Milan Raj Tuladhar
Former Adviser to the Prime Minister of Nepal
(Hon’ble Jhala Nath Khanal, 2011-2012)
Abstract:
Nepal lays claim as the birthplace of Lord Buddha. After his upbringing and many years of very thoughtful youth in Nepal’s Kapilbastu, he went to Bodhgaya, India for his final enlightenment. His message of peace was spread from the land of India but he also had visited his birthplace many times and had many disciples from Nepal. So, Buddhist cultural exchange between Nepal and India took place right from the time of Buddha. India today takes pride of Buddha, and rightfully so. Nepal can take advantage of her most prominent world citizen to redefine her relation with India based on Buddhism. Similarly, China claims to have the largest number of Buddhists in the world, a solid 100 million of Buddhists. China is also promoting Buddhism today for various political and cultural reasons. Nepal as the birthplace of Buddha can capitalise in a big way in redefining her relation with China based on Buddhism. For all these, Nepal has to change its foreign policy narrative with a Buddhist touch.
Buddha is the earliest citizen of Nepal who became known in the world for his intellectual contribution to build a completely new social order based on peace, tranquility and happiness. Even during his own lifetime, his message was accepted far and wide in South Asia and gradually spread to central Asia, Greece in the west and China, Korea, Japan and many southeast Asian countries in the east.
India, in fact, takes pride on the historical records that “around the beginning of the present era, Buddhism was introduced into China. This is the most significant event in the history of India-China cultural exchange.” 1
After spending 29 years of his early life in Kapilbastu, Nepal, Siddhartha Gautam went to Bodh Gaya area of then Magadh kingdom. He spent 6 and half years in the area before attaining enlightenment. This was around the time of beginning of 6th century B.C. After his enlightenment, he visited Kapilbastu several times and he had a large number of followers from Nepal all the time as members of his Bhikchu Sangh. Among them, most famous was Bhikchu Ananda, who was also a cousin of Buddha and belonging to Kapilbastu. Bhikchu Ananda is credited as one of three contributors who helped in compilation of Buddha’s teachings into Tripitak. Similarly, the first nun in the Buddhist order was Prajapati Gautami who was also from Kapilbastu.
Buddha gave his message of peace to the world from India.
Buddha spent a great part of his 45 years of lifetime in teaching his principles of compassion to all sentient beings and other messages of peace and happiness in the South Asian continent. 300 years after Buddha, the great Magadha Emperor Ashoka unified many small kingdoms and laid the foundation of a great nation called India, Hindustan or Bharat. Ashoka is regarded as the greatest Buddhist ruler of all times. He spread the message of Buddha beyond the South Asian subcontinent to central Asia and eastern Asia2. His efforts were later continued by kings like Kaniska.
India was basically a Buddhist nation from Buddha’s time. Its decline started since 6th century, which was witnessed then by the visiting Chinese monk Xuan Zhang. The wiping out of Buddhism from India was almost completed when Nalanda University was destructed by Turk invader Bakhtiyar Khilji and his entourage in 1193.
Even though Buddhism was wiped out from Indian map, its impact could be seen not only in various other religions and philosophies and but also in the general Indian psyche. During 1950s, Babasahib Ambedkar used Buddhism as a kind of campaign to eliminate casteism and untouchability in India. Ambedkar is even now greatly respected as an architect of Indian constitution and was himself a Dalit and an ardent Buddhist. Similarly, Mahatma Gandhi acknowledged that he drew inspiration from Buddha and Sir Edwin Arnold’s book on Buddha titled “The Light of Asia” was one of the first books he studied in his youth3. From former president S. Radhakrishnan to present prime minister Narendra Modi, Indian leaders have been constantly using the example of Buddha to invoke message of peace and reminding the world that Buddha gave the message from the land of India.
Buddhism in China:
With the advent of Silk Road around 200 BC, China not only interacted economically with the outside world, but ideas from outside world also started to reach the middle kingdom, as they used to take pride in calling themselves. According to Indian scholars, one of Ashoka’s son called Kustana founded the kingdom of Khotan (present day Hotan in Xinjiang). The first monastery was built there in 211B.C. Spread of Buddhism in Khotan could be linked to its relative proximity to Kashmir, then a centre of Buddhism. To reach Buddhist thoughts from there to the heartland of Han dynasty in Luoyang, 2200 miles away, it took almost 200 years. Buddhism was very quickly adopted in China as its followers coexisted with Taoist followers and both taught to tolerate each other. With the start of Tang dynasty in the 7th century, the study of Buddhism was taken very seriously in China. There were series of monks such as Fa Xian and Xuan Zhang who visited India and Nepal in search of Buddhist scripts and when they returned, they were not only accompanied by scripts but also scholars from India and Nepal made return visit to China. Prominent Buddhist scholars visiting from India included Kasyapamatanga.
