On behalf of the organizers, I would like to express an appreciation for the generous support from the Chulalongkorn University Centenary Academic Development Project, the Khyentse Foundation, and the ENITS Project supported by the Thailand Research Fund.

 

Sincere thanks are due to all distinguished speakers who contribute to the interesting content of this auspicious event.

 

Lastly I would like to express a deep gratitude to Khunying Wanna Sirivadhanabhakdi for her ever generous and unfailing support for all our academic attempts.

 

 

Prapod Assavavirulhakarn

 

Dean, Faculty of Arts,
Chulalongkorn University

7.30 – 8.30

 

Registration

 

9.00–9.30

 

Opening ceremony

     presided over by 

     HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn

 

9.30 – 10.15

 

Keynote speech (I)
Representing the opponents: brāhmaṇas and others in the Jātakas
     Kumkum Roy
     – Jawaharlal Nehru University

 

10.15 – 11.00

 

Keynote speech (II)
Mapping Burma and Northern Thailand in 1795 – Francis Buchanan – Hamilton’s critical accounts of native maps
     Jacques Leider
     – EFEO

 

11.00 – 11.30

 

Break

 

 

Section I
     Chair: Hwang Soonil

 

11.30 – 12.00

 

The notion of "force majeure" in the Three Seals Law Code and the Cambodian Legal Codes of 1891
     Olivier de Bernon 
     -Musée Guimet, Paris

 

12.00 – 12.30

 

Display and installation: uses of the Buddha's word in Early Southeast Asia
     Peter Skilling
     – EFEO

 

12.30 – 14.00

 

Lunch

 

 

Section II
     Chair: Justin McDaniel

 

14.00 – 14.30

 

Early Buddhism in Laos: insights from archaeology 
     Michel Lorrillard
     – EFEO

 

14.30 – 15.00

 

Manuscriptology and literature: reflecting on northern Thai Buddhist chronicles 
     François Lagirarde
     – EFEO

 

15.00 – 15.30

Break

 

Section III
     Chair: Ulrich Timme Kragh

 

15.30 – 16.00

 

Hermits and the question of Hinduism in Thailand 
     Justin McDaniel
     – University of Pennsylvania

 

16.00 – 16.30

 

Rethinking Thai Buddhist missions 
     Ven. Anil Sugandha Dhammasakiyo
     – Mahamakut Buddhist University

 

16.30 – 17.00

 

Discussion

 

18.00 – 21.00

 

Book launch dinner

 

     Justin Thomas McDaniel: The Lovelorn Ghost and the Magical Monk: Practicing Buddhism in Modern Thailand, Columbia University Press, 2011

 

       Venue: Jamjuree Ballroom, M floor, Pathumwan Princess Hotel

Section IV
     Chair: François Lagirarde

 

9.00 – 9.30

 

Buddhist vocabulary and doctrines in medieval Shintō texts: the case of the fourteenth chapter of the Reikiki 
     Iyanaga Nobumi 
     – EFEO

 

9.30 – 10.00

 

A comparative Study of the Pali and Sanskrit versions of the Ratnasūtra
     Chanwit Tudkeao 
     – Chulalongkorn University 

 

10.00 – 10.30

 

Seven Buddhist female authors from Uddiyana, Northwestern Pakistan, in the ninth to eleventh centuries 
     Ulrich Timme Kragh
     – Gonda Fellow, IIAS, Leiden University

 

10.30 – 11.00

 

Break

 

Section V
     Chair: Chanwit Tudkeao

 

11.00 – 11.30

 

Saving animals and winning a war: the war between the devas and the asuras in the Kulāvakajātaka 
     Hwang Soonil
     – Dongguk University

 

11.30 – 12.00

 

Modern Thai amulets and jātakas
     Sukanya Sujachaya
     – Chulalongkorn University 

 

12.00 – 12.30

 

Monks, miracles and sacredness: the construction of Thai Phra Kechi Achan images through sets of miraculous events in their life histories
     Saipan Puriwanchana
     – Chulalongkorn University

 

12.30 – 14.00

 

Lunch

 

 

Section VI
     Chair: Potprecha Cholvijarn

 

14.00 – 14.30

The story of Buddhapālita: an Indian monk in Wutaishan 
     Liying Kuo
     – EFEO

 

14.30 – 15.00

 

Xuanzang and the Dhyana schools
     Frédéric Girard
     – EFEO

 

15.00 – 15.30

 

The way to paradise: the Chinese legends of the Buddhapāda at Saraburi 
     Arthid Sheravanichkul
     – Chulalongkorn University

 

15.30 – 16.00

 

Break
 

 

Section VII
     Chair: Arthid Sheravanichkul

 

16.00 – 16.30

 

An analysis of and Ayutthaya meditation method: the diagrams of Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha qualities
     Potprecha Cholvijarn 
     – University of Bristol

 

16.30 – 17.00

 

Narratives of the four assemblies in Wat Phra Chetuphon inscriptions
     Warangkana Srikamnerd
     – Chulalongkorn University

 

17.00 – 17.30

 

Discussion

 

17.30

 

Closing ceremony
 

Kumkum Roy

 

Jawaharlal Nehru University

 

 

The Pali Jātakas provide one of the richest sources of gaining access to ‘popular’ perceptions/representations of Theravāda Buddhism. Derived and yet deviating from ‘folk’ traditions, they offer insights into modes of communication regarding themes that were regarded as central within early Buddhism.

