Buddhism in Central Asia
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Brill_DHR11.qxp_SPINE=25 23-12-19 13:20 Pagina 1 The ERC-funded research project BuddhistRoad aims to create a new framework to dhr 11 dynamics in the history of religions 11 enable understanding of the complexities in the dynamics of cultural encounter and religious transfer in pre-modern Eastern Central Asia. Buddhism was one major factor in this exchange: for the first time the multi-layered relationships Carmen Meinert and Henrik H. Sørensen ( Buddhism in Central Asia 1 between the trans-regional Buddhist traditions (Chinese, Indian, Tibetan) and those based on local Buddhist cultures (Khotanese, Uyghur, Tangut, Khitan) will be explored in a systematic way. The first volume Buddhism in Central Asia 1: Patronage, Legitimation, Sacred Space, and Pilgrimage is based on the start-up conference held on May 23rd–25th, 2018, at CERES, Ruhr-Universität Bochum (Germany) and focuses on the first two of altogether six thematic topics to be dealt with in the project, namely on “patronage and legitimation strategy” as well as “sacred space and pilgrimage.” Carmen Meinert is Professor for Central Asian Religions and Principal Investigator of the ERC project BuddhistRoad at CERES, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany. Her recent publications include: Buddhist Encounters and Identities across East Asia, ed. Ann Heirman, Carmen Meinert, and Christoph Anderl. Leiden: Brill, 2018. Eds. Buddhism in Central Asia I Henrik H. Sørensen is the Research Coordinator of the ERC project BuddhistRoad ) at CERES, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany. His recent publications include Patronage, Legitimation, Sacred Space, “Buddhist Pilgrimage and Spiritual Identity: Korean Sŏn Monks Journeying to Tang China in Search of the Dharma,” in Buddhist Encounters and Identities and Pilgrimage Across East Asia, ed. Ann Heirman, Carmen Meinert, and Christoph Anderl. Leiden: Brill, 2018. edited by Carmen Meinert and Henrik H. Sørensen issn 1878-8106 isbn 978-90-04-41562-1 *hIJ0A4|URVWSr brill.com/dhr BRILL BRILL i Buddhism in Central Asia I © carmen meinert and henrik h. sørensen, 2020 | doi:10.1163/9789004417731_001 This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the CC-BY-NC 4.0 License. ii Dynamics in the History of Religions Editors-in-Chief Volkhard Krech Licia Di Giacinto (Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany ) Advisory Board Jan Assmann (Ruprecht-Karls Universität, Heidelberg) Christopher Beckwith (Indiana University, Bloomington ) Rémi Brague (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München) José Casanova Mittman (Casanova ) Angelos Chaniotis (Oxford University ) Peter Skilling (University of Sydney) Guy Stroumsa (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem ) Boudewijn Walraven (Leiden University ) VOLUME 11 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/dhr iii Buddhism in Central Asia I Patronage, Legitimation, Sacred Space, and Pilgrimage Edited by Carmen Meinert Henrik H. Sørensen LEIDEN | BOSTON iv This is an open access title distributed under the terms of the CC-BY-NC 4.0 License, which permits any non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited. BuddhistRoad is a project of This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 725519). Cover illustration: Offfijicial seal of the Saṁgha Overseer’s Offfijice in Dunhuang. 10th Century. The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available online at http://catalog.loc.gov Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface. The copyright of the Tangut Yinchuan font used in this publication resides with Prof. Jing Yongshi ගՕ䝤) in Yinchuan. For more information about thisاֱק) 㦍 of the Beifang Ethnic Universityةན font see http://www.babelstone.co.uk/Fonts/Yinchuan.html. issn 1878-8106 isbn 978-90-04-41562-1 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-41773-1 (e-book) Copyright 2020 by the Author(s). Published by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhofff, Brill Rodopi, Brill Sense, Hotei Publishing, mentis Verlag, Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh and Wilhelm Fink Verlag. Koninklijke Brill NV reserves the right to protect the publication against unauthorized use and to authorize dissemination by means of offfprints, legitimate photocopies, microform editions, reprints, translations, and secondary information sources, such as abstracting and indexing services including databases. Requests for commercial re-use, use of parts of the publication, and/or translations must be addressed to Koninklijke Brill NV. