Himalayan Times (1956)

April 15, 19 6

V-1 11 a ! a g a. i *L i ir- e •

Seven

tfhfto, and the Buddhist
monasteries arid ttmpiea
that art* scattered today
throughout the length and
breadth not only of China,
but of the whole vast
region across the H una-
layaSj are not mere cul-
tural1 outposts but veri-
table museums and store-
houses and living study-
centres of ancient Indian
culture. But let us follow
the trail of this culture
through the other count-
ries of northern Asia.

From China Buddhism
wandered to the northern
part of Korea in 36U A D ,
when neighbouring Chinese
King sent his priests with
U tters of recommendation,
idols' and sacred texts to
the king of P'yeirg Yung,
who received them with
great reverence and hos-
pitality. In the succeeding
centuries, it spread over
the whole of the Korean
peninsula, bringing in its
train architects, sculptorp,
traders and priests, not
only from China but also
from Persia, Tibet and
India. With varying for-
tunes the Buddhist cul-
ture in Korea is still
continuing to live in its
pantheons, including Brah-
ma and Indra, the Bodlii
satvas: Amitabha. Maitreya
and AvalokitephvBra. and
Buddhist scriptures, of
which Korea claims one
of the most authentic
editions, published in the
12th century.

J In bH'2 a 1)., the Korean'
King ot Kudara recommended
his religiou to the Japanese
Court, as (.lie vehicle of a
higher civihv.ntioji The simple
island people of Japan, intellec-
tually well-gifted and with
their ; extra ordinary 'aesthetic
ability, were very quick to
take over and digest the fruit
of centuries of cultural deve-
lopment;, from the Oliine.se main-
land. The look to the Bud-
dhistic culture with such zest
and understanding that new
and orjpinal school of- Buddhist
thought came to he founded.
Pengyo Daishi and Koba Dai-
ahi, who lived in the 8th and
9'h centuries, were powerful
Jftnanesfl thinkers, who propa-
gated new syncretic religious
movements, like the Tendai
snd Shingoh, baaed upon Indian
■Buddhist teachings. The Japa-
nese Huddhism of today is
flivided into some 12 socts
among which the rao^t, popular
FftHm to be those which believe
in Dhyana (Meditation) and
Bi.akti (Faith) as the surest
means of salvation. The Japa-
nese Universities today are the
rnost advanced centres nf B.id-
dtiis* learning and research, and
the most up to date and com-
prehensive edition of the Chi-
nese Triphaka, which is the
basis of Japanese Buddhism,
ia the one krown as the Tnisho
edition, published by Japanese
scholars in 1931. The firft
ualmleaf mas. of Buddhist
Sanskrit works, discovered in
the last century outside India,
came from the Japanese temp'e
of Hon mi near Nara. Although
this temple waa partly destroyed
by fire only a few years ago,
it has still remained a tieasure-
house of Buddhist art since
the 7th century. The world's
larfre«t 6tatuc of the fireat
Buddha, east in 749 A.. D. nt
Xara. the fsvotir Tndij' temple-
bell and the nomerons Buddhist

n onuments preserved in the
bit}' of Kyoto are witnesses to
the inspiration which Japanese
iirt and religion derived from
India.

. Chronologically speaking,
the next region, which yielded
to a direct cultural impact
f.om India was #te inaccessible
Tibetan plateau, just behind
Himalayan ranges and having
in common, with India a bound-
ary of thirteen hundred miles.
The first great Emperor of
Tibet, Sron tsan-gam-po, of the
7th century A.D. sent to India
a learnedTibei.au, called Thon-
mi-Sanibhota, entrusting him
with the task of mastering the
Sanskrit grammar and epigrophy
with a view to produce a
script for the Tibetan language,
which was till then unwritten,
and to prepare a grammar, so
that Buddhist scriptures could
be translated into Tibetan. In-
deed Thonmi did hig job so
well that the Tihetan script &
grammar modelled by him on
the Indian pattern remained
for all time to conic the founda-
tions on which Tibet could
build up amo-»t complete reli-
gious literature for propagating
a comprehensive form of Maha-
yana Buddhism. Two great
Indians played-^a decisive roje
in the evolutioH. of Tibotan
Buddhism. One "was: Guru
Padmasamt hava," who entered
Tibet from Kashmir in the 8th
century and founded the first
Urge monastery of Sam ye on
the southern bank of the Brah-
maputra. The other one was
Atisha, the great Bengali Pan-
dit, who travelled to Tibet in
1039 A.D.. lived and taught
the true doctrine to the Tibe-
tans for thirteen years and
died at Nyetaug, twenty miles
below Lhasa, where his tomb
in the foroi of a mudciloured
tope, some 15 feet high, is

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