Buddhism in East Asia: An Outline of Buddhism in the History and Culture of the Peoples of East Asia

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Buddhism in East Asia does not pretend to be the outcome of "fundamental research". Its main purpose is to collate, arrange and evaluate facts which specialists in the field have brought to light, and in such a way as to hold the general reader. There is little of critical apparatus and scholarly dissertation to confound him. In lively fashion, and with well- chosen illustrations to support his interest, the book takes him through a fascinating journey in time and space, through Ceylon, Burma, Siam, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Chinese Turkestan, Japan and Tibet; it appraises the role and place of Buddhism in the different stages of their evolution in a broad and colourful sweep.

The present work is in fulfilment of a commission given to me by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations for the study of Buddhism the history and culture of Buddhist countries in East Asia. It was in the fitness of things that the Council should interest itself in a work of this kind, for India's relations with other Asian countries began a long way back in the past with the spread of Buddhism in the Continent.

The subject was one capable in its scope and treatment of being indefinitely extended, but the condition laid on me by Professor Humayun Kabir, then President of the Council, was that the book should be such as to hold the general reader, without too much critical apparatus or scho- larly dissertation and the subject should be presented in broad outline. I have tried to conform to this condition.

The work does not pretend to be one of 'fundamental research', and my main purpose has been to collate, arrange and evaluate facts which specialists in this line have discovered already.

Buddhism was born in India-died also as an institutional religion in India. But India has a keen awareness of the role it played in her political and cultural history during the seventeen and odd centuries (B.C. 5th-A.D. 12th) it existed here as a living faith. The sense and awareness of it is emblazoned in the designs of her National Flag and State Insignia. Though outside the fellowship of Buddhist countries today, it cannot be impertinent for an Indian to ask-How fared this religion of India under other skies?

Unfortunately I found the materials available in this country scarcely enough to satisfy this natural curiosity. The Council, however, was ready to help and financed a tour for me of South-east Asia and the Far East where, besides the privilege of seeing Buddhism in practice, I had a lot of relevant materials to consult and collect. The countries visited were Burma, Thai- land, Cambodia, Japan and Ceylon. For reasons, mainly political, China and Tibet had to be cut out of the itinerary. My wife who accompanied me on the tour and I were treated in all these countries with the utmost cordiality and warmest friendship. Nowhere did it strike us for a moment that we were strangers in a strange land and spontaneous help was forth- coming everywhere,-from purchasing a railway ticket to reading and translating a text in foreign script and tongue.