 

My focus will be on two strands that were juxtaposed with Buddhism within these narratives, both at the level of the stories of the present, apparently located in space and time in the world of the historical Buddha, and the stories of the past, whose range is sometimes daunting in terms of spatio-chronological frameworks. First, I will explore the ways in which brāhmaṇas in particular and Brahmanical practices in general were represented. Here, the ways in which caste was constructed, as well as the treatment of the sacrifice, will receive attention. The second strand will deal with what may be regarded as challenges within the tradition, typified most explicitly by the figure of Devadatta, but with other ramifications as well.

 

I will explore the extent to which identical/different representational strategies are deployed to depict these ‘others’ and try and open up these variations for discussion.

 

 

(Presented in the 2012 Chulalongkorn-EFEO International Conference on Buddhist Studies : Imagination, Narrative, and Localization, 6-7 January 2012, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, organized by Faculty of Arts and Institute of Thai Studies, Chulalongkorn University In conjunction with The Buddhist Studies Group, EFEO)

Jacques Leider

 

EFEO

 

 

One of the major and now well acknowledged aspects of European expansion was the constant and intense effort of documenting and mapping newly explored regions. In the case of Myanmar, Western knowledge of the kingdom was considerably expanded during the mission of Michael Symes to Amarapura in 1795. One man in particular, Francis Buchanan-Hamilton, a medical doctor, took an eager interest in collecting geographical and ethnographical information. While his original journal has disappeared, Hamilton published a wide selection of data after his retirement in his critical “accounts” of fourteen native maps that portray the kingdom and its border areas around 1795. While appreciating Hamilton’s remarkable geographical work, the paper will highlight the interest of this little known source for the historical, anthropological and cultural study of late eighteenth century Myanmar and the northern Tai area.

 

 

(Presented in the 2012 Chulalongkorn-EFEO International Conference on Buddhist Studies : Imagination, Narrative, and Localization, 6-7 January 2012, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, organized by Faculty of Arts and Institute of Thai Studies, Chulalongkorn University In conjunction with The Buddhist Studies Group, EFEO)

Olivier de Bernon

 

Musée Guimet, Paris

 

 

The legal theory of « force majeure » (bhaya) is used in limited contexts in the Siamese Codes. It appears only in three places: when referring to the « contract of pawning an object » (Phra Ayyakan Bet Set, 64) ; when referring to the « contract of making a deposit » (Phra Ayyakan Bet Set, 68), and when referring to the « contract of renting a junk » (Phra Ayyakan Bet Set, 73). In the framework of each of these contracts, if the item that had been pawned or deposited were destroyed, or if the cargo of the junk was lost due to « force majeure », the contractant with whom the item had been pawned or deposited, or the captain of the junk, would be freed from his commitment toward the owner of the item, or toward the owner of the cargo.

 

The technical notion of « force majeure » (bhaya) – as used in the the Siamese Codes as well as in the Khmer Codes – refers to « four fears or dangers » : rājabhaya « fear of the ruler », i.e. the fear, danger, or risk, that the item or cargo might be confiscated by the king, or captured or destroyed by the king’s enemies ; corabhaya « fear of thieves », i.e. the fear, danger, or risk, that the item or cargo might be stolen by armed men ; aggibhaya « fear of fire », i.e. the fear, danger, or risk, that the item or cargo might be burned in a fire or by lightning ; udakabhaya « fear of water », i.e. the fear, danger, or risk, that the item or cargo might be destroyed by flood or in a shipwreck.

 

The classification and terminology of these four bhaya is borrowed directly from Buddhist scriptures, although Pali literature usually mentions ten different bhaya (Cuḷavagga, p. 429; Mahāvagga, p. 331) or even seventeen bhaya (Milindapañhā, p. 196). Even if the various lists of bhayas known in the canon always begin with the four bhayas mentionned in the Siamese and Khmer Codes, it seems that the restricted set of these four bhayas exists only in Southeast Asian legal texts. 

 

It is worth observing is that Siamese legal literature devoted to maritime trade belongs to the most recent part of the Codes. Therefore, it is not derived from earlier Mon or Burmese literature, and has no model in previous dhammasattha texts. Interestingly enough, later Siamese lawyers, whoever they were, turned to Buddhist Pali technical vocabulary, and transformed a well known moral or religious concept into a new precise legal understanding in order to forge the required new concept of « force majeure ».
 

 

(Presented in the 2012 Chulalongkorn-EFEO International Conference on Buddhist Studies : Imagination, Narrative, and Localization, 6-7 January 2012, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, organized by Faculty of Arts and Institute of Thai Studies, Chulalongkorn University In conjunction with The Buddhist Studies Group, EFEO)

Peter Skilling

 

EFEO

 

 

In the form of citations from canonical texts, the Buddha’s word was put to a variety of uses in early Southeast Asia. I classify what I regard as the two primary uses as “empowerment” and “display.”

 

“Empowerment” involves the installation and inscription of excerpted scriptural passages, usually short. The most common text is the ye dharmā stanza, which, engraved on metal, stone, or brick, or stamped with moulds on clay, was inserted within stupas or inscribed on the surfaces of stupas and Buddha images. Similar practices were widespread across Asia; by comparing them, we can trace regional and transregional patterns of ritual practice. In the absence of any indigenous or contemporary Southeast Asian texts to explain the practices of empowerment, we are obliged to consult, with due caution, relevant Indian texts, whether in Indic languages or in classical translations into Chinese and Tibetan. For Southeast Asia, we need to assess the degree of localization in terms of variant practices, relations to the built environment, and association with iconographic forms.

