BUDDHIST POPULATION

IN CHINA18.2% ~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

(“The Silk Road”)~ 1st Century CE

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

Bodhgaya, IndiaDalian, China

(“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– “Ocean of Wisdom”– Served as spiritual and political leaders of Tibet

since 1642 CE (“Intro to Tibetan Buddhism”)• Under patronage of Chinese dynasties• De facto independence from 1911 to 1951

Tenzin Gyatso14th Dalai Lama

(“The Dalai Lama”)

(“Dalai Lama with Mao Zedong”)Beijing in 1954

Works CitedBentley, 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/bodhgaya- day-127-128-129-130-131-132.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-from-1950-1959/

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-statue-in-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