), came to study with Daoyi and his pupils. However, once they returned to Korea, their teachings met strong resistance from the established forms of Buddhism.

Therefore, after earlier abortive attempts to introduce Chan, when To˘ui returned in 821 with Mazu Chan, he experienced much opposition, and took Chan into the mountains and away from the court. Eight lineage founders studied under Daoyi's heirs; only one under Caodong. Most had studied teachings of the HUAYAN SCHOOL (Korean, Hwao˘m), the dominant doctrinal tradition in Silla Korea, but were dissatisfied with its abstruse and impractical scholasticism. These lineages were collectively called kusan (the NINE MOUNTAINS SCHOOL OF SO˘N) from 1084.

The Five Houses were imported early in the Koryo˘
dynasty (918–1392), and King Kwangjong (r. 950–975)
introduced the Fayan house (Korean, Po˘ban) by sending thirty-six monks to study with the Chan monk Yanshou in China. The monk U˘ICH'O˘N (1055–1101)
founded the Tiantai (Korean, Ch'o˘nt'ae) school to overcome the rivalry of So˘n and Hwao˘m deeming that iconoclastic So˘n needed doctrinal foundations. Many Po˘ban monks joined U˘ich'o˘n, and this, plus corruption in the san˙ gha, weakened So˘n.

Consequently, CHINUL (1158–1210) was moved to revitalize So˘n by combining it with Hwao˘m philosophy to provide a doctrinal base, inspired by the ideas of Zongmi. Unable to make a pilgrimage to the mainland to study with Chinese masters, Chinul was successively enlightened by his own reading of the Platform Sutra, a commentary on the Huayan jing by Li Tongxuan (635–730), and by reading the works of Zonggao on hwadu (Chinese, huatou). Hwadu was for able students; lesser lights could adopt Zongmi's sudden enlightenment followed by gradual cultivation to remove residual habits. Subsequently, hwadu practice predominated, and the Linji style prevailed among the sixteen generations of successors at Chinul's monastery on Chogyesan, something reinforced once the Mongols forcibly reopened communications with China.

Koryo˘ monks, particularly T'aego Pou (1301–1382)
and Naong Hyegu˘n (1320–1376), who wanted to improve hwadu practice, sought confirmation of their enlightenment within the lineage of Wuzu Fayan (1024–
1104). They attempted to unite the kusan under the name of the Chogye order. They also tried to enforce monastic disciple through the state, but the san˙ gha's corruption and the weakness of Koryo˘ allowed the rise of the anti-Buddhist Choso˘n dynasty (1392–1910) and a fundamentalist neo-Confucianism.

Initially the new Choso˘n rulers did not persecute Buddhism, which had several able So˘n monk defenders. Restrictions increased, and King Sejong (r.

1419–1450) forcibly combined the Chogye, Ch'o˘nt'ae, and another school into the So˘njong. Under later kings the repression was so severe that the So˘n lineage may have been severed. All current lineages allegedly revert to Pyo˘kkye Cho˘ngsim (late fifteenth century), who had been compulsorily laicized. His master is unknown.

The result was controversy over whether later So˘n was descended from Pou via Cho˘ngsim, or went back to Chinul. The main descendant of Cho˘ngsim, HYUJO˘NG (1520–1604), revived So˘n's fortunes by leading a monk army against the invading Japanese in 1592.

The revival was temporary, for soon the state herded the monks into the mountains or conscripted them into labor service. Zonggao's ideas provided the best defense against intolerant neo-Confucianism, allowing So˘n practice to dominate elite Choso˘n dynasty Buddhism, but at the cost of infiltration by Confucian values. So˘n practice retreated increasingly into "lettered Chan" and ritual, or Pure Land devotions. However, Chinul's ideas continued to have support, and several important teachers tried to revive So˘n.

The Japanese annexation of Korea (1910–1945)
brought clashes between a pro-Japanese Soto Zen clique and a traditionalist Korean Linji (Imje) faction, and between modernizers like HAN YONGUN (1879–
1944), who advocated married clergy, and conservative celibate monks who founded the So˘n Academy in 1921. The Chogye order, founded in 1941, included pro-Japanese married clergy, as well as nationalistic celibates, which led the non-celibates to form the breakaway T'aego order in 1970. This also invoked the old dispute over the founding patriarch of So˘n, Chinul or Pou, a controversy raised even later by the former head of the Chogye order, T'oe'ong So˘ngch'o˘l (1912–
1993), who championed Pou and rejected Chinul's emblematic soteriology of sudden enlightenment followed by gradual cultivation. For So˘ngch'o˘l, once one has seen the nature and become buddha, gradual cultivation is superfluous. In North Korea, all So˘n clerics are married and retired from the regular workforce, being subservient to the state.

Japan (Zen). The Japanese Hosso (Yogacara) and Tendai (Tiantai) schools, without understanding the new meaning of chan, imported Chan cultivation as a subordinate component of their practice from the 660s. In the mid-twelfth century, communication was reopened with Song dynasty China, and Chan's importation was justified in terms of the powers of ascetic meditation and "natural wisdom." Myoan Eisai
(1141–1215) introduced Linji (Japanese, Rinzai) as part of Tendai, while Dainichi Nonin (ca. 1189) attempted to establish an independent Zen assembly without sanction of a Chinese master, based on "natural wisdom" or ORIGINAL ENLIGHTENMENT (HONGAKU). For this Nonin was attacked by Eisai and DO GEN Kigen (1200–1253). But Eisai was attacked in turn by Tendai prelates, and he retaliated by asserting that Zen was the essence of Buddhism, and his pupils founded independent Zen monasteries. The Japanese saying, "Rinzai (for) shoguns, Soto (for) peasants," reflects the social classes each school aimed at.

So to . The Soto (Chinese, Caodong) school believed that as one is already buddha, anybody can allow that status to emerge by a "quietist" sitting in meditation, without striving to become buddha. Dogen, venerated as the founder of Soto, introduced the Caodong Chan of Ruqing (1163–1228), but the practice soon became more complex and added koan to its repertoire.

Do gen emphasized independence by ascetic meditation in the mountains away from the capitals, bodhisattva-precepts ordinations apart from the Tendai monopoly, and thorough Chan monastic routines. Receiving transmission in a Caodong lineage from China, he advocated sitting in meditation only (shikantaza) as the sole way to enlightenment, and he misread the Nirvan-a Sutra to say "all being is enlightenment." He attacked Zonggao, despised the memorization of koan and dialectical formulae, and even disparaged the notion of a Zen school (Zenshu). He claimed that the only transmission of the "Storehouse of the Eye of the True Dharma" (shobogenzo) came via Shitou Xiqian, so he, Dogen, had brought the only true Buddhism to Japan. Yet his own magnum opus, the Shobogenzo, a masterpiece in Japanese and Chinese, was ignored and not rehabilitated until the 1700s. The Soto lineages derived from Dogen, however, spread rapidly throughout rural Japan, the powers of meditation and the precepts converting warriors and villagers alike. Catering to their clients' needs, Soto created country-wide networks of over ten thousand monasteries. In doing so, much of Dogen's "pure Zen" was shed for the joint practice of Zen and esoteric Buddhism. The arrival of the Chinese O baku monks in the 1650s stimulated the revival of monastic rules and Dogen's teachings. Scholarship on Dogen Zen and disputes over its interpretation continue today, with a CRITICAL BUDDHISM scholarship even denying that Zen and tathagatagarbha thought are Buddhist.

Rinzai. Rinzai (Chinese, Linji) used the koan as the primary means to attain enlightenment. Being more active in the use of blows, shouts, and witty exchanges, this "opportunist" Zen targeted the warrior class. Rinzai was restricted to the capitals and mixed with Tendai and Shingon until Song-dynasty Chan was implanted by Chinese monks fleeing the Mongols in the thirteenth century. Attracted by their Chinese culture and their disciplined Zen, the warrior rulers invited them to Kamakura. These monks brought the Chan of Zonggao and the Song as a whole package: language, koan, discipline, and architecture. They also introduced neoConfucianism and the arts, and inspired the imitation of the Five Mountains network (gozan) of Song China. The Gozan network, which was ranked in three tiers, was state-controlled and located in Kamakura and then Kyoto, with provincial branches later. The warrior elite and emperors patronized Rinzai, especially the Nanzen Monastery, making Yishan Yining (1247–1317) and Muso Soseki (1275–1351) abbots there. The main role of the Gozan was cultural, as centers for the arts. These centers were gradually secularized, weakening Zen practice; wars in the 1460s ended their influence, although a Nanzenji monk introduced Zen to the Ryukyu Kingdom in the 1450s.

The Gozan were superseded by the Daitokuji and Myoshinji lineages, which gained merchant supporters. These monasteries had been built with the aid of Shuho Myo cho (Daito kokushi, 1282–1337). Rinzai assisted the Tokugawa state control of Buddhism and the spread of neo-Confucianism, actions that weakened it. But monks like Takuan Soho (1573–1645), the last prominent member of the Daitokuji lineage, explained neo-Confucianism in terms of Zen and swordfighting as the removal of ego, ideas suitable to the samurai. The O baku influx stimulated a revival of the Myoshinji lineage, with Bankei Yotaku (1622–1693)
teaching that koan are too artificial. However, Mujaku Do chu (1653–1744) saw the O baku as rivals, railed against them, and pioneered Rinzai scholarship.

HAKUIN EKAKU (1686–1768), the restorer of Rinzai, reacted against Yotaku and championed kanna (Chinese, kanhua) Zen. Modern Rinzai largely derives from him.

O baku. This Ming-dynasty form of Chan was introduced by Chinese monks fleeing Mount Huangbo in Fujian before the Manchu invasion in 1647. Although a Linji lineage, Rinzai and China's Linji had diverged over the centuries, so when the monks arrived in the 1650s, the Japanese objected to the O baku (Chinese, Huangbo) use of nianfo (Japanese, nenbutsu; recollection of the Buddha's name) in Chan. Many Japanese were, however, fascinated by the new import, and O baku long retained its Chinese style in food, language, architecture, ritual, and dress. Abbots of Manpukuji, O baku's monastic headquarters, were always to be Chinese, but the last Chinese abbot died in 1784, and was succeeded by a Japanese abbot. O baku took over some monasteries in the Myoshinji lineage, so there was intense rivalry between them. O baku directed more attention to study of the sutras and discourse records (goroku), and away from decontextualized koan as in the Hekigan roku (Chinese, Biyan lu; Blue Cliff Record). They invented their own koan, thinking the Japanese use of koan courses that encouraged rote memorization a form of "lettered Zen" of set poetic replies and textbook manuals.

In 1872 the government permitted monks to marry, and so the majority of Zen priests after World War II were married, resulting in the inheritance by sons of small temples from their Zen priest fathers. To maintain the temple, they spend most of their time at funeral services or chanting sutras.

Vietnam (Thiên). Chan probably gained a minor following among the ethnic Vietnamese elites beginning in the ninth century, although tradition asserts it arrived in 580 C.E. with Vintaruci (d. 594), an Indian monk who allegedly studied under Sengcan (d. 606). Another tradition maintains that Chan arrived in 820 with Wuyan Tong (d. 826), a supposed pupil of Huaihai. During the Ly´ dynasty (1009–1225), Confucianism came to dominate, so court elites, such as the monk Thông Bie-n (d. 1134), fabricated lineages back to China. The Mongol invasions inspired the Traˆndynasty (1225–1407) emperor Nhân-Tông (r. 1279–
1293), who defeated the invaders, to become a monk and found the short-lived Trúc Lâm lineage. The Ming conquest (1413–1428) and Lê dynasty (1414–1788) imposed a Confucian anti-Buddhist policy, and so Chinese Linji monks who fled the Manchu conquest in the 1660s, headed for the mid-coast of Vietnam, where the Nguyê˜n warlords held sway. This Linji (Vietnamese, Lâm Tê), combined Chan and Pure Land practice. The stronghold of Thieˆn Buddhism, as the Chan tradition became known, remained in the cities of central Vietnam, and the san˙ gha was nominally Lâm Tê. Thieˆn had a following only among the intellectual, urban elites, and since the unification of Buddhism in 1963, Thieˆ`n has been subsumed into a syncretic Buddhism.

Conclusion

Chan is the most Confucian form of Buddhism, and it has been in constant rivalry with neo-Confucianism.

It is also elitist, given the strict requirements for practice and the requirements to read literary Chinese, even though some popularizers, writing in the colloquial vernacular, contributed to the development of national languages. However, there was often a gap between ideal and practice, for the tradition also had to meet the needs of clients, who wanted easier practices, funeral rites, and the transfer of merit. This was a constant tension, as was the need for the confirmation of enlightenment, which led to many genealogical disputes and inventions.

See also: China; Confucianism and Buddhism; Japan; Korea; Lineage; Poetry and Buddhism; Syncretic Sects: Three Teachings; Vietnam; Zen, Popular Conceptions of

Baroni, Helen J. O baku Zen: The Emergence of the Third Sect of Zen in Tokugawa Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2000.

Bodiford, William M. Soto Zen in Medieval Japan. Honolulu:
University of Hawaii Press, 1993.

Buswell, Robert E., Jr., trans. The Korean Approach to Zen: The Collected Works of Chinul. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1983. Reprinted as Tracing Back the Radiance: Chinul's Korean Way of Zen. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1991.

Buswell, Robert E., Jr. The Zen Monastic Experience: Buddhist Practices in Contemporary Korea. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992.

Chang, Chung-Yuan, trans. Original Teachings of Ch'an Buddhism: Selected from the Transmission of the Lamp. New York:
Vintage, 1971.

Collcutt, Martin. Five Mountains: The Rinzai Zen Monastic Institution in Medieval Japan. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981.

Dumoulin, Heinrich. Zen Buddhism: A History, Vol. 1: India and China, tr. James W. Heisig and Paul Knitter. New York: Macmillan, 1988.

Dumoulin, Heinrich. Zen Buddhism: A History, Vol. 2: Japan,
tr. James W. Heisig and Paul Knitter. New York: Macmillan, 1990.

Faure, Bernard. The Rhetoric of Immediacy: A Cultural Critique of Chan/Zen Buddhism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991.

Faure, Bernard. Chan Insights and Oversights: An Epistemological Critique of the Chan Tradition. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993.

Faure, Bernard. The Will to Orthodoxy: A Critical Genealogy of Northern Chan Buddhism, tr. Phyllis Brooks. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1997.

Gimello, Robert M., and Gregory, Peter N., eds. Studies in Ch'an and Hua-yan. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1983.

Gregory, Peter N., ed. Traditions of Meditation in Chinese Buddhism. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1986.

Hsu, Sung-peng. A Buddhist Leader in Ming China: The Life and Thought of Han-shan Te-ch'ing, 1546–1623. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1979.

Hubbard, Jamie, and Swanson, Paul L., eds. Pruning the Bodhi Tree: The Storm over Critical Buddhism. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997.

Keel, Hee-Sung. Chinul: The Founder of the Korean So˘n Tradition. Berkeley, CA: Berkeley Buddhist Studies Series, 1984. Korean Buddhist Research Institute, comp. So˘n Thought in Korean Buddhism. Seoul: Dongguk University Press, 1998.

LaFleur, William R., ed. Dogen Studies. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1985.

Lai, Whalen, and Lancaster, Lewis R., eds. Early Ch'an in China and Tibet. Berkeley, CA: Berkeley Buddhist Studies Series, 1983.

McRae, John R. The Northern School and the Formation of Early Ch'an Buddhism. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1986.

Nguyen Cuong Tu. Zen in Medieval Vietnam: A Study and Translation of the Thieˆ`n Uyên Tâ°
p. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997.

Smith, Bardwell L., ed. Unsui: A Diary of Zen Monastic Life, text by Eshin Nishimura, drawings by Giei Sato. Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii, 1973.

Thich Thien-An. Buddhism and Zen in Vietnam, ed. Carol Smith. Los Angeles: College of Oriental Studies, 1975.

Welch, Holmes. The Practice of Chinese Buddhism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1967.

Yampolsky, Philip B., trans. and ed. The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch. New York and London: Columbia University Press, 1967.

Yampolsky, Philip B., trans. The Zen Master Hakuin: Selected Writings. New York and London: Columbia University Press, 1971.

Yu, Chun-fang. The Renewal of Buddhism in China: Chu-hung and the Late Ming Synthesis. New York and London: Columbia University Press, 1981.

JOHN JORGENSEN

Chanting And Liturgy

Chanting and RITUAL are the liturgical means of transforming doctrinal and moral ideals into experience.

The types, uses, and meanings of chants and rituals are vast, ranging from those performed by individuals as everyday custom, to elaborate temple ceremonies for large groups. There are appropriate rituals for serious ascetics seeking enlightenment, as well as for casual believers seeking worldly benefits such as health, wealth, and a good spouse. Defined by scriptures and sectarian traditions, chanting and ritual are carried out as prescribed actions, but they are also the means by which practitioners express their own concerns. The repeated performances of certain chants and rituals are part of the everyday fabric of Buddhist cultures, and give members their religious identities.

Repetition also invites people to lose or forget the doctrinal meanings of chants and rituals. Chanting produces liturgical rhythms valued for their audible or musical effects rather than their textual messages. Since chants consist of words, they have linguistic meaning, but chanting often produces sounds that cannot be recognized as a regular spoken language. The HEART
SUTRA (Prajñaparamitahr-daya-sutra), for example, is popular in East Asia as a Chinese text about emptiness, a fundamental MAHAYANA teaching, but when it is chanted in Japan, each Chinese character is given a Japanese pronunciation without any change in the Chinese grammatical word order of the text. The audible result is neither Japanese nor Chinese, but a ritual language unto itself. Many Japanese laypersons who have memorized the Heart Sutra as a chant do not know what it means, but they are untroubled by the question of meaning since the value of the chant lies in its phonetics rather than its philosophy. This is the case for other Chinese Buddhist texts chanted with Japanese pronunciations.

Chanting in this sense supersedes reading. Chanting only the first Chinese character on each page of an entire scripture is believed to be equal to reading every character. Understood as a consummation rather than a subversion of reading, chanting first characters is based on the idea that single words or phrases can evoke the virtue and power that all of the words combined are trying to explain. Reading for meaning is a useful step for grasping the truth of a text, but it is a means, not the final objective. All Buddhist traditions emphasize the supreme value of experiencing the truth of a text, and chanting aims at that objective. Chanting the Heart Sutra without

A monk beats a drum as other monks pray at the Ivolginski Datsan Temple in Buryatiya, Siberia, 2002. © Oleg Nikishin/Getty Images. Reproduced by permission.

understanding its discursive meaning is not a violation of the text, but the fulfillment of it.

Just as single words can epitomize entire pages, so can the title of a scripture embrace its totality. Chanting sutra titles is a common practice, and in Japan, for example, the basic practice of NICHIREN SCHOOL Buddhism is chanting the phrase Namu Myohorenge-kyo (Homage to the Lotus Sutra). While Nichiren Buddhists chant the text of the LOTUS SU -
TRA (SADDHARMAPUN- D-ARIKA-SUTRA) as well, chanting the Japanese title, Myoho-renge-kyo, is a necessary and sufficient means for relating the truth of the sutra to the individual believer and his or her concerns. Chanted repeatedly, the title itself bears the power of the entire scripture, and is regarded by some Nichiren traditions as the main object of worship. The popular Sanskrit mantra, OM- MAN-I PADME HUM- (Praise be the jewel lotus) and its Tibetan version, not only evokes the bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokites´vara, but also epitomizes all of the Buddhist teachings.

In a similar manner, chanting the name of a deity evokes all of its power. One of the most popular practices in East Asia is chanting the name of the Buddha of the Western Paradise (Sanskrit, AMITABHA; Japanese, Amida; Chinese, Amituo). Pure Land Buddhist traditions are built on recitations of Amitabha's name, and countless Japanese Buddhists over the centuries have chanted the phrase Namu Amida Butsu (Homage to Amitabha Buddha) in hopes that they will be reborn into Amitabha's pure land. This practice is known as the nenbutsu in Japan, nianfo in China, and yo˘mbul in Korea.

All of these terms conflate recitation with MINDFULNESS. Nenbutsu, for instance, means to be mindful of a buddha, and does not signify chanting. The term, however, is used synonymously with chanting because a proper state of mindfulness is essential to it. In addition to the formulaic words or phrases, which are also known as MANTRA, it is the quality of mind that distinguishes chanting from other oral functions such as speaking and singing. The effectiveness of mantras in bringing about intended effects depends on the chanter's state of mind, as well as the power of the words and the format of articulation.

Chanting is a form of sacred music, and its ritual format often includes instrumental accompaniment.

Bells, gongs, drums, horns, and other instruments are used to provide rhythm and emphasis. In East Asia a common accoutrement is a hollowed-out piece of wood that is hit with a padded stick to produce resonant thumps setting the pace. Round in shape, it is covered with fish scales and is called the "wooden fish" because fish do not close their eyes even when they sleep. In shape and sound, the instrument makes a point about mindfulness.

Chanting and ritual give shape to abstract doctrines, moral values, individual concerns, and communal identity. They provide structures through which important transactions take place. Clerical and lay participants sing praises, submit petitions, make confessions, request absolutions, present dedications, give offerings, receive blessings, and transfer the merit of the ritual to others, often the deceased. Nearly all Buddhists seek their highest spiritual—and often worldly—aspirations through ritual means. A few traditions, such as Jodo Shinshu in Japan, deny that chanting and ritual are mechanisms for salvation, but even in this case, believers fervently chant the nenbutsu not as a ritual means for gaining REBIRTH in the pure land but as an expression of gratitude for having already been saved by the grace of Amitabha.

See also: Buddhanusmr-ti (Recollection of the Buddha); Entertainment and Performance; Etiquette;
Language, Buddhist Philosophy of; Meditation; Merit and Merit-Making; Mudra and Visual Imagery; Nenbutsu (Chinese, Nianfo; Korean, Yo˘mbul)

Kalupahana, David, ed. Buddhist Thought and Ritual. St. Paul, MN: Paragon House, 1991.

Lopez, Donald S., ed. Buddhism in Practice. Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 1995.

Nhat Hahn, Thich, comp. Plum Village Chanting and Recitation Book. Berkeley, CA: Parallax, 2000.

Wong, Deborah Anne. Sounding the Center: History and Aesthetics in Thai Buddhist Performance. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001.

GEORGE J. TANABE, JR.

Chengguan

Chengguan (738–839) is the reputed fourth patriarch of the HUAYAN SCHOOL of Chinese Buddhism. Revered for his erudite and prolific scholarship, he was among the most influential monks of his time. Although not a direct student of the third Huayan patriarch FAZANG (643–712), Chengguan was recognized as Fazang's spiritual successor on the basis of his exceptional learning and prominence, which made him the Huayan tradition's leading figure among his contemporaries.

During his formative years, Chengguan became proficient in the scriptures of Buddhism and the doctrines of other Chinese schools, including the CHAN SCHOOL (especially the Niutou and Northern schools), the TIANTAI SCHOOL, and Sanlun. His writings also reveal mastery of the Confucian classics and the works of early Daoist philosophers, especially Laozi and Zhuangzi.

During his long and highly successful monastic career, Chengguan was associated with seven Tang Chinese emperors, and his supporters and admirers included numerous influential officials and literati. The imperial court recognized his achievements by granting him the honorific titles of national teacher and grand recorder of the clergy. Chengguan's magnum opus is the massive Huayan jing suishu yanyi chao
(in ninety fascicles), which contains his commentary and subcommentary to the eighty-fascicle translation of the HUAYAN JING (Flower Garland Scripture). He also wrote other exegetical works, including a commentary on Prajña's forty-fascicle translation of the Huayan jing, and a few shorter tracts. Chengguan's key contribution to the development of Huayan doctrine is the theory of four realms of reality (DHARMADHATU)—the realms of: (1) individual phenomena (shi fajie); (2)
principle (li fajie); (3) nonobstruction between principle and phenomena (lishi wuai fajie); and (4) nonobstruction among phenomena (shishi wuai fajie).

Gregory, Peter N. "Ch'eng-kuan and Hua-yen." In Tsung-mi and the Sinification of Buddhism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991.

MARIO POCESKI

China

During its long history in China, which spans nearly twenty centuries, Buddhism developed flourishing traditions, exerted far-reaching influence on intellectual and religious life, and left its mark on virtually all aspects of Chinese society and culture. The transmission of Buddhism into China involved the wholesale introduction of (at first) alien complexes of ideas and institutions that opened new horizons of intellectual inquiry and spiritual exploration, thereby enlarging the contours of Chinese civilization and enriching its contents. Through their mutual encounter, both Buddhism and Chinese traditions were profoundly transformed, with Buddhism adding new elements to Chinese civilization while at the same time undergoing dramatic changes in the process of its adaptation to China's social ethos and cultural milieu.

