U want to address US not signing the CTBT !!!
And here's something surprising from China.......
A friend forwarded me a mail titled “ I love India .” It quoted former Chinese ambassador to the U.S., Hu Shih “ India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border.”
India's contributing spiritually to China, how, when. I kept on asking myself these questions till I read The Culture and History of Indian People published by the Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan. Here it is for you.
C stands for China and I for India.
APPROACH TO ESSAY :
1. Introduction of Buddhism into C. part 1.
2. 320 to 750 a.d. includes I's relations with Tibet and the Far East. part 1.
3. 750 to 1000 a.d. part 1.
4. India's contribution to the Arab World. part 2.
5. Can century old relations be converted into a Foreign Policy Advantage for I. part 2.
Buddhism in China.
There were regular trade relations between India ( I ) and China ( C ) around 140 b.c. The official account of the introduction of Buddhism into China places the event in 65 a.d. In that year Han emperor Ming-ti ambassadors brought two Indian monks Dharmaratna and Kasyapa Matanga to C. The monks brought a number of sacred texts and relics. They spent the rest of their lives translating Buddhists texts into Chinese and preaching Buddhism amongst the people. It is also possible that Buddhism entered C through Burma around 50 a.d.
A number of Central Asia missionaries like Lokottama, Sanghabhadra, Dharmaraksha settled in various parts of China, converted people to Buddhism, translated Sanskrit texts into Chinese. We must remember that the Chinese were highly civilized and followed the Confucian faith. With time Buddhism spread within C and became popular. This created a desire of pilgrimage to the Holy Land ie India. ( I wonder why this feeling does not exists today. I has not done anything to recreate this feeling or else I would be flooded with Chinese tourists wanting to visit Bodh Gaya etc .)
320 to 750 A.D. - TWO
The monks of Kuchi took a leading part in the propagation of Buddhism in C from 4th a.d. The greatest of them was Kumarajiva. He went to Kashmir, studied Buddhist literature and philosophy. After Kuchi lost the war to C the Chinese took him as prisoner in 383 a.d. From then on till 412 a.d. he translated more than 100 Sanskrit texts and was the first to interpret the Mahayana philosophy in C. Buddhist monks from Kashmir went in large nos to C in the 4th,5th,6th centuries a.d. eg Buddhayasa, Gunavarman. Visits by monks from I aroused great interest amongst the Chinese about Buddhism and Indian culture and got some of them to visit I.
Tao-ngan, a Chinese monk urged other monks to visit the holy land ie I. One of the more known names is Fa-hien who entered I in 399 a.d. thru Kashmir. He visited modern day Patna, read and learnt Sanskrit books, copied the Vinaya rules only to introduce them in C. During the rule of the Tsin dynasty ( 317 to 420 a.d.) 263 Buddhists text were translated into Chinese.
The Tang dynasty ruled C from 618 to 907 a.d. It constitutes the most glorious chapter in Chinese history and is when C came under one political authority. Intercourse with India and Buddhists influence peaked during this period. The Nalanda university attracted the Chinese in large numbers. They learnt Buddhism, Brahmanical philosophy, math's, astronomy and medicine.
The most well known monk to visit I during this period was Hiuen Tsang. Visited I in 630 a.d. and left in 645 a.d. On his return he recd a royal ovation. Such honor was usually recd for kings on return from a successful military expedition. That Tsang was thought worthy of such treatment speaks volumes of the veneration the Chinese had for Buddhism and Indian culture, coming from the holy land. His book SI-YU-KI gave a strong impetus to the love of Indian culture in C.
Another famous monk was I-tsing. He spent ten years in Nalanda and returned to C with 4000 Sanskrit manuscripts containing more than 50,000 slokhas. He compiled a Sanskrit-Chinese dictionary.
Another Indian who went to China in 627 a.d. was Prabhakaramitra, a Nalanda scholar. He translated a number of Buddhists text into Chinese texts. Buddhists Tantras are known to have been translated into Chinese in the 8 th century.
A pity that a lot of the Sanskrit Buddhists literature is almost lost in I but is available in the Chinese translation.
ART
This period saw the development of the Sino-Indian school of art. A number of rock cut caves at Tunhwang, Long-men, colossal images of Buddha, fresco paintings on the walls of caves illustrate this art. It was inspired by images taken from I and Indian artistes who who visited C. We know of atleast three Indian painters who worked during this period. Sakyabuddha, Buddhakirti and Kumarabodhi.
Indian music too seemed to exert a great influence on C. A musical party went from I to C in 581 a.d. According to traditions in Japan two principle types of music called Bodhisatva and Bhairo were taken from C to Japan by an Indian called Bodhi.
Indian astronomy, math's and medicine were also popular in C. Indian astronomers were appointed on the official boards set up to prepare calendars. There were three Indian astronomical schools ie Gautama, Kasyapa and Kumara. The Indian system of nine planets was adopted by the Chinese.
