Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch Volume III Part 44

[Footnote 979: hDul-ba.]

[Footnote 980: See Nanjio, Nos. 1115-1119, 1122, 1132-4. Rockhill, _Prtimoksha Stra selon la version Tibtaine_, 1884. Huth, _Tibetische Version der Naihsargikapryaccittikadharms_, 1891. Finot and Hber, "Le Prtimoksa des Sarvstivadins," _J.A._ 1913, II. p.

465.]

[Footnote 981: Strictly Ser-phyin.]

[Footnote 982: Waddell in _Asiatic Quarterly_, 1912, x.x.xIV. p. 98, renders the t.i.tle as Vata sangha, which probably represents Avatam?saka. Sarat Chandra Das, _sub voce_, says Phal-chen-sde-pa = Mahsanghika.]

[Footnote 983: The statements of Nanjio as to "deest in Tibetan" are not quite accurate as regards the edition in 108 volumes. Compare his catalogue with Beckh's.]

[Footnote 984: This statement made by such scholars as Feer (_a.n.a.l. du Kanjour_, p. 288) and Rockhill (_Udna_, p. x) is of great weight, but I have not found in their works any quotation from the Tibetan translation saying that the original language was not Sanskrit and the t.i.tles given by Peer are in Sanskrit not in Pali. I presume it is not meant that the Tibetan text is a translation from a Sanskrit text which corresponds with the Pali text known to us. In Beckh's catalogue of the edition in 108 volumes the same t.i.tles occur in the Praj-pramit section, but without any statement that the works are translated from Pali. See Beckh, p. 12, and Feer, pp. 288 ff.]

[Footnote 985: _Life of the Buddha_, p. 224, and _J.R.A.S._ 1899, p.

422.]

[Footnote 986: There is another shorter stra on the same subject in the mDo section of the Kanjur. Feer, p. 247. In the edition of 108 volumes, the whole section is incorporated in the mDo, Beckh, p. 33.]

[Footnote 987: The word seems originally to mean string or chain.]

[Footnote 988: Apparently not the same as the Tathgata-Guhyaka _alias_ Guhya Samagha described by R. Mitra, _Sk. Bud. Lit_. p. 261.]

[Footnote 989: See notices of these in four articles by Satiscandra Vidybhshana in _J.A.S. Beng._ 1907.]

[Footnote 990: _I.e._ the Dhammapada.]

[Footnote 991: Huth's a.n.a.lysis of vols. 117-124 of the Tanjur (_Sitzungsber. Kon. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin_, 1895) shows that they contain _inter alia_, eight works on Sanskrit literature and philology besides the Meghadta, nine on medicine and alchemy with commentaries, fourteen on astrology and divination, three on chemistry (the composition of incense), eight on gnomic poetry and ethics, one encyclopdia, six lives of the Saints, six works on the Tibetan language and five on painting and fine art. Cordier gives further particulars of the medical works in _B.E.F.E.O._ 1903, p. 604. They include a veterinary treatise.]

[Footnote 992: See t.i.tle in Laufer's edition.]

[Footnote 993: See Feer, _l.c._ for instance, pp. 287, 248.]

[Footnote 994: See Feer, _l.c._ p. 344, and Laufer, "Die Bruza Sprache" in _T'oung Pao_, 1908. It is said that King Ru-che-tsan of Brusha or Dusha translated (? what date) the Mla-Tantra and Vykhy-Tantra into the language of his country. See _J.A.S.B._ 1882, p. 12. Beckh states that four works have t.i.tles in Chinese, one in Brua and one in Tartar (Hor-gyi-skad-du).]

[Footnote 995: Laufer, _ibid_. p. 4.]

[Footnote 996: See Nanjio, No. 87, and Feer, _l.c._ pp. 208-212, but the two works may not be the same. The Tibetan seems to be a collection of 45 stras.]

[Footnote 997: Rockhill, _l.c._ p. 212.]

[Footnote 998: Stein, _Ancient Khotan_, pp. 426-9 and App. B. See also Pelliot in _B.E.F.E.O._ 1908, pp. 507 ff.]

[Footnote 999: The Mahvyutpatti edited by Minayeff in _Bibl.

