Search Results (174)

During the Northern Song period, the gifting of Buddhist artifacts frequently appeared in Sino–Japanese exchanges. Although Japan had established a self-centered order with its emperor at its core and tended toward isolation, the Heian imperial court, led by the Fujiwara regents, actively dispatched monks to Song China and requested Buddhist artifacts. Although these monks were not official envoys, they reflected a trend toward diversified diplomacy in Japan. Recognizing the close ties between these monks and the Japanese rulers, the Song court used the bestowal of Buddhist artifacts to encourage them to convey messages to the Japanese court, urging Japan to send formal tribute missions and thereby incorporating this into its broader diplomatic strategy. Under the “Chanyuan Treaty System”, Buddhism served as a shared cultural foundation for transregional interaction in East Asia. By collecting and bestowing Buddhist artifacts, the Song Dynasty proclaimed its orthodox status within the Buddhist world and enhanced its diplomatic influence. However, the Heian court, upon receiving these artifacts, repurposed them to construct their own divine authority and vision of a “Land of Buddha’s Kingdom”. Thus, the very same set of Buddhist artifacts carried vastly different symbolic meanings and functions in the Northern Song–Heian diplomatic interactions. Full article

This paper investigates how hybrid temples are created and transformed into tourist attractions, focusing on Wat Phothikyan Phutthathum—a Thai–Chinese temple located in Kelantan, close to Malaysia’s border with Thailand. This study aims to understand how both the local Thai minority and Chinese majority contribute to temple hybridisation, examine the influence of such temples on community identity, and explore their growing importance as tourist attractions. It highlights the negotiation and cultural exchange that shape new heritage spaces for borderland communities. Using visual analysis and interviews, the research shows that, since there are no Chinese temples nearby, Chinese Buddhists and Taoists adapt Thai temples by incorporating their own rituals and art. This results in blended iconography and practices, guided by an open-minded Thai monk. Features like large Buddha statues, staircases featuring naga-dragon designs, and murals combining different traditions reveal this fusion. The temple’s unique artwork and spiritual environment attract visitors from Muslim-majority areas and various countries like Thailand, Taiwan, and Singapore. As tourism becomes central to the temple’s role, the local authorities emphasise its religious significance and multicultural symbolism, aligning with economic interests and daily interactions among minority groups. This study offers valuable empirical and theoretical perspectives on the blending of religious heritage sites in border regions. Full article

Until recently, our view of Chinese Buddhist history was overly influenced by sectarian categories inherited by Japanese Buddhism, which clearly distinguished Zen/Chan, Pure Land, and esoteric Buddhism (mostly Shingon 真言). Recently, scholars have begun to study syncretistic trends known as “esoteric Zen” and “esoteric nenbutsu.” However, the latter has so far been mostly examined within the framework of Shingon Buddhism. This paper will emphasize the importance of nenbutsu in the esoteric Tendai school (Taimitsu 台密), particularly in a secret ritual called “Genshi Kimyōdan” 玄旨帰命壇. Full article

This narrative review synthesizes research demonstrating the multi-domain import of nasal breathing across developmental, physiological, immunological, and neuropsychological domains, with the aim of communicating its potential clinical relevance and motivating future empirical investigation. We broadly address developmental and evolutionary foundations and the pathways through which nasal breathing influences health, functioning, and subjective experience. Across these areas, evidence implicates nasal breathing in immune defense, autonomic and emotion regulation, limbic entrainment, and aspects of consciousness. Notably, many contemplative traditions—including yogic pranayama, Sufi, and Buddhist practices—have long emphasized nasal breathing for its physical and spiritual benefits, and contemporary evidence increasingly buttresses components of these traditional beliefs, with growing convergence between contemporary scientific findings and longstanding traditional observation. More broadly, the epistemic basis of the evidence supporting nasal breathing’s effects reviewed here ranges considerably, from well-controlled experimental and mechanistic work to preliminary and small-sample studies whose clinical translation remains tenuous, and specific therapeutic inferences should be made cautiously. Nonetheless, nasal breathing represents an underappreciated, low-cost, and accessible adjunctive approach with genuine clinical potential. Realizing that potential will require controlled trials attending to parameter specificity—e.g., respiratory phase, laterality, and rate—and designs that isolate nasal breathing from other aspects of contemplative practices across well-defined populations and outcomes. Full article