 

“Display” also involves the inscription of excerpted scriptural passages. Since the texts are often the same as or cognate to those used in empowerment, my categories should be used as provisional interpretive tools rather than seen as mutually exclusive artefacts. In the case of Pali inscriptions, those intended for display show more textual variety, and are often longer than those intended for empowerment. A major difference is that display inscriptions are public documents; the letters are often large and carefully if not calligraphically inscribed. Here the Buddha’s words are meant to be seen and read; at the same time they reflect the power and blessing derived from writing down the Master’s word. As far as I know, there are no contemporary South or Southeast Asian texts that explicitly or implicitly explain the practice.

 

With a very few exceptions in South and Central Asia, the production of public display inscriptions seems unique to Southeast Asia, where they are found largely in the Pali epigraphic zones, but also in the Indonesian archipelago. The languages of the regions in question belong to the Tibeto-Burman, Mon-Khmer, and Austronesian families; that is, none are Indic-speaking areas. Part of the authority of the inscriptions may be that they are inscribed in classical “Buddhist” languages.
 

Both practices, “empowerment” and “display”, are found, in varying degrees, across mainland and insular Southeast Asia, although the practice of display is much more widespread in Siam, and to a degree in lower Burma, than elsewhere. Siam and Burma belong epigraphically to what I have called the Pali zone: they preserved by far the largest number of Pali inscriptions anywhere (in fact, there are no others to speak of anywhere else). Elsewhere in the region, the Buddha’s word is recorded in Sanskrit, and, in a very few of cases, in Prakrit. 

 

None of the inscriptions preserves a date, and many are surface finds. Nonetheless, they can give us a general mapping of the spread of the Buddha’s word in mainland Southeast Asia in the fifth to eight centuries of the first millennium CE. The inscriptions help us to understand the diffusion and evolution of ritual practice across the region, and possible interactions and exchanges with contemporary Buddhist cultures across Asia.
 

 

(Presented in the 2012 Chulalongkorn-EFEO International Conference on Buddhist Studies : Imagination, Narrative, and Localization, 6-7 January 2012, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, organized by Faculty of Arts and Institute of Thai Studies, Chulalongkorn University In conjunction with The Buddhist Studies Group, EFEO)

Michel Lorrillard

 

EFEO

 

 

The penetration of Buddhism into the continental regions of Southeast Asia is little studied. Research has long revealed evidence for the introduction of Buddhism to Cambodia and Thailand, with their maritime interfaces, more than 1500 years ago, but the introduction of Buddhism to Laos has been placed in a much later period – the foundation of the kingdom of Lan Xang in the middle of the fourteenth century. This notion is, however, inaccurate on two points: for if a careful study of local sources leads us indeed to place the beginnings of a distinctively “Lao” Buddhism in an even more later context – that of the diffusion towards the north and the east of the religious culture of Lanna in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, nonetheless the history of Buddhism within the borders of the modern state of Laos began much earlier.

 

Recent archaeological researches demonstrate that the middle Mekong valley – of which only the western reaches (that is, the Northeastern region of Thailand) have previously been taken into account – is in fact an area which saw a very early development of historical period cultures. The Mekong River was not in any sense an obstacle; rather it was a unifying factor for exchange and influence over a vast territory.

 

In Laos, the left bank of the Mekong, drained by extensive river systems descending from the Annamite range, was especially attractive for settlement. More than one hundred sites marked by remains connected with Indianization have been identified, from the middle Sekong basin, in the South, up to the northern region of Luang Prabang. Regional geomorphology permits us to attach the province of Champassak, even though it is situated on the right bank, to this complex.

 

The vestiges discovered in Laos bear witness to the use of Sanskrit and the practice of cults originating in India from the second half of the fifth century up to the beginning of the thirteenth century. In contrast to the brahmanical remains, the Buddhist remains cover the entire period and the entire area under study, although there are continuities and ruptures depending on regional variations. The remains indicate the encounters and oppositions of different cultures: Khmer, Mon, and, perhaps, Cham. They attest to a dynamism, hitherto unnoticed, between the substrata of ancient civilizations and the evolution of Lao culture.

 

By focusing on localization as seen through archaeological evidence in the light of physical geography, the present contribution opens new perspectives in historical research on Laos, especially with regard to the different diffusions of Buddhism in Southeast Asia.
 

 

(Presented in the 2012 Chulalongkorn-EFEO International Conference on Buddhist Studies : Imagination, Narrative, and Localization, 6-7 January 2012, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, organized by Faculty of Arts and Institute of Thai Studies, Chulalongkorn University In conjunction with The Buddhist Studies Group, EFEO)

François Lagirarde

 

EFEO

 

 

After four years of existence, the EFEO project for the digitization and study of the Northern Thai chronicles (tamnan) can offer a provisional assessment. This project has surveyed forty monastic libraries, opened thousands of manuscripts and eventually identified a large corpus of texts while observing its current conservation and trying to understand its history. Through this experience, can we then ask questions about the nature of the Northern Thai manuscript culture and about the historical relationship between the "book" as an object, its production, its use and its contents? Will this combination of fieldwork and modern readings allow us to observe the correspondence between society and religious literature, culture rituals and ideology?

