Most Ven. Le Manh That
Vietnam Buddhist University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Buddhism was introduced into Vietnam quite early in the history, at least if we base our research on materials of Vietnamese side. It is during the last Dynasty of the independent King Hùng period that Vietnamese embraced Buddhism and in our studies, we show that a number of Buddhist texts belong to the Jataka collection of the Buddhist Canon have been translated into Vietnamese and modified in accordance with Vietnamese cultural tradition. Here, we wish to refer to the Story of Hundred Eggs of the Sutra of the Collection of Six Paramita. In the Sanskrit version and Chinese and Tibetan translations, we all have one hundred flesh pieces (or meat ball), but in Vietnamese, we have one hundred eggs. This is an indication of some modification of the original text to the Vietnamese taste because the Vietnamese consider their people were born from a hundred eggs. Through this kind of modification, Buddhism was absorbed and become the main stream of Vietnamese culture. Buddhist narrative has better opportunities to penetrate into Vietnamese literature. Now in Vietnam, the first literary work still extend in Vietnamese language is a Buddhist long-poem i.e. Cư trần lạc đạo phú (Living in the world but loving the way) by Emperor, at the same time Zen Master Trần Nhân Tông (1258-1308). And the first translated work in Vietnamese language is also a Buddhist sutra on filial feity, whose first wood-blocked printing is about the year 1442. in 17th century, Zen Master Chan Nguyen (1646-1726) put the Prince Sudana story into verses. So Buddhist narrative has a very strong influence on Vietnamese culture and literature.
(Presented in the International Conference – Buddhist Narrative in Asia and Beyond, 9-11 August 2010, Imperial Queen's Park Hotel, Bangkok, organized by Institute of Thai Studies, Chulalongkorn University with support from The Thailand Research Fund (TRF), in co-operation with Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts, Institute of Asian Studies, The Confucius Institute, Chulalongkorn University and l’École française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO))