Buddhism in East Asia- Continuity and Change in the Great Tradition

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This volume primarily focuses on various aspects of Buddhism in China and beyond. Each of the fourteen papers covers a particular aspect of the history of Chinese Buddhism through which an attempt has been made to show that China played an important role not only in the growth and development of Mahayana Buddhism but also in the Sinicization of the Buddha Dharma. Further, China's role in transmitting Buddhist tenets eastward into Korea and Japan has also been highlighted.

Shanker Thapa
SHANKAR THAPA is Professor of History at Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu. He has extensively written on Newar Buddhism focusing on history, Sanskrit manuscripts, Buddhist scholarship and protective deities.

Anita Sharma
ANITA SHARMA is currently Head and Professor of East Asian Studies and Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Delhi. She is an alumunus of Delhi, Fudan, and Beijing Culture University.

Buddhism is one of the major religions of the world today. Ever since its origin, India has rendered invaluable contribution in its development as well as expansion. One of such contributions was that from time to time India has produced eminent scholars who enriched Buddhist philosophy. Their role in the development of Buddhism is outstanding.

Many Indian Buddhist Masters were instrumental in the spread of Buddhism in the northern countries, especially China, where Buddhism was gradually sinicized and became embedded in the society. From China, Buddhism spread into the nooks and corners of the whole of East Asia. Buddhist Masters such as Kumarajiva and Buddhabhadra from Kucha and Kapilvastu and their Chinese counterparts Faxian and Xuanzang translated a large corpus of Buddhist Sutras into Chinese. Consequently. Buddhism became a prominent religion in China during the ancient and medieval period and continues to be so even in the contemporary period.

This book focuses on different contexts of Buddhism in East Asia. Altogether fourteen papers are included in this volume. The range of the subjects covered by individual papers is very wide.

We take this opportunity to express sincere thanks to the members of the Department of East Asian Studies, University of Delhi for their cooperation. We thank all the authors to contribute their papers for this volume. We heartily thank Prof. K.T.S. Sarao for his academic inputs. We also received immense support from our families while this book was being edited without which it would not have been possible to publish it.

Finally, special thanks are due to Rishi Jindal for the cover design.

Buddhism as a subject of study is like an ocean which demands profound efforts to approach at the bottom. Although Buddhism was founded more than two and a half millennium ago for the welfare of the human society, its study in the context of modern scholarship began only since last century. No doubt, throughout several centuries, scholars particularly the Indian academics understood and grasped the teachings and doctrines of the Buddha, and analysed them from various points of view. Buddhism has produced eminent monk scholars in India and other Buddhist countries such as Nepal, Central Asia, Tibet, China, Korea and Japan in the North and Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia in the South. They produced vast array of philosophical treatises. It led to accumulate the Shastra literature in particular. Thus, Buddhism developed rich literary heritage in various languages.

Buddhism as a body of knowledge has developed literary heritage covering wide variety of subjects such as Tripitaka and commentaries in Theravada tradition and also similar situation is seen in Mahayana Buddhism. Different branches of knowledge such as philosophy, tantra, ritual, mantras etc are extremely important in Mahayana Buddhism. Above all, the knowledge of history of Buddhism is extremely important to understand Buddhism.

During the third century BCE, Emperor Asoka sent missionaries to different places. Msissionaries were also sent to northwest of India that is present day Pakistan and Afghanistan. As the result, this region soon turned into the centre of Buddhist learning. Many distinguished monk scholars were produced in the region. When the traders from Central Asia came into this region for trading activities, they had opportunity to learn Buddhism.