In Sino-Tibetan Buddhism Across the Ages, editors Ester Bianchi and Weirong Shen have compiled a diverse collection of studies illuminating the range and depth of cultural, political, economic, and social interactions between Chinese and Tibetan Buddhism not only in Central Tibet and the Chinese heartland, but also in the multi-ethnic borderlands that bridge these cultural spheres. This volume is organized into three chronological parts that together consist of ten chapters, which range from studies of the earliest documents of Sino-Tibetan encounters unearthed from the caves at Dunhuang to examinations of urban interactions between Chinese and Tibetan Buddhist peoples in the first decades of the 21st century. The contributors’ research methods are equally wide-ranging, with chapters based on careful philological work, historical and source criticism, textual analysis, in-depth ethnographic interviews and participant observation, iconographic analysis, and semiotic analysis. Building upon several earlier anthologies as well as pioneering research on Sino-Tibetan Buddhist interactions by Monica Esposito—in whose memory this volume is thoughtfully dedicated—Sino-Tibetan Buddhism Across the Ages contains innovative studies that effectively demonstrate how cross-cultural exchange and religious hybridity have shaped the historical development of Tibetan and Chinese Buddhist traditions and continue to shape their contemporary transmission and practice.
The first four chapters examine pre-modern Sino-Tibetan Buddhist encounters in Central Tibet, Beijing, and the eastern Sino-Tibetan borderlands from the 9th through the late-18th centuries. Weirong Shen provides an important re-examination of the storied Samyé (Tibetan bsam yas) Debate and argues that the inherited Tibetan narrative presents a largely invented story based more on Kamalaśīla’s records in the Bhāvanākrama than Hva Shang Mahāyāna’s actual teachings. In contrast, Shen presents gNubs chen Sangs rgyas ye shes’ (9th century) sophisticated analysis of Instantaneist teachings in his bSam gtan mig sgron as an example of an alternative and more positive early evaluation of Chinese Chan Buddhism that was not, however, integrated into the later Tibetan Buddhist mainstream. Linghui Zhang’s chapter analyzes the parallel ritual and iconographic developments of the Sixteen Arhat traditions in Chinese and Tibetan Buddhism and argues that the Tibetan addition of Dharmatāla (Tib. d+ha rma ta la) and Hashang (Tib. hwa shang) are best understood as integrations of preexisting Chinese iconographies for ritual purposes that emerged in the Hexi region. Also focused on the northeastern Tibetan Plateau, Penghao Sun’s chapter paints a picture of a vibrant and well-patronized community of Tibetan Buddhists at the intersection of Tibetan, Chinese, and Tangut cultural spheres based on an examination of several manuscript fragments from Khara Khoto associated with the translator Gyi ljang Dbu dkar ba (11th century). Finally, Fan Zhang offers a semiotic and material analysis of three 19th century multilingual stone steles erected by the Qing empire in Lhasa. In doing so, she argues that these pillars demonstrate both the materialization and translation of Qing imperial sovereignty into regions they considered peripheral as well as Tibetan reassertions of centrality and spiritual superiority.
The middle section of this volume contains two chapters that focus on Sino-Tibetan interactions in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Urs App’s fascinating chapter offers a careful analysis of Helena Blavatsky’s (1831–1891) esoteric Buddhism and the diverse European, Tibetan, and Chinese sources she drew upon to create her “Tibetan Theosophy.” In a similar analytical mode, Martino Dibeltulo Concu explores evolving understandings of Tibetan Buddhism and Tantrism (mijiao) in late imperial and early Republican China and the sources that undergirded these descriptions. Dibeltulo Concu underscores the unique contributions of Chinese scholar Lü Cheng (1896–1989) in particular, whose philological analyses on the emergence of Vajrayāna or misheng and the equation of Tibet’s tantra (Tib. rgyud), Japan’s mikkyō, and China’s mijiao were highly influential from the Republican Era through the present.
The final four chapters of the book bring readers from the mid-20th century to contemporary Sino-Tibetan Buddhist interactions. The chapters by Bianchi and Wu present two novel examinations of the hybrid Buddhism of Master Nenghai (1886–1967). These studies analyze how this influential Buddhist teacher integrated the gradualist approach, commentarial study, and tantric practice learned during his training in Tibetan Gelugpa (Tib. dge lugs pa) monasteries with a strict adherence to the Chinese Dharmaguptaka vinaya and promotion of early Buddhist canonical texts contained in the Āgama-s (Chinese a han jing). Alison Denton Jones’ chapter investigates how Han Chinese lay Buddhists in contemporary eastern Chinese cities have come to adopt aspects of Tibetan Buddhism into their religious practices. She argues that majority Han Chinese who practice Tibetan Buddhism should be considered “accidental esoterics” (278) who come to incorporate an eclectic variety of available Tibetan Buddhist elements into their religious lives rather than intentionally seeking to become Tibetan Buddhists. Finally, Isabelle Charleux’s chapter presents a fascinating study of the history and significant modern development of Tibeto-Mongolian and Chinese Buddhisms in the Inner Mongolian city of Hohhot. She presents examples of the blending of Sino-Tibetan Buddhist iconography and architecture, as well as the ethnic mixing of Buddhist worshippers, but is carefully attentive to liturgical and festival elements that resist hybridization.
Sino-Tibetan Buddhism Across the Ages presents a complex and balanced depiction of Sino-Tibetan religious hybridities. Its chapters focus equally on the ways Tibetan Buddhism developed through interactions with the Chinese cultural sphere as well how Chinese Buddhism drew upon and was shaped by ideas, practices, and material culture drawn from Tibetan traditions. Furthermore, this volume should also be commended for its recentering of the Sino-Tibetan periphery. As the chapters by Zhang, Sun, and Charleux especially demonstrate, borderlands have long been sites of multilingual and multiethnic exchange and negotiation that have yielded important developments in Chinese and Tibetan Buddhist doctrine, iconography, architecture, and practice.
Sino-Tibetan Buddhism Across the Ages is a timely and important contribution that will be enjoyed by anyone interested in Chinese and Tibetan Buddhist traditions and Sino-Tibetan history. Furthermore, those interested in broader processes of religious and cultural hybridity or borderland studies will also find much value in this work.
Eben Yonnetti is a PhD candidate in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia.
Eben Yonnetti
Date Of Review:
April 29, 2021