Asian Perspectives on China and Tibet: Geography, History and Buddhism Room 205, 2nd Floor, Chamchuri 3 Building, Chulalongkorn University October 7-8, 2014 Asia Research Center and Faculty of Arts’ Chinese Department, Chulalongko rn University Department of Political Science, National Taiwan University, Taipei Association of Asia Scholars, New Delhi
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Asian Perspectives on China and Tibet:
Geography, History and Buddhism
Room 205, 2nd Floor, Chamchuri 3 Building,
Chulalongkorn University
October 7-8, 2014
Asia Research Center and Faculty of Arts’ Chinese Department, Chulalongkorn University
Department of Political Science, National Taiwan University, Taipei
Association of Asia Scholars, New Delhi
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Asian Perspectives on China and Tibet: Geography, History and Buddhism
Asia Research Center and Faculty of Arts’ Chinese Department, Chulalongkorn University
Department of Political Science, National Taiwan University, Taipei
Association of Asia Scholars, New Delhi Room 205, 2nd Floor, Chamchuri 3 Building, Chulalongkorn University
October 7-8, 2014 October 7
Registration, Opening Address and Welcome Speech, and Photo Session 09:30-10:00-- Prapin Manomaivibool, Briefing
Pirom Kamol-ratanakul, Opening Address and Welcome Speech
Keynote Speech ~ Prapin Manomaivibool (Chair) 10:00-10:40-- Prapod Assavavirulhakarn, How Thai’s Perspective on China Is Enlightened by
Buddhist Scholarship
Confucian Modernity in the Perspective of Buddhism ~ Hartmut Behr (Chair),
11:00-11:40-- Nguyen Tran Tien, Facing Christianity, Integrating Confucianism and Daoism: The Buddhist Foundation of Modern Subjectivity in Vietnam
11:50-12:30-- Chih-yu Shih, The Two States of Nature in Chinese Practice of Non/Intervention:
Neo-Confucianism, Buddhism, and Modernity
Chinese Influences in the Perspective of Buddhism ~ Swaran Singh (Chair)
13:50-14:30-- Sharad K Soni, Buddhist Influence on China Studies in Mongolia: Exploring the Mongol-China-Tibet Linkages
14:40-15:20-- Reena Marwah, Buddhism in Sri Lanka and Nepal: Exploring the Influence of
Tibet/Tibetan Studies in a Comparative Perspective
China Studies in the Perspective of Buddhism ~ U Thaw Kaung (Chair) 15:40-16:30-- Josuke Ikeda, (Re)creating China: Sinology, the Kyoto School and Japanese View
of Modern World; Pratoom Angurarohita (Discussant)
16:40-17:30-- Peiying Lin, Buddhist Scholars' Views of China in Contemporary Japan: Buddhist
Influence on Japanese Sinology; and Taro Mochizuki (Discussant)
October 8
Keynote Speech ~ B R Deepak (Chair),
09:30-10:10-- Swaran Singh, Why are China Scholars in Asia not Alarmed by China Threat
Theories of West? A Buddhist Perspective?
Sino-Myanmar Relations in the Perspective of Buddhism ~ Nguyen Tran Tien (Chair)
10:30-11:10-- U Thaw Kaung, Myanmar Perspectives on China: Historical Relations and
Buddhist Contacts
11:20-11:40-- Keziah Wallis (Absentia), Religious Politics or Political Religions :
Chinese-Myanmar Buddhist Relations and the 2008 Chinese Tooth Relic in Yangon
Chinese Texts in the Perspective of the Buddhism ~ Reena Marwah (Chair)
11:50-12:30-- Chanwit Tudkeao, Buddhist Beliefs Reflected in the Tibetan Daily Prayer Book in
Comparison with the Chinese version 13:50-14:30-- B R Deepak, Translation Studies and Civilizational Dialogue between India and
China: Role of the Buddhist Scholar Monks
14:40-15:20-- Avijit Banerjee, Indian Buddhist Scholars and Ancient Chinese Documents:
Primary sources of China studies in India
A Proposal for Comparative Phenomenology ~ Josuke Ikeda (Chair) 15:40-16:50-- Hartmut Behr, Temporality, Transformativity, and Peace in Cross-cultural
Dialogue and Policy
Business Meeting and Concluding Remark ~ Chih-yu Shih (Chair)
17:00-17:30-- All Participants, Reflections and Suggestions
The recommended maximal time for each presentation is 30 minutes.