This paper examines the influence of the Nirvana Sutra 涅槃經 on the early formative stage of Pure Land Buddhist thought in China, focusing on three tropes common within the Nirvana Sutra and which also become central to the identity of the Pure Land path but are not found in the normative versions of the Sukhāvatīvyūha sūtra: buddha-nature as a universal, the importance of the category of people known as “ordinary beings”, and the transformation of Ajātaśatru from evil person to bodhisattva. Central to this development is the crucial role of a later Pure Land sutra known as the Guanjing 觀經 (Contemplation Sutra), which I argue is influenced by the Nirvana Sutra itself. The hermeneutic contexts for this discussion are the early commentaries on the Guanjing; although the Shandao commentary became the locus classicus for how these tropes function the Pure Land discourse, here I try to show how the two earliest commentaries on the Guanjing by Huiyuan and Jizang, both of whom are not considered patriarchs of the tradition like Shandao, were the first commentaries to feature these Nirvana Sutra themes. Full article

The Fozu tongji 佛祖統紀 (Comprehensive Records of the Buddha and Patriarchs), compiled by the Tiantai monk Zhipan 志磐 during the Song dynasty, is a seminal work in the history of historiography. This article focuses on its inclusion process during the Ming dynasty, revealing the interplay between textual transmission and political power. Through primary source analysis and textual criticism, this article examines how the Fozu tongji became included in Ming court editions of the Buddhist Canon. Two main conclusions emerge: First, the Fozu tongji—a text documenting the history of the Tiantai school—was formally included through advocacy by Puqia 溥洽 of the seng lu si 僧錄司 (Buddhist Registry Office), signifying the imperial rulers’ recognition of the Tiantai school. Second, to align with state ideology, all prophecy-related content was systematically eliminated from the original text. This case study provides a window into practices of religious governance in the early Ming Dynasty. Furthermore, it enriches the scholarly understanding of the dissemination history of the Fozu tongji and also provides broader insights on the inclusion of Buddhist texts. While inclusion in the canon elevated the Fozu tongji’s influence, the text was altered under the ideological “purification” imposed by the state. Full article

The influence of Brahmanism on Buddhist thought, is plausible in the Pāli Canon. Words attributed to the Buddha say that he defined himself as Brahmā (AN 4.89) and that he can read the very thoughts of the Vedic god (aham asmi brahmā mahābrahmā DN 1.18, DN 1.221, DN 3.29). There are many other instances in the canon where Buddhists have interpreted terms in ways that did not develop from the context of orthodox Brahmanism. It has been documented even that Vedic Brahmins (who at the end converted to Buddhism) consistently asked the Buddha for the way to realize Brahma(n) (MN 2.206, DN 1.249), a hope also shared by Buddhists to be attained in the afterlife (AN 3.225, MN 2.76–78, DN 2.195), using the same formulas that the canonical tradition records as having been used by the Buddha to describe not his teachings (AN 3.371, AN 4.135) but the beliefs of ancient Brahmins (AN 4.103). Why is Buddhism understood in the light of Brahmanism? Why is Brahminical terminology and religious thought so present in the interpretation of the Buddha’s teachings? This paper discusses the historical influence of Upaniṣadic thought on the development and transmission of Buddhism. Here, I propose two significant theoretical frameworks to understand the development of Indian Buddhism: (1) the Buddha was praised as Brahmā: as the supreme Brahmin, represented by Buddhists as (2) the legitimate knower of Bráhman. Since the times of the Buddha, converted Brahmins, such as Sāriputta, seem to have influenced significantly the transmission of Indian Buddhism. This is reflected in Chinese translations, which portray an earlier interpretation of Buddhism, before the late opposition against Brahminism was established in Theravāda, and the decline of Brahmā and rebirth in the Brahmaloka were relegated in Buddhism as subordinate entities. Full article