Historical Overview: First Century To Tenth Century

Buddhism first entered China around the beginning of the common era, during the Eastern Han dynasty (25–
220 C.E.). The first Buddhist missionaries arrived through the empire's northwestern frontier, accompanying merchant caravans that traversed the network of trade routes known as the SILK ROAD, which linked China with CENTRAL ASIA and Persia, with additional links to West and South Asia. By that time Buddhism had already establish a strong presence within the Central Asian kingdoms that controlled most of the trade along the Silk Road. Early literary evidence of Buddhism's entry into China links the foreign religion with the Han monarchy and its ruling elites. Such connection is explicit in the well-known story about Emperor Ming's (r. 58–75 C.E.) dream about a golden deity, identified by his advisers as the Buddha. That supposedly precipitated the emperor's sending of a westernbound expedition that brought back to China the first Buddhist text (and two missionaries, according to a later version of the story). Taking into consideration the court-oriented outlook of traditional Chinese historiography, such focus on the emperor's role in the arrival of Buddhism should not come as a surprise. However, in light of the prevalent patterns of economic and cultural interaction between China and the outside world during this period, it seems probable that Buddhism had already entered China prior to Emperor Ming's reign.

Most of the early Buddhist monks who entered China were associated with the MAHAYANA tradition, which was increasing in popularity even while it was still undergoing creative doctrinal development. The foreign missionaries—most of whom were Kushans, Khotanese, Sogdians, and other Central Asians—entered a powerful country with evolved social and political institutions, long-established intellectual and religious traditions, and a profound sense of cultural superiority. In the course of the initial contacts, some members of the Chinese elites found the new religion to be inimical to the prevalent social ethos. The institution of MONASTICISM, with its stress on ascetic renunciation, which included celibacy and mendicancy, was alien to the Chinese and went against the Confucianinspired mores adopted by the state and the ruling aristocracy.

In response to the initial spread of the alien religion, some Chinese officials articulated a set of critiques that highlighted perceived areas of conflict between Buddhism and the prevalent Confucian ideology. The principal object of the criticisms was the monastic order
(SAN˙ GHA). Buddhist monks were accused of not being filial because their adoption of a celibate lifestyle meant they were unable to produce heirs and thereby secure the continuation of their families' lineages. Additional criticisms were leveled on economic and political grounds. Monks and monasteries were accused of being unproductive and placing an unwarranted economic burden on the state and the people, while the traditional Buddhist emphasis on independence from the secular authorities was perceived as undermining the traditional authority of the emperor and subverting the established sociopolitical system. From a doctrinal point of view, Buddhism was perceived as being overtly concerned with individual salvation and transcendence of the mundane realm, which went counter to the pragmatic Confucian emphasis on human affairs and sociopolitical efficacy. Finally, Buddhism met disapproval on account of its foreign origin, which in the eyes of its detractors made it unsuitable for the Chinese.

Despite these misgivings, by the fall of the Han dynasty in 220 Buddhism had managed to gain a foothold in China. Its growth sharply accelerated during the period of disunion (311–589), the so-called Six Dynasties period, which constitutes the second phase of Buddhist history in China. It was an age of political fragmentation as non-Chinese tribes established empires that ruled the north, while the south was governed by a series of native dynasties. Ironically, the unstable situation encouraged the spread of Buddhism. In the eyes of many educated Chinese the collapse of the old imperial order brought discredit to the prevailing Confucian ideology, which created an intellectual vacuum and a renewed sense of openness to new ideas. Buddhism was also attractive to the non-Chinese rulers in the north, who were eager to use its universalistic teachings in their search for political legitimacy.

Another contributing factor was the growing interest in religious and philosophical Daoism. Many upperclass Chinese who were familiar with Daoist texts and teachings were drawn to Buddhism's sophisticated doctrines, colorful rituals, and vast array of practices, including MEDITATION. Buddhist teachings and practices bore reassuring (if often superficial) resemblance to those of Daoism, while they also provided original avenues for spiritual growth and inspiring answers to questions about ultimate values. The growth of Buddhism was further enhanced by the adaptability of the Mahayana traditions that were imported into China.

The favorable reception of Buddhism was greatly aided by its capacity to be responsive to native cultural norms, sociopolitical demands, and spiritual predilections, while at the same time retaining fidelity to basic religious principles.

During the period of division, Buddhism in the north was characterized by close connections between the clergy and the state, and by interest in thaumaturgy, asceticism, devotional practice, and meditation. In contrast, the south saw the emergence of so-called gentry Buddhism. Some southern elites (a group that included refuges from the north) who were interested in metaphysical speculation were especially attracted to the Buddhist doctrine of S´UNYATA (EMPTINESS), which was often conflated with Daoist ideas about the nature of reality. The southern socioreligious milieu was characterized by close connections between literati-officials and Buddhist monks, many of whom shared the same cultured aristocratic background. Despite two anti-Buddhist PERSECUTIONS during the 452–466 and 547–578 periods, by the sixth century Buddhism had established strong roots throughout the whole territory of China, and had permeated the societies and cultures of both the northern and the southern dynasties. Moreover, Chinese Buddhism was exported to other parts of East Asia that were coming under China's cultural influence, above all Korea and Japan.

The reunification of the empire under the Sui dynasty (589–618) is often designated as the starting point for the next phase in the evolution of Chinese Buddhism. Under the pro-Buddhist Sui regime, and especially during the succeeding Tang dynasty (618–907), Chinese Buddhism reached great heights of intellectual creativity, religious vitality, institutional vigor, and monastic prosperity. Throughout the SuiTang period, Buddhism was widely accepted and practiced by members of all social classes, from poor peasants to aristocrats and the royal family. A number of Tang emperors offered lavish patronage to Buddhism, although such support was usually accompanied by efforts to control the religion and harness its power and prestige for political ends. By this time, the early rapprochements between Buddhism and the Chinese state evolved into a close relationship between the two. Despite the earlier efforts on the part of monastic leaders to secure a semblance of independence for the monastic community, Buddhism became firmly integrated into the sociopolitical establishment. With their prayers and rituals the clergy accrued merit and provided supernatural protection for the dynasty and the state. Buddhism also provided the rulers with an additional source of legitimacy, which was used in an especially skillful manner by Empress Wu Zetian (r. 684–705), the only female monarch in Chinese history and one of the greatest patrons of Buddhism. In exchange, the state offered political patronage and financial support to the Buddhist church, and bestowed on the clergy various benefits such as exemption from taxation, corvée labor, and military service. The state also asserted its right to control key aspects of religious life, including bestowal of monastic ordinations, building of monasteries, and entry of new texts into the Buddhist canon.

During the Sui-Tang period Buddhism was by far the most powerful and creative religious and intellectual tradition in the empire, eclipsing both Confucianism and Daoism (even though the other two traditions also flourished during this period). The main schools of Chinese Buddhism, such as Tiantai, Huanyan, and Chan, were also formed during this era, thereby giving rise to uniquely Sinitic systems of Buddhist philosophy and methods of praxis. The strength of Buddhism and the durability of its institutions were severely tested during the Huichang era of Emperor Wuzong (r. 841/842–845), who initiated the most devastating anti-Buddhist persecution. The emperor ordered destruction of virtually all monasteries in the empire and mass return to lay life of the clergy. The onset of the persecutions was influenced by a number of complex factors, including the influence of the emperor's Daoist advisers, economic considerations, dismay over monastic corruption, and latent anti-Buddhist sentiments among pro-Confucian officials. Even though the persecution was short-lived and Buddhism quickly rebounded, many scholars see the persecution as a turning point and the beginning of the extremely protracted decline of Buddhism in China.

Historical Overview: Eleventh Century To Present

Late imperial China—covering the period from the Song (960–1279) until the end of the Qing dynasty
(1644–1911)—can be taken to correspond to a fourth phase in the history of Chinese Buddhism. The history of Buddhism during this era is usually told as a narrative of decline, punctuated with occasional efforts to revive the great tradition's ancient glories. Some historians have argued that such a negative characterization of post-Tang Buddhism does not do justice to the religious vitality and institutional strength of Song Buddhism. It is undeniable that under the Song, Buddhism exerted strong influence and attracted a large following among members of all social classes. The religion continued to enjoy state patronage and the monastic vocation attracted many individuals. Buddhist influence on Chinese culture was also pervasive, as can be observed in the literature and visual arts of the period. At the same time, there were signs of creeping decline, especially in terms of intellectual creativity, notwithstanding new developments in Tiantai scholasticism and Chan literature and praxis. The intellectual decline is evident in the lack of compelling Buddhist responses to the serious challenge posed by the Song Confucian revival. The shift of the Chinese elite's interest away from Buddhism and toward Confucianism was further boosted by the acceptance of neo-Confucianism, as formulated by its great systematizer Zhu Xi (1130–1200), as official state orthodoxy during the fourteenth century. For the rest of the imperial period Buddhism managed to survive, albeit in diminished capacity and often on the margins. For the most part Buddhism after this point assumed a conservative stance, as there was no emergence of major new traditions or significant paradigm shifts.

The beginning of the last phase in the history of Chinese Buddhism coincides with China's entry into the modern period. During the final decades of the imperial era, China's inability to adequately respond to the challenges of modernity—rudely brought to its doorstep by the increasing encroachment of the colonial powers on Chinese territory in the nineteenth century—led to erosion and eventually disintegration of its age-old social and political institutions. After the republican revolution of 1912, efforts at creating a strong and stable modern state ended in failure. The bleak situation was exacerbated by China's moribund economy and rampant corruption. During this tumultuous period, the adverse sociopolitical circumstances affected Buddhist institutions, and traditional beliefs and practices were rejected by many educated Chinese as outdated superstitions. In the face of the new predicament, Buddhism still managed to stage a minor revival. In some quarters, the revitalization took the form of renewed interest in traditional intellectual and religious activities, such as philosophical reflection on Buddhist doctrines and the practice of Chan meditation. Others, however, tried to reconstitute the Buddhist tradition along modern lines. The progressive agenda of the reformers included establishment of educational institutions where the clergy received modern education. In addition, efforts were made to internationalize Chinese Buddhism by establishing connections with Buddhist traditions in other countries.

With the communist victory in the civil war and the establishment of the People's Republic in 1949, Buddhism had to contend with a governing ideology that had little sympathy for traditional religious beliefs and practices. During the 1950s the new regime was mainly concerned with controlling Buddhism by instituting policies that restricted the activities of the clergy and imposed state supervision over Buddhist organizations. The situation rapidly deteriorated during the 1960s and reached its lowest point with the violent suppression of Buddhism (along with other religions) during the worst excesses of the Cultural Revolution. At the time it seemed that the twenty centuries of Buddhist history in China might be coming to an end. With the institution of more liberal policies during the late 1970s, however, Buddhism began to stage a slow comeback. The modest resurgence of Buddhism in China involves restoration of temples and monasteries, ordination of clergy, revival of traditional beliefs and practices, and increased interest in academic study of Buddhism as a part of traditional Chinese culture. Chinese Buddhism is also thriving in TAIWAN, as well as among immigrant Chinese communities throughout Asia and in the West.

Texts And Literary Activities

During the early phases of Buddhism in China, one of the primary concerns for both the foreign missionaries and the native followers was to produce reliable translations of Buddhist sacred texts. The task of translating the scriptures and other canonical texts was daunting because of the sheer size of the Buddhist canon (which was constantly expanding as new texts were introduced) and because of the lack of bilingual expertise among the foreign missionaries and the native clergy, which was exacerbated by the Chinese aversion to learning foreign languages. During the early period many of the translations were small private undertakings, typically led by a foreign monk who was aided by Chinese assistants. The early translations often display a tendency to render Buddhist ideas by recourse to concepts from native Chinese thought. A case in point is the putative method of "matching the meaning" (geyi), which involved pairing of key Buddhist terms with Chinese expressions primarily derived from Daoist sources. While this hermeneutical strategy facilitated the wider diffusion of Buddhist texts and ideas among educated Chinese, it was criticized by eminent monks such as DAO'AN (312–385) as an obstacle to the proper understanding of Buddhism.

The situation changed during the fifth century, in large part because of the translation activities of KUMARAJIVA (350–409/413), arguably the most famous and influential translator in the history of Chinese Buddhism. Born in Kucha, Kumarajva arrived in the capital of Chang'an in 401. With the generous support of the court, which facilitated the formation of a translation bureau, Kumarajva and his assistants produced a large number of readable translations of key Mahayana scriptures and other exegetical works. As a testimony to the success of Kumarajva's efforts, most of his translations remained the standard versions throughout the history of Buddhism in East Asia. Kumarajva also taught a number of talented disciples about the fine points of Mahayana doctrines, especially the Madhyamaka philosophy of NAGARJUNA (ca. second century C.E.).

A number of influential translators followed in Kumarajva's footsteps, including PARAMARTHA (499–569),
whose translations of Yogacara texts served as a catalyst for the huge Chinese interest in the doctrines of this Indian school of Mahayana philosophy. One of the last great translators was the famous Tang monk XUANZANG (ca. 600–664). After returning from his celebrated PILGRIMAGE to India, where for many years he studied at the main centers of Buddhist learning, Xuanzang spent the last two decades of his life translating the numerous manuscripts he brought back to China. His work was undertaken under imperial auspices, and his numerous assistants included leading Buddhist scholars. Despite their superior styling and greater philological accuracy, Xuanzang's translations did not achieve the same widespread acceptance as Kumarajva's translations.

In addition to the translations of canonical texts from Sanskrit and other Indic languages, there was also a large body of apocryphal texts composed in China whose origins were concealed by presenting them as translations of Indian texts. The Chinese APOCRYPHA included both popular religious tracts as well as texts that contained sophisticated explorations of doctrinal themes. Works that belong to the first category included apocryphal scriptures that dealt with popular religious topics, such as moral principles, eschatological and messianic beliefs, cultic practices, and preternatural powers. They often crossed the porous lines separating Buddhism from popular beliefs, and because of that they were sometimes criticized by members of the monastic elite. On the other end of the spectrum, there were apocryphal texts dealing with doctrinal issues, which exemplified Chinese appropriations of Mahayana teachings that resonated with native intellectual concerns and ways of thinking. Even though the problematic provenance of these texts was frequently noted by medieval Buddhist cataloguers, a good number of them achieved wide acclaim and became part of the CANON.

Besides texts translated from foreign languages, the Chinese Buddhist canon also came to include a large number of texts composed by Chinese authors. These texts are written in a number of genres and cover a wide range of perspectives on diverse aspects of Buddhist beliefs, doctrines, practices, and institutions.

They include exegetical works (especially commentaries on important scriptures), encyclopedias, collections of biographies of eminent monks, texts dealing with monastic regulations and practices, meditation and ritual manuals, historical works, and systematic expositions of Sinitic doctrinal systems (such as Huayan and Tiantai). A large part of the canon includes texts produced by the main schools of Chinese Buddhism. An example of that type are the Chan school's records of sayings (yulu) and gong'an (Japanese, KO AN) collections. In addition, there are a large number of extracanonical works—such as collections of miracle tales—that deal with popular Buddhist beliefs and practices. Buddhist themes and ideas can also be found in secular literary works, such as the poems of major Chinese poets, including Wang Wei (701–761) and Bo Juyi (772–846) during the Tang, and Su Shi (1037–1101) during the Song period.

Schools And Traditions

The study of Chinese Buddhism in terms of specific "schools" (zong), an approach that has commonly been adopted by scholars working in the field, is complicated by the multivalent connotations of the Chinese term zong. In the Buddhist context the term zong can mean a specific doctrine (or an interpretation of it), an essential purport or teaching of a canonical text, an exegetical tradition, or a religious group bound together by shared ideals and adherence to a common set of principles. When the term is used in the last sense, it does not denote separate sects, as defined in typologies formulated by sociologists of religion. The distinct schools of Chinese Buddhism lacked institutional independence. They primarily represented distinct doctrinal or exegetical orientations, or looselyorganized religious groups that were subsumed within the mainstream monastic order. It is also important to note that as a rule these schools involved only a small segment of the monastic elite, and local manifestations of Buddhist religiosity among ordinary people mostly had little direct connection with them.

During the early period, the intellectual and religious agendas of Chinese Buddhism were largely shaped by texts and teachings that originated in India.

During the fourth and fifth centuries the most influential school of Mahayana was the Madhyamaka (Middle Way), whose teachings of s´unyata attracted the attention of Chinese scholiasts. The interest in Madhyamaka philosophy was stimulated by the arrival of Kumarajva, and it culminated with the formation of the Sanlun (Three Treatises) school by Jizang
(549–623), which is usually described as a Chinese version of Madhyamaka. Notwithstanding these developments, the sixth century was the beginning of a general move within Chinese Buddhism away from the relentless apophasis of Madhyamaka doctrine toward increased interest in teachings that presented more positive depictions of the nature of reality and the quest for salvation, especially as articulated by the Yogacara and TATHAGATAGARBHA traditions. The strong interest in YOGACARA SCHOOL teachings about the nature of consciousness and the stages of spiritual practice eventually led to the development of the Shelun school (based on the Mahayanasam- graha of ASAN˙ GA)
and the Dilun school (based on VASUBANDHU's commentary on the Das´abhumikasutropads´a). Both of them were primarily exegetical traditions, centered around small groups of elite scholarly monks who were bound by shared religious and intellectual interests.

The tathagatagarbha, together with the closely related Buddha-nature doctrine, originally occupied a marginal position in Indian Buddhism. Although these theories did not give rise to any new Chinese schools, they became key doctrinal tenets and articles of belief for the new Buddhist traditions that emerged during the Sui-Tang period. This new Buddhism is principally associated with the teachings of the Tiantai, Huayan, Chan, and Pure Land schools. Each of them was a unique Sinitic tradition that had no direct counterpart in Indian Buddhism, and their emergence is viewed as the culmination of the Sinification of Buddhist doctrines and practices. Tiantai and Huayan were especially renowned for their scriptural exegesis and creation of sophisticated systems of Buddhist doctrine that represent the highest intellectual achievements of Chinese Buddhism. On the other hand, Chan and Pure Land offered compelling soteriological frameworks and methods of spiritual practice. In the case of Chan the main practice was meditation, while the Pure Land tradition emphasized faith and devotional practices. Chan and Pure Land came to dominate the religious landscape of Chinese Buddhism from the late Tang onward, with Chan being more popular among the monastic elites and their educated followers, and Pure Land enjoying a greater following among the masses.

Interactions With Other Religious Traditions

The history of Chinese religions is usually discussed in terms of the "three teachings": Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. China's religious history during the last two millennia was to a large extent shaped by the complex patterns of interaction among these three main traditions and popular religion. The history of Buddhism in China was significantly influenced by its contacts with the indigenous traditions, which were also profoundly transformed through their encounter with Buddhism.

The initial arrival of Buddhism into China during the Han dynasty coincided with the emergence of religious Daoism. During the early period the acceptance of Buddhism was helped by the putative similarities between its beliefs and practices and those of Daoism.

With the increased popularity and influence of Buddhism, from the late fourth century onward Daoism absorbed various elements from Buddhism. In the literary arena, that included large-scale adoption of Buddhist terminology and style of writing. The Daoist canon itself was modeled on the Buddhist canon, following the same threefold division. In addition, numerous Buddhist ideas—about merit, ethical conduct, salvation, compassion, rebirth, retribution, and the like—were absorbed into Daoism. The Buddhist influence also extended into the institutions of the Daoist church, and Daoist monasteries and temples were to a large extent modeled on their Buddhist counterparts.

During the medieval period, intellectual and religious life in China was characterized by an ecumenical spirit and broad acceptance of a pluralistic outlook.

The prevalent view was that the three traditions were complimentary rather than antithetical. Buddhism and Daoism were primarily concerned with the spiritual world and centered on the private sphere, whereas Confucianism was responsible for the social realm and focused on managing the affairs of the state. Even though open-mindedness and acceptance of religious pluralism remained the norm throughout most of Chinese history, such accommodating attitudes did not go uncontested. In addition to the Confucian criticisms of Buddhism, which repeatedly entered public discourse throughout Chinese history, there were occasional debates with Daoists that were in part motivated by the ongoing competition for official patronage waged by the two religions.

More conspicuous expressions of exclusivist sentiments came with the emergence of neo-Confucianism during the Song period. The stance of leading Confucian thinkers toward Buddhism was often marked by open hostility. Notwithstanding their criticism of Buddhist doctrines and institutions, neo-Confucian thinkers drew heavily on Buddhist concepts and ideas. As they were trying to recapture intellectual space that for centuries had been dominated by the Buddhists, the leaders of the Song Confucian revival remade their tradition in large part by their creative responses to the encounter with Buddhism.

Throughout its history Chinese Buddhism also interacted with the plethora of religious beliefs and practices usually assigned to the category of popular religion. Buddhist teachings about KARMA (ACTION) and REBIRTH, beliefs about other realms of existence, and basic ethical principles became part and parcel of popular religion. In addition, Buddhist deities—such as Guanyin, the bodhisattva of compassion—were appropriated by popular religion as objects of cultic worship. The influence went both ways, as popular deities were worshiped in Buddhist monasteries and Buddhist monks performed rituals that catered to common beliefs and customs, such as worship of ANCESTORS. See also: Chan School; China, Buddhist Art in; Confucianism and Buddhism; Daoism and Buddhism;
Huayan School; Pure Land Schools; Syncretic Sects: Three Teachings; Taiwan; Tiantai School

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MARIO POCESKI

China, Buddhist Art In

In the Asian Buddhist world, China is second only to India for its importance in the development and preservation of Buddhism and Buddhist art. China became the great reservoir and innovator of East Asian Buddhism and its art, and inspired important schools of Buddhism and Buddhist art in Korea and Japan, as well as other regions. The range of Chinese Buddhist art is vast, stretching for nearly two thousand years from the Later Han dynasty (25 B.C.E.–220 C.E.) well into the Qing dynasty (1644–1911). Often its sources reach directly to India and its contiguous regions, to Central Asia, and even Tibet in the later centuries; there is also a complex interrelationship with the latter two regions. New interpretations and styles formed quickly in China, offering an evolving and stimulating development frequently reflecting the schools of Buddhist thought that emerged in China, as well as imagery with popular connotations. Behind the brief survey presented in this entry, one must keep in mind the incredible richness of the repertoire and of the innumerable innovative interpretations offered by China in all the arts of painting, sculpture, architecture, cave temple art, and decorative and ritual arts throughout this long period of growth, fluorescence, and development that created one of the world's truly magnificent Buddhist art cycles.

Later Han (25 B.C.E.–220 C.E.), Three Kingdoms (220–265/280 C.E.), And Western Jin (265/280–317 C.E.)

Reliable written documents indicate the presence in China of Buddhist temples as early as the mid-first century C.E., during the Later Han dynasty. By the end of the second century, records concerning the military officer Zerong describe his construction in Pengcheng
(northern Jiangsu) of a large storied pavilion "with piled up metal plates on top" and a gilded buddha image inside. Such a multistoried structure topped by plates (chattra) also appears in a rare Later Han tomb tile from Sichuan. These examples point to the existence of the Chinese-style pagoda or STUPA and the presence of gilded buddha imagery by the late Later Han period in China. Though the first major Buddhist translation activity occurred in Luoyang during the second half of the second century with the foreign monks AN SHIGAO and Lokaks-ema, we have yet to see any Buddhist art from that center for this period, with the exception of the stone fragments of a curb encircling a well that bear an inscription mentioning "the san˙ gha of the four quarters" in Kharos-th script, another indication of the undoubtedly potent foreign influences in this early phase of Buddhist activity in China.

However, within the last several decades a few remains have been presented as probable late Later Han Buddhist imagery, most notably the splendid giltbronze seated Buddha with flame shoulders in Harvard University's Sackler Museum and a selection of stone reliefs at the site of Kongwangshan in eastern Jiangsu. The Harvard Buddha, of quite large size, has long been cited as a major early sculpture of Gandharan form, but has been shown to stylistically relate to Chinese tomb art dating to the second half of the second century and to sculpture from the site of Khalchayan (ca. first century B.C.E. to first century C.E.) excavated in southern Uzbekistan in ancient northern Bactria.

This image, probably the earliest known Buddha image from China, appears to have its stylistic sources more decisively in the Bactrian rather than the Gandharan region. The Kongwangshan site consists of a hill with its boulders carved with a variety of sculptures in the late Later Han style. Among the images are Xiwangmu (Queen Mother of the West), dancing figures in foreign dress (Kushan style), a seated and standing buddha, a parinirvan-a scene, and a scene from a JATAKA of the sacrifice of the bodhisattva to the starving tigress. Though simple, the images are iconographically accurate and testify to Buddhist activity that was somehow integrated with images of other popular beliefs—a typical phenomenon in Late Han.

From the Three Kingdoms and Western Jin periods, a clear distinction emerged between images that strictly follow orthodox Buddhist iconography and those of popular, mostly funerary, art that incorporate Buddhist elements, often with unorthodox changes.

The latter are various and found in a wide area of distribution. They include, for example, small seated buddhas on ceramic vessels (some the elaborate hunping funerary urns) and bronze mirrors (possibly as auspicious talismans) in the south; buddhas on money trees and clay tomb bricks in Sichuan; a standing bodhisattva on a belt buckle from a tomb dated 262 from Wuchang in Hebei; and reliefs in tombs such as at Yinan in Shandong. On the other hand, the famous gilt-bronze standing bodhisattva in the Fujii Yurinkan, probably a MAITREYA, is of mainstream, orthodox imagery, stylistically related to contemporary sculptures from Swat, Toprak Kala, and Miran. This bodhisattva is said to have come from near Chang'an (present-day Xi'an), where the great monk DHARMARAKS-A was active with translating and teaching in the last half of the third century.