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International Conference on
Asian Perspectives on China and Tibet:
Geography, History and Buddhism
Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok,
October 7, 2014
9:30-10:00
Briefing to the President of Chulalongkorn University
By
Prapin Manomaivibool
Director of Asia Research Center
Chulalongkorn University
Opening Address and Welcoming Speech
By
Pirom Kamol-ratanakul, M.D.
President of Chulalongkorn University
Photo Session
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10:00-10:40
Keynote Speech
How Thai’s Perspective on China Is Enlightened by Buddhist Scholarship
By
Prapod Assavavirulhakarn
Dean of Faculty of Arts
Chulalongkorn University
11:00-12:30
Confucian Modernity in the Perspective of Buddhism
Facing Christianity, Integrating Confucianism and Daoism:
The Buddhist Foundation of Modern Subjectivity in Vietnam
By
Nguyen Tran Tien
Faculty of Oriental Studies,
Vietnam National University, HANOI
Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism are the three basic systems of thought which are
accepted and applied altogether creatively in process of establishing and affirming the
Vietnamese’s dignity. As the result of interaction with India and China, the Vietnamese
thoughts were established in the tendency of integration of the three religions altogether, and
among them Buddhism occupies an active and distinguish place in forming internal
(introspecting) values.
In early Christian era, ideological co-existence and integration of three religions have
appeared as Vietnam was considered as a meeting place of cultural exchange between
Vietnam - China and Vietnam - India, a place to gather and harmonize the flow of both
Indo-Chinese thoughts merging with the indigenous culture.
Among these three religions, Buddhism was introduced into Vietnam from India and
basically became the most influential religion in term of spiritual lives of the people.
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However, Confucianism and Taoism also had great impacts on social and political life
besides traditional folk beliefs. Therefore, this religious integration has become one of the
most unique trends in Vietnamese thoughts of religious tolerance and co-existing as well as
respecting all three religions.
This paper tries to focus on the following aspects of three-religious integration in
Vietnamese thought:
- Brief studies on the introduction and influence of Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism
- Historical contexts of three-religious integration
- Dominant religion in integration process: integration and acculturation.
This paper is also based on a quantitative study of three rather distinct religious traditions
(Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism) sharing the same ethnic origin (Vietnamese) in
Vietnam. It investigates the possible relations between religion and acculturation, and looks
at whether various forms of religiosity and religious belonging are plausible variables in
acculturation perspectives.
The Two States of Nature in Chinese Practice of Non/Intervention:
Neo-Confucianism, Buddhism and Modernity
By
Chih-yu Shih
Department of Political Science
National Taiwan University
China’s insistence on non-intervention in failed states so that spontaneity may take over
the course of events contradicts Beijing’s constant appeal for self-strengthening in domestic
governance. The Chinese government and people’s disregard for failing governance in other
countries is in contrast with the portrayal of good governance as a triumph of the Chinese
Communist Party. A realistic view of this kind of contradiction would accept such hypocrisy
as easily explained by national interest calculus. However, a more complex approach seems
justified as foreign policy leaders are typically believed to act with good reason, and at the
very least, argue for public support. In cases where the theory–practice contradiction affects
neither policy makers nor their constituency, a concept that is deeper than functional
hypocrisy must be the premise of this apparent desensitization. To understand the apparent
apathy toward the failed state, this study relies specifically on the Buddhist notion of
suffering as the nature of “this world” as opposed to that of “the afterworld.” China can find
means to desensitize the contradictions in their non-interventionism through the dialectical
relationship between transcendental cosmology/ontology that favors inaction and
transcendental epistemology that favors self-strengthening as required by the situation.