This paper examines the complex connections between religious painting and vernacular narratives during the Ming dynasty through a case study of the Miaoshan story mural in the Vairochana Hall (Piludian 毗盧殿) of Guanyin Monastery (Guanyinsi 觀音寺) in Xinjin 新津, Sichuan (near Chengdu). This mural constitutes the earliest precisely dated surviving example (completed in 1468 and renovated in 1756) of pictorial representations of the Miaoshan story in China, the popular hagiography of Bodhisattva Guanyin that gained wide circulation in Buddhist communities during this period. Although this narrative painting has already attracted scholarly attention, many questions concerning its origins and meaning remain unresolved. Through a comparison with the earliest extant textual variants of the Baojuan of Xiangshan (香山寶卷, reprinted editions of 1772 and 1773), this paper demonstrates the distinctive features of the Xinjin mural. It further situates the mural within the broader history of visual representations of the Miaoshan story from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries that survive in Sichuan and Beijing. This case study reveals the significant influence of vernacular narrative traditions on Buddhist art during the Ming dynasty, while also showing that the Xinjin mural represents an independent version of the Miaoshan narrative that was not preserved in later written sources. Full article

This article reexamines the gold necklace excavated from the Sui-dynasty tomb of Li Jingxun (李静训, 600–608 CE), shifting attention from stylistic attribution to ritual function and funerary context. While previous studies have emphasized Persian, Byzantine, or Indian influences, this study situates the necklace more plausibly within the Iranian–steppe cultural sphere and the Turkic–Sogdian exchange networks active along the Silk Roads in the late sixth and early seventh centuries. Through analysis of its segmented structure, polyhedral gold beads, pearl rondelle, nicolo intaglio clasp, and gemstone arrangement, the article identifies close technical and visual parallels in Central Asia and the wider Iranian world. The necklace is interpreted as an apotropaic object likely worn in life and placed in the tomb to extend its protective and guiding functions after death. Attention to bodily use, clasp orientation, and associated grave goods—especially a stemmed cup with Eurasian ritual associations—clarifies how the necklace operated within a Buddhist burial setting timed to Lichun 立春 (Beginning of Spring). Situating the object within the Li family’s Xianbei 鲜卑 background and documented connections with Sogdian communities, this study demonstrates how foreign ornaments were actively understood and integrated into Sui aristocratic funerary practice, rather than adopted as passive luxuries. Full article

In the mid to late Tang Dynasty, the compilation and reproduction of the tripiṭaka (Tripitaka) was directly intervened and controlled by the authorities, surpassing its own religious function and becoming an important political expression form with Buddhist elements. In the 10th century, with the collapse of the Tang Empire, the Liao, Song, and Western Xia coexisted within its original territory. At the same time, the political situation in the Korean Peninsula and Vietnam has undergone drastic changes. Within this period, the Song and Liao empires formed a dual core pattern, and the printing and issuing of the Tripitaka with strong political attributes became an important means of competition between the two sides. From the end of the 10th century to the early 11th century, the Song was the first to complete the Kaibao Canon, maintaining the monopoly of the printed Tripitaka during this period and taking it as an important way to establish the world order dominated by the Song and consolidate its relationship with neighboring political powers. Japan, which was not part of the tribute system dominated by the Song, became a target that Emperor Taizong of Song vigorously sought. Under the guidance of this political logic, the Song court, which advocated Daoism, also wanted to voluntarily issue the newly printed Daoist Canon to Vietnam, to exert its religious and political influence. After the mid-11th century, with the establishment of the Khitan Canon, the competition began between the Liao and Song dynasties over the printing and distribution of the Tripitaka. As one of the dual core patterns, the Liao attempted to challenge the monopoly position of the Song’s Kaibao Canon and the cultural hegemony behind it. In this situation, Goryeo, which was wavering between the Liao and Song, became the battlefield of competition between the two empires, presenting complex changes in terms of whether to accept the Tripitaka and their reception standards. In the late 11th century, the Goryeo and the Western Xia almost coincidentally embarked on the so-called “third path”—the construction of their own independent Tripitaka. Due to their limited positions in the political landscape of East Asia at that time, these Tripitakas were not granted to neighboring regimes outside their borders after completion, and therefore did not have international significance. It should be noted that although the positioning of the Goryeo Canon was different from that of the Song and Liao editions, it still belonged to the competition among the same language; the emergence of the Tangut Canon marked a new possibility and opened the way for future Tibetan and Manchu Canons. Briefly, the printed Tripitaka was deeply involved in the multilateral interactions of political powers in East Asia from the 10th to the 13th Century. Full article

