1. Buddhism and its Travels

2. Siddhartha Gautama Born a Hindu in Nepal, ~560 BCE
Wonders why there’s suffering
Seeks enlightenment and finds it!
“Work out your
salvation with diligence.”
Hindu caste system unappealing to Buddha – why should there be those that suffer? All can seek out enlightenment!

3. Four Noble Truths All life involves suffering
Desire is the cause of suffering
Elimination of desire ends suffering
Disciplined life, following 8-fold path brings the elimination of desire

4. The Eight-fold Path Right Belief Right Purpose Right Speech
Right Behavior
Right Occupation
Right Effort
Right Contemplation
Right Meditation
Essentially: lead balanced and moderate lives (contemplation and self-control), reject devotion to luxury and extreme asceticism.
Attempt to escape the cycle of incarnation without the help of Brahmins

5. Appeal of Buddhism Did not recognize caste State support & patronage
Appealed to lower castes
State support & patronage
Travelled with merchants
Monks spoke and wrote in the language of the people, not the scholarly language of Sanskrit
Stupas and other pilgrimage sites
Monasteries as city centers
Monasteries were centers of education, banking, and land organization in their communities (social and economic power)
Emphasize the Social, Economic, Political, Cultural, and Environmental/Geographic effects

6. Silk Road as Religious Conduit
Monks travelled, as did Buddhist merchants
Buddhism is the
dominant faith of
the Silk Roads
200 BCE-1000 CE
Social & cultural appeal
Seeing the Buddha as a divine being who walked among humans was appealing for Greeks given their religion
In a time of strife (disease, political collapse, nomadic invasions) in China, Confucian philosophy did not make sense of the suffering the people endured the way that Buddhism did.

7. Spread of Religions 200 BCE – 400 CE
As Buddhism spread, it both caused conflict and cultural blending

8. Conflict
Buddhist Temples required land, and land required farmers to work it
China had a very strict social hierarchy
The dominant Confucian belief system in China required obedience to the state above all
Ask students why these facts might produce conflict, and what SPICE categories of conflict
Competition for land with other landowners, competition for workers
Buddhism preached equality and community

9. To the Sources!
Read the Chinese primary sources on the handout to find evidence of conflict between the traditional Chinese and the Buddhists. What kinds of conflict do you detect (use the SPICE categories)?

10. Cultural Blending Buddhists from India drank tea and wore cotton cloth
Buddhists built temples wherever they went
Buddhist texts had to be translated to Chinese
Chinese society was very patriarchal
Define patriarchal
In China, Indian Buddhist phrases like “husband supports wife” were changed to “husband controls his wife” and “the wife comforts the husband” became “the wife reveres the husband.”

11. Theraveda vs. Mahayana Buddha as man
Required strict sacrifice of personal property and social standing
Detachment from charms of family and world desires expected
Monastic life required for men and women
Stays in India and Southeast Asia
Buddha as divine
Gifts from the wealthy to Buddhist monasteries granted salvation
More accepting of traditional family structures and lifestyles
Spreads to central and East Asia
Narrower v. Greater Vehicle

13. Images of Ascetic Buddha
“asceticism” = extreme self-denial in order to achieve spiritual enlightenment.
One tradition holds that Gautama learned to exist on a diet of a single grain of rice per day, and that he could push his belly button in and touch his own spine.

14. Happy (often Fat) Buddha
More ethnic Chinese look to the Buddha. Mahayana

15. Buddha with Western Influence
Note greek facial features and hair, as well as drapery style

16. Great Buddha Bodhgaya, India
Great Buddha Kamakura, Japan
Note the comparison

17. Japanese Buddhas
Great Buddha of Kamakura Golden Buddha, Kumamoto

18. Thai Buddhas

19. Puning Temple, Chengde, China
Buddhist Temple
Puning Temple, Chengde, China

20. Buddhist Temple Borobudur, Java

21. Buddhist Monastery Mongolia

22. Buddhist Monastery Bhutan

23. Dunhuang Cave Monastery Near Taklamakan Desert

24. Art Inside the Caves

25. Effects of the Spread of Buddhism
Social
Political
Interactions between Humans & Environment
Cultural
Economic
1:49 to 9:50 MOVIE
Interactions between Humans & the Environment: missionaries and monks traveled along the Silk Roads to spread the religion, and settled in communities to form Buddhist schools, monasteries, and temples. Pilgrimmage sites, housing relics of the Buddha (his finger, for example) were also draws for migrants.