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13:50-15:20
Chinese Influences in the Perspective of Buddhism
Buddhist Influence on China Studies in Mongolia: Exploring the Mongol-China-Tibet
Linkages
By
Sharad K Soni
School of International Studies
Jawaharlal Nehru University
Today China Studies in Mongolia covers varied subjects that include history, language,
religion, culture, politics, international relations etc. Though international relations as part of
China Studies focusses exclusively on Mongolia-China and Mongolia-Tibet relations,
Buddhism has had tremendous influences on studying such relations in historical perspective
that also points to various transcendent messages derived from Buddhism to analyse those
relations in the contemporary context. These messages indeed enlighten the perspectives on
China studies given the fact that it was during the rule of China’s Ming dynasty that Tibetan
form of Mahayana Buddhism became so deep rooted among the Mongol people that
practically all of them began converting to this religion since 1578 when the Mongol Prince
Altan Khan met the Third Dalai Lama at Qinghai (Koko Nor). The transfer of Tibetan
Buddhism among Mongolian people illustrates the diffusion of a religion endowed with a
complex dogma and elaborate rituals through a movement of conversion under the aegis of a
political power. Tibetan Buddhism, however, was adopted as far back as in the thirteenth
century as the official religion of Yuan China by Khubilai Khan, the founder of the Mongol
Yuan dynasty. It was also the Mongol Prince Altan Khan who gave the title of Dalai Lama
for the first time to the Tibetan monk Sonam Gyatso, who came to be known as the Third in
the lineage of Dalai Lama (the first two were given this title posthumously). By the end of the
seventeenth century the Mongol people became a part of the ‘Tibetan Buddhist area’ in terms
of geography, while at the same time retaining many of their own distinctive cultural features.
At that time, Tibetan Buddhism spread even beyond the Mongol borders and left its deep
impact on the ethnic Mongols of the present Russian Federation Republics of Buryatiya,
Tuva and Kalmykia. When almost all the ‘Tibetan Buddhist area’ came under China’s Qing
Empire in the eighteenth century, the Qing emperor saw himself as a Bodhisattva-king that
was revealed in his actions in building Tibetan-style temples that symbolised the world as
seen from a Buddhist perspective. Under the overlordship of Qing Empire, the Mongols of
both the Chinese province of Inner Mongolia and the then Outer Mongolia (the current
independent Republic of Mongolia) as such did not face any threat to their religious faith
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until they came under the Soviet domination in the early twentieth century. During much of
the Soviet period Buddhism in Mongolia was badly suppressed but then it saw its revival in
the post-1991 period. Since geography, history and Buddhism as the key factors have played
a paramount role in the development of Mongolia-China-Tibet linkages; one may find that
pragmatic analysis of the Buddhist influence on China studies in Mongolia prevails over
abstract theorizing.
It is in this context that the paper seeks to cover the following five aspects
in order to analyse the core subject: 1. Overview of China Studies in Mongolia; 2.
Mongolia-China-Tibet Linkages: Role of Buddhism in Historical Perspective; 3. Beyond the
Mongolian Borders: Buddhism in Buryatia, Tuva and Kalmykia; 4. Buddhism in the
Imagination of Contemporary Mongolian Sinologists; 5. Implications for Mongolia-China
Relations. Besides, the paper also argues if Buddhism can be employed as geopolitical tool in
regional and international perspectives to meet the challenges facing Mongolia in its China
policy.