The literature of the Malay world, profoundly influenced by Indian traditions, frequently adheres to the narrative patterns found in Indian literature. With the rise of Islam, literary works in the Parrot Story collection were used to propagate Islamic teachings, while subsequent adaptations and reinterpretations have led to relatively independent content. Within the framework of Sanskrit culture, the Jātaka Tales have also exerted a significant influence. Before the widespread adoption of written texts, these tales were transmitted orally and gradually evolved into written literature as local languages developed. Traveling along maritime trade routes, these tales were adapted through the use of indigenous vocabulary, reinterpretation of plots, and structural imitation in the Malay world. While grounded in Buddhist thought, these tales also reflect the social and cultural realities of the Malay world. The dissemination of Jātaka Tales across Southeast Asia underscores the broader religious and cultural diffusion patterns facilitated by maritime networks. This paper situates Jātaka literature within a broader context of religious and cultural exchange throughout the Asian maritime realm, examining the intersection of Jātaka Tales with early Malay regional narrative traditions and Indian literature. Specifically, it compares several parallel Jātaka stories in parrot stories such as the Persian version Tūtī Nāmah and its Malay translation Hikayat Bayan Budiman, demonstrating their transformation across various languages and cultures, revealing a complex process of cultural negotiation. In addition to Indic influences, the Malay literary tradition was shaped through interactions with Sinitic religious and artistic currents, fostering a syncretic environment where Hindu, Buddhist, and later, Islamic elements coexisted and merged, illuminating the dynamic interplay of Indic and Sinitic influences on the development of Malay literary traditions. Full article

Religion is often regarded as a divine concept resistant to change or transformation, yet history reveals that religion can evolve and transform into new cults or religious movements. This reformation or alternative state of religion is often considered an aberrant version of the original. In Sri Lanka, an aberrant form of religion emerged during the modernization and colonization periods, particularly influenced by Protestant groups and urban Buddhists. The significance of this aberrant form of Buddhism is that it lacks the depth of true religious thought and is instead reflected in the mainstream of politics and nationalism rooted in race. Due to the demand to protect Buddhism, which was echoed by this aberrant version, the recognition of Sri Lanka’s diverse ethnic and religious identities gave rise to separatism and a fragmented form of nationalism. One of the key features of aberrant religion is its tendency toward fundamentalism and extremism, as it becomes distorted in the name of safeguarding religion. The consequence of aberrant religion was the fabrication of nationalism tied to ethno-religious identities, particularly among the Sinhalese majority, turning non-violent Buddhist thought into violent racism that cultivated discrimination in cultural values and even escalated into civil war to defend Buddhism and promote Buddhist nationalism. However, in time, the post-nationalist protest movement known as the “Aragalaya” rejected the pathological nationalism generated by aberrant Buddhism and brought about a systematic shift towards a unified nationalism. Thus, this study reflects on the formation of aberrant versions of religion in Sri Lankan history, their extension into nationalism and race, and the continued presence of aberrant religion in the contemporary context. Full article

This paper examines the religious-sociological implications and characteristics of Buddhist environmentalism as articulated in the annual peace proposals of Daisaku Ikeda, founder of Soka Gakkai International (SGI). Leading the lay Buddhist organization established in Guam, USA, in 1975, Ikeda has emphasized the principle of dependent origination and promoted active civic engagement with environmental movements. In the Korean context, a key theoretical question from a religious-sociological perspective is how Ikeda’s environmental ideas have influenced the religious identity of Korea SGI (KSGI) members and contributed to the organization’s growth. Considering that it was not until the 1990s that Buddhist environmentalism in Korea began to move beyond its association with Marxist class struggle and incorporate ecological thought, it is noteworthy that KSGI had already been disseminating Ikeda’s Buddhist environmentalism since the 1970s, fostering an understanding of humanity, nature, and the world from a holistic perspective. This paper concludes that Ikeda’s ideas provided KSGI members with a new Buddhist philosophical and social framework through which to internalize the peaceful coexistence of human and non-human life, grounded in the Buddhist conceptualization of the greater self and global citizenship. Full article