Buddhica_ and an abridgement.]

[Footnote 1000: According to Feer (_a.n.a.lyse_, p. 325) Tibetan historians state that at this epoch kings prohibited the translation of more than a few tantric works.]

[Footnote 1001: Numerous works are also ascribed to Sarvajdeva and Dharmaka, both of Kashmir, and to the Indian Vidykaraprabh and Surendrabodhi.]

[Footnote 1002: See Francke in _J.R.A.S._ 1914, pp. 56-7.]

[Footnote 1003: See Pander, _Pantheon_, No. 30.]

[Footnote 1004: Waddell, _Buddhism_, p. 36, gives a list of them.]

[Footnote 1005: It appears to me that there is some confusion between Brom-ston, a disciple of Atsa, who must have flourished about 1060 and Bu-ston, who was born in 1288. Grnwedel says that the latter is credited with the compilations of the Kanjur and Tanjur, but Rockhill (_Life of the Buddha_, p. 227) describes Bu-ston as a disciple of Atsa.]

[Footnote 1006: See Huth, _Geschichte des Budd. in der Mongolei_, 291, and Laufer, "Skizze der Mongolischen Literatur" (in _Keleti Szemle_, 1907), p. 219. Also Pelliot in _J.A._ 1914, II. pp. 112-3.]

[Footnote 1007: See Laufer in _Bull. de l'Acad. de S. Ptersbourg_, 1909, pp. 567-574. There are some differences in the editions. That of Narthang is said to contain a series of stras translated from the Pali and wanting in the Red Edition, but not to contain two translations from Chinese which are found in the Red Edition. See the preface to Beckh's catalogue. The MS. a.n.a.lyzed by him was obtained at Peking, but it is not known whence it came. An edition by Ch'ien Lung is mentioned by some authors. It is also said that an edition is printed at Punakha in Bhutan, and another in Mongolian at k.u.mb.u.m.]

[Footnote 1008: Some of these are probably included in the Tanjur, which has not been fully catalogued. See _J.A.S. Beng_. 1904, for a list of 85 printed books bought in Lhasa, 1902, and Waddell's article in _Asiatic Quarterly_, July, 1912, already referred to.]

[Footnote 1009: Edited and translated by Huth as _Geschichte des Buddhismus in der Mongolei_, 1892.]

[Footnote 1010: Finno Ugrian Society of Helsingfors, 1898.]

[Footnote 1011: Same Society, 1900 and 1902, and _J.A.S.B._ 1906-7.]

CHAPTER LII

TIBET (_continued_)

DOCTRINES OF LAMAISM

Lamaism may be defined as a mixture of late Indian Buddhism (which is itself a mixture of Buddhism and Hinduism) with various Tibetan practices and beliefs. The princ.i.p.al of these are demonophobia and the worship of human beings as incarnate deities. Demonophobia is a compendious expression for an obsession which victimizes Chinese and Hindus to some extent as well as Tibetans, namely, the conviction that they are at all times surrounded by fierce and terrible beings against whom they must protect themselves by all the methods that religion and magic can supply. This is merely an acute form of the world-wide belief that all nature is animated by good and bad spirits, of which the latter being more aggressive require more attention, but it a.s.sumes startlingly conspicuous forms in Tibet because the Church has enlisted all the forces of art, theology and philosophy to aid in this war against demons. The externals of Tibetan worship suffer much from the idea that benevolent deities a.s.sume a terrible guise in order to strike fear into the hosts of evil[1012]. The helpers and saviours of mankind such as Avalokita and Tr are often depicted in the shape of raging fiends, as hideous and revolting as a fanciful brush and distorted brain can paint them. The idea inspiring these monstrous images is not the worship of cruelty and terror, but the hope that evil spirits may be kept away when they see how awful are the powers which the Church can summon. Nevertheless the result is that a Lama temple often looks like a pandemonium and meeting house for devil-worship, an Olympus tenanted by Gorgons, Hydras and Furies. It is only fair to say that Tibetan art sometimes represents with success G.o.ds and saints in att.i.tudes of repose and authority, and has produced some striking portraits[1013], but its most marked feature (which it shares with literature) is a morbid love of the monstrous and terrible, a perpetual endeavour to portray fiends surrounded with every circ.u.mstance of horror, and still more appalling deities, all eyes, heads and limbs, wreathed with fire, drinking blood from skulls and trampling prostrate creatures to death beneath their feet.