Indian medical treatises were also in great demand in C. A Chinese work composed in 545 a.d. is a translation of one or more Sanskrit texts.
The period also witnessed a great development of sea borne trade.
The testimony of Fa-hien and Hiuen Tsang leaves one in no doubt that a considerable portion of Afghanistan was still regarded as part of India. Fa-hien said “ It is indeed a part of North India. The people all use the language of Central India. The Law of Buddha is very flourishing.” Inspite of the influence of the Turks Buddhism continued to flourish. Many caves, monasteries were found.
Kapisa ( Kafiristan ) was a large and powerful kingdom. Its king was a Kshatriya and a devout Buddhists. There were 100 monasteries with 6000 priests etc. Indian influence is to have extended beyond Hindu Kush.
TIBET
Contacts between I and Tibet are to have got established around the sixth century a.d. The imp king Sron-btsansgam-po who occupied the throne during the first half of the 7th century a.d. He ruled over Nepal and parts of Assam. A devout Buddhists, he introduced in Tibet the Sanskrit language and the system of writing from I. He sent Sambhota to I to acquire a thorough knowledge of Indian scripts, Sanskrit language, Buddhists scriptures. After returning from India they framed a system of Tibetan characters and composed a grammatical work.
There is no doubt that the Tibetan alphabet is derived from the Indian Gupta script current from fifth to seventh century a.d. The grammar thus composed is used in Tibetan schools even today.
When I went to Kailash Mansrovar, our Tibetan guide said, that for them India was the holy land. On the second day of the 52 kms trek around the Kailash, a Tibetan owner of a guest house gave me a coke can free since I was Indian, come from the holy land.
OTHER COUNTRIES IN FAR EAST
Buddhism and Indian culture spread from China, Tibet to Mongolia, Korea and Japan.
From I-tsing we know that five Korean monks visited India in the seventh century a.d. The most famous monk in Japan was Bodhisena, a brahman from South I. It appears that Buddhism and Sanskrit were well known in Japan. In 750 a.d. he was appointed head of the Buddhists order in Japan.
The arrangement of Japanese syllabary in fifty phonetic sounds following the Sanskrit alphabet and undoubtedly based on it is attributed by some Japanese scholars to Bodhisena. Fragments of palm leaf manuscripts written in Indian alphabets of the 4th century a.d. have been found in some Japanese monasteries.
Buttetsu , an Indian scholar spent a number of years in Nara, the famous university of Japan giving lessons in Indian dance and music. The Indian system of seven musical notes was highly admired and in great demand.
750 to 1000 A.D. - THREE
There was a lull in the relations between I and C in the ninth century. Things changed with the advent of the Song dynasty. In 972 a.d forty-four Indian monks went to C. Acco to Chinese chronicles there were never as many Indian monks in C as they were at the close of the 10th and the beginning of the 11th centuries. A large number of Sanskrit manuscripts were brought from I.
In 982 a.d. the Chinese Emperor appointed a Board of Translators with three Indians at the head. In 966 a.d. 157 Buddhists monks came to I to pay imperial homage to the Holy Land. The number of Buddhists monks and nuns in C in 1021 a.d. were 397615 and 61240.
The intense cultural relations between I and C came into end around 1036 a.d., probably had to do with the decline of Buddhism in I, destruction of monasteries in Bengal and Bihar by the Muslim invaders.
TIBET
The period 750 to 850 a.d. is when Buddhism reached its supremacy in Tibet. The King invited Santarakshita, the High Priest of Nalanda and appointed him the High Priest of Tibet. Santarak introduced the system of Buddhism Monarchism that is known as as Lamaism in Tibet. Another scholar Padmasambhava introduced Tantrik ritual and taught mysticism based on Buddhists Tantrism.
Another king introduced the system of Indian weight and measures in Tibet. He invited Panditas from I to scriptures and their translation into Tibetan.
A Bengali scholar Dipankara or Atisa stayed in Tibet to reform Buddhism by eliminating Tantrik elements and preaching pure doctrines.
hope you find the info useful. while traveling to hongkong i found the average chinese disliked the indian. what has been yr experience in china or elsewhere. what could be the possible reasons for such behavior. mail me yr experiences.
read on an email friends first hand experience.
They get a complex where Indians put in their efforts since we hold a better command on the English language and we are able to grasp a broader view of the assignments given to us. We can foresee the implications of a particular task/activity which they can't see.
In HK, we had a cross section of the people viz., British being a British bank, Malaysians, Chinese and Indians. We were the unappointed leaders. I was on a Y2K Project in HK and the processes and approaches which we used was applied by the Chinese (from Taiwan, Hongkong, Singapore and Philippines).
There was a hidden fear that we would outdo them. But I must admit once they mastered to do the task they did it thoroughly, but like robots who are programmed to do the jobs.
cheers and thanks
sanjeev
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