 

 

(Presented in the 2012 Chulalongkorn-EFEO International Conference on Buddhist Studies : Imagination, Narrative, and Localization, 6-7 January 2012, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, organized by Faculty of Arts and Institute of Thai Studies, Chulalongkorn University In conjunction with The Buddhist Studies Group, EFEO)

Justin McDaniel

 

University of Pennsylvania

 

 

By looking closely at the figure of one supposedly Hindu character, the hermit, in modern and pre-modern Thai art and religion, I will argue that we need to rethink the way terms like Hinduism, Buddhism, and syncreticism are used in describing Thai religion. There are several problems with the use of the terms “influence” and more importantly “syncretism” or separating Thai rituals along sectarian lines or according to religious affiliation, whether it be Hinduism, Theravāda Buddhist, Mahāyāna Buddhism, or even Animism. Specifically, it should not be assumed that the presence of statues of Brahmin hermits, or deities like Indra,  Śiva, Lakṣmī , Gaṇeśa, Brahma represents the presence of “Hindu” influence or Hinduism in Thailand. I argue that when we separate Hindu figures from the study of Thai Buddhist practice we do not see them as actively a part of Thai Buddhism.

 

 

(Presented in the 2012 Chulalongkorn-EFEO International Conference on Buddhist Studies : Imagination, Narrative, and Localization, 6-7 January 2012, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, organized by Faculty of Arts and Institute of Thai Studies, Chulalongkorn University In conjunction with The Buddhist Studies Group, EFEO)

Venerable Phra Anil Dhammasakiyo (Sakya)

 

Mahamakut Buddhist University

 

 

Like many Buddhist terminologies, dhammadūta is a widely used Buddhist term in Buddhist milieu. For many, dhammadūta is an ancient term existed from the time of the Buddha and considered to be one of the tasks of Buddhist monks. Dhammadūta is generally translated it as a ‘missionary.’ Albeit popular belief some scholar view that this is a neologism coined in the late 19th century.

 

Although the term was not existed in the Pali Canon or even on Asokan inscriptions the term is widely used in Commentaries from the 5th century onward. Throughout centuries the uses of dhammadūta changed accordingly. This paper will look at how Thailand has used dhammadūta and narrative history of Thai dhammadūta from ancient to modern context.

 

 

(Presented in the 2012 Chulalongkorn-EFEO International Conference on Buddhist Studies : Imagination, Narrative, and Localization, 6-7 January 2012, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, organized by Faculty of Arts and Institute of Thai Studies, Chulalongkorn University In conjunction with The Buddhist Studies Group, EFEO)

Nobumi Iyanaga

 

EFEO

 

At a roundtable organized by Mathew Kapstein and Christine Mollier in Honolulu in April 2011, on the theme of “Buddhism and the Medieval Religious Traditions of China/Tibet/Japan,” I presented a paper entitled “Buddhist Ideas, Vocabulary and Quotations in Medieval Shintō Texts: The Case of the Yamato katsuragi hōzanki.” The present paper is a continuation of the study of Buddhist vocabulary and images in medieval Shintō texts as initiated in that presentation.

 

Traditionally, Shintō has been believed to be a “native Japanese religion” since the beginning of time, and therefore a phenomenon which would represents the “Japanese essence.” This view has changed drastically since the late 1970s, when Kuroda Toshio (1926-1993) proposed a number of revolutionary ideas, according to which the construction of Shintō was a gradual process which took place during Japanese Middle Ages under the strong influence of Buddhism.  This theory is now largely accepted among specialists. Numerous innovative studies on medieval Shintō emphasize and analyze the close relationship between Buddhism and the foundation/s of Shintō.

 

However, it seems that so far there has been no sustained attempt to identify the Buddhist sources of Shintō ideas and images; the study that I began with my presentation in April 2011 was an essay to fill this gap. The Yamato katsuragi hōzanki was probably composed in the mid-13th century, while the text that I examine in the present paper, the Reikiki, is certainly later, written perhaps in late 13th or early 14th century. It is in fact a collection of eighteen chapters of texts and images, disparate in origins and dates, but forming a roughly homogeneous entirety. It is traditionally classified as a Ryōbu-shintō text, that is, as a Shintō text belonging to the Shingon discourse. More specifically, it discusses the religious signification of the Inner and Outer Shrines of Ise, which are associated with the two main maṇḍalas of Japanese Shingon school, the garbha maṇḍala and the vajradhātu maṇḍala. The text is an original composition on mythical and doctrinal subjects (that is to say, it is not merely a compilation of quotations like some of later Shintō works). I only examine here the last chapter of the work (except the four other chapters with only images), entitled “Buppō Shintō Reikiki,” or “Reikiki on the Buddhist Law and Shintō,” which is a kind of doctrinal recapitulation from the Buddhist point of view of the earlier chapters.

 

In contrast with the case of the Yamato katsuragi hōzanki, the search for Buddhist sources of this text turned out to be very difficult. While I could identify some interesting Buddhist sources quoted in the former text, in the latter work, it was only possible to find some fragments of Buddhist vocabulary besides a few evident quotations. However, this vocabulary has a very particular feature, in which it was possible to detect a specific doctrinal tendency, that of a strong “Original Enlightenment thought” in the Shingon school. In a later stage of my research, I tried to compare, using a computerized text analysis method called n-gram text comparison, the text of this chapter with those of a certain author of Shingon of roughly the same period, named Yūhan, known for his marked inclination to the same kind of discourse. The result showed that there are not only many similarities in the vocabulary used, but also some specific ways of wording which are common to the Reikiki and Yūhan, but are otherwise very rare in other Buddhist text corpora of the Taisho Canon. It is certainly impossible to propose on the basis of this simple result that the chapter in question was written by Yūhan, but I tend to think that its author was someone closely related to the Yūhan’s circle.
 