Probably the wild and fantastic landscapes of Tibet, the awful suggestions of the spectral mists, the real terrors of precipice, desert and storm have wrought for ages upon the minds of those who live among them.

Like demonophobia, the worship of incarnate deities is common in eastern Asia but here it acquires an extent and intensity unknown elsewhere. The Tibetans show a strange power of organization in dealing with the supernatural. In India incarnations have usually been recognized post-mortem and as incalculable manifestations of the spirit[1014]. But at least since the seventeenth century, the Lamas have accepted them as part of the Church's daily round and administrative work. The practices of Shamanism probably prepared the way, for in his mystic frenzies the Shaman is temporarily inhabited by a G.o.d and the extreme ease with which distinguished persons are turned into G.o.ds or Bodhisattvas in China and j.a.pan is another manifestation of the same spirit. An ancient inscription[1015] applies to the kings of Tibet the word _h?phrul_ which is also used of the Grand Lamas and means that a deity is transformed, or as we say, incarnate in a human person. The Yellow Church officially recognized[1016] the Emperor of China as an incarnation of Majusr and the Mongols believed the Tsar of Russia to be an incarnation of the White Tr.

The admixtures received by Buddhism in Tibet are not alien to Indian thought. They received an unusual emphasis but India provided terrible deities, like Kl with her attendant fiends, and also the idea that the divine embodies itself in human personalities or special manifestations. Thus Tibetan Buddhism is not so much an amalgam, as a phase of medieval Hindu religion disproportionately developed in some directions. The Lamas have acquired much the same status as the Brahmans. If they could not make themselves a hereditary caste, they at least enforced the principle that they are the necessary intermediaries between G.o.ds and men. Though they adopted the monastic system of Buddhism, they are not so much monks as priests and ghostly warriors who understand the art of fighting with demons.

Yet Tibet like j.a.pan could a.s.similate and transform as well as borrow.

The national and original element in Lamaism becomes plain when we compare Tibet with the neighbouring land of Nepal. There late Indian Buddhism simply decayed under an overgrowth of Brahmanism. In Tibet it acquired more life and character than it had in its native Bengal.

This new character has something monstrous and fantastic in government as well as art: the magic fortresses of the Snowland, peopled by priests and demons, seem uncanny homes for plain mortals, yet Lamaism has the strength belonging to all genuine expressions of national character and it clearly suits the Tibetans and Mongols. The oldest known form of Tibetan religion had some of the same characteristics.

It is called Bn or Pn. It would be outside my province to discuss it here, but even when first heard of it was more than a rude form of animism. In the eighth century its hierarchy was sufficiently strong to oppose the introduction of Buddhism and it possibly contained a pre-buddhist stratum of Iranian ideas[1017]. In later times it adopted or travestied Buddhist dogma, ritual and literature, much as Taoism did in China, but still remained a repository of necromancy, magic, animal sacrifices, devil-dancing, and such like practices, which have in all ages corrupted Tibetan Buddhism though theoretically disapproved.

Of Tibetan Buddhism anterior to 747 there is little to be said. It consisted in the sporadic introduction of books and images from India and did not a.s.sume any national character, for it is clear that in this period Tibet was not regarded as a Buddhist country. The first phase deserving the name of Lamaism begins with the arrival of Padma-Sambhava in 747. The Nying-ma-pa or Old School claims to represent his teaching, but, as already mentioned, the various sects have interacted on one another so much that their tenets are hardly distinctive. Still it is pretty clear that what Padma-Sambhava brought with him was the late form of India Buddhism called Mantrayna, closely allied to the Chn Yen of China, and transported to j.a.pan under the name of Shingon and also to the Buddhism of Java as represented in the sculptures of Boroboedoer. The Far East felt shy of the tantric element in this teaching, whereas the Tibetans exaggerated it, but the doctrinal basis is everywhere the same, namely, that there are five celestial Buddhas, of whom Vairocana is the princ.i.p.al and in some sense the origin. These give rise to celestial emanations, female as well as male, and to terrestrial reflexes such as Skyamuni.

