Transcript BuddhismInChina

BUDDHIST
POPULATION
IN CHINA
18.2%
~247 million people
(“The World Factbook – China”)
Theravada
~1.5 million
Mahayana
~238 million
Vajrayana
~7.6 million (Lambert)
(Fernandez-Vina)
Three Sages
Siddhartha Gautama:
563 – 480 BCE (Epstein)
Confucius:
551 – 479 BCE (McDevitt)
Lao Tzu:
6th or 5th Century BCE (Cleary)
(YunPeng)
Silk Road – Han Dynasty
~ 1st Century CE
(“The Silk Road”)
White Horse Temple
• 1st Buddhist temple in China
– Constructed in 68 CE
• Emperor Ming
– Sent officials to India to obtain Buddhist scriptures
– Encountered two Indian monks in Afghanistan
• Kasyapa Matanga & Dharmaratna
– Brought monks back to Luoyang on a white horse (“White Horse
Temple – The First Buddhist Temple in China”)
(Gisling)
Gradual Spread of Buddhism
• Fall of Han Dynasty in 220 CE
– Followed by more than 350 years of warfare
and political turmoil
• Buddhism continues to spread along Silk Road
– Indian monks translate many texts into Chinese
– Confucianists drawn to Buddhist morality &
ritual
– Taoists drawn to Buddhist meditation
techniques (Bentley 78)
Chan Buddhism
• “Zen” in Japanese
• Mahayana
• Bodhidharma (Da Mo)
– Arrives at Shaolin Temple in
Henan province in 527 CE
(“The Story of Bodhidharma”)
• “[Chan] holds that it is not the
abstract or bookish truth but the
lived truth that counts” (Barrett).
• Influenced by Taoism
(“Figure of Bodhidharma”)
Portrayals of Buddha
Dalian, China
Bodhgaya, India
(“Bodhgaya”)
(“Laughing Buddha
Statue in Dalian, China”)
Tibetan Buddhism
• Vajrayana
• Developed in Tibet in the early 7th
Century CE
– Emphasized complex & mystical
rituals
• Mongols invade Tibet in 1240 CE
• Embraced by Yuan Dynasty
– Kublai Khan converts to Buddhism
• Keeps a Tibetan lama as a spiritual adviser
– Lamas gain political power
• Dalai Lama
Tenzin Gyatso
14th Dalai Lama
(“The Dalai Lama”)
– “Ocean of Wisdom”
– Served as spiritual and political leaders of
Tibet since 1642 CE (“Intro to Tibetan Buddhism”)
• Under patronage of Chinese dynasties
Beijing in 1954
(“Dalai Lama with Mao Zedong”)
Works Cited
Bentley, Jerry. "Old World Encounters: Cross-Cultural Contacts and Exchanges in Pre- Modern Times.” New York:
Oxford University Press, 1993.
“Bodhgaya” http://richstravelblogaroundtheworld.blogspot.com/2012/04/bodhgayaday-127-128-129-130-131132.html
Cleary, Thomas. “The Essential Tao.” San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1993.
“The Dalai Lama.” Bodhi Tree. http://www.bodhitree.com/node/1302
“Dalai Lama with Mao Zedong.” http://www.chinahistoryforum.com/topic/24547-dalai-lama-with-mao-zedong- from1950-1959/
Epstein, Ron. “The Basic Teaching of Buddhism.”
Fernandez-Vina, Javier. “Buddhist Sects.”
"Figure of Bodhidharma [China]" (63.176) In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History . New York: The Metropolitan Museum of
Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/63.176. (October 2006)
Gisling. “White Horse Temple panoramic with two white horse statues.”
“Intro To Tibetan Buddhism.” http://www.sakya.org/introtibetanbuddhism.html
Lambert, Tony. “Religious Statistics in China.” http://www.chsource.org/en/articles/christianity-and-other-religions/
item/224-religious-statistics-in-china
“Laughing Buddha Statue in Dalian, China.” http://gadling.com/2011/02/19/photo-of-the- day-laughing-buddha-statuein-dalian-china/
“The Silk Road.” http://www.chinasage.info/silkroad.htm
“The Story of Bodhidharma.” http://www.usashaolintemple.org/chanbuddhism-history/
“White Horse Temple – The First Buddhist Temple in China” http://www.china.org.cn/
english/travel/64434.htm
“The World Factbook – China.” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world- factbook/geos/ch.html
YunPeng, Ding. “Three Sages.” http://www.edepot.com/taoism_3-vinegar-tasters.html