 

(Presented in the 2012 Chulalongkorn-EFEO International Conference on Buddhist Studies : Imagination, Narrative, and Localization, 6-7 January 2012, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, organized by Faculty of Arts and Institute of Thai Studies, Chulalongkorn University In conjunction with The Buddhist Studies Group, EFEO)

Chanwit Tudkeao

 

Chulalongkorn University

 

 

Ratanasutta, a Pali text well-recognized in Theravāda-Buddhist countries, is considered a sutra constituting a group of texts called Parittas, which will be chanted by Buddhists in some particular ceremonies or even in their daily life for the purpose of yielding protection. In Pali tradition, Ratanasutta is preserved in Khuddakanikāya as a separate text composed of 17 verses without any frame story. The story explaining the origin of the sutra is narrated in the commentary.  Ratnasūtra exists, however, in Sanskrit as well, of which Tibetan and Chinese translations are also available. In a different manner from the Pali version, the Sanskrit text is merely a part of Mahāsāhasrapramardanī; a Rakṣā-text in Pañcarakṣā. In this paper, two versions of Ratnasūtra are discussed comparatively with references to its translations and related documents.

 

 

(Presented in the 2012 Chulalongkorn-EFEO International Conference on Buddhist Studies : Imagination, Narrative, and Localization, 6-7 January 2012, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, organized by Faculty of Arts and Institute of Thai Studies, Chulalongkorn University In conjunction with The Buddhist Studies Group, EFEO)

Ulrich Timme Kragh

 

Gonda Fellow, IIAS, Leiden University

 

 

The paper will commence with a brief survey of the Buddhist history of the Swat valley in NW Pakistan, which in the late centuries of the first millennium was known as Uddiyana. It will then introduce the writings of seven Buddhist authoresses from Swat, including Sahajavajra, Vajravati Brahmani, Kambalamatrika, Laksmi, Mekhala, Kanakhala, and Dakini Siddharajni. Finally, a few preliminary remarks will be made towards answering the fundamentally important question of the authenticity of the female authorship claim, especially of the five works said to have been composed by Laksmi, the most prolific of the seven writers.

 

 

(Presented in the 2012 Chulalongkorn-EFEO International Conference on Buddhist Studies : Imagination, Narrative, and Localization, 6-7 January 2012, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, organized by Faculty of Arts and Institute of Thai Studies, Chulalongkorn University In conjunction with The Buddhist Studies Group, EFEO)

Hwang Soonil

 

Dongguk University

 

 

In his recent book, Buddhism in the Shadow of Brahmanism, Johannes Bronkhorst has argued that Buddhism offered ‘very little’ in terms of practical and sensible advice on statecraft to the royal court. One of the examples given in the book is the letter sent to young King Kaniṣka of the Kushana dynasty from a Buddhist monk Mātṛceṭa, considered to be the intellectual grandchild of Nāgārjuna. In this letter he, as a Buddhist counselor to the King, discusses only saving the life of animals, but does not even mention the killing of humans.

 

It does not seem that this advice can offer much to the King who is busy with the intense demands of statecraft and bloody warfare. Although it can be regarded neither as practical nor as sensible, it in fact conveys the core Buddhist ethical value of universal morality. If one places a high value on the life of animals, there is no need to mention the life of human beings, including even enemy troops. Indeed, there is one charming Jātaka story in which the future Buddha, born as Śakra/Indra, Lord of the devas, defeats the asuras by saving the life of animals in a war. It is preserved in both the Pali Jātaka and in ĀryaŚūra’s Jātakamāla, in slightly different settings.

 

Nowadays religion has been condemned as a divisive force powered by in-group/out-group enmity and vendetta. Buddhism seems to be a step aside from religious conflicts and violence. Buddhists, based on non-violence as well as loving kindness and compassion, wish for the happiness and well-being of all living creatures. In this there is no such distinction as oneself and others, our side and other side, or in-group and out-group. The spirit of Buddhist universal morality seems to be embedded in diverse Buddhist stories, such as the Kulāvakajātaka, and they could offer the key for Buddhists to deal with multi-religious and multi-cultural society we live in.
 

 

(Presented in the 2012 Chulalongkorn-EFEO International Conference on Buddhist Studies : Imagination, Narrative, and Localization, 6-7 January 2012, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, organized by Faculty of Arts and Institute of Thai Studies, Chulalongkorn University In conjunction with The Buddhist Studies Group, EFEO)

Sukanya Sujachaya

 

Chulalongkorn University

 

Many jatakas, both canonical like the Vessantara Jātaka and local like the Suvarṇasaṅkha Jātaka, have been known by Thais for a long time. They were represented in various forms of arts—painting, architecture, and performance, both for the purpose of teaching and promoting religious faith and for entertainment. 

 

Since 2007, after the popularity of the phenomenal bubbled-priced ‘Chatukham Ramathep’ and the assertion of ‘creative economy’ commercial policy by the Thai government, new kinds of amulets have been invented all over Thailand. Well-known jātakas have been widely exploited as significant source materials by amulet creators, mostly Buddhist monks, to add commercial value and to promote faith in the new amulets.