Among the other features of Padma-Sambhava's teaching the following may be enumerated with more or less certainty: (_a_) A readiness to tolerate and incorporate the local cults of the countries where he preached. (_b_) A free use of spells (dhran?) and magical figures (man?d?ala) for the purpose of subduing demons and acquiring supernatural powers. (_c_) The belief that by such methods an adept can not only summon a deity but a.s.sume his form and in fact become the deity. (_d_) The worship of Amitbha, among other deities, and a belief in his paradise. (_e_) The presentation of offerings, though not of flesh, in sacrifice[1018] and the performance of ceremonies on behalf of departed souls. (_f_) The worship of departed and perhaps of living teachers. His image is a conspicuous object of veneration in the Nying-ma-pa sect but he does not appear to have taught the doctrine of hierarchical succession by incarnation. Grnwedel[1019]

has pointed out that the later corruptions of Buddhism in northern India, Tibet and Central Asia are connected with the personages known as the eighty-four Mahsiddhas, or great magicians. Their appearance as shown in pictures is that of Brahmanic ascetics rather than of Buddhist Bhikshus, but many of them bear names which are not Indian.

Their dates cannot be fixed at present and appear to cover a period from the early centuries of our era up to about 1200, so that they represent not a special movement but a continuous tendency to import into Buddhism very various currents of thought, north Indian, Iranian, Central Asian and even Mohammedan.

The visit of Padma-Sambhava was followed by a period of religious activity which culminated in the ninth century under King Ralpachan, but it does not appear that the numerous translations from Indian works made in this reign did more than supplement and amplify the doctrine already preached. But when after a lengthy eclipse Buddhism was reinstated in the eleventh century under the auspices of Atsa and other foreign teachers we hear of something new, called the Klacakra[1020] system also known as the Vajrayna. Pending the publication of the Klacakra Tantra[1021], it is not easy to make definite statements about this school which presumably marks the extreme point of development or degeneration in Buddhism, but a persistent tradition connects it with a country called Sambhala or Zhambhala, translated in Tibetan as bDe-h?byun? or source of happiness. This country is seen only through a haze of myth: it may have been in India or it may have been somewhere in Central Asia, where Buddhism mingled with Turkish ideas[1022]. Its kings were called Kulika and the Tibetan calendar introduced by Atsa is said to have come from it. This fact and the meaning of the word Klacakra (wheel of time) suggest that the system has some connection with the Turkish cycle of twelve animals used for expressing dates[1023]. A legend[1024] states that Skyamuni promulgated the Klacakra system in Orissa (Dhnyakat?aka) and that Sucandra, king of Sambhala, having miraculously received this teaching wrote the Klacakra Tantra in a prophetic spirit, although it was not published until 965 A.D. This is really the approximate date of its compilation and I can only add the following disjointed data[1025].

Tibetan authorities state that it was introduced into Nland by a Pandit called Tsilu or Chilu and accepted by Narotapa who was then head of the University. From Nland it spread to Tibet. Manjusrkrti, king of Sambhala, is said to have been an exponent of it and to have begun his reign 674 years after the death of the Buddha. But since he is also the second incarnation of the Panchen Lama and since the fourth (Abhayakara) lived about 1075, he may really have been a historical character in the latter part of the tenth century. Its promulgation is also ascribed to a personage called Siddha Pito. It must be late for it is said to mention Islam and Mohammed. It is perhaps connected with anti-mohammedan movements which looked to Kalk, the future incarnation of Vishnu, as their Messiah, for Hindu tradition says that Kalk will be born in Sambhalagrma[1026]. We hear also of a Siddha called Telopa or Tailopa, who was a vigorous opponent of Islam. The mythology of the school is Vishnuite, not Sivaitic, and it is noticeable that the Pncartra system which had some connection with Kashmir lays stress on the wheel or discus (_cakra_ or _sudarsana_) of Vishnu which is said to be the support of the Universe and the manifestation of Creative will.