Buddhism in Sri Lanka and Nepal: Exploring the Influence of Tibet/Tibetan Studies in
a Comparative Perspective
By
Reena Marwah
Indian Council for Social Science Research
Ministry of Human Resource Development, India
While Sri Lanka is the oldest continually Buddhist country with Theravada Buddhism
being the major religion in the island since its official introduction in the 2nd century BC by
King Mahinda (the son of Mauryan Emperor Ashoka of India during the reign of King
Devanampiya- Tissa), Lumbini in Nepal is the birthplace of Lord Buddha. It is also believed
that the nun Sanghamitta, the daughter of Asoka, brought the southern branch of the original
Bodhi tree to Anuradhapura, the ancient capital of Sri Lanka. Since then Buddhists in Sri
Lanka have paid reverence to this branch of the Bodhi tree under the shade of which Lord
Buddha achieved Enlightenment. Monks from Sri Lanka have been instrumental in spreading
both Theravada and Mahayana throughout South-East Asia. Nepalese Buddhism inherited the
Mahayana Buddhist sutras which were established in India in original Sanskrit. Similarly,
stone inscript ions on Mahayana Buddhist beliefs and pract ices written in Sanskrit
have been found in Sri Lanka’s Anuradhapura. The Sanskrit sutras which survived in
both the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal as well as in Sri Lanka contributed greatly to the
modern research on Mahayana Buddhism. Thus, while both the countries have been greatly
enriched by the study of Buddhist scriptures and texts, there are important areas where the
convergence of ideals and beliefs is not visible, especially when viewed through the lens of
Tibetology.
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It is against this background that this paper is divided into three parts: the first traces the
spread of Buddhism and how the image of Tibet has evolved historically, socially and
culturally in Sri Lanka and its sphere of influence- both direct and indirect; the second section
provides a narrative of Buddhism in Nepal bringing the study of Tibet in perspective. The
intersection of Tibetology with Buddhism in a comparative perspective in these two countries
comprises the third and the last section of the paper.
15:40-17:30
China Studies in the Perspective of Buddhism
(Re)creating China:
Sinology, the Kyoto School and Japanese View of Modern World
By
Josuke Ikeda
University of Toyama
Discussant
Pratoom Angurarohita
Department of Philosophy
Chulalongkorn University
In Japanese IR and recent re-disciplinisation of IR with non/post-Western perspectives,
the ‘Kyoto School’ has been considered both a triumph and a trauma. It was the former
because of its struggle for emancipating the country from the Expansion of International
Society (in Hedley Bull and Adam Watson’s sense), while it was the latter as well because of
its intellectual complicity towards war-time regime. The paper aims at exploring such mixed
reputation from different perspective, through the development of Sinology with Buddhist
ideas.
The central contention of the paper is that the Kyoto School had had much wider vista
than having ordinary considered, and what has been focused till recently was just the very
final phase of its development. In other words, the Kyoto School, usually centred by
philosopher Nishida Kitaro was a kind of focal point, and there were earlier stages whose
diverse streams had poured into Nishida eventually. The paper’s focus is, therefore, not the
Kyoto School in Philosophy, rather the one in Sinology. Interestingly, the invention of
Sinology in Kyoto was not only the starting point of the Kyoto School, but also the
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combination process of Buddhism and Asianism. The paper will present how the
development of Kyoto Sinology had been done both as a wider project of Asia Studies there
as well as the kick-off of the Kyoto School in later meaning. Main figures will include Kano
Kyokichi, Haneda Toru, Naito Konan, Kuwabara Tokuzo and others. Exploring the
intellectual development in Buddhism and Sinology, this paper will consider how modern
Japanese had considered West, East, China, Japan, and eventually, their world.
Buddhist Scholars' Views of China in Contemporary Japan: Buddhist Influence on
Japanese Sinology
By
Peiying Lin
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Disscusant
Taro Mochizuki
ASEAN Center for Academic Initiatives
Osaka University
In this paper, I analyze the work by Japanese scholars of Chinese Buddhism from
different backgrounds according to their affiliated institutes and relevant Buddhist sects. In so
doing, I examine the different dispositions of their scholarly perspectives of China, as well as
the correlations between these perspectives and the Buddhist thought.
With an attempt to cover the field of Chinese Buddhism in aspects of intellectual and
social history of China, Japanese scholars selected in the current paper include: D.T. Suzuki