 

This paper aims to study the new amulets invented from the reinterpretation of jātakas, namely amulets that draw on the dramatis personae of the jātaka stories, such as Jūjaka, Chao Ngoh-Phra Sang, and Phaya Tao Ruan amulets, Bundarika masks, Chao Ngoh and Phaya Chaddanta magic cloths. Other amulets are related to the jātaka narratives, such as Khao Khatha Phan (Thousand-verses rice), Phong Maha Laluay Bua Bang Bai (Maha Laluay Lotus Leaves magic powder), Nakhabat Phran Boon (Hunter Boon’s Naga rope), etc., or to the Pali verses from the jātakas that must be recited to empower the amulets.

 

It is found that since 2009 two new amulets have been created from the canonical jātakas—the Vessantara Jātaka and the Chaddanta Jātaka, three have been created from the Paññāsa Jātaka—the Sudhana Jātaka, the Suvarṇasaṅkha Jātaka and the Suvarṇakacchapa Jataka, and three from local jātakas—Phaya Khao Kham, Tamnan Kob Kin Duan (the myth of the Frog eating the moon), and Si Hu Ha Ta (Four ears, five eyes).
 

 

(Presented in the 2012 Chulalongkorn-EFEO International Conference on Buddhist Studies : Imagination, Narrative, and Localization, 6-7 January 2012, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, organized by Faculty of Arts and Institute of Thai Studies, Chulalongkorn University In conjunction with The Buddhist Studies Group, EFEO)

Saipan Puriwanchana

 

Ph.D. candidate, Department of Thai,

Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University

 

 

This article aims at examining the images of Phra Kechi Achan, monks with miraculous power, in central Thailand through forms of miracles and sets of miraculous events in their life histories.  It is hypothesized that the sets of miraculous events which are “selected” to be in the Phra Kechi Achan’s life histories play the important role in creating the image of “sacred religious person” for each monk. The study reveals that the sets of miraculous events enhance those monks to maintain their status as sacred religious persons in the Thai Buddhists’ eyes.  Moreover, the forms of miracles which can be divided into 1) the power to escape from all kinds of danger and 2) the power to create the ultimate compassion, also indicate the Thai Buddhists’ wishes about the security in their life and property. This in turn influence in the people’s expectation of the “miraculous power” that Phra Kechi Achan should have.

 

 

(Presented in the 2012 Chulalongkorn-EFEO International Conference on Buddhist Studies : Imagination, Narrative, and Localization, 6-7 January 2012, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, organized by Faculty of Arts and Institute of Thai Studies, Chulalongkorn University In conjunction with The Buddhist Studies Group, EFEO)

Liying Kuo

 

EFEO

 

The Sūtra entitled Buddhoṣṇīṣa vijayā dhāraṇī arrived in China in the second part of the 7th century. Its diffusion and popularization owe much to the legend of a Kashimirian monk, Buddhapālita, said to have come to the Wutai (shan) mountains in order to see Mañjuśrī. His story is told in a preface of the sūtra attached to the version said to have been translated into Chinese by Buddhapālita himself. That story and the sūtra itself are often found engraved on the dhāraṇī pillars from the 8th century on. They are also painted in a few caves in Dunhuang/Mogao. In this paper, I shall first review the textual evidence of the association of Mañjuśrī and the Wutai mountains and the Buddhapālita story itself, then the related paintings in Mogao and try to find a political and religious background for their invention and diffusion.
 

 

(Presented in the 2012 Chulalongkorn-EFEO International Conference on Buddhist Studies : Imagination, Narrative, and Localization, 6-7 January 2012, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, organized by Faculty of Arts and Institute of Thai Studies, Chulalongkorn University In conjunction with The Buddhist Studies Group, EFEO)

Frédéric Girard

 

EFEO

 

Xuanzang 玄奘 (602-664) is well-known as the great traveller who went in India and translated what he regarded as the most important texts of the Great Vehicle from Sanskrit into Chinese. From the retrospective view of history, his figure seems to have been reduced to that of the founder of the Faxiang-Weishi school, which is judged to have had a limited influence in China, Korea and Japan, in time and space. In fact, the cult of Xuanzang peaked during the Middle Ages in Japan, but the question arises: can the influence of Xuanzang be reduced to such a kind of devotion or is it valable to extend it to more global conceptions ?

 

From another perspective, the introduction of Zen to Japan is associated from the very beginning to Xuanzang. Dōshō 道昭 (629-700), the individual who was responsible for this, had established a Dhyāna Hall (Zen.in) in the Gangōji at Nara. He had been a pupil of Xuanzang for several years; he also practiced under the Dhyāna master Huiman 惠滿, said to belong to the southern tradition of Bodhidharma and of Laṅkāvatāra before its formation as a school, with the recommendation of Xuanzang. According to a tradition transmitted by Dōshō, Xuanzang himself was a pupil of the fourth patriarch of the Chan sect, Daoshen 道信 (580-651); it thus appears that Xuanzang’s image was connected with the Chan sect and not only with dhyānic practices limited to framework of yogic training associated with prajñā in an abhidharmic perspective.

 

During the Kamakura period (1185-1333), Xuanzang is associated with the introduction of Zen by Dōgen 道元 (1200-1253), the so-called founder of Sōtō school in Japan. Dōgen is said to have concretized the will of the third shōgun Minamoto no Sanetomo 源実朝 (1192-1219) to travel in China: the will of the shōgun was, in the same way as Dōgen, to establish a new type of monasteries based on a prototype that could be found in China, on Mount Aśoka, Yantangshan and others, where he had been born precisely as Xuanzang in a previous life. This type of monastery is opposed to that of the Daoxuan tradition, which were prevalent in Japan. And one of the most important tenets of Dōgen, as he explains in details in his dialogues with his Chinese master Rujing in China, the Hōkyōki 寶慶記 (1223-1227), was to introduce this new type of monastery in the most direct filiation with to the first monasteries built under the historical Buddha.