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner. ContentsContents v Contents Foreword VII Acknowledgments IX Illustrations and Tables x Abbreviations XV Notes on Contributors XVII XX Introduction—Piety, Power, and Place in Central and East Asian Buddhism 1 Carmen Meinert and Henrik H. Sørensen Part 1 Patronage and Legitimation 1 Who Is Legitimating Whom? On Justifying Buddhism’s Place in the Body Politic 15 Sem Vermeersch 2 Images of Patronage in Khotan 40 Erika Forte 3 Uyghur Legitimation and the Role of Buddhism 61 Yukiyo Kasai 4 Donors and Esoteric Buddhism in Dunhuang during the Reign of the Guiyijun 91 Henrik H. Sørensen 5 The Formation of Tangut Ideology: Buddhism and Confucianism 123 Kirill Solonin Part 2 Sacred Space and Pilgrimage 6 From Padmasambhava to Gö Tsangpa: Rethinking Religious Patronage in the Indian Himalayas between the 8th and 13th Centuries 151 Verena Widorn vi Contents 7 Sacred Space in Uyghur Buddhism 189 Jens Wilkens 8 Pilgrims in Old Uyghur Inscriptions: A Glimpse behind Their Records 204 Simone-Christiane Raschmann 9 Looking from the Periphery: Some Additional Thoughts on Yulin Cave 3 230 Max Deeg 10 Creation of Tantric Sacred Spaces in Eastern Central Asia 244 Carmen Meinert Bibliography 273 Index of Deities and Buddhas 310 Index of Dynasties, Kingdoms, and Empires 311 Index of Personal Names 312 Index of Places 314 Index of Technical Terms 316 Index of Text Names 320 ContentsPreface vii Foreword The ERC funded project Dynamics in Buddhist Network in Eastern Central Asia 6th to 14th Centuries (short: BuddhistRoad) aims to create a new framework to enable understanding of the complexities in the dynamics of cultural encoun- ter and religious transfer in premodern Eastern Central Asia—the vast area extending from the Taklamakan Desert to North-east China. This region was the crossroads of ancient civilisations. Its uniqueness was determined by the complex dynamics of religious and cultural exchanges gravitating around an ancient communication artery known as the Silk Road. Buddhism was one ma- jor factor in this exchange; its transfer predetermined the transfer of adjacent aspects of culture, and, as such, the religious exchanges involved a variety of cultures and civilisations. These, in turn, were modifijied and shaped by their adoption of Buddhism. In many cases the spread of Buddhism overrode ethnic and linguistic boundaries in Eastern Central Asia creating a civilisational whole, which, despite its diversity, shared a set of common ideas originating from Buddhism. One specifijic aspect of this process in Eastern Central Asia was the rise of local forms of Buddhism. This project intends to investigate such Buddhist localisations and developments that took place between the 6th and the 14th centuries. At the core of the BuddhistRoad investigation are the areas of Khotan, Kucha, Turfan, Dunhuang, Ganzhou, as well as the territories of the Tangut and Khitan empires. The analysis will revolve around thematic clusters pertaining to doctrines, rituals and practices, the impact of non-Buddhist in- fluences, patronage and legitimation strategies, sacred spaces and pilgrimages, and visual and material transfers. The PI of the project, Carmen Meinert, and the project coordinator, Henrik H. Sørensen, are pleased that the editors-in-chief of the book series Dynamics in the History of Religions, Volkhard Krech and Licia Di Giacinto (both at CERES, Ruhr-Universität Bochum), kindly accepted to publish the following expected outcomes of the BuddhistRoad project in the series: Three conference proceedings, – Buddhism in Central Asia I: Patronage, Legitimation, Sacred Space, and Pil- grimage, edited by Carmen Meinert and Henrik H. Sørensen, 2020. – Buddhism in Central Asia II: Practice and Rituals, Visual and Material Trans- fer, edited by Yukiyo Kasai and Haoran Hou, forthcoming. – Buddhism in Central Asia III: Doctrine, Exchanges with Non-Buddhist Tradi- tions, forthcoming. viii Preface Two volumes co-authored by all BuddhistRoad team members and a mono- graph by Carmen Meinert on the History of Central Asian Buddhism. Carmen Meinert Henrik H. Sørensen AcknowledgmentsAcknowledgments ix Acknowledgments The present volume is based on the proceedings of the start-up conference “Establishing of Buddhist Nodes in Eastern Central Asia 6th to 14th c. Part I: Sacred Space, Pilgrimage, Patronage, Legitimation Strategies” of the ERC pro- ject BuddhistRoad. The conference was organised by Carmen Meinert and Henrik H. Sørensen on May 23rd to 25th, 2018 at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (Germany). The conference convenors and book editors are grateful to the ten confer- ence participants, who contributed their fijine pieces of scholarship to the pres- ent volume, and for allowing a smooth editing process. The elaborate, yet swift editing process would not have been