Venerable Guang Xing
Centre of Buddhist Studies, University of Hong Kong
This short paper is a study of the issues concerning the transmission of the Bhiksuni Order to China from Sri Lanka. It is reported in Baochang’s [寶唱] (467-534?) Biqiunizhuan (the Biography of Nuns) that an Indian merchant named Nanti [竺難提] came to China by ship in 429 by the sea route from the south. He brought with him eleven Buddhist nuns to establish the Bhiksuni Order in China, three died on the way and eight survived. However, since the requirement for ordination ceremony is ten nuns, the merchant Nanti was asked to go back and bring some more nuns. As a result, the merchant Nanti brought another three nuns headed by Devasara to China in 433, and, thus the Bhiksuni Order was established in China. This story demonstrates first, the close relationship between merchants and Buddhism and how, without the help of merchants, Buddhism might not have been so successfully transmitted to other part of Asia. This is particularly true for the sea route from India to China. Second, the importance of the marine trade route from South Asia through South East Asia to China and the Far East is shown.
(Presented in the 2013 Chulalongkorn Asian Heritage Forum: The Emergence and Heritage of Asian Women Intellectuals, 10-11 September 2013, Imperial Queen’s Park Hotel, Bangkok, organized by Institute of Thai Studies, Institute of Asian Studies, Faculty of Arts and Indian Studies Center, Chulalongkorn University)