 

These monasteries were precisely those described by Chinese pilgrims in India, amongs them of course Xuanzang; they did not include certain structures, like halls for Nenbutsu recitation, esoteric Goma (Huma) rituals, or formal ordinations, which were criticized by Dōgen because they did not belonged to the primitive forms of practice. That the models described by Xuanzang where those adopted in Japan may be seen in the variant accounts of the past lives of Sanetomo in China, as announced in an oracle by the Zen master Yōsai 栄西 (1141-1215), or by Chen Hojing 陳和卿 (?-?), the famous engineer who restored the Tōdaiji of Nara under the auspices of the shōgun Minamoto no Yoritomo 源頼朝 (1145-1199), and constructed the ship in which Sanetomo had to travel in China: in the most current sources, such as the Mirror of the East, Azumakagami 吾妻鏡, Sanetomo was said to have been a reincarnation of Daoxuan 道宣 (596-667), the great reformator of Vinaya, while in other sources, like those related to the foundation of Saihōji in Wakayama, he was said to have been Xuanzang, as in sources connected to Dōgen’s tradition.  These variants regarding the former existence of Sanetomo are symptomatic of the differencies in the ideals of monasteries in Japan: from antiquity, the Daoxuan model was prevalent, until this model was criticized by Dōgen for the fisrt time, and replaced by the one described in sources as the Datang xiyuji 大唐西域記, the relation of Xuanzang’s travel in India.

 

Associated with these new type of monastic structures was the cult of the Arhats. These rather strange figures, purely human incarnations of the predication of the Law in all its emotional variations, where regarded as substitutes for the Buddha after his Parinirvāṇa, dwelling in all the directions of space, during the very long period between the Parousia of a Buddha (as Lévi and Chavannes have demonstrated). When Xuanzang went in India, he realized the cruel absence of the Buddha and felt the need to replace this lack by the Arhats. That is why he translated the fundamental text concerning them, the Āryanandimitrāvadāna in 654 (Chronicle on the Duration of the Law preached by the Great Venerable Nandimitra (Da Aluohan Nantimiduoluo suoshuo fazhuji 大阿羅漢難提蜜多羅所説法住記), T. XLIX, n° 2030). This text was the basis of the Arhat cult in Japan installed by Myōe 明惠 (1173-1232) and Dōgen, in the ritual that they wrote (Rakan kōshiki 羅漢講式). Xuanzang’s distress when during his travels he witnessed the decline and disappearance of the Law – of Buddhism as well as the Buddhist masters – appear clearly in a Dunhuang text in the private Takeda collection, which has recently been identified as authentic, and which was used in the Sōtō tradition, according to some testimonies. This text gives a historical basis to the existence of a tradition of veneration towards Xuanzang in this tradition. In this paper I intend to present the position of the question concerning the role of Xuanzang in this tradition of Dhyāna school, as a crystallization of a direct importation from India of primary ideals and models.

 

Document : the version of the lament of Xuanzang, in a Dunhuang manuscript of the Takeda collection.

 

The lament of the Tripiṭaka master of the Tang [Xuanzang]

 

Gone, I am gone on the roads to the West, in India,
Far, very far more than one hundred thousand miles!
From oceanic abysses, waves are falling on the shores [of the desert],
And mountain demons always are frightening me.
On the Ruisui River, my boat can hardly float,
The strong winds rising play in an anguishing way.
The river of ice frightening in its coldness,
And the snowy peaks are extremely abrupt.
How many months spent without giving offerings to the ancestors?
And how many years have I been slipping on the roadsides!
One thousand of my coreligionists have already disappeared,
Alone am I on the roads of one myriads miles.
Without any regards to myself, I shall return to the Earth,
My only anguish being to that my vows have not been accomplished.
I want to establish the mind of Bodhi’s rituals,
having the chance to be in this world,
And as a profane to be in search of the Law.
I despair that my masters have passed away
[without my being able to meeting them again in India],
And I fear to die after them.
In the sandy desert, no more visitors to mourn me,
My body will be buried by the snowy mountain [Himalaya].
Where is Rājagṛha [the capital of the Buddha’s teaching]?
Does the country of Vaiśālī still exist?
Without having visiting the Five Indias,
My weeping eyes have not yet dried. 
On the roads, where I have to go now?
On a tomb’s epitaph, only, my name is inscribed.
My soul still cries so intelligibly
That is heard my lament.

 

唐三藏哭西天行記
去去西天路、
迢迢十萬餘。
海深濱皷浪、
山鬼毎驚吾。
弱水舟難汎、
高風起異揄。
氷河偏凛[?]烈、
雪嶺甚﨑嶇。
累月齋[/㪰]無食、
經年寢在途。
千人同侶盡、
萬里一身孤。
不恨身歸地、
唯愁願未俘。
發心縁世界、
求法爲凡夫。
惆恨師先歿、
恓惶我後殂。
流砂絶弔客、
雪嶺掩身軀。
王舎城何在、
毘耶國在無。
五天渾未到、
兩目涙先枯。
衆[?]路今何往、
孤牌上有書。
魂號猶[栖?]不昧、
聽我哭嗚呼。

 

 

(Presented in the 2012 Chulalongkorn-EFEO International Conference on Buddhist Studies : Imagination, Narrative, and Localization, 6-7 January 2012, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, organized by Faculty of Arts and Institute of Thai Studies, Chulalongkorn University In conjunction with The Buddhist Studies Group, EFEO) 