By the end of the Western Jin Buddhism was reaching a point of viability in China, albeit with the major support of foreign monks and the foreign communities engaged in trade along the SILK ROAD. Unfortunately, just as the fall of the Han dynasty in the early third century occasioned turmoil and mass migration within China, so too, at the end of the Western Jin, northern China collapsed into chaos from famines and a series of disastrous invasions and warfare by northern minorities. These events threw the country into hardship for several decades and virtually transformed the demographics of China as the aristocratic families of the north fled south or to the Gansu region to escape the devastation.

Eastern Jin (317–420) In The South And The Sixteen Kingdoms (317–439) In The North

The Eastern Jin provided some continuity to this volatile, fluid, disruptive period. Most of our knowledge of Buddhist art from the Eastern Jin comes from written records, which speak of miraculous images, King AS´OKA images, colossal buddhas (the oldest, ca.

370s, being that in DAO'AN's (312–385) monastery at Xiangyang in Henan), wondrous sculptures made by Daikui, the famous VIMALAKIRTI wall painting by Gu Kaizhi, and so on. We can speculate on the appearance of some of these recorded masterpieces of Eastern Jin Buddhist art from later replicas. One of the most interesting is the case of the inscribed King As´oka buddhas found in Chengdu that date from the mid-sixth century but clearly replicate an older, probably fourth century, model. Also, the Vimalakrti relief in cave 3 at LONGMEN, from the early sixth century, may follow the fourth-century Gu Kaizhi prototype. Other clues come from the invaluable sources of the Korean Koguryo˘ tomb paintings, such as those at tomb 3 at Anak, dated to around 357, and the tomb at To˘khu˘ngri, dated to 408 or 409, and others that have early examples of Buddhist subjects.

Most extant remains, however, probably come from the North and from Gansu, both areas dominated by a series of successive small kingdoms, known as the Sixteen Kingdoms, of the five minority nationalities. This period in North China is one of the most difficult to access, but it is becoming evident that it is prolific in Buddhist art remains, generally confirming and complementing the important strides made in Buddhism under the Chinese masters Dao'an and HUIYUAN (334–416) and the overwhelming achievement of the translations of KUMARAJIVA (350–409/413 C.E.) in the early fifth century. Most images are from small bronze buddha altars, which, in the few surviving complete examples consist of a dhyanasana buddha on a lion throne, a mandorla, a canopy, and a four-footed stand.

The identity of these small buddhas, most in meditation, is not certain, but at least one (datable to 426, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
names the buddha as Maitreya. The earliest identifiable Guanyin appears around 400 (Asian Art Museum of San Francisco) and there are early bronze reliefs of such LOTUS SUTRA (SADDHARMAPUN- D-ARIKA-SUTRA)
themes as S´akyamuni and Prabhutaratna that appear as early as the early fifth century. The Buddhist-Daoist stele of Wei Wenlang from Yaoxian (north of Chang'an), though not without controversy, probably dates to 424 and may be the oldest known stone stele with Buddhist imagery. A gilt-bronze pendant-legged seated buddha, dated (Liu) Song 423, confirms this iconographic form as a Maitreya by an inscription on the back of its mandorla, which itself is the earliest known version in bronze of the elaborate flamebordered mandorlas seen in fully developed form in numerous bronze sculptures under the Tuoba (Northern) Wei later in the century. It is becoming clear that many iconographic types and stylistic features that were previously thought to be Northern Wei were actually formulated earlier, in the late fourth and early fifth centuries in the south, around Chang'an and in Gansu.

The Gansu Buddhist materials are probably the most significant discoveries of the last forty years in Chinese Buddhist art. Though there is currently no consensus on the precise dating of all of the early sculptures, paintings, cave temples, and stone stupas from Gansu, the Amitayus niche in cave 169 at Binglingsi is dated with certainty to 420 during the time of the Eastern Qin in southern Gansu. Most of the superb painted clay sculptures positioned randomly around this large natural cave, as well as the surviving wall paintings, which stylistically relate to paintings in cave GK20 at Kumtura in Kucha, date to this time or earlier. Similarly, the earliest caves at Maijishan (caves 78 and 74, each with three magnificent large, seated clay buddhas), where the famous monk Gaoxuan stayed for a number of years in about 415, are probably early fifth century.

From the central area of Gansu, then known as Liangzhou, the cave temples at Tiantishan, southeast of Wuwei, and Jintasi near Zhangye, have spectacularly rare remains, the former mainly paintings and the latter mainly sculpture, both from the period of Northern Liang under Juqu Mengxun (r. 401–433). Juqu Mengxun is known from literary records to have opened caves now believed to be those at Tiantishan, and to have made a colossal buddha on behalf of his mother, the earliest colossal stone (probably cave) image in China. The early caves at both sites contain the earliest use of the central pillar cave temple form in China.

From the western end of Gansu, there are early caves at Wenshushan near Jiuchuan and three early caves at DUNHUANG (caves 268, 272, 275). Cave 272 includes a Maitreya Buddha, and cave 275 has a colossal crossankled Maitreya Bodhisattva. Wall paintings in cave 272 show celestial listeners and the thousand buddhas. In cave 275 jatakas and scenes from the Buddha's life are portrayed along the side walls of the long chamber. A rare group of stone stupas was discovered from Jiuchuan and Dunhuang, most dating from the early decades of the fifth century under the Northern Liang.

The stupas are carved with sutra texts, trigrams with trigram figures from the Yijing (Book of Changes), and the seven buddhas of the past along with Maitreya Bodhisattva. Two other stone stupas have been found in Gaochang (Turfan), where the Northern Liang fled after the Northern Wei onslaught in 439 and where Northern Liang survived as the last of the Sixteen Kingdoms up to the 460s.

Northern Wei (386–534), Eastern Wei (534–550), Western Wei (535–557), Northern Qi (550–577), and Northern Zhou (557–581) in the north; (Liu) Song (420–479), Southern Qi (479–502), Liang (502–557) and Chen (557–589) in the south; unified China under the Sui (581/589–618)
After 439, emphasis shifted to the Northern Wei, which developed its Buddhist art rapidly after the harsh Buddhist persecution of 444 to 452. Besides numerous stone relief images (steles) and magnificent gilt-bronze sculptures, the most stupendous achievements occurred at the cave site of YUN'GANG near the capital of Pingcheng (Datong) from the 460s through the 480s.

The so-called five Tanyao caves, with their five colossal images carved from living rock, in some sense surpass in concept even the colossi of BAMIYAN and Kucha, both of which probably had several grand colossal buddha images by this time. Yun'gang presents a single coherent group of five colossi, the identity of which, however, is still being debated by scholars. Work continued at Yun'gang with the fully embellished twin caves 7 and 8, datable to around the 470s, and the twin caves 5 and 6, dating from around the 480s, the latter with a huge central pillar and fully assimilated new style of loose, flared "Chinese" robe design for the buddha images. This stylistic change, distinct from Liangzhou or Central Asian inspired styles, probably came to the north from South China. Caves 7 and 8 appear to be related to the sculptural traditions of the northern Silk Road, especially that of Tumshuk.

Though work continued at Yun'gang into the fifth century, after the Northern Wei moved its capital to Luoyang in 494, attention turned to the new imperial cave temple site at Longmen, which became the pièce de résistance from the latter years of the Northern Wei. It is by way of the groundbreaking studies of both Yun'gang and Longmen by Seiichi Mizuno and Toshio Nagahiro and the ongoing studies of the Dunhuang Research Institute for the Dunhuang caves that we have access to and understanding of these enormous cave temple sites that represent the truly glorious heritage of Chinese Buddhist art.

The multiple tiers and niches of the oldest cave at Longmen, the Guyangtong, have many individual dedications and show primary focus on Maitreya. Cave 3, on the other hand, which dates to around 515, is an imperial cave with a single plan completely executed to produce a coherent and spectacular scheme, probably centered around the buddhas of the three times
(past, present, and future) as the main icons. The large impressive sculptures are massive heavy shapes beneath spreading robes of shallow parallel step pleats and elaborately curving hems that flare to the sides or cascade over the pedestal as seen in the S´akyamuni Buddha on the rear wall. The abstract carving of the faces lends a strongly iconic air to the powerful imagery. Other caves followed at Longmen and also at Gongxian near Luoyang, but the Northern Wei collapsed around 534 or 535 and its territory was divided between east and west for a short time before changing hands again to the Northern Qi in the northeast and Northern Zhou in the northwest. For Buddhist art, however, this period remains one of continued fluorescence.

Luoyang was a city of magnificent temples and pagodas under the Northern Wei, and, as far as we can tell from literary records, the same was true of the capital (Nanking) of the Liang under Emperor Wu (r. 502–
549) in the south. We can surmise some of the Liang achievements because they are probably reflected in the Buddhist art of important finds from Chengdu in Sichuan. The hoard of sculptures from the Wanfosi contained many complete steles, some of which have reliefs of Pure Land imagery that are invaluable for documenting the developments of this form of Buddhist art, which appears to have begun as early as the early fifth century.

The Xiangtangshan caves in Henan and Hebei testify to major cave temple activity under the Northern Qi. Besides the magnificent central pillar caves at North Xiangtangshan, a large relief of AMITABHA's Western Pure Land from the southern site shows a simple setting of pavilions, a lotus pond with reborn figures, and images of the Buddha and his attendant bodhisattvas portrayed in the smooth, abstract, minimalist style of the Northern Qi. The stone sculptures from the Xiudesi in Hebei, some with dated inscriptions, the popular siwei (contemplative) bodhisattva, and the spectacular hoard unearthed in Qingzhou in Shandong, many still possessing gilding and original paint, amplify the corpus of Northern Qi Buddhist art and reveal the wide range and subtle stylistic variations in the sculptural repertoire.

Stone stelae, which rose to prominence during the first half of the sixth century and which were frequently donated by special groups or religious societies, gave way in mid-century to new innovations, such as perforating elements of the stele, and to the independent

stone image, some of great size. Images from the Northern Zhou tended to be laden with jewelry in bodhisattva figures and to have a sense of natural mass and movement, contrary to the Northern Qi's hermetic, aloof, and pristinely pure abstract imagery, which was possibly inspired by the styles of the Gupta Sarnath school of India. Regional distinctions in imagery were particularly pronounced during this period and they continued into the Sui dynasty.

Dunhuang, with its semiautonomous status at the far reaches of northwest China, saw continued activity throughout the Northern Wei and into the Northern Zhou, and the site generally developed its own traditions in the second half of the fifth century to around the end of the Northern Wei. By the time of cave 285 in the Western Wei, however, artists at Dunhuang had adopted Chinese style drapery and also incorporated some Central Asian iconographic features.

Maijishan was also active throughout this period, with caves of painted clay imagery, wall paintings, and some important stone steles, including a rare example that depicts the Buddha's life in narrative scenes. The Tianlongshan caves in Shanxi, opened in the Eastern Wei, continued with the production of remarkably beautiful sculptures in the Northern Qi and Sui.

Following the Buddhist persecution by the Northern Zhou in the late 570s and the unification of China under the Sui, Buddhist art gained momentum under imperially sponsored restorations and construction projects. New cave sites in Shandong at Tuoshan and Yunmenshan emerged, and Dunhuang entered one of it most flourishing periods, beginning a wave of production that carried on into the Tang period and beyond. The TIANTAI SCHOOL was strong in China and the Lotus Sutra is reflected in the paintings of caves 419 and 420 at Dunhuang. The regional variations encountered in the mid-sixth century continued into the Sui with certain developments: Early Sui images became more grandiose and monumentalized; during the late Sui images began to loosen toward a slightly more naturalistic impression, as seen in the painting of Mañjus´r Bodhisattva, depicted with superbly confident line drawing, in cave 276 at Dunhuang. The great period of the abstract icon came to an end in the Sui. Very few large pagodas or stupas survive from this period, the most striking being the monumental twelve-sided, fifteen-story, parabolically-shaped brick pagoda at Songshan in Henan, dated to around 520, and a stone square-image pagoda with four entrances (simenta), dated 611, at the ancient Shentongsi in Shandong.

Avalokites´vara as the guide of beings to the halls of paradise. (Chinese painting from cave 17 at Dunhuang, tenth century.) © Copyright The British Museum. Reproduced by permission.

Tang Dynasty (618–907) And The Five Dynasties (907–960)

Although the collapse of the Sui in 617 and the formative decades of the Tang brought an initial hiatus in the production of Buddhist art, the eventual longlasting cohesion helped to engender unprecedented developments in Buddhism and its arts in China. Except for Dunhuang, where the opening of new cave chapels continued at a more or less constant rate, it was not until around the 640s that Buddhist art began to appear with prominence in central China, mostly in the capital at Chang'an and at Longmen near Luoyang.

With the return of the monk-pilgrim XUANZANG
(ca. 600–664) from his astonishing travels to India from 628 to 645, the emperor sponsored the building of the Great Wild Goose Pagoda in the capital to house the manuscripts he brought back. Austere, grand, and monumental, this Tang brick pagoda still remains a beloved landmark overlooking the city. Activity at the Longmen caves dominated the latter part of the seventh century with the most spectacular work being cave 19 (672–675) with its colossal image of Vairocana, the mystical/cosmic buddha of the HUAYAN SCHOOL,
the branch of Buddhism in China founded on the study of the HUAYAN JING (Avatam- saka-sutra) and brilliantly expounded by Huayan masters, such as Zhiyan (602–668) and FAZANG (643–712), in the seventh century. Cave 19 may have been a conscious reflection of the grandeur of the Tang empire, which reached a new dimension with its conquests throughout the century into Central Asia.

PURE LAND BUDDHISM flowered in the seventh century under Shandao and found expression in depictions of AMITABHA's Pure Land, Sukhavat, many of which survive in wall paintings at Dunhuang, beginning with the earliest complete representation in cave 220, dated 642, and evolving throughout the Tang into masterworks of huge scale and detailed imagery. These paintings particularly followed the Guan Wuliangshou jing (Sutra on the Meditation of Amitayus) that incorporates the sixteen meditations of Queen Vaideh, as seen in the early eighth-century wall painting in cave 217 at Dunhuang. By the time of cave 148, dated to around 775, a vast panoramic vision is presented in the boneless technique of using planes of color without line.

These color washes create a fluid, shimmering, ethereal effect on the broad, tilted plane that conjures vast space, reflecting developments in Chinese landscape painting that evolved during the Tang period.

During the mid-seventh to early eighth centuries, elements of esoteric Buddhism appeared in, for example, figures of the eleven-headed Guanyin, but it would not be until the second half of the eighth century, with the teaching of the Indian monk Amoghavajra, that the full panoply of tantric MAN- D-ALA imagery would become well established. A group of marble images dating from around 775 from the site of the Anguosi in Chang'an offers the best surviving early examples of these esoteric teachings, which became especially influential at Wutaishan and later in Shingon Buddhism
(of the yoga tantra type), which was introduced by KUKAI (774–835) to Japan following his study in China from 804 to 806.

Sculpture from the first half of the eighth century reached a high degree of naturalism, tempered by abstract patterning. The Tang caves at Tianlongshan, such as caves 21, 14, 6, 18, and 17 (in chronological sequence), have the most splendid array of stone sculptures from the first half of the eighth century. The seated buddha from cave 21 (possibly the cave of the 707 stele describing the donation made by General Xun
[of Korean descent] and his wife) is a marvel of powerful muscular body, with subtly defined limbs and torso. The body is draped with a robe whose rib folds form patterns of lines that help to clarify the articulate parts of the body in an independent yet complementary manner. The moon-shaped face is tense and the features carved into strongly modeled eyes and a dramatically curled mouth. The styles of the Tianlongshan imagery of this time derive from artistic modes of contemporary art of Kashmir, Afghanistan, and Central Asia, probably stimulated by renewed contact over the Silk Road during the seventh century and first half of the eighth century.

By the late eighth to ninth centuries the style of sculpture became more mannered and consciously antinatural while still retaining naturalistic elements that had evolved since the early Tang. Images became otherworldly in defiance of weight and normality of proportioning. At Dunhuang this development appears in the images of cave 159 and in central China in the stucco sculptures of the main shrine hall of the Foguangsi Monastery at Wutaishan, where the images reach a height of manneristic naturalism, combining naturalistic qualities with mannered distortions. The Foguangsi shrine hall was built in 857 after the third and most devastating of the Buddhist persecutions in China from around 845 to 847. It remains today as the oldest large wooden temple structure in China. The main hall of the nearby Nanchansi was built earlier, before 782, but it is only a three-bay hall, whereas the Foguangsi hall is a seven-bay structure. Foguangsi's monumental Tang style timber construction has strong simple bracketing, bold powerful lines in the façade, and a rare early method of construction. In the words of Liang Sicheng, an early pioneer of architectural studies in China, the structural parts "give the building an overwhelming dignity that is not found in later structures."
As the Tang empire declined during the late ninth century, Buddhist art diminished in general, except for areas such as Sichuan and Dunhuang, both of which saw major productions at this time. Dunhuang, which had been under Tibetan occupation from the 780s to 840s, flourished under the local control of the Zhang and then the Cao family well into the tenth century. Many of the silk paintings found by Aurel Stein in the
"library" room of cave 17 and taken to the British Museum date to this period. The earliest Chan paintings

appeared during the late ninth to early tenth centuries.

The CHAN SCHOOL had become one of the major movements of Buddhism in China from the seventh century. The Luohan paintings by Guanxiu are the earliest works related to what came to be known as a Chan interpretation. In some paintings Guanxiu used a broken-ink technique that, along with the individualistic styles of Shike of the tenth century, was destined to make a lasting impact on Chinese painting.

During the Five Dynasties, a formality appeared in the sculptures at Dunhuang, and wall paintings tend to repeat in minute detail the depictions of various sutras, a development that had become popular during the later years of the Tang. In the numerous large caves of this time the effect is astounding for its detail. In cave 61, for example, there are large female donor figures of the Cao family, and the entire back wall is occupied by a mythical "map" of Wutaishan as a sacred place. At this point, a real geographic place in China was treated as an icon itself, thus merging the concept of Pure Land with sacred spaces on earth. In general, the art of the Five Dynasties period prolonged the styles of Tang into its final, more formalized stage.

Northern Song (960–1127), Liao (907–1125), Xixia (late tenth–1223), Jin (1115–1234),
Southern Song (1127–1279), and Dali in Yunnan (937–1253)
Though a culturally high period in China, the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries were not without fragmentation. In the South, at the Yanxiadong during the midtenth century in Hangzhou there is an early example of the group of sixteen (or eighteen) Luohans with Guanyin, a theme that came to pervade this period.

Guanyin is sometimes shown garbed in a robe covering the head and body, a depiction that came to be known as the "white-robed" Guanyin. Various forms of Guanyin had been growing in popularity since the sixth century, but the blossoming and expanding of these forms became a major factor in Chinese Buddhist art of this period. For example, the independent kingdom of Wuyue in the South produced a distinctive bodhisattva portrayal with prominent jewel-encrusted ornamentation and a stiff and quiet body with a gentle face. Throughout the Song period Dazu in Sichuan developed into a major site of impressive reliefs that connote a great man-d-ala for PILGRIMAGE based in large part on the plans of the founding monk, who consciously incorporated local popular, as well as esoteric, themes into the Buddhist tableaux. In addition, Maijishan in Gansu produced numerous stucco images at this time.

Avalokites´vara, the bodhisattva of compassion, seated in a posture of royal ease. (Chinese wood sculpture, Liao dynasty, 907–1125.) The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri. Reproduced by permission.

The Xixia kingdom in the northwest emerged as a major state from the late tenth century until its defeat by Genghis Khan's troops in 1223. In addition to Buddhist art in a variant of the Song mode, from the late twelfth century the Xixia produced a major body of art in Tibetan style, especially paintings, probably introduced by the BKA' BRGYUD (KAGYU) and possibly also by SA SKYA (SAKYA) lamas who came to the Xixia court from central Tibet. Many of these remains, which are also recognized as a major branch of early central Tibetan style painting, now reside in the Khara Khoto collection in the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Dunhuang is dominated by the Xixia, which not only did extensive renovation of the site, but also opened important new caves, as it also did at Yulin, where esoteric Tibetan style imagery exists side by side with Song style imagery.

Much of the Buddhist art during the Northern Song period survives in the Shanxi, Hebei, and Manchuria regions; most of it was produced under the Khitan Liao. Great temples such as the Duluosi of 984 in northern Hebei, the Fengguosi in Manchuria, and the

Upper and Lower Huayansi in Datong (northern Shanxi), as well as numerous brick pagodas throughout the area, express the activity of the Liao. Ensembles tended to center on Guanyin and on esoteric imagery of the Five Tathagathas. The tallest and oldest wooden pagoda survives in Yingxianin Shanxi; built during the mid-eleventh century, it is a marvel of timber construction, with each story containing a central altar with large stucco statues. Dozens of magnificent remains of statues of Guanyin, mostly in polychrome and gilded wood and portraying the bodhisattva as seated in a rocky grotto in a pose of royal ease, testify to the continuing and dominant focus on Guanyin.

The Luohans also rose to great prominence in this period, an early set being the famous ceramic statues from Yizhou in Hebei, datable to the early eleventh century. These sculptures all exemplify the naturalistic trends of the Song period, expressed in the realism of the face and hands and the heavy, naturally folded drapery, without recourse to abstract patterns. The Song image represents a truly humanistic interpretation of the most popular Buddhist images, those indicative of compassion (Guanyin) and exemplary teachers (Luohans), in large part spurred by the active Chan and Huayan thought of this time.

These trends continued into the Southern Song period. Cycles of Luohans, many portrayed in paintings following the Li Gonglin model, using rich color and a landscape setting, as well as refined depictions of Amitabha and his bodhisattvas, are masterful works by academic painters or by the ateliers of professional Buddhist painters in the South, especially centered in Ningpo. The Dali kingdom in Yunnan saw a flourishing Buddhist culture at this time that also produced exquisite art. However, the most innovative Buddhist art comes from the contributions of Chan painters, especially the paintings of Liangkai and Muqi during the first half of the thirteenth century. Both of these masters had the ability to not only offer a fresh interpretation of Chan themes, many of which were new to the Buddhist art repertoire, but also to express these themes in such a way that the very manner of execution becomes a Buddhist statement. The depth of understanding raised Buddhist art to its highest level, where the way in which the subject is painted is as much an expression of Buddhist thought as is the Chan content of the painting. The work of Liangkai and Muqi established a Chan painting tradition that was carried on by others into the late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, though never with such resounding success as by these two masters.

Yuan (1234–1368), Ming (1368–1644), And Qing (1644–1911) Dynasties

Buddhist art in the Yuan dynasty followed several streams. Besides Chan painting, which includes Chan legendary characters, portraits of Chan masters, Guanyin, nature themes, calligraphy, and so on, there was the academic style of colorful paintings, especially on the subject of Luohans, of which there are many wonderful sets. In sculpture, powerful, heavy images of Guanyin seated on craggy rocks—a theme popular from the eleventh century and probably representing Guanyin from the Gan-d-avyuha of the Huayan jing— continues as a major icon in the Yuan and early Ming dynasties, which produced especially powerful examples with robes full of movement. Other trends evolved in sculpture, especially those with a NepaleseTibetan cast, such as the styles brought to China by Anige, the Nepalese artist introduced to Kublai Khan by Phags pha, the influential Sa skya hierarch at the Yuan court. The impact of Tibetan Buddhist art on China was strong during the Yuan (Mongol ruled) period and can be seen in the sculptures of the Feilaifeng in Hangzhou, in the magnificent cycle of esoteric paintings of S´akya lineage in cave 465 at Dunhuang, and at the Buddhist sanctuary at Wutaishan, where the enormous Indo-Tibetan style pagoda at the Tayuansi dominates the valley.

The Ming dynasty produced some impressive sculptures, such as the colossal one thousand-armed Guanyin, and the one thousand-armed Wenshu and Puxian bodhisattvas at the Zhongshansi in Taiyuan (Shanxi). Many gorgeous paintings and wall paintings, often of extraordinarily intense color and skillful drawing, such as those at the Fahaisi near Beijing and still surviving in many temples of Qinghai province, document the flourishing painting schools and active temple building and decorating, especially during the early Ming. Paintings, sculptures, and superb huge kesi woven tapestries made during the Yongle era (1403–1425)
were often sent to Tibet as gifts, where they influenced Tibetan Buddhist art forms during the fifteenth century. From this time on, China and Tibet have a particularly close interrelation in Buddhist art. This is notable during the reign of the Qing dynasty Qianlong emperor in the eighteenth century. With the building of the Yonghegong in Beijing, a center for the DGE LUGS (GELUK), the order of the DALAI LAMAs, the influences of Tibetan Buddhism were further solidified. Many of the monasteries around Beijing, the Chinese capital since the Yuan, have imagery that is strongly Tibetan in character and iconography, including the many forms of Buddhist icons common to Tibetan tantric Buddhist practice, such as those similar to the splendid seventeenth-century sculpture of Paramas´ukha Cakrasam- vara. This final productive phase of Buddhist art in China was wedded to Tibetan Buddhist traditions, but there were also occasional masterworks of Buddhist art produced by the leading painters of the time and some sculptural styles following older traditions, especially in the south.

Since the 1960s the Chinese continue to discover, document, and study major segments of their Bud-
Piotrovski, Mikhail, ed. Lost Empire of the Silk Road: Buddhist Art from Khara Khoto (X–XIII Century). Milan, Italy: Thyssen-Bornemisza Foundation, 1993.

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C HINA , B UDDHIST A RT IN
dhist art, and specialized studies by Western scholars probe new directions, such as the role of patrondonors; the interaction with popular art and with Daoist art; the beginnings of specific imagery, such as Pure Land imagery; the incorporation of data from local records; iconographic, religious, and interpretive issues; sources of the art; regional distinctions; problems of chronologies and dating; the relationships with Central Asian art; and the impact of Chinese Buddhist art on that of surrounding areas, particularly Korea and Japan. All of these diverse and complex studies are ongoing and will surely open up new understandings of the vast and deep subject of Chinese Buddhist art. See also: Arhat Images; Bodhisattva Images; Buddha Images; Cave Sanctuaries; Chan Art; Huayan Art; Monastic Architecture; Pure Land Art

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New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture and Aditya Prakashan, 1993.

Howard, Angela Falco. "Royal Patronage of Buddhist Art in Tenth Century Wu Yüeh." Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm 57 (1985): 1–60.

Howard, Angela Falco. The Imagery of the Cosmological Buddha.
Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 1986.

Howard, Angela Falco. Summit of Treasures: Buddhist Cave Art of Dazu, China. Trumbull, CT: Weatherhill, 2001.

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3 vols. Tokyo: Toho bunka gakuin To kyo kenkyujo, 1934–1944.

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The Northern Liang Stupas as a Hybrid Spatial Model." Journal of Anthropology and Aesthetics 35 (Spring 1999): 70–91.

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MARYLIN MARTIN RHIE

Chinese, Buddhist Influences On Vernacular Literature In

Until the progressive May Fourth Movement of 1919, the preferred medium for writing in China for the previous three millennia had always been one or another form of Literary Sinitic, also called Classical Chinese.

From at least the Han period (206 B.C.E.–220 C.E.), and perhaps from its very inception, Literary Sinitic was an artificial language separated from everyday speech by an enormous gulf. Consequently, command of the highly allusive literary language was possible only for a small proportion of the population, roughly 2 percent, who could afford to devote years of study to it.

With the advent of Buddhism in China during the last century of the Han dynasty, a demotic style of writing that was closer to speech—here referred to as Vernacular Sinitic—gradually began to emerge. The same characters were used to write both Literary and Vernacular Sinitic, but the morphemes, and especially the words, grammar, and syntax differed radically between these two kinds of Sinitic writing.

Buddhism And Language

The question of exactly how a foreign religion like Buddhism could have had such an enormous impact on linguistic usage in China is extraordinarily complex.

Some of the factors involved are: (1) a conscious desire on the part of Buddhist teachers and missionaries
(starting with the Buddha himself) to speak directly to the common people in their own language; (2) the maintenance of relatively egalitarian social values among Buddhists in contrast to a strongly hierarchal Confucian order; (3) an emphasis on hymnody, storytelling, drama, lecture, and other types of oral presentation; and (4) the perpetuation of sophisticated Indian scholarship on linguistics, which highlighted the importance of grammar and phonology as reflected in actual speech, in contrast to Chinese language studies, which focused almost exclusively on the characters as the perfect vehicle for the essentially mute book language. Probably of overriding importance, however, was the nature of the process of translating texts written in Sanskrit and other Indian and Central Asian languages into Chinese. This usually involved teams of Chinese and foreign monks who knew each other's language only imperfectly. Their discussions on various renderings, conducted orally, resulted in bits of vernacular seeping into what was otherwise a basically Literary Sinitic medium. This vernacular coloration, coupled with the massive borrowing of Indic words (it is estimated that approximately thirty-five thousand new names and terms entered Chinese through the agency of Buddhism) and even grammatical usages and syntactic structures, led to the creation of a peculiar written style that may be referred to as Buddhist Hybrid Sinitic or Buddhist Hybrid Chinese.

As people from various walks of life, both inside and outside of the Buddhist establishment, became familiar with the notion that it was possible to write down elements of spoken language, the length of the written vernacular grew from occasional words to a stray sentence or two, and then to a few sentences or even a whole paragraph. Eventually, entire texts written in heavily vernacularized Literary Sinitic came to be composed. In this manner, Vernacular Sinitic was born in China.

Dunhuang Manuscripts

The first sizable collection of texts consisting of more than a few words or lines that are conspicuously vernacular were recovered in the early twentieth century from the famous cave library of manuscripts at DUNHUANG, located at the far western end of the northwestern province of Gansu. Sealed up during the early part of the eleventh century, the cave yielded more than forty thousand manuscripts that are currently preserved mainly in Paris, London, and Beijing, although there are smaller collections in St.

Petersburg (Russia), Japan, Finland, and elsewhere.

Most of the manuscripts are sutras that were already well known, but there are also several hundred uniquely important documents and texts that provide detailed information about daily monastic and lay life. In particular, the Dunhuang manuscripts include about 150 texts dating to the eighth through tenth centuries (primarily from the later part of that period) that represent the earliest group of vernacular narratives in China. For the first half century of research on the Dunhuang manuscripts, the entire corpus of vernacular narratives was referred to as BIANWEN (transformation texts), and this loose usage still continues to find acceptance in many quarters, largely out of sheer habit. Technically speaking, bianwen are characterized by, among other features, the prosimetric form
(alternating between spoken and sung portions), vernacular language, the special verse-introductory formula "X chu, ruowei chen shuo?" ([This is the] place [where X happens], how does it go?), and a close relationship to pictures. Bianwen were originally restricted to religious themes, but they were later also used to describe secular subjects, such as heroes from the past and the present. Another significant aspect of bianwen is that they were copied by lay students and derive from a tradition of oral storytelling with pictures, whose most outstanding practitioners were women from secular society.

To be distinguished from bianwen are other Dunhuang vernacular genres called jiangjing wen (sutra lecture texts, elaborate exegeses of specific scriptures),
yazuo wen (seat-settling texts, prologues for the sutra lecture texts), yinyuan (circumstances, stories illustrating karmic consequences), and yuanqi (causal origins, tales illustrating the effects of karma). These vernacular prosimetric genres, which were strictly religious in nature, were used for particular services and were characterized by specific pre-verse formulas. Unlike bianwen, with its lay background, jiangjing wen, yazuo wen, yinyuan, and yuanqi seem to have been produced and used by monks of varying status. Like bianwen, these vernacular genres were preserved only at Dunhuang. Although intensive research has demonstrated that such types of literature must have been current elsewhere in China, no printed or manuscript evidence survives to document them. How did it happen that material proof for such popular genres survived only in a remote, peripheral region? The answer is simple. No one was interested in preserving anything written in the vernacular. In other words, vernacular manuscripts were not considered worth preserving and should, by all rights, have been left to disintegrate, which, outside of Dunhuang, is precisely what happened. In addition, Dunhuang's remoteness from the mainstream traditions of central China probably contributed to the chances for preservation of the written vernacular. Until recently, it was considered by proper Confucian literati to be almost immoral to write in the vernacular, and they certainly would not have taken pains to preserve vernacular texts for future generations. However, since the Dunhuang cave monasteries were so thoroughly Buddhist and located on the frontier, the keepers of the libraries there deemed even bianwen, jiangjing wen, yazuo wen, yinyuan, and yuanqi to be worthy of protection. The dry climate of the desert region also played a key role in the preservation of the Dunhuang manuscripts. Finally, by sheer chance, the Dunhuang manuscripts were placed in a side cave in the early years of the eleventh century, where they were sealed up, plastered over with wall-paintings, and forgotten for ten centuries. When they were rediscovered at the beginning of the twentieth century, it was as though a time capsule had been opened, preserving unchanged a marvelous slice of life, thought, and art from Tang (618–907) and Five Dynasties (907–960) China.

Manifestations In Chan, Fiction, And Drama

Not long after Tang lay Buddhists and the monks who preached to them decided there was nothing wrong in trying to write down their stories and sermons more or less as they had spoken them, adherents of the CHAN SCHOOL of Buddhism began to use the vernacular when recording the yulu (dialogues) of their masters. Around the same time, a few eccentric lay Buddhists who went by such names as Han Shan (Cold Mountain) and Wang Fanzhi (Brahmacarin [Devotee] Wang) also liberally sprinkled their verse with vernacularisms.

Once Buddhists had shown the way and it became obvious that writing more or less the way one spoke was possible, then secular vernacular writing similarly became feasible. Imperceptibly, there arose what modern scholars have come to call the koine, a sort of protoMandarin that served as a lingua franca to bridge the gap of unintelligibility among the numerous Sinitic fangyan (topolects or so-called dialects). The consequences of this phenomena for the development of subsequent Chinese popular literature were profound. This was particularly true of fiction and drama, where many of the same linguistic and stylistic conventions that had been employed by Buddhists for their vernacular stories and lectures persisted in popular literature.

Thus, with the Buddhist sanctioning of the written vernacular, a sequence of revolutionary developments occurred that radically transformed Chinese literature for all time. Moreover, hand in hand with vernacularization came other Buddhist-inspired developments in Chinese literature. Aside from Buddhist topics, such as the Tang monk XUANZANG's (ca. 600–664) pilgrimage to India that was immortalized in the Ming-dynasty (1368–1655) novel Xiyou ji (Journey to the West), the very notion that fiction was something fabricated out of whole cloth, something created by the mind of the author, can be traced to Buddhist sources. Prior to the advent of Buddhism, there was no full-blown fiction (in the sense that it was something "made up") in China. Instead, there were only short anecdotes, tales based on historical events, and what were known in the Six Dynasties (222–589) period as zhiguai (accounts of abnormalities). Even the latter were thought to be based squarely on events that had really happened. Hence the role of the author was merely to record some extraordinary incident. During the Tang dynasty, there arose a genre called chuanqi (chronicles of the strange). Like zhiguai, chuanqi were written in Literary Sinitic and maintained the pretense that they were relating an incident or series of incidents that had actually transpired. However, chuanqi are much more inventive and elaborate than zhiguai. This sort of fertile fictionalizing was fostered by ontological presuppositions, such as maya (illusion) and S´UNYATA
(EMPTINESS), brought to China with Buddhism.

Similar developments occurred in drama, where, along with increasing vernacularization, came Indian practices that were transmitted via Buddhism. Among these are the introduction of himself directly to the audience by a character upon entry to the stage, face painting, fixed puppetlike gestures and postures, and so forth. Such resemblances to Indian theater are particularly pronounced in southern Chinese drama.

Another type of Indian fiction and drama that can be found in China is dramatic narrative or narrational drama. In India, there was a seamless continuum of oral and performing arts that ranged from storytelling to puppet plays and the human theater. The vast majority of genres in this tradition subscribed to the notion that a succession of narrative moments or loci was being related by the bard or portrayed by actors. Furthermore, most Indian oral and performance genres that have dramatic narrative as their organizing principle consist of a combination of singing and speaking. All of these attributes, in fact, apply to the Chinese vernacular tradition of oral performance. Thus vernacularization is by no means an isolated instance of Buddhism's impact upon Chinese fiction and drama, although it may well be the single most distinctive characteristic.

While the Buddhist tradition of vernacular, prosimetric narrative became secularized in fiction and drama, the religious expression of this literary form also continued in such genres as baojuan (precious scrolls). Late Ming and Qing accounts reveal that "precious scrolls" were very popular as a form of entertainment and instruction.

Ultimate Impact

Despite the enthusiastic favor the written vernacular found with the bulk of the populace, who through it were increasingly empowered with literacy, to the end of the empire in 1911, the mainstream Confucian literati never accepted anything other than Literary Sinitic as a legitimate medium for writing. To them the vernacular was crude and vulgar, beneath the dignity of a gentleman to contemplate. But merchants, storytellers, craftsmen, physicians, and individuals from many other walks of life paid no heed to this opinion and proceeded to forge a fully functional written vernacular on the foundations that had been laid by the Buddhists of medieval China. In the end, they created a national language called guoyu, a term that can ultimately be traced back to the Sanskrit expression des´abhas-a (language of a country).

Although there are a few examples of vernacular elements in non-Buddhist texts from before the Tang period, they are extremely rare. A careful examination of the trajectory of the early written vernacular in China reveals that it is unmistakably and overwhelmingly related to Buddhist contexts. In other words, it is safe to say that Buddhism legitimized the writing of the vernacular language in China. See also: Apocrypha; Buddhavacana (Word of the
Buddha); Entertainment and Performance; Languages; Poetry and Buddhism

Chavannes, Édouard, trans. Cinq cents contes et apologues: Extraits du Tripitaka Chinois. Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1910–1911. Idema, Wilt, and Haft, Lloyd. "Popular Literature: Ci and Bianwen." In A Guide to Chinese Literature. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 1997.

Jan, Yün-hua. "Buddhist Literature." In The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature, ed. William H. Nienhauser, Jr. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986.

Liu, Ts'un-yan. Buddhist and Taoist Influences on Chinese Novels. Vol. 1: The Authorship of the Feng Shen Yen I. Wiesbaden, Germany: Harrassowitz, 1962.

Mair, Victor H., trans. and ed. Tun-huang Popular Narratives.
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1983.

Mair, Victor H. "The Narrative Revolution in Chinese Literature: Ontological Presuppositions." CLEAR (Chinese Language: Essays, Articles, Reviews) 5, no. 1 (1983): 1–27.

Mair, Victor H., ed. A Partial Bibliography for the Study of Indian Influence on Chinese Popular Literature. Sino-Platonic Papers 3. Philadelphia: Department of Oriental Studies, University of Pennsylvania, 1987.

Mair, Victor H. "Buddhism and the Rise of the Written Vernacular in East Asia: The Making of National Languages."
Journal of Asian Studies 53, no. 3 (1994): 707–751.

Mair, Victor H., ed. The Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994. Mair, Victor H., ed. The Shorter Columbia Anthology to Traditional Chinese Literature. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000.

Mair, Victor H. "Buddhism in The Literary Mind and Ornate Rhetoric." In A Chinese Literary Mind: Culture, Creativity, and Rhetoric in Wenxin Diaolong, ed. Zong-qi Cai. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001.

Mair, Victor H., and Wagner, Marsha. "Tun-huang wen-hsüeh
[Literature]." In The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature, ed. William H. Nienhauser, Jr. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986.

Overmyer, Daniel L. Precious Volumes: An Introduction to Chinese Sectarian Scriptures from the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 1999.

Schmid, Neil. "Tun-huang Literature." In The Columbia History of Chinese Literature, ed. Victor H. Mair. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001.

Schmidt-Glintzer, Helwig, and Mair, Victor H. "Buddhist Literature." In The Columbia History of Chinese Literature, ed.

Victor H. Mair. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001.

Waley, Arthur, trans. Ballads and Stories from Tun-huang: An Anthology. New York: Macmillan, 1960.

Zürcher, E. "Late Han Vernacular Elements in the Earliest Buddhist Translations." Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association 12, no. 3 (1977): 177–203.

VICTOR H. MAIR

Chinul

Chinul ("Puril Pojo kuksa"; 1158–1210), founder of the CHOGYE SCHOOL of the So˘n (Chinese, Chan; Japanese, Zen) school, is one of the preeminent figures in the history of Korean Buddhism. His work contains three related but distinct accomplishments. First, he helped initiate the practice of kongan (Chinese, gong'an; Japanese, KO AN) meditation within the Korean So˘n tradition.

Second, he attempted to reconcile the longstanding conflict between the So˘n schools, which focused on meditation practice, and the doctrinal or Kyo schools, which focused on scriptural study. Third, he formulated a theory of enlightenment that sought to bridge the sudden-gradual debate that had long troubled the Korean Buddhist world. Often termed "sudden enlightenment and gradual cultivation," Chinul's theory posited an initial sudden enlightenment experience that ongoing practice would deepen and enrich.

Three separate enlightenment experiences define Chinul's spiritual journey. He became a monk at the age of eight, and at twenty-five passed an examination meant to select clergy for high administrative service. Instead of taking a post, he left the capital and went south, eventually settling at the monastery of Ch'o˘ngwo˘nsa. There, he read the PLATFORM SUTRA OF THE
SIXTH PATRIARCH (LIUZU TAN JING), which triggered the first of his enlightenment experiences. In 1185, at the age of twenty-eight, he moved to the monastery of Pomunsa and read the Huayan lun (Treatise on the Huayan Jing), by Li Tongxuan (635–730), an eighthcentury Huayan theorist. It spurred him to intensify his meditation practice until he achieved his second enlightenment experience. In 1198, at the age of forty, he moved to Sangmuju Hermitage on Mount Chiri, where he read the Dahui shuzhuang (Recorded Sayings of Dahui), the words of Dahui ZONGGAO (1089–1163),
an influential Chinese Chan thinker of the twelfth century. This triggered his third and most important enlightenment experience, which led to his descent from Mount Chiri. He moved to the monastery of Songgwangsa, where he meditated, lectured, and wrote for an audience of monks and laypeople until his death in 1210.

Chinul's written work shows the influence of the three texts mentioned above, and exhibits his original contributions. Wo˘ndon so˘ngbullon (The Complete and Sudden Attainment of Buddhahood) formulates what Chinul called the "perfect and sudden approach by means of faith and understanding." The clearest single statement of his theory of sudden enlightenment and gradual cultivation, however, is found in his treatise Po˘pchip pyo˘rhaengnok cho˘ryo pyo˘ngip sagi (Excerpts from the Dharma Collection and Special Practice Record), published in 1209, just before his death, which draws heavily on the thought of ZONGMI (780–841).

Arguably, Chinul's most influential work is a posthumously published text called Kanhwa kyo˘ru˘iron (Resolving Doubts about Observing the Hwadu), which advocates Dahui's so-called shortcut approach of kongan or hwadu ("critical phrase") meditation. It contains a discussion contrasting what Chinul called "live" and "dead" words in the "investigation" of hwadu.
Chinul warns against dead words, meaning the intellectual investigation of the meaning of the hwadu, in favor of live words, by which he means full participation in the word on a nonintellectual and nondualistic basis.

The book's legacy has been controversial because its theory of the live word and exclusive advocacy of the "shortcut" or hwadu method seem to contradict Chinul's own earlier attempts at synthesizing doctrinal and meditative practice. This apparent reversal had a profound impact on the subsequent history of Korean So˘n. Chinul's immediate successor, HYESIM
(1178–1234), abandoned attempts to reconcile So˘n practice with scriptural study in favor of an exclusive focus on hwadu meditation—a focus that continues in Korean So˘n to this day.

See also: Chan School; Nine Mountains School of So˘n

Buswell, Robert E., Jr., trans. The Korean Approach to Zen: The Collected Works of Chinul. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1983. Reprinted as Tracing Back the Radiance: Chinul's Korean Way of Zen. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1991.

Han'guk Pulgyo cho˘nso˘ (Collected Works of Korean Buddhism),
Vol. 4. Seoul: Dongguk University Press, 1982.

Kang, Kun Ki. Moguja Chinul Yo˘n'gu (A Study of Chinul). Seoul:
Puch'o˘nim Sesang, 2001.

Keel, Hee-Sung. Moguja Chinul: Founder of the Korean So˘n Tradition. Berkeley, CA: Berkeley Buddhist Studies Series, 1984. Shim, Jae Ryong. Korean Buddhism: Tradition and Transformation. Seoul: Jimoondang, 1999.

Yi, Chongik, Kangoku Bukkyo no kenkyu (A Study of Korean Buddhism). Tokyo: Kokusho Kankokai, 1980.

SUNG BAE PARK

Chogye School

The Chogye school, which is unique to Korea, constitutes the mainstream of Buddhism in contemporary Korea. There have been two distinct Chogye schools known in Korean history. One school traces its origins to the NINE MOUNTAINS SCHOOL OF SO˘N (Kusan So˘nmun) that was active until the mid-Koryo˘ period (918–1392). These So˘n schools united into one main school after the twelfth century, thus establishing the Chogye school. However, this institution came to a close in 1424 as a result of the anti-Buddhist policies of the Choso˘n government, which favored Confucianism. The second Chogye school emerged during the Japanese colonial period (1910–1945). The Korean ecclesiastical order began to use the name Chogye in 1941, but it was not until 1962 that the Chogye School of Korean Buddhism (Taehan Pulgyo Chogyejong) was officially established.

Both continuity and discontinuity are apparent in the history and ideology of the two Chogye schools. Contemporary scholarship does not distinguish between the two, however, and scholars have developed a variety of ideas concerning the origins and the lineage of the Chogye school. It is certain that the first Chogye school was directly related to the CHAN SCHOOL. Chogye is the Korean pronunciation for the Chinese word Caoqi, the name of the mountain of residence of HUINENG (638–713), the sixth patriarch of Chinese Chan school; thus, the name Chogye reflects the fundamental Chan influence on Korean Buddhism. However, the Chogye school in contemporary Korea is not exclusively a So˘n school. Although it professes to be a So˘n school, it embraces various schools of Buddhist doctrine (kyo) as well as Pure Land beliefs into its system of thought, making the Korean approach to Chan quite different from its counterparts in China and Japan.

One of the lingering issues surrounding the Chogye school in contemporary Korea is its dharma lineage.

The constitution of the school stipulates that Tou˘i (d.

825) was the founder of the school, CHINUL (1158–
1210) its reviver, and T'aego Pou (1301–1382) its harmonizer. In addition, Korean Buddhist scholars have developed many different theories regarding Chogye lineage. These theories, however, are not always based on historical fact, but are a product of ideologically motivated attempts to connect Korean Buddhism to the
"orthodox" lineage of the Chinese Linji Chan tradition. Although most Korean Buddhist specialists believe that Chinul was not the founder of the Chogye school, it is evident that during the Koryo˘ period the movement was led by his dharma successors, and the Chogye school of contemporary Korea adopted the thought of Chinul as its theoretical support.

The origins of the Chogye school, its founder, historical development, and dharma lineage need to be further clarified with the understanding that there were two distinct Chogye schools throughout Korean history. This is an extremely important issue because the search to understand the exact identity of the school itself will, by extension, describe that of Korean Buddhism and history.

See also: Colonialism and Buddhism; Korea

Buswell, Robert E., Jr. The Zen Monastic Experience: Buddhist Practice in Contemporary Korea. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992.

Keel, Hee-Sung. "Han'guk Pulgyo u˘i cho˘ngch'eso˘ng t'amgu:
Chogyejong u˘i yo˘ksa wa sasang u˘l chungsim u˘ro hayo˘" (The Chogye School and the Search for Identity of Korean Buddhism). Han'guk chonggyo yo˘n'gu (Journal of Korean Religions) 2 (2000): 159–193.

Lee, Peter H., ed. Sourcebook of Korean Civilization, Vol. 1. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.

Pak, Hae-Dang. "Chogyejong u˘i po˘pt'ong so˘l e taehan ko˘mt'o"
(A Critical Research on the Dharma Lineages of the Chogye School). Ch'orhak SaSang (A Journal of Philosophical Ideas) 11 (2000): 43–62.

JONGMYUNG KIM
CH'O˘ NT'AE SCHOOL. See Tiantai School

Christianity And Buddhism

From their beginnings Buddhism and Christianity reached out beyond the region of their birth. It was inevitable that their paths would cross, but for the first fifteen hundred years these encounters were of little significance to either faith. A brief period of enthusiasm by Christian missionaries for Buddhist teachings followed, only to be extinguished by a posture of confrontation that lasted for nearly four hundred years. It was not until the twentieth century that full and meaningful contact between the two religions developed.

Antiquity

The greatest missionary effort of Buddhism was concentrated between the third century B.C.E. and the eighth century C.E., by the end of which it had reached virtually all of Asia. Buddhist history records no Constantine or Holy Roman Empire to elevate the religion to the stature of a multinational force; Buddhism participated in no colonial exploits such as those that transported Christianity around the globe from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. Emblematic figures, such as the Greek king Menander who converted to Buddhism in the second century B.C.E.,
Emperor AS´OKA who established a Buddhist kingdom in third-century B.C.E. India, and Prince SHO TOKU
who proclaimed a Buddhist-inspired constitution in seventh-century Japan, were able to secure ascendancy for Buddhism at a local level, but had no imperial designs on neighboring countries, let alone on the West.

The Christian mission was a different story. Already from its earliest years it turned east to establish communities in predominantly Zoroastrian Persia and in India. The Gnostic Christian Mani is said to have traveled from Persia to India in the third century, declaring the Buddha a special messenger of God alongside Moses and Jesus. Despite certain doctrinal coincidences—especially in the case of Gnosticism—speculation concerning the influence of Buddhism on the Essenes, the early Christians, and the gospels is without historical foundation. Indeed, aside from a brief report in the writings of Clement of Alexandria (200 C.E.), based largely on Greek historians, there is no extended record of Buddhist beliefs in Christian literature until the Middle Ages.

C HRISTIANITY AND B
During the third and fourth centuries Christianity spread to the major urban centers of Asia, and in the fifth century to China. These small Christian communities barely brushed shoulders with the Buddhist faith, but even this contact came to an end with the outbreak of PERSECUTIONS in the late Tang dynasty against all foreign religions. From the tenth to the sixteenth centuries, barbarian invasions in Europe and the advance of Islam would erect more formidable barriers between the West and Asia, further limiting the possibility of Buddhist–Christian interaction.