And a Nepalese scholar Buddhabhadra was the first Nepalese Monk to visit China in the 5th century AD. It was a kind of exchange of scholars at the time. Because his contemporary Monk Fa Xian visited Nepal to collect Buddhist scripts around same time. So, when both of them were together in China they worked jointly in translating Buddhist works into the Chinese language. Similarly, in 7th century, another famous monk Xuan Zhang visited Nepal. And in the same century, Princess Bhrikuti went to marry with powerful Tibetan ruler Songtsen Gampo and took a large caravan of artisans and scholars who helped spread Buddhism and Buddhist culture in Tibet and China.
Buddhism flourished in Tibetan region and mainland China continuously without much interruption. In India, there was a fierce opposition to Buddhism from various quarters since 12th century and because of violence against Buddhists, it simply disappeared from the surface of the country, so much so that the great Buddhist monuments were buried for centuries without any trace. If not for the efforts of British archaelogists during their colonial rule, the history of Buddhism in India would have been simply forgotten. Contrary to that, Buddhism never died in Nepal as it learnt to coexist with Shaiva followers right from the beginning. Even brief Muslim invasion in the country could not make a significant dent on the Buddhist practice among the people here.
Conclusion:
There is no doubt that Lumbini-Kapilbastu region of Nepal is important place for Buddhism as Buddha himself asked all his well-wishers to visit Lumbini along with three other important places of Buddhist history if they want to remember him after his Nirvana. Buddha visited Kapilbastu number of times and made so many monks from the region. After Buddha, the Nepalese monks from Kapilbastu continued to play great roles in spreading Buddhism all over the world.
Although Buddhism lost its ground in India since 12th century, the long practice of Buddha’s teaching for more than 1500 years had made a great impact in the Indian culture and other religions of this great country. Even today they take pride in the fact that Buddhism travelled from India to all over the world. When India talks of its glorious past history of Buddhism in India, Nepal should feel happy as it helps in strengthening our relation with southern great neighbour on the basis of Buddhism. However, for the development of relation on this new plain, those responsible for our foreign policy will need to change their narrative. Moreover, Nepal has to own Buddhism in utmost sincerety and it is not enough just to lay claim on Buddha’s birthplace.
Similarly, when president Xi Jinping was speaking in a dinner hosted by Nepali president on 12th October, he explained in detail that China had adopted Buddhism as a part of local religion and it has become an important part of Chinese culture and with a 100 million Buddhists, China takes pride in having the largest number of followers of Buddhism. There is a deep meaning to the statement of the Chinese president that they have internalised Buddhism. Nepal has much to capitalise from the zeal for Buddhism in China. Here also our foreign policy narrative needs a reworking with a Buddhist touch.
References:
Encyclopedia of India-China Cultural Contacts, An initiative of Public Diplomacy Division of Ministry of External Affairs: 2014.
P.V. Bapat(1956):2500 years of Buddhism, New Delhi, Publication Division, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting
M.K. Gandhi (1948):The Story of my experiments with Truth, Public Affairs Press.
V.K. Manandhar (2008):Ven. Buddhabhadra & his contributions in Buddhism in 5th Century China in Northern Buddhism in History, Vajra Publications, Kathmandu.
भूवन लाल प्रधान (२०१९) नेपालमा बुद्ध धर्म नेपाल प्रज्ञा प्रतिष्ठान
4 According to UN News of 4th September 2019, while addressing UN general assembly, Modi said that “India has given the world Buddha’s message of peace not war”.
5 P.V. Bapat, ibid.
6 2014: Encyclopedia of India-China Cultural Contacts, An initiative of Public Diplomacy Division of Ministry of External Affairs.
7 V.K. Manandhar(2008):Ven. Buddhabhadra & his contributions in Buddhism in 5th Century China in Northern Buddhism in History, Vajra Publications, Kathmandu.80 )
# Mr. Tuladhar is a Former Adviser to the Prime Minister of Nepal (Hon’ble Jhala Nath Khanal, 2011-2012)
1 2014: Encyclopedia of India-China Cultural Contacts, An initiative of Public Diplomacy Division of Ministry of External Affairs.78 )
# Thanks the distinguished author Mr. Tuladhar and the Nepal Council of World Affairs Journal 2020: Ed. Upadhyaya. N. P.
# Our contact email address is: editor.telegraphnepal@gmail.com