This paper examines the compound brāhmaṇasacca in several Buddhist texts from the Pāli Canon, as well as in their Sanskrit and Chinese adaptations. This paper challenges previous analyses of this term, arguing that the Buddha may have reinterpreted its meaning as a metaphor. However, his followers, influenced by Brahminical orthodoxy, understood and transmitted it as a genitive tatpuruṣa: ‘the truth of the (authentic) Brahmin’—the Buddha. The philological analysis presented in this paper shows that the metaphor of the Buddha’s teachings as brāhmaṇasacca not only reflects his pragmatic approach to affirming the value of embracing the truth over identifying with a religious tradition, but also his followers’ desire to praise him as the supreme Brahmin. Commentators of the Canon described the Buddha as someone who had a complete understanding of ultimate reality (paramatthasacca). Consequently, he was considered the ultimate Brahmin authority, defined as omniscient, representing the ultimate truth for Brahmins. The Chinese versions of brāhmaṇasacca recall the Buddha’s teachings and present them as his Indian followers assumed them to be, as part of his realization of the ultimate truth, even when the cultural baggage of describing the Buddha as the supreme Brahmin decreased. This study reveals the intended meaning of the compound brāhmaṇasacca (AN ii 176) and how the Buddha’s metaphor was transmitted under the influence of Brahmanical religious culture over time. Full article

The Song 宋, Yuan 元, and Ming 明 dynasties (960–1644) witnessed the flourishing development of the Chinese Buddhist Canon (CBC), with about fifteen editions of the CBC constructed in this period. This was also an important period for the merging of different schools of Buddhism in Yunnan with mainstream Chinese Buddhism in the border regions of Southwest China. Over the past millennium, more than twenty sets of the CBC have circulated in Yunnan Province, which can be classified into seven editions and have exerted a profound influence on Chinese Buddhist literature in Yunnan. Unfortunately, most of these Buddhist Canon sets were lost, with only a few of them surviving. While most of them are kept in the Yunnan Provincial Library 雲南省圖書館 and the Library of Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences 雲南社會科學院, three kinds of CBC sets remain in private hands; however, these sets have long been neglected. In particular, these three editions of the CBC are the Qisha Canon 磧砂藏 carved during the Southern Song and Yuan dynasties (1127–1368), the Puning Canon 普寧藏 engraved during the Yuan dynasty (1206–1368), and the Jiaxing Canon 嘉興藏 constructed during the Ming and Qing dynasties from the 16th to 18th centuries. This paper presents a preliminary bibliographic survey of fragmentary fascicles of these three editions of the CBC kept in Yunnan. We aim to explore the transmission timeline, version details, collection templates, and dissemination process of these three editions of the CBC in Yunan. We argue that these three Chinese Canons are not entirely identical to those housed in the Yunnan Provincial Library and possess irreplaceable documentary value. The Qisha Canon, engraved during the Southern Song dynasty 南宋 (1127–1279) and the Yuan dynasty 元朝 (1206–1368), was shipped to Yunnan in the twenty-second year of Hongwu 洪武二十二年 (1389). The Tusi 土司 (native chieftains) and Fobian 釋佛辨 (?–?), a monk of Taihuashan Temple 太華山寺 in Kunming, were involved in requesting this set of Buddhist Canons. A set of the Puning Canon constructed during the Yuan dynasty was bestowed by Emperor Kublai Khan 忽必烈 (r. 1260–1294). The emperor donated this Buddhist Canon to Xingzu Temple in Yuanzhao Mountain 圓照山興祖寺 in Kunming. As for the Jiaxing Canon, monks in Baohua Temple in Shuimu Mountain in Dali 大理水目山寶華寺 made a request to the imperial court for a set of Buddhist Canons. Another Canon was obtained upon request by the believers of Songshan Temple in Kunming 昆明嵩山寺. The import of the Jiaxing Canon into Yunnan is closely related to Yunnan Chan Buddhism, which is also worthy of special attention. Previous studies on the CBC in Yunnan have neglected these sources. People have now realized that the private collections of fragmentary fascicles of the CBC are of great value. The study of these extant volumes of the CBC may enrich people’s knowledge of the CBC in Yunnan Province. Full article