Late Middle Ages And Renaissance

Travelers from Europe in the thirteenth century, such as Giovanni de Piano Carpini and William of Ruysbroeck, were the first to send back to Europe reports of Buddhism as a religion whose scriptures, doctrine, saints, monastic life, meditation practices, and rituals were comparable to those of Christianity. Records of the voyages of Marco Polo from 1274 to 1295 include expressions of admiration for the religion and mention Buddha as a saintly figure lacking only the grace of baptism. During the next fifty years Christian monks like Giovanni de Montecorino (in 1289), Odorico da Pordenone (from 1318 to 1330), and Giovanni Marignolli (from 1338 to 1353) traveled more widely and confirmed the unity of the Buddhist faith around Asia.

Mention should also be made of the legend of Barlaam and Josaphat, a story of uncertain authorship but popularized through an eleventh-century Greek translation. It tells of Josaphat, an Indian prince, converting to Christianity under the guidance of the monk Barlaam. So beloved did the story become that the two saints were eventually accepted into the Roman martyrology. Only around the middle of the nineteenth century was the hoax uncovered: Josaphat was a recasting of the Prince Siddhartha based on the firstcentury biography of the Buddha. The saints were not removed from the liturgical calendar, however, until the middle of the twentieth century.

Many of the first Catholic missionaries to arrive in Asia in the sixteenth century sent home idyllic accounts of Buddhism. Among them was Francis Xavier, whose direct contact with Buddhist monks and scholars in Japan from 1549 to 1551 opened the way for successors to study Buddhism in greater depth. Relying on their reports, the French orientalist Guillaume Postel in 1552 ventured to call Buddhism "the greatest religion in the world." Reading his words, missionaries in Goa on the coast of India concluded that the Gospel must have been preached in these lands already, though its truth dimmed over the centuries by the darkness of sin.

This was one side of the picture. When Vasco da Gama and the Portuguese colonizers came to Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, in 1505, they confiscated Buddhist properties across the land, with the full cooperation of the Christian missionaries. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the Dutch continued the suppression. Elsewhere, when Matteo Ricci entered China in 1583 he quickly forsook his interest in Buddhism for Confucianism, rejecting the former as an inferior religion and its monks as the dregs of Chinese society. His contemporaries Michele Ruggeri and Alessandro Valignano—as indeed did the majority of missionaries in China for centuries to come—concurred.

In THERAVADA lands, the missionaries were often more positive. In seventeenth-century Thailand a number of French priests actually lived in Buddhist monasteries. The century before, in Burma, several missionaries had written tracts favorable to Buddhism. In Cambodia there are records of a similarly positive approach, though it is Giovanni Maria Leria who is better remembered for his bitter hatred of the religion, rejecting Buddhism as a deliberate wile of the devil to transform all that is beautiful in Christianity. His views were to become the norm that held throughout most of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. An exception is Paul Ambrose Bigandet, bishop of Rangoon from 1854 to 1856, who mediated an exchange of letters between the DALAI LAMA and Pope Clement XII
in which the latter recognized Buddhism as "leading to the happiness of eternal life."

The Modern Age

It is only with the arrival of Sanskrit studies in Europe in the late eighteenth century and the subsequent availability of Buddhist texts that one can speak of a proper encounter in the West with Buddhism. Esteem for its tenets and practices grew apace, and the end of the century saw the first examples of Westerners converting to Buddhism and even entering the monastic life. Buddhist associations were formed in Germany, England, and later in the United States. Monks accompanying emigrants from several Asian lands to the Americas gave additional strength to the presence of Buddhism in the West.

The World Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in 1893 symbolized the change in attitude that had taken place in the Christian world, though not without opposition from the established churches. These initiatives prompted favorable responses from several quarters of the Buddhist world of Asia.

While all of this was taking place, the continued role of Christianity in the colonizing of Asia was provoking a backlash from Buddhists. In Sri Lanka, now under British rule, Methodist missionaries had begun to study Buddhism in the 1840s as a tool for conversion. In the following decades the Buddhists fought back, supported by European Theosophists who helped them to organize along Western lines. The outbreak of riots, followed by a nationalistic fervor that spilled over into the twentieth century, exacerbated tensions. It was not until the 1960s that steps toward dialogue and cooperation could be made.

Similar confrontations were taking place in Japan.

When the country opened its doors to the outside world in 1854 after two hundred years of seclusion, Japan's Buddhist establishment began to fear its own demise and took steps to oppress the Christian missions during the 1890s. Subsequent generations abandoned this approach and began the long journey to a more creative coexistence and dialogue with Christianity.

The world missionary conference at Edinburgh in 1910 was the first public forum in the Christian world to recommend a constructive approach to the religions of Asia. Formal declarations at the Second Vatican Council in Rome (1965) and at the Uppsala assembly of the World Council of Churches (1968)
paved the way for more direct rapprochement. Concerted efforts to organize Buddhist–Christian dialogue through worldwide associations and journals began in earnest and reached a groundswell in the 1980s. The Society for Buddhist–Christian Studies, based in the United States and with active membership both in Asia and throughout Europe, lent academic respectability to the dialogue. Christian institutes devoted to dialogue at the scholarly level already existed in several lands of East Asia and in 1981 organized themselves into a network based in Japan and known as Inter-Religio. An exchange of Buddhist and Christian monastics, initiated in 1979, continues in the twenty-first century. Christian theological centers throughout the West, and increasingly in Asia, are deepening their commitment to the encounter with Buddhism, and there are clear signs that the Buddhist world has begun to respond in kind. See also: Entries on specific countries; Colonialism and Buddhism Bibliography de Lubac, Henri. Recontre du bouddhisme et de l'occident. Paris:
Éditions Montaigne, 1952.

Thelle, Notto R. Buddhism and Christianity in Japan: From Conflict to Dialogue, 1854–1899. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1987.

von Brück, Michael, and Lai, Whalen. Christianity and Buddhism: A Multicultural History of Their Dialogue, tr. Phyllis Jestice. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2001.

Zago, Marcello. Buddhismo e cristianesimo in dialogo: Situazione,
rapporti, convergenze. Rome: Città Nuova, 1985.

JAMES W. HEISIG

Clerical Marriage In Japan

Temple wives and families have existed covertly for much of Japanese Buddhist history. Since at least the time of SHINRAN (1173–1262), the founder of the True Pure Land denomination (Jodo Shinshu), clerical followers of Shinran have openly married and, frequently, passed on their temples from father to son. Shin temple wives, known as bomori (temple caretakers), traditionally have played an important role in ministering to parishioners, caring for the temple, and raising the temple children. The ambiguous term jizoku, referring to both the wife and the children of a temple abbot, was officially coined in a 1919 Pure Land (Jodo) denomination regulation guaranteeing the right of succession to the registered child of the abbot (jushoku)
in the case of his death.

Clerical marriage became open and temple families general among all denominations of Japanese Buddhism following the state's decriminalization of clerical marriage in 1872. Although bitterly resisted for decades by the leaders of many non-Shin denominations, proponents of the practice advocated allowing clerical marriage and temple families as the best way to create a vigorous Buddhism capable of competing with the family-centered Protestantism, with its married ministers, that was making headway in Japan in the late nineteenth century. Despite opposition from many Buddhist leaders, clerical marriage proved popular, spreading to the majority of clerics in most denominations of monastic Buddhism by the late 1930s.

Today, all denominations of Japanese Buddhism have granted de facto legitimacy to clerical marriage and temple families. Most temples are inherited by either the biological or adoptive son of the abbot, and temple wives play a vital—although still frequently unacknowledged—part in managing the temple, serving parishioners, raising the temple family, and participating in the religious activities of the temple.

See Also: Meiji Buddhist Reform Bibliography

Jaffe, Richard M. Neither Monk nor Layman: Clerical Marriage in Modern Japanese Buddhism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001.

Kawahashi, Noriko. "Jizoku (Priests' Wives) in Soto Zen Buddhism: An Ambiguous Category." Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 22/1–2 (1995): 161–183.

Uan Donin. "A Refutation of Clerical Marriage," tr. Richard M.

Jaffe. In Religions of Asia in Practice: An Anthology, ed. Donald Lopez, Jr. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999.

RICHARD M. JAFFE

Colonialism And Buddhism

If colonialism is defined specifically as the enforced occupation of a region or control of a population, subsequently maintained through either direct coercion or cultural and ideological hegemony, then Buddhist societies and cultures have been both subject to, and agents of, colonialism throughout the centuries. A good example of the association of Buddhism with colonial expansionism can be found, for instance, in the development of certain forms of Buddhist nationalism in Japan in the modern era. During the period of the Meiji Restoration in Japan (1868–1912), Japan became an increasingly powerful presence in East Asia as a result of its victories in the Sino-Japanese (1895)
and Russo-Japanese (1904–1905) wars and its emergence on the world stage as a modern nation-state. As an imperial power Japan also annexed Korea (1910)
and invaded Manchuria (1931), eventually losing control of these regions after its defeat in World War II.

Buddhism As A Justification For Colonialism

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries a number of Buddhist figures, such as Kimura Shigeyuki and Mitsui Koshi, upheld the Japanese nation not only as the culmination of Buddhist cultural development, but also as a legitimating factor in Japanese imperial policies. In this context Buddhist nationalist movements and key figures such as the Zen teacher Soen Shaku (1859–1919) often justified Japanese military expansionism in terms of the missionary spread of Buddhist teachings and the "upholding of humanity and civilization" (Soen; see Sharf). According to Tanaka Chigaku (1861–1939), a lay Buddhist follower inspired by NICHIREN, the Buddhist teaching reached its fulfillment in the particular form of the Japanese nation. This, he argued, created a duty on the part of Japan to spread its own (MAHAYANA) form of the Buddha's teachings to the rest of the world, with the explicit aim of transforming the world into a "vast Buddhist country." In 1914 Chigaku founded the "National Pillar Society," a nationalist movement concerned with a spiritual and moral regeneration of Japan, and attracted a number of followers, including Ishihara Kanji (1893–1981), the military mastermind behind the invasion of Manchuria in 1931.

Modern Japanese examples of the commingling of Buddhist tradition and culture with ultranationalist and colonialist motivations are striking but not unique in Buddhist history, especially when the line between national or ethnic allegiance and Buddhist affiliation becomes blurred. In the Mahavam- sa (Great Chronicle),
a Sinhalese Buddhist chronicle emerging from the Mahavihara Buddhist sect of Anuradhapura, the story of King Dut-t-hagaman-'s conquests in Sri Lanka, the slaughter of his opponents, and the colonization of the entire island are all justified on the grounds that the non-Buddhists are in fact "not human." This justification and account of the island's history is, of course, all but impossible to reconcile with the Buddha's own emphasis upon compassion and nonviolence. The Mahavam- sa, however, has played a significant role in underpinning the modern historical consciousness of the Sinhalese people and the rise of some of the more aggressive forms of Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism (Sinhalatva) in the twentieth century.

The Colonization Of Buddhist Societies

On a broader historical scale, however, Buddhist societies have generally been subject to, rather than an explicit motivating force behind, colonial expansionism.

The Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1950, for instance, has resulted in an aggressively pursued policy designed to suppress Tibetan Buddhist culture and institutions in line with the antireligious stance of the Chinese Communist regime. One consequence of this, of course, has been the Tibetan Buddhist diaspora to India and the West in the late twentieth century, most notably that of the DALAI LAMA, often referred to as "the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people," and currently living in exile in Dharamsala in northern India.

From the point of view of the ruling Communist Party of China the colonization of Tibet is little more than a reoccupation of Chinese lands that has afforded the liberation of the Tibetan people "from serfdom." It is clear, however, that the history of Tibet, partly for reasons of geographical isolation, but also because of its long Buddhist history, represents a highly distinctive culture and polity and has many affinities with South Asian culture and traditions.

The sixteenth to twentieth centuries witnessed the colonization of large parts of the globe by Europeans on a scale that was historically unprecedented. European colonialism has left an indelible mark upon the ways in which Asian Buddhists experience "modernity" and their own sense of cultural, national, and religious identity.

On May 27, 1498, the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama arrived on the southwest coast of India. This was a turning point in the history of Asia and Europe. There had, of course, been interaction between Asia and Europe since long before the common era (e.g., along the SILK ROAD), but not to the extent that was precipitated by da Gama's arrival. Portugal, sanctioned by the Vatican to expand the Christian empire to the East, established an early monopoly in the exploration of Asian territories and the plundering of Asian resources. Gradually, however, there was wider European involvement in the exploration and colonization of the Asian world. The spread of the Protestant Reformation throughout Europe allowed for a challenge to the Portuguese monopoly, based as it was upon papal sanction. In the 1590s, for instance, the Dutch took control of much of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and Indonesia. The British were excluded from Indonesia and so concentrated on consolidating their interests on the Indian mainland and in Ceylon and Burma. The French established a few bases on the subcontinent
(such as in Pondicherry on the southeast coast of India) but turned the main focus of their attention to Indochina (mainly Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam). In broad terms, there were two main waves of Western influence upon Asian Buddhism during the colonial period. First, the effect of widespread Christian missionary activity by Europeans, and then later the impact of Western secular models of nationalism and scientific rationalist philosophies. Both waves precipitated a complex series of responses, leading to the rise of Buddhist nationalism and what some scholars have called "Protestant Buddhism" (Gombrich and Obeyesekere) or "Buddhist modernism" (Bechert) and the development of a variety of syntheses between traditional Buddhist values and contemporary ideologies such as Marxism, free-market capitalism, and scientific empiricism. In the latter half of the twentieth century, the independence gained by many former colonies in South and Southeast Asia left a political vacuum into which stepped a variety of indigenous interest groups and political movements. Some of these movements involve implicit (and sometimes explicit) appeal to Buddhist traditions and values in the formulation of their stances. One feature of this has been the rise of Buddhist forms of nationalist politics of varying ideological shades. "Buddhist socialism," for instance, developed as a political force in states such as Cambodia and Burma. Despite some misgivings by the sizable ethnic minority groups, Burma, under the leadership of U Nu, recognized Buddhism as the country's official state religion in 1961. A military coup under General Ne Win quickly ensued in 1962, however, leading to the establishment of a more radical left-wing military regime and the disestablishment of Buddhism. Burma (renamed Myanmar) remains under military rule, although this has not prevented the development of pro-democracy movements, focused mainly upon the inspirational figure of Aung San Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel Prize for peace and herself inspired by Buddhist principles in her campaign for democratic elections. Similarly, in Sri Lanka (Ceylon), Buddhist nationalist movements have played a significant role in postindependence politics. The Sri Lankan example serves as an illustration of the impact of European colonialism upon indigenous Buddhist traditions and institutions.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the Dutch controlled much of Ceylon and Indonesia. Economic inducements were offered to local "heathens" to convert to Christianity, and this effort was combined with vigorous missionary polemics against the "idolatrous" and superstitious practices of the Buddhists. In 1711 the Dutch issued a proclamation in Ceylon that explicitly forbade Christian involvement in "the ceremonies of heathenism," with the penalty of a public flogging and a year's imprisonment for those found engaging in such practices. In 1795 the British first appeared on the coast and by 1815 they had annexed the whole island.

Three factors have been crucial in the colonial transformation of indigenous Asian subjectivities: the reconfiguration of politics and civil society under colonial rule, the transformation of modes of educating the population, and the role of the printing press in the dissemination of ideas among the indigenous population. In the case of Ceylon, the key factor was the introduction of the Colebrooke-Cameron Reforms of the 1830s, which sought to unify the political economy of the island, promote laissez-faire capitalism, and establish a national educational framework to be delivered through the medium of the English language. These changes led to the development of a new middle class within Sinhalese society that was educated in English and empowered by the new social, economic, and political reforms. This was to have a profound effect upon the Sinhalese population's appreciation of its Buddhist heritage (Scott; Gombrich and Obeyesekere). Similar processes were underway throughout the colonized regions of southeast Asia at this time.

The first printing press was introduced to Ceylon by the Dutch in 1736 and was immediately put to use in the printing of local vernacular translations of Christian texts and, later, classical European literature. In a speech to the Methodist Missionary Society Committee, on October 3, 1831, D. J. Gogerly outlined the importance of the printing press as a vehicle for undermining the authority of indigenous Buddhist traditions. Gogerly stated that "at present, it is by means of the Press [that] our principal attacks must be made upon this wretched system. . . . We must direct our efforts to pull down the stronghold of Satan." Gogerly was a missionary in Ceylon for forty-four years and also worked as a translator of the Pali Buddhist scriptures into English. It was not until 1862, however, that, as a result of a gift from the king of Siam (now Thailand), Sinhalese Buddhists themselves gained access to a printing press and were thus able to disseminate their own materials and literature to the native population.

The establishment of a uniform educational system by the European colonizers tended to promote European Christian forms of education and literacy, either through the direct medium of European languages or by the study of European and Christian literature in vernacular translations. The curriculum and agenda in this context usually involved the teaching of EuroChristian values alongside mathematics, science, and a Eurocentric version of history. The overall effect of taking the burden of educating the population away from the Buddhist monastic communities, where it constituted one of the traditional roles of the bhikkhus, was to undermine the status of the SAN˙ GHA within society.

Later the number of Christian missionary schools declined and secular government schools increased in number. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, however, a reformist spirit developed within Buddhist circles, partly in response to the criticisms of Christian missionary groups, which sought to reform the san˙ gha. In Ceylon, with the help of the American Colonel Henry Steel Olcott and his Buddhist Theosophical Society (founded in 1880), three higher education institutes and some two hundred Buddhist high schools were set up to protect and preserve the study of the Buddhist tradition.

Orientalism And The Rise Of "Protestant Buddhism"

Many of the westernized middle-class groups that emerged in Southeast Asia as a result of European colonial reforms first encountered their own Buddhist traditions through the mediating lenses of European textbooks, literature, and translations of Buddhist sacred texts. This reflects an important factor in understanding the way in which Buddhism develops and is presented in the modern era, namely the role of "BUDDHIST STUDIES" as a Western academic enterprise and the enormous authority accorded to Western scholars and texts in representing Buddhism during the colonial era (King; Lopez). Western interest in understanding Asian civilizations precipitated a "discovery" and translation of Buddhist sacred texts into modern European languages. Western scholars, however, generally replicated a series of basic Christian assumptions in their approach to Buddhism (Almond; King). There was a strong tendency to emphasize Buddhist sacred texts as the key feature in determining the nature of Buddhism as a religious tradition. This approach tended to ignore Buddhist traditions as changing historical phenomena and also underplayed the role of ritual practices and local networks and beliefs in the preservation and renewal of Buddhist forms of life. Buddhist sacred literature has traditionally been revered in Asian societies, but this reverence rarely led to a depreciation of local practices and beliefs that were not found in the ancient canonical literature. Buddhism as a living tradition tended to be either ignored or denigrated by Orientalist scholars as a corruption of the original teachings.

This attitude had a profound effect upon the emerging middle-class elites of Asian societies in the nineteenth century. This was the case even for nations that were not subject to European colonization such as Japan (Sharf) and Thailand, illustrating perhaps that modernist reformism is not simply a by-product of European colonialism. In a Southeast Asian context,
"Protestant" influence can be seen most clearly in the views of reformist leaders such as ANAGARIKA
DHARMAPALA (born David Hewavitarane, 1864–1933)
in Sri Lanka and Sayadaw U Ottama (d. 1921) in Burma. Both emphasized the need for a "Buddhist Reformation" in order to overcome what they saw as the decadence of the "superstitious ritualism" of folk or "village" Buddhism. This also involved a call for the san˙ gha to become more socially reformist and serviceoriented with regard to the needs of lay society. The trends can be seen to involve a number of "Protestant" elements. First, there is the desire to return to the purity of the Buddha's original teachings, bereft of popular superstitions. Second, there is an emphasis on bringing an understanding of Buddhist sacred literature directly to the people as the basis for understanding the Buddha's message. Finally, there is also an emphasis upon "this-worldly asceticism" to be manifested through acts of social service and in some cases political activism by the monks.

Although Western influence is evident in all of these trends one should be careful not to read such reformist projects merely as mirrored responses to a European Christian agenda. This would be to erase the indigenous aspects of such responses. "Protestant Buddhism," if one can call it that, not only reflected the impact of European ideas upon Asian Buddhists, but also represented indigenous protestations against European colonialism and the claim that Western civilization was morally and spiritually superior to Buddhism. The promotion of a socially oriented ethic, while clearly a response to centuries of Christian missionary criticism of Buddhism as a world-denying tradition, was firmly grounded in Buddhist notions of compassionate service to all. A key shift that began during this period (and which provided the intellectual foundation for what has since become known as
"ENGAGED BUDDHISM") was the rearticulation of traditional Buddhist goals, such as NIRVAN- A, in sociopolitical and often explicitly anticolonial terms. In Burma, for instance, the monk and political activist U Ottama explicitly linked the attainment of liberation to freedom from social, economic, and colonial oppression. In the 1940s this link was rearticulated by Aung San (father of Aung San Suu Kyi) in the notion of a "mundane liberation" (lokanibban-a) of the Burmese people from British colonial rule (Houtman).

The latter half of the twentieth century saw the end of European imperialism and the establishment of independent states in the former Asian colonies. In this context the process of understanding the effects that centuries of European colonial influence had upon Buddhist civilization and its significance has only just begun. See also: Christianity and Buddhism; Communism and Buddhism; Modernity and Buddhism; Nationalism and Buddhism

Almond, Philip. The British Discovery of Buddhism. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

Bechert, Heinz. "The Buddhist Revival in East and West." In The World of Buddhism: Buddhist Monks and Nuns in Society and Culture, ed. Heinz Bechert and Richard Gombrich.

London: Thames and Hudson, 1984.

Gombrich, Richard, and Obeyesekere, Gananath. Buddhism Transformed: Religious Change in Sri Lanka. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1988.

Houtman, Gustaaf. Mental Culture in Burmese Crisis Politics:
Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League of Democracy. Tokyo: Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, 1999.

King, Richard. Orientalism and Religion: Postcolonial Theory, India, and "the Mystic East." London and New York: Routledge, 1999.

Ling, Trevor. Buddhism, Imperialism, and War: Burma and Thailand in Modern History. London: Allen and Unwin, 1979.

Lopez, Donald S., Jr., ed. Curators of the Buddha: The Study of Buddhism under Colonialism. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1995.

Scott, David. Refashioning Futures: Criticism after Postcoloniality. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999.

Sharf, Robert. "The Zen of Japanese Nationalism." In Curators of the Buddha: The Study of Buddhism under Colonialism, ed. Donald S. Lopez, Jr. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1995.

Soen (Soyen), Shaku. Sermons of a Buddhist Abbot: Addresses on Religious Subjects, tr. D. T. Suzuki. New York: Weiser, 1971 (originally published 1906).

Tambiah, Stanley. World Conqueror and World Renouncer: A
Study of Buddhism and Polity in Thailand against a Historical Background. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1976.

RICHARD KING

Commentarial Literature

Buddhist commentarial writing spans a period of more than two thousand years. Its rich production, of which only a fragment has survived the vicissitudes of history, closely mirrors all facets of the doctrinal and many aspects of the cultural and social development of the religion.

One may, in the widest possible sense, conceive of all Buddhist scriptures as commentarial: The sutra discourses comment on the Buddha's insights and the PATH, the ABHIDHARMA literature comments on the teachings given in the discourses, and the MAHAYANA
literature comments on the meaning of S´UNYATA
(EMPTINESS) underlying the teachings. Commentaries elaborate on meaning (artha), meaning that demands special attention. The writing of commentaries belongs, alongside other modes of practice, among the ways of preserving and spreading the dharma. In terms of cultural history, the significance of commentarial literature consists in its capacity to reflect general cultural and religious trends and to serve as a venue for developing interpretative skills and working out fundamental intellectual issues. ZANNING (919–1001), a representative of the Chinese tradition, explains the significance of Buddhist commentaries in his Song gaoseng zhuan (Song Biographies of Eminent Monks): "perfecting the way—this is dharma; carrying the dharma—this is sutra; explaining sutra—this is commentary" (T.2061:50.735b).

Commentaries by definition are situated downstream of the flow of tradition and thus are never able to supersede scripture. Yet given the priority of meaning (artha) before wording (vacana), commentaries are expected to reiterate and bring to light the meaning that is hidden within scripture.

Indian Commentaries

The teachings of the dharma, from the very beginning, called for commentary. Thus one not only learns that the Buddha was frequently called upon to elaborate on teachings he had given, but equally that the Buddha considered some of his disciples, such as S´ARIPUTRA, to be equally capable of stating the teachings clearly. But this stage is still one of oral exegesis. Only with the establishment of the Buddhist CANON (tripit-aka) did monks begin to write commentaries. In the course of interpreting the teachings, schools of interpretation arose. The two major extant strains of South Asian commentarial writing are the THERAVADA commentaries, written in Pali, and the SARVASTIVADA AND MU -
LASARVASTIVADA commentaries in Sanskrit. The latter have been translated into Chinese. In addition, a few commentaries from other schools are extant.

At the beginning of the fifth century, BUDDHAGHOSA—on the basis of earlier Sinhala commentaries—composed a series of commentarial works on the Pali canon. Among them were two commentaries on the VINAYA: Samantapasadika (The All-Pleasing) and Kan˙ khavitaran-l
(Overcoming Doubt). The Samantapasadika was translated into Chinese by San˙ ghabhadra in 489 as the Shanjianlü pibosha (T.1462). The Kan˙ khavitaran-l is a commentary on the Patimokkha
(Sanskrit, PRATIMOKS-A). As was the case with the vinaya, once the Suttapit-aka had been established, a number of commentaries on its texts came to be written. Of particular importance are Buddhaghosa's commentaries on the nikayas (Suman˙ galavilasinl
,
Papañcasudanl
, Saratthappakasinl
, Manorathapuranl
,
Paramat-t-hajotika), and on the abhidhamma (At-t-hasalinl
, Sam- mohavinodanl
, Pañcappakaran-at-t-hakatha).

In the case of the Sarvastivada, its writings are for the most part preserved only in Chinese. Its single most important treatise is Katyayanputra's Jñanaprasthana
(Foundations of Knowledge, composed around 50 B.C.E.), to which are related the six treatises (padas´astra): Dharmaskandha, Sam- gl tiparyaya, Dhatukaya, Prakaran-a, Vijñanakaya, and Prajñapti. The major exegetical collection, the Mahavibhas-a (Great Exegesis),
compiled at a council held by Kan-is-ka, is also related to the Jñanaprasthana. Six of the seven treatises of this abhidharma pit-aka were translated by XUANZANG (ca. 600–664).

Chinese Commentaries

Though it is difficult to define beginnings, scholars know that Zhi Qian (fl. 223–253) and Kang Senghui (?–280) were already composing commentaries during the third century C.E. But commentaries probably gained importance only around the time of DAO'AN (312–385). From the biographical literature, one can glean indications of a thriving early commentarial literature, but it is almost completely lost. Examples of this earliest phase are Chen Hui's (ca. 200 C.E.) Yin chi ru jing; Dao'an's Ren ben yu sheng jing zhu; SENGZHAO's (374–414) Zhu Weimo jing; and FAXIAN's (ca. 337–418) Fanwang jing pusa jie shu.

Around the beginning of the fifth century, a new type of commentary emerged. Dao'an and DAOSHENG (ca. 360–434) played major roles in this transition.

Fayao's (ca. 420–477) NIRVAN-A SUTRA and Zhu Fachong's (ca. 268) LOTUS SUTRA commentaries (both lost), and Zhu Daosheng's extant Lotus commentary are the earliest examples of this new type of commentary. Two extensive commentaries from the first half of the sixth century are also extant: one (in seventyone fascicles) on the Nirvan-a Sutra (Da ban niepan jing ji jie, 509) collected by Baoliang, the other (in eight fascicles) on the Lotus (Fahua jing yiji, 529) collected by Fayun (467–529). Both of these commentaries played important roles in the formation of the Sinitic Buddhist schools, and both reveal an important feature of this type of literature, namely, their explicit or implicit referencing of earlier exegesis.

The third phase of Chinese Buddhist commentarial writing began with the masters of the Sui dynasty
(589–618) and was followed by a long series of extremely prolific masters of the Tang dynasty (618–907),
who developed their doctrinal positions in the context of systematic exegetic efforts, eventually setting the stage for the emergence of schools of exegesis such as Tiantai, Huayan, and Faxiang. Noteworthy representatives of that phase are the Dilun master Jingying Huiyuan (523–596); the Sanlun master Jizang (549– 623); the Tiantai masters ZHIYI (538–597), Guanding
(561–632), and ZHANRAN (711–782); the Faxiang masters WO˘NCH'U˘K (613–696, from Korea), KUIJI (632–
682), Huizhao (?–714), and Zhizhou (679–723); the Huayan masters Zhiyan (628–668), WO˘NHYO (617–
686, from Korea), FAZANG (643–712), CHENGGUAN (738–840), and the lay Li Tongxuan (?–730); and the esoteric master Yixing (683–727).

The major exegetes commonly wrote commentaries on a broad set of scriptures. Thus one and the same scripture is marked by a long series of commentarial treatments. The Lotus Sutra, the DIAMOND SUTRA, and the HEART SUTRA, respectively, are the scriptures most often commentated on in China. There are about eighty extant Chinese commentaries on each of these sutras. Besides these, the HUAYAN JING, Vimalakl
rti,
Wuliangshou, Amituo, Yuanjue, Nirvan-a, Lan˙ kavatara, and Fanwang jing also drew much exegetic attention. Among the treatises, the AWAKENING OF FAITH (DASHENG QIXIN LUN) was most often commentated on. The extant commentaries serve as the most important sources for information on the formation and development of Chinese Buddhist thought.

Exegesis, The Plurality Of Transmissions, And The Commentarial Context

The development of Chinese Buddhist commentarial literature was influenced by the fact that the transmission of scriptures was far from systematic. At almost any period a broad set of scriptures of diverse provenance was available that reflected various stages of the development of Buddhist doctrine. This plurality was born from translations in the third and fourth centuries of dhyana, prajñaparamita, and tathagatagarbha scriptures, in the early fifth century by a series of Madhyamaka and Sarvastivada abhidharma works, and in the sixth and seventh centuries by the systematic Yogacara and abhidharma transmission of Xuanzang. This situation necessitated the creation of a method that allowed the systematic integration of all available teachings under a common roof (panjiao). The premises of this method were that all scriptures could be assigned to different stages in the Buddha's teaching career, that they all address different audiences according to their respective maturity, and that they make the ultimate meaning explicit to varying degrees. In terms of commentarial practice this translated into a set of rules of interpretation. Foremost among these rules was the fourfold prop (catuh-pratisaran-a) of Buddhist HERMENEUTICS, which emphasized meaning (artha) before wording (vacana), complete meaning (nl ta) before incomplete meaning (neya), and true insight
(prajña) before cognition and reasoning (vijñana).

Some Chinese commentators indicate that their commentaries were based on lectures, and written commentaries were often composed by disciples on the basis of lecture notes, so that one can assume that the two major contexts of commentary writing are lecturing and translating. There is evidence from DUNHUANG
showing the homiletic context of scriptural interpretation, and this background does not seem to have ever been completely lost. In the context of translating from Indian or Central Asian languages into Chinese, translation and interpretation could not be separated because translators usually offered explanations of the scripture being translated, and the explanations often crept into the text itself. Thus, for example, the writings of Sengzhao on PRAJNAPARAMITA LITERATURE were based on his cooperation with KUMARAJIVA (344–
409/413), or the commentaries of Kuiji were created in the context of the translation academy of Xuanzang.

Types Of Commentaries

The oldest type of Chinese commentary, the zhu (only three of which are extant), may derive from an oral context. The zhu is a straightforward line-by-line exegesis that weaves glosses into the main text. These commentaries are prefaced by introductions that interpret the title and explain the setting of the discourse and the reasons for the commentary. This simple type of commentary was superseded by the shu commentary, which flourished between the sixth and mid-ninth centuries.

The shu embodies the best of the monastic and scholastic tradition, exhibiting all signs of a flourishing exegetic culture and displaying a level of sophistication probably unsuited for the nonexpert laity.

Two major features characterize shu commentary, namely, its method of segmenting the scripture (kepan) and its topical introductions. The topical introductions discuss the scope of the commentary and the issues at stake for the Buddhist commentator. The introductions comprise two major groups of topics: dogmatic
(the aim of the teaching, the meaning of the title, the work's basic thought, the intended audience of the teaching, its relationship to other teachings) and historical (the transmissions of the work and the history of its promulgation, including places and conventions, history of its translation, and its miraculous power).

This type of commentarial introduction reflects not only on Chinese exegesis, but on major issues of Buddhist exegesis. Accordingly, VASUBANDHU (fourth century C.E.), a major representative of Indian exegesis, summarized in his Vyakhyayukti (Practice of Exegesis; extant only in Tibetan) the commentarial task: state the aim of the teaching (prayojana), state its overall meaning (pin-d-a) and its detailed meaning (padartha), state its internal consequence (anusam- dhika), refute objections (codyaparihara) with regard to wording
(´abda s ) and meaning (artha), in order to show its perfection (yukti). Chinese commentators classify Vasubandhu's first two tasks as independent introductory topics; the other three are incorporated into the main body of exegesis.

Vasubandhu presumes that the word of the Buddha is perfect, that all scriptures are the Buddha's word, that only perfect words need and deserve commentary, and that a person cannot understand scripture unless he or she understands the purpose of a certain teaching. In particular, one must understand a scripture in terms of the audience it is meant to address, especially if the audience is not deemed to be mature enough to comprehend the scripture's deeper meanings. This latter assumption was a fundamental element in determining the liberty a commentator might take in interpreting scripture.

Segmental Analysis

Chinese scholastic commentary is also characterized by segmental analysis (kepan), by which the author assigns to scripture a chain of exegetic terms. The most obvious aspect of this approach, which gained importance after the fifth century, consists in the segmenting of scripture into (1) introduction (xu), which gives the setting of the discourse (location, participants, occasion); (2) main body (zhengzong), which consists in the discourse proper, and (3) eulogy (liutong), which describes the joy of the listeners and the promise of the spread of the dharma. This triple partition of sutra may have derived from the Fodi jing lun (T.1530.26:291c). Although segmental analysis is related by tradition to Dao'an, the oldest extant example of its application can be found in Fayun's Lotus Sutra commentary (Fahua jing yiji, T.1715.33:574c).

Beneath this first tripartite level, scholastic commentaries have further layers of segmentation, which consist of a sequence of exegetic terms (often several hundred) assigned to designated passages of scripture. One group of exegetic terms specifically marks off parts of scripture as phases of dialogue between the speaker and the interlocutor. Since most sutras are in the form of dialogues between the Buddha and his disciples, it is possible that the first step a commentator might have taken was to segment the sequence of speech acts. Indeed, in some of the older commentaries of the early Tang period, the exegetic chain is built around a dialogic baseline. Knowing that an exegetic chain may include several hundred terms, the modern reader may wonder how any reader could be expected to keep track of the commentary's expository structure. In order to remedy this situation, graphic charts displaying the exegetic structure were developed. Although it may seem otherwise, most kepan and their accompanying charts are probably rooted in the homiletic situation, and are not a product of a culture dominated by writing. In fact, the kepan structures point back to the earliest stage of Buddhist exegesis, where they may have served as mnemonic aids for oral interpretation.

After the Tang period, kepan-style exegesis yielded to other methods, and scholastic introduction in general was replaced by newer, simpler forms. The genre of commentarial literature as a whole from the Song dynasty (960–1279) onward shows a process of simplification, a transformation that probably resulted, in part, from the advent of new PRINTING TECHNOLOGIES.

This simplification process was also part of a major transformation of the social context of exegesis. Whereas before the Song, commentators were mainly monks, from the Song onward a substantial body of commentaries were written by lay Buddhists. In addition, the CHAN SCHOOL and its rhetoric of immediate insight without reliance on words found support in the fundamental notion of the ineffability of the ultimate meaning of the dharma, which may have substantially impeded the further development of formal scriptural exegesis. Despite these factors, and though many assume that the genre of Buddhist exegesis passed its zenith centuries ago, commentaries on Buddhist teachings are still being written.

See also: Canon; China; India; Scripture

Gómez, Luis O. "Exegesis and Hermeneutics." In "Buddhist Literature," in Encyclopedia of Religion, Vol. 2, ed. Mircea Eliade. New York: Macmillan, 1987.

Kim Young-ho. Tao-sheng's Commentary on the Lotus Sutra: A
Study and Translation. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990.

Lamotte, Étienne. "Assessment of Textual Interpretation in Buddhism." In Buddhist Hermeneutics, ed. Donald S. Lopez, Jr. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1988.

Maraldo, John C. "Hermeneutics and Historicity in the Study of Buddhism." Eastern Buddhist 19, no. 1 (1986): 17–43.

ALEXANDER L. MAYER

Communism And Buddhism

Buddhism faced one of its greatest challenges during the twentieth century when the majority of Asian nations, which were traditionally Buddhist, became involved with communism. Mongolia was the first Asian country to become communist (1924), followed by North Korea (1948), China (1949), Tibet (1951), Vietnam (1975), Cambodia (1975), and Laos (1975).

Initial Encounter

At the early stages of the Buddhist–communist encounter, coexistence did not seem impossible. Those who hoped for peaceful coexistence speculated on the similarities between communism and Buddhism: Neither Buddhists nor communists believe in a creator deity, and both Buddhism and communism are based on a vision of universal egalitarianism. In fact, the Buddhist community (SAN˙ GHA) was even compared with a communist society.

The seeming compatibility, however, was overshadowed by a number of conflicting ideologies. Communism is based on materialism, whereas in Buddhism primacy of the material world is rejected in favor of NIRVAN-A. To communists, environments determine a human being's consciousness, whereas Buddhism emphasizes the individual practitioner's capacity to overcome human limitations through spiritual cultivation. In addition, Buddhism holds nonviolence and compassion as the core of its teaching, whereas communism foregrounds conflict between different social classes and endorses the use of violence in support of the proletarian revolution and the communist agenda.

Despite these differences, communism and Buddhism managed a coexistence for a brief period. In its early stages, communism gained support because it was recognized as the antithesis of foreign dominance in Asian nations at the final stage of imperialist history. People in Mongolia supported communists in their efforts to free the nation from Chinese dominance. North Korean communism gained power as a buffer against Japanese colonialists and American capitalist imperialism. Chinese communism set itself up as a defense against the threat created by the invasion of the Western powers at the beginning of the twentieth century. Vietnamese communists claimed to be nationalists fighting for the independence of Vietnam from the imperialist French and capitalist Americans. Because the Buddhist tradition had existed in Asia for more than fifteen hundred years, it could be seen by communists as a confirmation of national identity, while communism was seen as a means of defending a nation against foreign invasion. Thus, a coalition between Buddhism and communism seemed possible.

Conflict

Buddhists soon faced reality. Once communist groups won the wars and communist nation-states began to take shape, Buddhists were forced to realize that the basic antagonism of Marxism toward all religion could not be challenged. Religion in Marxist philosophy is "the opium of the people." Communists view religion as a fantasy and superstition that deludes people about their social condition. According to communism, religion is a tool used by the bourgeoisie to exploit the proletariat and thus delay the proletarian revolution.

Only a few years after Asian nations fell to communism, the initial tolerance toward Buddhism was replaced by extreme antagonism. Communist parties launched severe PERSECUTIONS of Buddhists and instigated an irreparable dismantling of Buddhist traditions. By the late 1930s more than fifteen thousand monks in the Mongolian People's Republic were declared enemies of the state and deported to Siberian

Chinese vice-premier Chen Yi enters Lhasa in 1956 to attend ceremonies marking the incorporation of Tibet into the Chinese state. He is accompanied by the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama. The Dalai Lama went into exile in 1959. © Bettmann/Corbis. Reproduced by permission.

labor camps, where they soon perished from starvation and overwork. During the late 1940s communists in North Korea conducted a systematic removal of religion from society, followed by the complete eradication of all religious practice during the 1960s and 1970s. Immediately after the establishment of the communist government in China, opportunities for religious practice were reduced and ordination was restricted. At the outset of the Cultural Revolution in the mid-1960s, Buddhist practice all but disappeared from China. In Vietnam, repression of religion began with the victory of the communists in April 1975, after which communists destroyed or confiscated Buddhist pagodas and Buddhist office buildings. By 1982 there were only about twenty-three hundred monks left in Cambodia, a drastic decrease from the sixty thousand monks in Cambodia in 1975 when the nation first became communist. The situation in Tibet is unique in that the communists were not Tibetans but Chinese who claimed Tibet as their territory. Before the Chinese invasion, there were more than six thousand monasteries in Tibet; fewer than twenty monasteries survived persecution by Chinese communists.

The spiritual and political leader of Tibet, the fourteenth DALAI LAMA, was exiled to India in 1959.

Since the communist persecutions began, Buddhists have generally held fast to the Buddhist teaching against injuring others. Vietnamese monks performed SELF-IMMOLATION as a protest against communist persecution, and for half a century the Dalai Lama has appealed to the world to stop the suffering of the Tibetan people and the destruction of Tibetan Buddhism, but Buddhists have refused to resort to violence to settle the tragedy brought upon Buddhism and Buddhist followers. The Buddhist message of nonviolent protest has brought awareness to the world of the importance of the peaceful resolution of conflicts and the urgency of human rights issues. Through their faithfulness to Buddhist teachings and their belief in human values in

Schecter, Jerrold L. The New Face of Buddhism: Buddhism and

Political Power in Southeast Asia. New York: CowardMcCann, 1967.

C OMMUNISM AND B UDDHISM
A Chinese police officer watches as Buddhist monks celebrate the Tibetan New Year at a Tibetan Buddhist temple in Beijing, 1999. © AFP/Corbis. Reproduced by permission.

a time of suffering, Buddhist monks and nuns in persecuted nations were able to demonstrate the value of religion in human societies.

In the 1990s communist governments began to show relative tolerance toward Buddhism, and religious practices began to resurface as Buddhist monasteries were renovated and Buddhist objects were recognized as national treasures. In Tibet, despite increasing tolerance toward Buddhism, the Chinese continue to refuse to allow the Dalai Lama to be repatriated. In countries where Buddhism faces a revival it still has obstacles to overcome. After decades of persecution and restrictions on ordination, a new generation of Buddhist young people has not emerged to succeed aging monks and nuns. How the Buddhist revival will fill the gap and make up for the lost decades remains unclear. See also: Modernity and Buddhism; Nationalism and Buddhism

Benz, Ernst. Buddhism or Communism: Which Holds the Future of Asia?, tr. Richard Winston and Clara Winston. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1965.

Bstan 'dzin rgya mtsho (Dalai Lama XIV). Freedom in Exile: The Autobiography of the Dalai Lama. New York and San Francisco: Harper, 1990.

Harris, Ian. "Buddhism in Extremis: The Case of Cambodia." In Buddhism and Politics in Twentieth-Century Asia, ed. Ian Harris. London and New York: Pinter, 1999.

Ling, Trevor. Buddha, Marx, and God: Some Aspects of Religion in the Modern World. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1979.

Nhat Hanh, Thich. Vietnam: Lotus in a Sea of Fire. New York:
Hill and Wang, 1967.

Queen, Christopher S., and King, Sallie B., eds. Engaged Buddhism: Buddhist Liberation Movements in Asia. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996.

Schwartz, Ronald D. "Renewal and Resistance: Tibetan Buddhism in the Modern Era." In Buddhism and Politics in Twentieth-Century Asia, ed. Ian Harris. London and New York: Pinter, 1999.

Sin Po˘pt'a. Pukhan Pulgyo˘ yon'gu. A Study of Buddhism in North Korea in the Late Twentieth Century. Seoul: Minjoksa, 2000.

Stuart-Fox, Martin. "Lao: From Buddhist Kingdom to Marxist State." In Buddhism and Politics in Twentieth-Century Asia, ed. Ian Harris. London and New York: Pinter, 1999.

Welch, Holmes. Buddhism under Mao. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1972.

JIN Y. PARK
COMPASSION. See Karun-a (Compassion)
CONCENTRATION. See Meditation CONFESSION. See Repentance and Confession

Confucianism And Buddhism

Chinese religions are traditionally divided into the three teachings of Confucianism (Rujiao), Daoism (Daojiao), and Buddhism (Fojiao). Because Chinese cultural patterns (wen) were disseminated, primarily in the form of writing, throughout East Asia, these three teachings spread to Korea, Japan, and parts of Southeast Asia. Confucians (ru) were scholars who took as their principal task the administration and maintenance of an ordered society, which they hoped to achieve by remaining active participants in it (zaijia). Buddhists lived as monks and nuns in monastic communities (SAN˙ GHA), renouncing the world (chujia) behind walls and gates to free themselves and others from the bondage of the cycle of life and death
(SAM- SARA). Over the course of two millennia of close interaction in China, Confucians and Buddhists clashed on issues ranging from bowing to the emperor and one's parents to the foreign ancestry and routines of the Buddhist faith. Even so, indigenous Chinese Buddhist doctrines and practices stimulated developments within the late-imperial Confucian renaissance known in Western scholarship as neo-Confucianism.

Historical And Cultural Considerations

The history of interaction between Confucianism and Buddhism in China is the history of Chinese Buddhism in the public and social sphere. Because Confucian teachings were initially transmitted to Korea and Japan principally by Buddhist monks, successful, separate, and local Confucian traditions did not develop in Japan or Korea until the neo-Confucian era; the relationship between Buddhism and Confucianism that developed in China is representative of wider trends throughout the East Asian region.

Confucianism became a religious and philosophical tradition (ruxue) with the establishment of the five classics (wujing) as the basis for official education in 136 B.C.E. The five classics include the Shijing (Classic of Poetry), the Shujing (Classic of History), the Yijing
(Classic of Changes), the Liji (Record of Rites), and the Chunqiu zuozhuan (Zuo Commentary to the Annals of the Spring and Autumn Period). In addition to these books, the sayings of Confucius (Kong Qiu, 551–479 B.C.E.), called the Lunyu (Analects), and the teachings of Mencius (Mengzi, Meng Ke, ca. 371–289 B.C.E.) and Xunzi (Xun Qing, d. 215 B.C.E.), among other classical commentaries, as well as state-promoting ritual manuals and cosmological treaties, were sponsored by early Confucians (rujia).

Scholars And The Clergy: The Question Of Buddhist Patronage

During the Han dynasty (206 B.C.E.–220 C.E.), Buddhism remained essentially an elusive, foreign creed, practiced primarily among the many Central Asian merchant communities that grew in Chinese trade centers. Buddhism did not pose an institutional threat to the burgeoning Confucian orthodox tradition of statecraft or to the emergent Huang-Lao proto-Daoist religious groups. During the interval between the fall of the Han and establishment of the Sui dynasty (581–618), however, piecemeal Buddhist doctrines and practices—especially teachings about DHYANA
(TRANCE STATE) and S´UNYATA (EMPTINESS) as explained in the PRAJNAPARAMITA LITERATURE—were of great interest to both non-Chinese rulers in the north and southern aristocrats. Serindian monks and their Chinese counterparts in the north and south after 310 C.E. began to trade verses of poetry with aristocrats to communicate Buddhist theories in a Chinese context.

The outcome of these exchanges between Confuciantrained aristocrats, Buddhist monks, and Daoist adepts is known as "dark learning" (xuanxue). "Pure talk" (qingtan) exchanges that included discussions about poetry and comparisons between MAHAYANA Buddhist thought and the Laozi and Zhuangzi—two Chinese classical texts that later became associated with Daoismresulted from this interaction.

Because Confucianism at this time comprised a diffuse category of aristocratic pursuits and interests (at least in part because the failings of Confucian statecraft were considered responsible for the downfall of the Han) rather than an exclusive set of doctrines and precepts, Buddhism began to surface as a formidable religious institution. During the early decades of the fifth century, full translations of Indian Buddhist monastic codes (VINAYA) were completed; the vinaya regulated the lives of monks and nuns in Chinese monasteries in ways that were more consistent with Indian societal norms. This development prompted Emperor Wudi (r. 424–451) of the Northern Wei dynasty (386–534) to initiate the first anti-Buddhist PERSECUTIONS at the request of both his Daoist and Confucian ministers Kou Qianzhi (d. 448) and Cui Hao (381–450). Both advisers wished to transform the state into a more sinified society, and saw members of the recently disciplined san˙ gha as world-renouncing and discourteous to the emperor and secular worthies. Emperor Wudi of the Northern Zhou (557–581) also accepted this rationale and instigated anti-Buddhist persecutions that resulted in the widespread defrocking of monks and nuns and the confiscation of monastic property. These policies indicate that by 446 the institutional footprint of the Buddhist church was broad enough to challenge indigenous Chinese power blocks.

With the establishment of Sui hegemony over north and south China by 589, the Buddhist church became both an instrument of state promotion through its Buddhist relic (´ar s l ra) distribution campaigns, and the object of censure by Confucians and Daoists critical of Buddhist economic and social influence throughout China. During the early decades of the Tang dynasty (618–907), Confucian and Daoist advisors submitted memorials to the throne condemning the Buddhist church for myriads of reasons, including claims of illegal ordinations, religious arrogance, commercial activities, and tax evasion, which led emperor Gaozu (r.

618–627) in 626 to proclaim Confucianism and Daoism the two pillars of the state. Prior to Empress Wu Zhao's (r. 690–705) foundation of the short-lived Zhou dynasty and the An Lushan rebellion (755–763), the Tang court and its Confucian administrators adopted a policy of tepid tolerance toward Buddhism and allowed it to expand. Emperor Taizong (r. 627– 650) famously sponsored XUANZANG's (ca. 600–664)
translation projects after his return from India with hundreds of Sanskrit manuscripts.

Empress Wu Zhao forever changed the world of Confucians and Buddhists in China. Her rise to power conflicted with traditional Confucian ideology favoring male rulers, which prompted her to institute sweeping reforms in the Confucian official examination system. Wu Zhao employed an open examination system for officials in order to counter the power of the ingrained aristocratic families who were hostile to her. Thus, the examination system originally set up during the Han, and institutionalized during the Sui, became a vehicle to promote scholars who did not necessarily hail from aristocratic or influential families. When the Tang ruling house was reestablished under emperor Xuanzong
(r. 713–755), the cultivation of belles lettres—defined as refined knowledge of the classics and the composition of poetry (shih)—remained the basis for receiving the highest honors in the palace examinations as "presented scholars" (jinshi). Confucian learning during Xuanzong's reign was memorialized in the writings of Wang Wei (701–761), Li Bai (701–762), and Du Fu
(712–770)—three of China's greatest poets—while bureaucrats implemented imperial decrees designed to restrain the institutional power of Buddhist monasteries, which had been extravagantly patronized by Wu Zhao. In 725 Xuanzong traveled to sacred Mount Tai to perform the Confucian state rites of feng and shan,
and during his reign he received Indian esoteric Buddhists at court and helped to establish a small esoteric Buddhist institution in China.

The most significant anti-Buddhist persecution in China occurred during the Huichang era (841–845).

Emperor Wuzong took note of memorials to the throne by Confucian stalwarts like Han Yu (768–824)—who, after witnessing a procession of a finger-joint relic of the Buddha in 819, wrote the polemical Lun fogu biao
(Memorial on the Buddha's Bone)—and adopted policies to suppress the influence of Buddhism throughout Chinese society. Wuzong ordered the seizure of monastic properties, expelled monks and nuns from monasteries, and prohibited youths from taking tonsure. By 845 Wuzong's policies had led to the defrocking of 260,000 nuns and monks and the destruction of more than 4,600 monasteries and 40,000 shrines. Wuzong's antiforeign decrees also effectively eradicated Zoroastrianism, Nestorian Christianity, and Manichaeism from China in an attempt to address the threat that the Uighurs and Tibetans posed from the northwest and west.

Han Yu's memorial, however, epitomized the antiforeign sentiment from a Confucian standpoint by suggesting that Buddhism was a barbarian cult, and that the Buddha himself was a barbarian—meaning someone who does not know the proper relationship between ruler and minister, father and son, or who does not wear ancient Chinese garb. Hence, if the Buddha were to arrive in China the emperor would merely give him an audience, a banquet, and award him a suit of clothes, after which he would be escorted under guard to the border. Han Yu thought that Buddhism threatened the Confucian administration of Chinese society by inciting people to publicly worship the Buddha bone.

Confucian And Chinese Patriarchs

During the Song dynasty (960–1279) Confucian scholars and Buddhist monks were both bitter enemies and close allies. The early Song court supported new Buddhist translation projects, awarded exceptional patronage to followers of the CHAN SCHOOL,
and facilitated debates between Confucian officials about fiscal, educational, and social policies. After the An Lushan rebellion, patronage for Buddhism and its institutions fell to a new southern gentry class, formed through the massive population shift southward as people fled the war-torn north. Between 742 and 1200, the population of north China grew by 58 percent, while it doubled or tripled in the south. Most of the new southern gentry were not connected to the elite families that provided the pool of civil-service applicants between the Han and Tang dynasties. Therefore, the Song imperial examinations provided the basis for a much more loyal and dynamic Confucianeducated bureaucracy than ever before. On the borders of Song territory, non-Chinese states threatened the Confucian world order, and the gentry literati
(wenren) produced by the examination system responded in two ways: the "learning of culture" and neo-Confucianism.

Adherents of the learning of culture approach, including the poet and scholar Su Shi (1036–1101), argued that Chinese (Confucian) culture endured through literature, including the cultivation of poetry and prose. To Su Shi, Buddhist doctrines did not clash with Confucian principles, and Buddhist monks, especially from the Chan lineage, could appreciate the value of cultural patterns and transmit them too. Those who supported neo-Confucianism, however, vehemently condemned the renunciant lifestyle and popular appeal of Buddhism. Initially, Zhou Dunyi
(1017–1073) and the Cheng brothers—Cheng Yi
(1033–1107) and Cheng Hao (1032–1085)—and later Zhu Xi (1130–1200) advocated studying the path of ancient Confucian sages, in particular Mencius, in order to rectify one's character, become a moral leader of society, and follow the principle, rather than the manifested phenomena (ji), of the ancients. Zhu Xi, in particular, encouraged followers to study the "four books" in addition to the traditional five classics: the Analects, the teachings of Mencius, Daoxue (Great Learning), and Zhongyong (Doctrine of the Mean). Later followers sometimes included the Xiaojing (Classic of Filial Piety) instead of Mencius. Neo-Confucians contended that they transmitted the knowledge and foundation for dynastic and social legitimacy (zhengtong),
which had been ignored since the time of Mencius. Even though neo-Confucian notions of transmission and self-cultivation were directly borrowed from the Chan school, Chan Buddhists became the principal focus of neo-Confucian indignation.

Gentry And Popular Buddhism

It was not until 1313 that the neo-Confucian approach to official education outlined in the Cheng-Zhu school was adopted as the state orthodoxy. During subsequent dynasties, tensions grew between Cheng-Zhu trained officials and Buddhist monks and nuns. Without learning of culture supporters, the Chinese san˙ gha, which was now dominated by members of the Chan lineage, became more focused on obtaining patronage from local gentry than from the state. During the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), the Confucian official Wang Yangming (1472–1529) turned to Chan Buddhist practices and teachings to create a Confucian meditation practice known as quiet sitting (jingzuo). Monasteries received largesse from local gentry and became centers of learning and culture at a time when the state could no longer support local Confucian academies. Buddhism during the Ming and Qing (1644–1911) dynasties became an integral part of the three teachings triad of institutionalized Chinese religions. This occurred despite the increasing divide between Confucian officials and Buddhists, and Buddhist rhetoric to the contrary, which was influenced by foreign imperial houses importing Tibetan and Mongolian Buddhist traditions into the Chinese capital of Beijing.

See also: China; Daoism and Buddhism; Syncretic Sects: Three Teachings

Bol, Peter K. "This Culture of Ours": Intellectual Transitions in T'ang and Sung China. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1992.

Brook, Timothy. Praying for Power: Buddhism and the Formation of Gentry Society in Late-Ming China. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, 1993.

Gernet, Jacques. Buddhism in Chinese Society: An Economic History from the Fifth to the Tenth Centuries, tr. Franciscus Verellen. New York: Columbia University Press, 1995.

Zürcher, E. The Buddhist Conquest of China: The Spread and Adaptation of Buddhism in Early Medieval China. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 1959. Reprint, 1972.

GEORGE A. KEYWORTH

Consciousness, Theories Of

The English word consciousness usually translates the Sanskrit word vijñana (Pali, viññana), although in some contexts vijñana comes closer to the concept of subconsciousness. In Buddhism in general (except in the Yogacara tradition), vijñana is considered to be synonymous with two other Sanskrit words—citta and manas—that roughly correspond to the English word mind. Buddhism denies the existence of a substantial and everlasting soul (atman), but unlike materialistic traditions, Buddhism never negates the existence of consciousness (or mind). From a Buddhist point of view, consciousness is differentiated from the soul in that the former is an ever-changing, momentary, and impermanent element. Consciousness, however, is considered to continue like a stream and is thought to be somehow transmitted from one life to the next, thus enabling karmic causality over lifetimes. This continuity of consciousness represents, in a sense, the personal identity. Consciousness also keeps the body alive and distinguishes animate beings from inanimate elements. Therefore, consciousness is one of the key factors of Buddhism.

When the word consciousness is used, it appears to refer mainly to the cognitive function directed to its object. Thus, this word is defined in the Sam- yuttanikaya (Kindred Sayings) III:87 as: "Because it recognizes [something], it is called consciousness."
More specifically, six types of consciousness are enumerated in Buddhist texts: visual consciousness, auditory consciousness, olfactory consciousness, gustatory consciousness, tactile consciousness, and mental consciousness. These six consciousnesses must be supported by the corresponding, unimpaired sense faculties (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind) in order to recognize their respective objects (color/form, sound, smell, taste, tactile sensation, and concepts). When these three elements (sense faculty, object, and consciousness) come together ("contact," spars´a), cognition comes about.

The word consciousness, however, often appears without specification regarding sense faculty or object, as, for example in the list of the five SKANDHA (AGGREGATE): body/matter (rupa), sensation (vedana), ideation (sam- jña), volition (sam- skara), and consciousness (vijñana). This type of bare "consciousness" is also found in several other important contexts.

Rebirth And The Theory Of Dependent Origination

The notion of consciousness plays a cardinal role in the context of REBIRTH, within the large framework of PRATITYASAMUTPADA (DEPENDENT ORIGINATION). In those early scriptures that propound very simple forms of Buddhist causation there are two basic patterns: one centering on consciousness and psycho-physical existence (namarupa), and the other centering on desire (tr-s-n-a) and appropriation (upadhi, upadana). According to the scriptures that put forth the first pattern, as long as the consciousness has objects (alambana) to be conceived and to be attached to, it stays in the realm of SAM- SARA, and the psycho-physical existence will enter the womb (i.e., one will be reborn in the next life without being liberated from sam- sara). Scriptural admonitions to guard the "doors" of one's sense faculties so that one does not grasp at cognitive objects would be closely related to this idea of consciousness.

Since several expressions meaning desire also appear in the context of consciousness attached to its objects, these two patterns are in fact closely related. Eventually these two patterns were combined into more developed systems of dependent origination, consisting of ten or twelve items. Even the full-fledged system of the twelve causal links basically consists of two portions: the first (one through seven; ignorance through sensation) centering on consciousness, and the second (eight through twelve; desire through old age and death) centering on desire. (Later Sarvastivada and Yogacara interpretations of dependent origination, though differing greatly from each other, also support this division.) Therefore, the full-fledged theory of dependent origination is in a way an elaboration of the simpler causation theories described above. In this system also, the third item, consciousness, is usually understood as the consciousness at the moment of conception, and thus it retains its nature as described in the very early texts.

According to Yogacara tradition, at the time of one's death, a powerful attachment to one's own existence arises and makes one's consciousness grasp the next life. Furthermore, according to both the Sarvastivada and Yogacara schools, the consciousness in the INTERMEDIATE STATE sees the parents making love. If the being is about to be reborn as a boy, he is attached to the mother and hates the father. If the being is about to be reborn as a girl, she is attached to the father and hates the mother. Driven by this perverted thought, the being enters the womb, and the consciousness merges with the united semen and "blood," after which the semen-blood combination becomes a sentient embryo. Even when a being is about to be reborn in a hell, it misconceives the hell as something desirable, and driven by its attachment to the "desirable place," it hastens to the hell. Thus, in these cases also, the basic structure of consciousness attached to some object and bound to the realm of sam- sara resembles the structure of consciousness found in the less developed stage of Buddhist causation theory.

The AlayavijñaNa Theory And The Theory Of The Eight Consciousnesses

In the YOGACARA SCHOOL, consciousness that merges with the semen-blood combination is understood as the storehouse consciousness (ALAYAVIJNANA). According to this school, the storehouse consciousness, the deepest layer of one's subconsciousness, maintains all the residue of past KARMA (ACTION) as "seeds," which will give rise to their fruits in the future. This theory enabled the Yogacara school to explain the problems of reincarnation and karmic retribution without resorting to the concept of substantial soul.

The storehouse consciousness is also linked to the idealistic theory propounded by Yogacara. Buddhism had an idealistic tendency from the early stages of its history, and the state of the external world was linked to the collective karma/desire of SENTIENT BEINGS. An interesting example is found in a Buddhist cosmogonical legend, which states that as the desire of sentient beings became more gross, the surrounding world became less and less attractive. On the basis of meditative experiences, the Yogacara tradition elaborated this tendency into a sophisticated philosophical system in which the world that people experience is actually a projection of their own consciousness. The seeds kept in the storehouse consciousness are considered to be the source of this projected world.

Another important function of the storehouse consciousness is the physiological maintenance of the body. Since the early stages of Buddhism, consciousness was considered to be the element that distinguishes animate beings from inanimate matter. Unless consciousness appropriates (i.e., maintains) the body, the body becomes a senseless corpse. Since, however, the stream of consciousnesses on the surface level is sometimes interrupted (as in the states of dreamless sleep, fainting, or deep absorption), it was difficult to explain how the body is maintained during those unconscious periods. Because the storehouse consciousness continues to operate even when the surface consciousnesses do not arise, the introduction of the storehouse consciousness solves the problem of physiological maintenance of the body.

In addition to the storehouse consciousness, the Yogacara school introduced another subconscious layer of mind, namely the defiled mind (klis-t-amanas). This is a subconscious ego-consciousness that is always operative in the depths of the mind. According to the Yogacara system, the defiled mind is always directed to the storehouse consciousness and mistakes the latter for a substantial self. By introducing the concept of defiled mind, the Yogacara school pointed out that the subconscious ego-mind is hiding behind the scene even when one is trying to do good things on the conscious level. Thus, from this point of view, the minds of deluded, ordinary sentient beings are always defiled, regardless of the moral nature of the surface consciousnesses. Thus, in addition to the conventional six types of consciousness, the Yogacara school introduced two subconscious layers of mind—defiled mind and storehouse consciousness—and constructed a system of eight types of consciousness. These eight consciousnesses are linked to citta, manas, and vijñana in the following way: The storehouse consciousness corresponds to citta, the defiled mind to manas, and the conventional six consciousnesses to vijñana.

Simultaneous Versus Successive Operations Of Plural Consciousnesses

Since the Yogacara model of eight consciousnesses means that two layers of unconscious mind are always operating behind the conventional six consciousnesses, it naturally presupposes the simultaneous operations of different types of consciousness. This position, however, was not uncontroversial among Buddhist traditions. Since the stream of consciousness represents a personal identity in Buddhism, there was a strong opinion that more than one stream of consciousness could not exist simultaneously in any sentient being at a given moment. According to this position, strongly advocated by the Sarvastivada school, when one feels, for example, that one is seeing something and listening to something at the same time, the visual consciousness and the auditory consciousness are in fact operating in rapid succession and not simultaneously.

It is recorded that some schools belonging to the Mahasam- ghika lineage did not share this opinion, but it seems to have been widely accepted by other schools.

The SAUTRANTIKA (Those Who Follow Sutras) tradition, which, according to the common view, was an offshoot of the Sarvastivada school, was considered to have shared the Sarvastivada opinion on this matter, but this has been questioned recently by some scholars.

SautraNtika Theories Of Consciousness

The exact identity of the tradition called "Sautrantika" is one of the biggest problems in current Buddhist scholarship. Sautrantika is commonly believed to have been preceded by a tradition called Dars-t-antika (Those Who Resort to Similes). However, the exact relationship between these two traditions is a matter of dispute. Generally speaking, both Dars-t-antika and Sautrantika seem to have had nominalistic tendencies; thus they challenged the realistic system of Sarvastivada on many points. For example, in both the Sarvastivada and Yogacara schools, consciousness(es) are considered to be associated with various psychological factors (caitta), such as lust and hatred, which are themselves distinct elements. The Dars-t-antika tradition, on the other hand, treats psychological factors as something not distinct from the consciousness itself.

The Dars-t-antika and Sautrantika traditions also tend not to admit a causal relationship between two simultaneous elements. In order for a cause to bring about a result, the cause must be at least one moment prior to the result. Thus, the cognitive object, which is considered to be a cause of consciousness, must precede the cognition of that object. In addition, what one perceives is the cognitive image of an object within one's consciousness; one cannot directly perceive the object itself. The existence of the external object, however, is inferred from its cognitive image.

Theory Of Consciousness In Buddhist Epistemology

The Dars-t-antika and Sautrantika traditions are considered to have exerted a strong influence over Buddhist epistemologists such as DIGNAGA (ca. 480–540)
and DHARMAKIRTI (ca. 600–660). At the same time, Dignaga also clearly inherited the idealistic system of Yogacara, as is shown in the theory of cognition cognizing itself (svasam- vitti) in the Praman-asamuccaya
(verses 1.8cd–12).

Further, one of Dignaga's important contributions
(Praman-asamuccaya [Collected Writings on the Means of Cognition], verses 1.2–8ab) was the redefinition of perception (pratyaks-a) and its strict differentiation from inference (anumana). He maintained that the cognition of the five sense consciousnesses (from visual through tactile) are always perception, and that the mental consciousness operates in both perception and inference. This distinction between the five sense consciousnesses and the mental consciousness is in line with the theories of Sarvastivada and Yogacara.

Relationship With The TathaGatagarbha Theory

Another development in the theory of consciousness is the association of the storehouse consciousness with the TATHAGATAGARBHA (embryo of tathagata, or buddha-nature) theory. The storehouse consciousness was originally conceived as the root of the deluded mind and the defiled world, and thus is itself defiled. It was to be transformed into pure wisdom when one attains awakening, but the storehouse consciousness before the transformation was not considered to be a pure element in the original Yogacara system. However, some lines of the Yogacara tradition, most notably the position presented in the LAN˙ KAVATARASUTRA (Discourse on the Occasion of the [Buddha's] Entry into Lan˙ ka) came to associate, and even identify, the storehouse consciousness with the tathagatagarbha, the pure element latent in deluded, ordinary beings. Since some Indian masters who transmitted the Yogacara doctrine to China, most notably PARAMARTHA (499–569), were heavily influenced by these lines of thought, the exact relationship between the storehouse consciousness and the tathagatagarbha became an important issue in Chinese Buddhism.

See also: Anatman/A tman (No-Self/Self); Philosophy; Psychology; Sarvastivada and Mulasarvastivada

Aramaki, Noritoshi. "On the Formation of a Short Prose Prattyasamutpada Sutra." In Buddhism and Its Relation to Other Religions: Essays in Honour of Dr. Shozen Kumoi on His Seventieth Birthday, ed. Kumoi Shozen Hakushi Koki Kinenkai. Kyoto: Heirakuji Shoten, 1985.

Hattori, Masaaki, ed. and trans. Dignaga, on Perception, Being the Pratyaks-apariccheda of Dignaga's Praman-asamuccaya from the Sanskrit Fragments and the Tibetan Versions. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1968.

Kritzer, Robert. Rebirth and Causation in the Yogacara Abhidharma. Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien, Universität Wien, 1999.

Schmithausen, Lambert. A layavijñana: On the Origin and the Early Development of a Central Concept of Yogacara Philosophy. Tokyo: International Institute for Buddhist Studies, 1987.

NOBUYOSHI YAMABE

Consecration

Consecration has been broadly defined as "an act or ritual that invests objects, places, or people with religious significance, often by way of power and holiness"
(Bowker, p. 234). In terms of Buddhism, consecration has been characterized as a ritual that transmutes an image or a STUPA from a mundane object into the nature of a Buddha (Bentor 1997). Consecrated objects include not only images and stupas, but representational paintings, books, and other objects. Abhis-eka, the Sanskrit term ordinarily translated as "consecration," expands this signification to include KINGSHIP
(rajabhis-eka) and designates the act or ritual specifically as one of sprinkling or anointing with sacred water. This entry deals with the ritual techniques for sanctifying objects that figure specifically in Buddhist devotional practice, in particular images and stupaenshrined relics, to the exclusion of sacred places such as monasteries and revered personages such as monks and kings. Furthermore, even though water lustration features prominently in consecration rituals, this essay broadens the meaning of abhis-eka beyond the act of anointing to include various techniques and devices by which these objects are sacralized, making them powerful and auspicious both for what they symbolize or represent and what they become via the act of consecration. For example, a consecrated BUDDHA IMAGE simultaneously both represents and is the living presence of the Buddha, while an unconsecrated image merely symbolizes the Blessed One.

An image of the Buddha or a Buddhist saint becomes an icon in the sense that it partakes of the substance of that which it represents by means of a consecration ritual. By contrast, a bodily relic of the Buddha (´ar s l
radhatu) by its inherent nature partakes of the Buddha's very substance. Consequently, a stupa becomes an icon when it enshrines a relic, and a relic may be placed inside a Buddha image for the same purpose. A bodily relic so employed serves as one of the means by which Buddha images and stupas are consecrated. The Chinese practice of venerating the mummified body of an eminent monk can be seen as the ultimate expression of such iconization, the complete fusion of an image of a saint and relic-body.

As different signs or material artifacts of use and association—footprint, bodhi tree, alms bowl, image, and even book—came to signify the presence of the absent ("parinirvan-ized") Buddha, so various ritual techniques evolved for instilling them with the presence and power of the Buddha. Not surprisingly, the primary signs were associated with the most important venues of devotional practice, namely, stupa enshrined relics and Buddha images. Throughout Buddhist Asia from India to Japan, stupas, pagodas, and image halls became major features of that part of the monastic complex referred to as the "Buddha's dwelling place" (buddhavasa), complementing the "monk's dwelling place"
(san˙ ghavasa). As these terms suggest, the monastery served and continues to serve not only as a place where monks pursue the paths of meditation and study but participate in devotional practices as ritual functionaries. One of the ritual acts performed by monks that is central to venerating the Buddha (buddhapuja) includes consecrating icons.

Making The Buddha Present

Not surprisingly, all consecration rituals throughout Asia are not the same. They reflect different Buddhist traditions as well as the particular cultures in which they flourished. Although no one ritual fits all cases, there are commonalities. Preeminently, Buddha images and relics as well as other material artifacts associated with the Buddha make the Buddha available to a particular time and place. In doing so they serve as the Buddha's functional equivalent or double, especially in ritual contexts.

The Kosalabimbavan-n-ana (The Laudatory Account of the Kosala Image), a thirteenth-century Pali Sinhalese text, describes how the image functions as the Buddha's double. Like the better known Mahayana version of the story associated with King Udayana, the Buddha's absence becomes the occasion for the construction of an image of the Blessed One. In the Pali rendition, King Pasenadi of Kosala pays the Buddha a visit only to find him away on a journey. When the Buddha returns the following day, the king laments how disappointed he was not to see the Buddha and requests that an image in the likeness of the tathagata be made for the benefit of the whole world. The Blessed One acquiesces, adding that whoever builds an image of whatever size and material accrues an immeasurable, incalculable benefit. Returning to his residence, King Pasenadi (Sanskrit, Prasenajit) orders a Buddha image made of sandalwood displaying the thirty-two marks of a Great Person (Sanskrit, mahapurus-a; Pali, mahapurisa) inlaid with gold and clothed in yellow robes. After its completion he invites the Buddha to see the image housed in a bejeweled shrine. As the Buddha enters the shrine, the statue behaves as if it were animated, rising to greet the Fully Enlightened One who states that after his parinirvan-a the image will perpetuate his teaching (dharma) for five thousand years.

The story stipulates that presencing the Buddha through material relics, in this case an image, provides the locus for the expression of religious sentiment and the opportunity to make merit through ritual offerings. Furthermore, in materializing the Buddha and the dharma—a key feature of consecration ritualsuch representations ensure the perpetuation of the religion (sasana).

Consecration As Transformation

Phenomenologically, consecration rituals transform images, caitya, and other material signs of the Buddha into Buddha surrogates. As recounted in the MAHAPARINIRVAN-A-SUTRA, at the Buddha's cremation his body is transmuted into corporeal relics, not by water as in an abhis-eka rite, but via fire. The parinirvan-ed body assumes a new, dispersed form in bodily relics, objectified artifacts of the Buddha's charisma. Regarding Buddha images, the Kosalabimbavan-n-ana and other textual accounts ascribe qualities of the living Buddha to the icon, including animation. "Opening the eyes of the Buddha," the pan-Buddhist term for image consecration rituals, conveys a similar meaning. A mere object, in this case an anthropomorphic representation rather than a crystalline relic, becomes a buddha. In East Asia eye-opening rituals were also believed to enliven portraits of charismatic monks as well as empower ancestral tablets (Japanese, ihai) enshrined in monasteries and home altars.

In Southeast Asia such transformation involves a mimetic ritual process informed, as Bernard Faure suggests in his study of the flesh icons of mummified Chan monks, by the "logic of metonymy and synecdoche in which the shadow or trace becomes as real as the body" (p. 170). The northern Thai consecration ritual begins at sunset and concludes at sunrise, mirroring the three watches of the night of the bodhisattva's achievement of buddhahood. During the course of the evening, monks recite the story of the future Buddha's renunciation of worldly goals, his years as a wandering ascetic, MARA's temptations, and his final awakening. In Cambodia and northern Thailand reenactments of episodes from the Buddha's biography, in particular Sujata's offering of milk and honey rice gruel, highlight the performative nature of the ritual. At sunrise monks chant the auspicious verses attributed to the Buddha upon his awakening: "Through many a birth I wandered in sam- sara, seeing, but not finding the builder of the house. Sorrowful is birth again and again. O house-builder! You are seen. You shall build no house again. All your rafters are broken; your ridgepole is shattered. My mind has attained the unconditioned; the end of craving is achieved."
The physical space in which the consecration ritual is conducted also mimetically replicates the Buddha's biography. Throughout the ceremony the main image being consecrated is placed on a bed of grass under a bodhi tree sapling in a monastery's image hall. The area is designated as the bodhiman-d-a, the throne of enlightenment that miraculously grew from a grass mat, the dana gift provided the future Buddha by Sottiya, the forester. An auspicious cord extends from the previously consecrated temple image around the bodhiman-d-a, thereby forging a conduit to the first Buddha image authenticated by the Buddha himself. Other ritual paraphernalia symbolize specific episodes in the story of the bodhisattva's enlightenment quest, as well as the tathagata Buddhas of the current age.

During the ceremony the heads of the images placed within the bodhiman-d-a are shrouded by a white cloth and their eyes covered with beeswax. They have been sequestered, much as the future Buddha left his palace and sought the solitude of the forest. At sunrise, monks chant the gatha (verse) of awakening and the head and eye coverings of the images are removed, symbolizing that with the opening of the eyes, the images have been infused with the qualities of Buddhahood: "The Buddha filled with boundless compassion practiced the thirty perfections for many eons, finally reaching enlightenment. I pay homage to that Buddha. May all these qualities be invested in this image. May the Buddha's boundless omniscience be invested in this image until the ´assana ceases to exist." In different Buddhist cultures the act of opening the eyes of the image takes different forms. Eyes may be symbolically or literally painted on the image or the eye lightly scratched with a needle; regardless of its form, however, it is by opening an image's eyes that it becomes a living cult icon.

The ritual process that transforms mere image to iconic Buddha substitute imprints the Buddha's story on the image. Narratives play an equally important role in the transformation of other material artifacts into representations of the Buddha and Buddhist saints.

Stupa enshrined relics dot the map of the Buddha's itinerary throughout greater Asia: The generous distribution of HAIR relics, predictions of the future discovery of bone relics by righteous monarchs, and footprints embedded in stone and earth witness to the continuing presence of the Buddha. Stories associated with these events figure prominently not only in the creation of sacred sites but in annual reconsecration and renewal ceremonies.

That a corporeal relic may be inserted into a Buddha image and images may be enshrined in a stupa together with relics points to the belief that both serve as living Buddha icons. As further evidence of this belief, image consecration rituals in northern Thailand may include the insertion of a set of internal organs made from silver into the image. When a cavity in the back of the sandalwood image brought to Japan by the Japanese Buddhist pilgrim Chonen (938–1016) and enshrined at Seiryoji in Kyoto was opened up in 1954, it was found to contain a similar set of internal organs made from silk.

Buddhahood requires extraordinary mental and physical attainments. Consequently, instilling these miraculous qualities into the image figures prominently in consecration rituals. In northern Thailand, the Buddha image consecration sutta infusing mental and spiritual perfections (parami) into the image is recited, monks reputed to have achieved higher states of mental awareness and power are said to "pour" (phae)
them into the consecrated images while seated in meditation around the bodhiman-d-a. In the Tibetan tradition sadhana meditation techniques are at the core of the consecration (rab gnas) of images and stupas.

Elaborate visualization procedures involve several stages: dissolving the object to be consecrated into emptiness; visualizing the chosen Buddha (yi dam)
out of emptiness; inviting this Buddha and its visualized form into the image; transforming them into nonduality; and finally transforming nondual emptiness into the original appearance of the image. (Bentor 1997).

Consecration As Dharmicization

On the night of his enlightenment, the Buddha perceived the cause of suffering and the path to its cessation. This awakening resulted in penetrating the illusions that obscure understanding the nature of things
(dharma) as ANITYA (IMPERMANENCE) and causally coarising and interdependent (PRATITYASAMUTPADA). In short, the terms buddha and dharma are mutually inclusive; buddhahood necessitates dharmicization. Consequently, stupas, images, and other signs of the Buddha, such as the bodhi tree, represent the dharma as well, recalling the statement attributed to the Buddha, "Whoever sees me, sees the dharma." Consecration rituals, therefore, not only Buddhacize objects, they also dharmicize them.

Dharmicization as a function of consecration rituals takes several different forms. Copies of sutras and other texts may be placed in larger than life-size images or stupas during consecration rituals. This practice contributed to the "cult of the book" as a material relic of the Buddha, especially in the Mahayana tradition. Evidence for the practice of magically infusing the formula of dependent origination ("Those dharmas which arise from a cause/the tathagata has declared their cause/and that which is their cessation/thus the great renunciant has taught") into images ad stupas exists from the second century C.E. and continues to the present as a pan-Buddhist practice. In the Tibetan tradition, ATISHA (982–1054) refers to the mantric use of this formula in consecration rituals, and it is currently employed in conjunction with mirror divination in Chinese and Korean Buddha image consecrations.

Other Buddhist traditions employ signature sutras as a central feature of image consecration. In the Japanese NICHIREN SCHOOL it is believed that placing the LOTUS SUTRA (SADDHARMAPUN- D-ARIKA-SUTRA) before an image during its consecration guarantees that it will become a Buddha of pure and perfect teaching (Stone).

In Southeast Asia elaborate techniques developed for dharmacizing Buddha images and stupas. In northern Thailand the construction of a Buddha image or a stupa included attaching dharmic yantras (diagrams)
to it, and in Cambodia implanting dharmic marks
(Sanskrit, laks-an-a; Pali, lakkhan-a) plays a central role in the consecration of a Buddha image. The officiating monk touches various parts of the body of the image while chanting Pali phrases (DHARAN-I), thereby creating a dharmic body of doctrinal concepts corresponding to the bodily parts of the image. This transmutation enables a representation made from wood or bronze, already rendered living by the opening of the eyes, to become a cult icon worthy of veneration (Bizot).

Consecration As Empowerment

The cult of relics, images, portraits, mummified remains, and other representations of the Buddha and Buddhist saints reflect a thaumaturgical belief that the miraculous powers associated with extraordinary spiritual attainment can be objectified in material form.

Thus, consecration rituals incarnate the Buddha and ARHATs not primarily as idealized spiritual mentors and personifications of the dharma but as wonderworkers, protectors, and grantors of boons. Consecration rituals, therefore, infuse into these icons a variety of powers associated especially with the mental and physical attributes acquired through ascetic practices, especially meditation.

Since from the outset the Buddha was venerated not only as a teacher but as a miracle worker, representations of the Blessed One can be seen in similar terms.

The cult of the power of relics and images should not be understood as a later, degenerate form of Buddhist piety but as one of the ingredients of Buddhist belief and practice from its earliest days. Consecration rituals, in this regard, can be seen as a practical means by which this aspect of Buddhism spread and flourished throughout Buddhist Asia.

In Cambodia the consecration ritual infuses not only the Buddha's supernal qualities associated with his awakening into the image but various protective powers, including the power of gods and spirits, the souls of ancestors, and tutelary deities. During the 1989 consecration of the repaired stupa atop Doi Suthep mountain overlooking the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai, the powers of the protective spirits of the mountain, the spirits of wonder-working ascetics who dwell on the mountain, and Chiang Mai's renowned kings were invoked, as well as the power of the Buddha relics enshrined there.

Annual rituals reconsecrating images and relicenshrined stupas are often accompanied by stories bearing witness to their miraculous powers. Relics radiating brilliant rays appear before awed onlookers, or valued images reputed to have previously disappeared or been stolen may suddenly reappear in order to be lustrated and otherwise venerated by the faithful. Moreover, consecration rituals are not only occasions to enliven and empower new or repaired images. Devotees may bring previously consecrated home shrine images, AMULETS AND TALISMANS, and other representations of the Buddha and Buddhist saints to be reconsecrated time and again, thereby increasing their perceived protective power and their real economic value.

Buddhist consecration rituals embody the complexity of the religion's rich cultural tapestry. In particular, they open a window to a more nuanced understanding of Buddhist devotionalism where images, relics, and other material representations of the Buddha and Buddhist saints occupy a central place.

See also: Initiation; Relics and Relics Cults; Reliquary;
Space, Sacred

Bentor, Yael. Consecration of Images and Stupas in Indo-Tibetan Tantric Buddhism. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 1996.

Bentor, Yael. "The Horseback Consecration Ritual." In Religions of Tibet in Practice, ed. Donald S. Lopez, Jr. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997.

Bizot, François. "La consecration des statues et le culte des morts." In Recherches nouvelles sur le Cambodge, ed. François Bizot. Paris: École Francaise d'Extreme-Orient, 1994.

Bowker, John, ed. Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Faure, Bernard. The Rhetoric of Immediacy: A Cultural Critique of Chan/Zen Buddhism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991.

Gombrich, Richard. "The Consecration of a Buddha Image."
Journal of Asian Studies 26, no. 1 (1966): 23–36.

Ruelius, Hans. "Netrapratisthapana-eine Singhalesische Zeremonie zur Weihe von Kultbildern." In Buddhism in Ceylon and Studies in Religious Syncretism in Buddhist Countries, ed. Heinz Bechert. Götttingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1978.

Stone, Jacqueline. "Opening the Eyes of Wooden and Painted Images." In The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin. Tokyo: Soka Gakkai, 1999.

Swearer, Donald K. "Hypostasizing the Buddha: Buddha Image Consecration in Northern Thailand." History of Religions 34, no. 3 (1995): 263–280.

Swearer, Donald K. Becoming the Buddha. Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 2004.

Thompson, Laurence G. "Consecration Magic in Chinese Religion." Journal of Chinese Religions 19 (1991): 1–12.

DONALD K. SWEARER

Conversion

In most times and places allegiance to Buddhism has not been an exclusive affair. Buddhist devotees have felt comfortable worshipping various local deities, as well as earning merit by making offerings to nonBuddhist mendicants (in India), embracing Confucian as well as Buddhist values (in China), or visiting Shinto shrines as well as Buddhist temples (in Japan). The inscriptions of the Indian king AS´OKA (ca. mid-third century B.C.E.)—the earliest surviving written Buddhist records—portray him both as affirming his own Buddhist identity and as supporting other religious groups. The English word conversion, usually understood to mean the complete abandonment of one religion and exclusive adherence to another, has little relevance in such a setting.

The closest analogue to the Western notion of individual conversion is the act of becoming a lay brother
(upasaka) or lay sister (upasika), portrayed in early scriptures as a formal act of affiliation involving "taking refuge" in the three jewels (buddha, dharma, and SAN˙ GHA) and vowing to uphold the five lay PRECEPTS.

Similar rituals are still performed today in many Buddhist societies, ranging from Sri Lanka to Taiwan. An alternative analogue might be found in the experience of becoming a stream-enterer (Pali, sotapanna), at which point one is said to attain a firsthand conviction of the truth of the Buddha's teachings. This generally takes place, however, only after a prolonged period of practice, demonstrating once again the lack of fit between the idea of conversion and Buddhist maps of the PATH.

Most commonly, adherence to Buddhism has not been the result of individual acts of faith but of a choice made by a ruler (e.g., in Sri Lanka in the third century B.C.E. or in Japan and Tibet in the seventh century C.E.) in the course of political consolidation and imposed upon the population at large. Such top-down or societal conversion (Horton) has been the standard mode of transmission of Buddhism outside India, with the notable exceptions of China and the West. Such exclusive state sponsorship has often been temporary, with a return to the norm of accommodating other local religious practices once a new political equilibrium has been achieved.

Examples of conversion in the exclusivist sense are easiest to find in Buddhist societies that have been significantly affected by a Western colonial or missionary presence, such as Sri Lanka (where the public conversion to Buddhism by Colonel Henry Steel Olcott under British colonial rule in the late nineteenth century has left a lasting legacy) or South Korea (where the growth of Protestant Christianity in recent decades has led to a strong polarization between Buddhists and Christians). Some Buddhist-based "new religions" in Japan, above all the SO KA GAKKAI, also require their followers to renounce all other religious beliefs and practices.

Ironically, the Western notion of conversion appears to be falling out of favor among new adherents of Buddhism in the West, who often describe themselves as "taking up the practice of Buddhism" rather than "converting to the Buddhist religion." This reluctance to use the term conversion reflects not only the traditional absence of a sharp boundary between Buddhist and non-Buddhist practices in Asian societies, but also the profound changes currently taking place in the very notion of what constitutes "religion" in the modern West. See also: Colonialism and Buddhism; Local Divinities and Buddhism; Ordination

Adikaram, E. W. Early History of Buddhism in Ceylon. Colombo, Sri Lanka: M. D. Gunasena, 1953.

Beltz, Johannes. Mahar, Bouddhiste, et Dalit: conversion religieuse et emancipation sociopolitique dans l'Inde des castes.
Bern, Switzerland: Lang, 2001.

Gregory, Peter N. "Describing the Elephant: Buddhism in America." Religion in American Culture 11, no. 2 (2001): 233–263.

Hammond, Phillip E., and Machacek, David W. Soka Gakkai in America: Accommodation and Conversion. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Horton, Robin. "African Conversion." Africa 41, no. 2 (1971):
85–108.

Kapstein, Matthew. The Tibetan Assimilation of Buddhism: Conversion, Contestation, and Memory. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Nattier, Jan. "Who Is a Buddhist? Charting the Landscape of Buddhist America." In The Faces of Buddhism in America, ed. Charles S. Prebish and Kenneth K. Tanaka. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.

Prothero, Stephen. The White Buddhist: The Asian Odyssey of Henry Steel Olcott. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996.

Thapar, Romila. Asoka and the Decline of the Mauryas, 2nd edition. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1973.

Zürcher, Erik. The Buddhist Conquest of China: The Spread and Adaptation of Buddhism in Early Medieval China. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 1959.

JAN NATTIER

Cosmology

Although the earliest Buddhist texts of the MAINSTREAM BUDDHIST SCHOOLS—the nikayas or agamas (fourth to third century B.C.E.)—do not set out a systematic cosmology, many of the ideas and details of the developed cosmology of the later traditions are, in fact, present in these texts. Some of these have been borrowed and adapted from the common pool of early Indian cosmological notions indicated in, for example, the Vedic texts (1500 to 500 B.C.E.). The early ideas and details are elaborated in the later texts of systematic Buddhist thought, the ABHIDHARMA (third to second century B.C.E.), and presented as a coherent and consistent whole, with some variation, in the exegetical abhidharma commentaries and manuals that date from the early centuries C.E. Three principal abhidharma traditions are known to contemporary Buddhism and scholarship, those of the THERAVADA, the Sarvastivada, and the Yogacara. The Theravada or "southern" tradition has shaped the outlook of Buddhism in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. The Sarvastivada or "northern" tradition fed into the abhidharma system of the MAHAYANA school of thought known as "yoga practice" (yogacara) or "ideas only" (vijñaptimatra), and their perspective on many points has passed into the traditions of East Asian and Tibetan Buddhism. The elaborate cosmology presented by these abhidharma systems is substantially the same, differing only on points of detail. This traditional cosmology remains of relevance to the worldview of ordinary Buddhists in traditional Buddhist societies.

Along with many of the details, the four basic principles of the developed abhidharma Buddhist cosmology are assumed by the nikaya and agama texts:

1. The universe has no specific creator; the sufficient cause for its existence is to be found in the Buddhist cycle of causal conditioning known as PRATITYASAMUTPADA (DEPENDENT ORIGINATION).
2. There is no definite limit to the universe, either spatially or temporally.
3. The universe comprises various realms of existence that constitute a hierarchy.
4. All beings are continually reborn in the various realms in accordance with their past KARMA (ACTION); the only escape from this endless round of REBIRTH, known as SAM- SARA, is the knowledge that constitutes the attainment of NIRVAN-A.

Levels Of Existence

The abhidharma systems agree that sam- sara embraces thirty-one principal levels of existence, although they record slight variations in the lists of these levels. Any being may be born into any one of these levels. In fact, during the course of their wandering through sam- sara it is perhaps likely that all beings have at some time or another been born in most of these levels of existence.

The most basic division of the thirty-one levels is threefold: the realm of sensuality (kamadhatu, -loka) at the bottom of the hierarchy; the realm of pure form or subtle materiality (rupadhatu, -loka) in the middle; and the formless realm (arupadhatu, -loka) at the top.

The realm of sensuality is inhabited by beings endowed with the five physical senses and with minds that are in one way or another generally occupied with the objects of the senses. The sensual realm is further divided into unhappy destinies and happy destinies. Unhappy destinies comprise various unpleasant forms of existence consisting of a number of HELLS, hungry ghosts (preta), animals, and jealous gods (asura, which are, according to some, a separate level, but to others, a class of being subsumed under the category of either hungry ghosts or gods). Rebirth in these realms is as a result of unwholesome (akus´ala) actions of body, speech, and thought (e.g., killing, taking what is not given, sexual misconduct, idle chatter, covetousness, ill will, wrong view, and untrue, harsh, or divisive speech).

The happy destinies of the sensual realm comprise various increasingly pleasant forms of existence consisting of human existence and existence as a divinity or god
(deva) in one of the six heavens of the sense world. Rebirth in these realms is a result of wholesome (kus´ala) actions of body, speech, and thought, which are opposed to unwholesome kinds of action.

Above the relatively gross world of the senses is the subtler world of "pure form." This consists of further heavenly realms (reckoned as sixteen, seventeen, or eighteen in number) occupied by higher gods called brahmas, who have consciousness but only two sensessight and hearing. Beings are reborn in these realms as a result of mastering increasingly subtle meditative states known as the four DHYANA (TRANCE STATE).

These are attained by stilling the mind until it becomes completely concentrated and absorbed in an object of meditation, temporarily recovering its natural brightness and purity. The five highest realms of the form world are known as the pure abodes, and these are occupied by divinities who are all either nonreturners
(spiritually advanced beings of great wisdom who are in their last birth and who will reach enlightenment before they die) or beings who have already gained enlightenment. All the beings of the pure abodes are thus in their last life before their final liberation from the round of rebirth through the attainment of NIRVAN- A.

The subtlest and most refined levels of the universe are the four that comprise "the formless realm." At this level of the universe the body with its senses is completely absent, and existence is characterized by pure and rarified forms of consciousness, once again corresponding to higher meditative attainments.

World Systems

The lower levels of the universe, that is, the realms of sensuality, arrange themselves into various distinct world discs (cakravad-a). At the center of a cakravad-a is the great world mountain, Sumeru or Meru. This is surrounded by seven concentric rings of mountains and seas. Beyond these mountains and seas, in the four cardinal directions, are four great continents lying in the great ocean. The southern continent, Jambudvpa
(the continent of the rose-apple tree), is inhabited by ordinary human beings; the southern part, below the towering range of mountains called the abode of snows (himalaya), is effectively India, the known world and the land where buddhas arise. At the outer rim of this world disc is a ring of iron mountains holding in the ocean. In the spaces between world discs and below are various hells; in some sources these are given as eight hot hells and eight cold hells. An early text describes how in the hell of Hot Embers, for example, beings are made to climb up and down trees bristling with long, red hot thorns, never dying until at last their bad karma is exhausted (Majjhimanikaya iii, 185).

On the slopes of Mount Sumeru itself and rising above its peak are the six HEAVENS inhabited by the gods of the sense world. The lowest of these is that of the Gods of the Four Kings of Heaven, who guard the four directions. On the peak of Mount Sumeru is the heaven of the Thirty-Three Gods, which is ruled by its king, INDRA or S´akra (Pali, Sakka), while in the shadow of Mount Sumeru dwell the jealous gods called asuras, who were expelled from the heaven of the Thirty-Three by Indra. Above the peak is the Heaven of the Contented Gods or Tus-ita, where buddhas-to-be, like the future MAITREYA, are reborn and await the time to take birth. The highest of the six heavens of the sense world is that of the Gods who have Power over the Creations of Others, and it is in a remote part of this heaven that MARA, the Evil One, lives, wielding his considerable resources in order to prevent the sensual world from losing its hold on its beings. The six heavens of the sense world are inhabited by gods and goddesses who, like human beings, reproduce through sexual union, though some say that in the higher heavens this union takes the form of an embrace, the holding of hands, a smile, or a mere look. The young gods and goddesses are not born from the womb, but arise instantly in the form of a five-year-old child in the lap of the gods (Abhidharmakos´a iii, 69–70).

Above these sense-world heavens is the Brahma World, a world of subtle and refined mind and body. Strictly, brahmas are neither male nor female, although it seems that in appearance they resemble men. The fourteenth-century Thai Buddhist cosmology, the Three Worlds According to King Ruang, describes how their faces are smooth and very beautiful, a thousand times brighter than the moon and sun, and with only one hand they can illuminate ten thousand world systems (Reynolds and Reynolds, p. 251). A Great Brahma of even the lower brahma heavens may rule over a thousand world systems, while brahmas of the higher levels are said to rule over a hundred thousand. Yet it would be wrong to conclude that there is any one or final overarching Great Brahma—God the Creator. It may be that beings come to take a particular Great Brahma as creator of the world, and a Great Brahma may himself even form the idea that he is creator, but this is just the result of delusion on the part of both parties. In fact the universe recedes upwards with one class of Great Brahma being surpassed by a further, higher class of Great Brahma. Thus the world comprises "its gods, its Mara and Brahma, this generation with its ascetics and brahmins, with its princes and peoples"
(Dl
ghanikaya i, 62).

The overall number of world systems that constitute the universe in its entirety cannot be specified. The nikaya/agama texts sometimes talk in terms of the thousandfold world system, the twice-thousandfold world system, and the thrice-thousandfold world system or trichilicosm. According to north Indian traditions, the last of these embraces a total of one billion world systems, while the southern traditions say a trillion. But even such a vast number cannot define the full extent of the universe; there is no spatial limit to the extent of world systems.

Cycles Of Time

The temporal limits of the universe are equally elusive.

World systems as a whole are not static; they themselves go through vast cycles of expansion and contraction across vast eons of time. World systems contract in great clusters of a billion at a time. Most frequently this contraction is brought about by the destructive force of fire, but periodically it is brought about by water and wind. This fire starts in the lower realms of the sense-sphere and, having burnt up these, it invades the form realms; but having burnt up the realms corresponding to the first dhyana, it stops. The realms corresponding to the second, third, and fourth dhyanas and the four formless realms are thus spared destruction. But when the destruction is wreaked by water, the three realms corresponding to the second dhyana are included in the general destruction. The destruction by wind invades and destroys even the realms corresponding to the third dhyana. Only the subtle realms corresponding to the fourth dhyana and the four formless meditations are never subject to this universal destruction.

The length of time it takes for the universe to complete one full cycle of expansion and contraction is known as a mahakalpa (great eon). A mahakalpa is made up of four intermediate eons consisting of the period of contraction, the period when the world remains contracted, the period of expansion, and the period when the world remains expanded. The length of a great eon is not specified in human years but only by reference to similes:
Suppose there was a great mountain of rock, seven miles across and seven miles high, a solid mass without any cracks. At the end of every hundred years a man might brush it just once with a fine Benares cloth. That great mountain of rock would decay and come to an end sooner than even the eon. So long is an eon. And of eons of this length not just one has passed, not just a hundred, not just a thousand, not just a hundred thousand. (Sam- yuttanikaya ii, 181–182)
The Buddha is said to have declared that sam- sara'sthat is, our—beginning was inconceivable and that its starting point could not be indicated; the mother's milk drunk by each of us in the course of our long journey through sam- sara is greater by far than the water in the four great oceans (Sam- yuttanikaya ii, 180–181).

Within this shifting and unstable world of time and space that is sam- sara, beings try to make themselves at ease. The life spans of beings vary. In general, beings who inhabit the lower realms of existence live shorter, more A Tibetan thang ka (scroll painting) depicting the Wheel of Life.

© Earl and Nazima Kowall/Corbis. Reproduced by permission.

precarious, lives, while the gods live longer; at the highest realms, gods live vast expanses of time—up to eightyfour thousand eons. Yet the happiness that beings find or achieve cannot be true happiness, not permanently lasting, but merely a relatively longer or shorter temporary respite. Beings in the lowest hell realms experience virtually continuous pain and suffering until the results of the actions that brought them there are exhausted. In contrast, beings in the higher brahma worlds experience an existence entirely free of all overt suffering; but while their lives may endure for inconceivable lengths of time in human terms, they must eventually come to an end once again when the results of the actions that brought them there are exhausted.

Cosmology And Psychology

An important principle of the Buddhist cosmological vision lies in the equivalence of cosmology and PSYCHOLOGY, the way in which the various realms of existence relate rather closely to certain commonly
(and not so commonly) experienced states of mind.

Buddhist cosmology is at once a map of different realms of existence and a description of all possible experiences. This can be appreciated by considering more fully the Buddhist understanding of the nature of karma. Essentially the world we live in is our own creation: We have created it by our own karma, by our deeds, words, and thoughts motivated either by greed, hatred, and delusion or by nonattachment, friendliness, and wisdom. The cosmos is thus a reflection of our actions, which are in turn the products of our hearts and minds. For in this fathom-long body with its mind and consciousness, said the Buddha, lies the world, its arising, its ceasing, and the way leading to its ceasing (Sam- yuttanikaya i, 62).

Essentially the states of mind that give rise to unwholesome actions—strong greed, hatred, and delusion—lead to rebirth in the unhappy destinies or realms of misfortune. A life dominated by the mean spiritedness of greed leads to rebirth as a hungry ghost, a class of being tormented by unsatisfied hunger; a life dominated by the mental hell of hatred and anger leads to rebirth in one of the hell realms where one suffers terrible pain; while a life dominated by willful ignorance of the consequences of one's behavior leads to rebirth as an animal, a brute existence ruled by the need to eat and reproduce. On the other hand, the generous, friendly, and wise impulses that give rise to wholesome actions lead to rebirth in the happy realms as a human being or in one of the six realms of the gods immediately above the human realm, where beings enjoy increasingly happy and carefree lives. By developing states of deep peace and contentment through the practice of calm meditation, and by developing profound wisdom through insight meditation, one is reborn as a brahma in a realm of pure form or formlessness, which is a reflection of those meditations.

In short, if one lives like an animal, one is liable to reborn as an animal; if one lives like a human being, one will be reborn as a human being; if one lives like a god, one will be reborn as a god. But just as in dayto-day experience one fails to find any physical or mental condition that is reliable and unchangeable, that can give permanent satisfaction and happiness, so, even if one is reborn in the condition of a brahma living eighty-four thousand eons, the calm and peaceful condition of one's existence is not ultimately lasting or secure. Just as ordinary happiness is in this sense DUH-KHA
(SUFFERING) or unsatisfactory, so too are the lives of the brahmas, even though they experience no physical or mental pain.

Nirvan-A And Buddhas

The only escape from this endless round is the direct understanding of the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS—suffering, its cause, its cessation, and the PATH leading to its cessation—and the attainment of nirvan-a. Significantly nirvan-a is not incl