Arthid Sheravanichkul

 

Chulalongkorn University

 

 

The Buddhapāda, or impression of the Buddha’s footprint, at Saraburi province in central Thailand has been one of most prominent pilgrimage sites for Thai Buddhists for over four hundred years, since the reign of King Song Tham (r. 1611-1628) in the Ayutthaya period. The local legend of the hunter ‘Phran Boon’, who discovered the Buddhapāda by chance (or by karmic design), is one of the most popular Thai legends. The history, sacredness, and veneration of the Buddhapada are also recorded in the ‘official’ legend and the royal chronicles. The story inspired a pilgrimage tradition in which everyone, from the monarch to the common people, was encouraged to travel to pay homage to the Buddhapāda to ensure rebirth in heaven.

 

The Buddhapāda at Saraburi is an important pilgrimage site not only for Thai Buddhists but also for the Chinese of Siam. This development is reflected in two local Chinese legends that connect the Buddhapāda with Chinese Buddhist history –Xuanzang’s ‘Journey to the West’ and the record of a Chinese official’s journey to India to offer robes to the Buddha. This paper aims to study these two legends to consider their history, transmission and popularity, and their role in cherishing the belief in the Buddhapāda Saraburi as ‘the way to paradise’ or ‘paradise on earth’ among Chinese both in Thailand and beyond.

 

 

(Presented in the 2012 Chulalongkorn-EFEO International Conference on Buddhist Studies : Imagination, Narrative, and Localization, 6-7 January 2012, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, organized by Faculty of Arts and Institute of Thai Studies, Chulalongkorn University In conjunction with The Buddhist Studies Group, EFEO)

Potprecha Cholvijarn

 

Ph.D. Candidate, University of Bristol

 

 

This presentation offers an analysis of an Ayutthaya meditation method found in Nangsue Phuttharangsi Thritsadiyan Wa Duai Samathawipatsana Kammathan Si Yuk (Book of samatha and vipassanā meditation of the Four Reigns) edited by Phra Mahajotipañño (Chai Yasothonrat) of Wat Boromniwat, Bangkok, published in 1935. The system consists of visualizing three diagrams, which look very similar to yantras, or protective diagrams. The diagrams consist of circles, each one containing a Khmer syllable and a number. The syllables are taken from the Buddha Vandana, Dhamma Vandana and Sangha Vandana verses describing the qualities of the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha. The text also refers to Vedic ideas and makes use of various bodily positions as points of visualization.

 

 

(Presented in the 2012 Chulalongkorn-EFEO International Conference on Buddhist Studies : Imagination, Narrative, and Localization, 6-7 January 2012, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, organized by Faculty of Arts and Institute of Thai Studies, Chulalongkorn University In conjunction with The Buddhist Studies Group, EFEO)

Warangkana Srikamnerd

 

Ph.D. candidate, Department of Thai,

Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University

 

This paper aims to study the narratives of the four assemblies in Wat Phra Chetuphon Inscriptions in order to consider its significance as a part of Thai Buddhist literatures inscribed in Wat Phra Chetuphon Wimolmangalaram or Wat Pho. 

 

The narratives of the four assemblies are depicted in the uposatha and the vihara of the Reclining Buddha in Wat Pho. They consist of mural paintings and the inscribed captions and explanations from texts. This presentation of the narratives is interesting since it reflects the change of the convention of narrating Buddhist stories through mural paintings in a temple which usually depicts the scenes from Buddha’s biography and jātakas without explanation. It therefore demonstrates the new trend of narrating Buddhist stories in temples in the reign of King Rama III.

 

It is clear that the presentation of the narratives using inscribed caption and explanation associated to the paintings is an efficient technique to convey the Buddhist teaching to the audience since it gives a clear and accurate understanding of the stories. The audience can also learn about the stories of the great disciples apart from the stories of the Lord Buddha. The narratives of the four assemblies are good examples demonstrating the importance of the Wat Phra Chetuphon inscription in spreading knowledge, promoting faith, and prolonging the glory of Buddhism by transmitting Buddhist wisdom to the people. All of which are venerated as supreme meritorious acts and great offering to the Lord Buddha.

 

 

(Presented in the 2012 Chulalongkorn-EFEO International Conference on Buddhist Studies : Imagination, Narrative, and Localization, 6-7 January 2012, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, organized by Faculty of Arts and Institute of Thai Studies, Chulalongkorn University In conjunction with The Buddhist Studies Group, EFEO)

CHAIR

 

Asst. Prof. Dr. Propod Assavavirulhakarn
     Dean, Faculty of Arts, 
     Chulalongkorn University

 

 

DEPUTY CHAIR

 

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Suchitra Chongstitvatana
     Director, Institute of Thai Studies,
     Chulalongkorn University    

 

Dr. Peter Skilling
     Head, Buddhist Studies Group,
     L'Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO)

 

 

COMMITTEE

 

Asst. Prof. M.R. Kongkarn Tavetheekul
     Deputy Dean for Administration,
     Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University

 

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Kingkarn Thepkanjana
     Deputy Dean for Research,
     Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University

 

Asst. Prof. Sunij Sutanthavibul
     Deputy Dean for Academic Affairs,
     Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University

 

Asst. Prof. Dr. Arthit Thongtak
     Deputy Director of Administrative Affairs,
     Institute of Thai Studies, Chulalongkorn University

 

Asst. Prof. Ritirong Jiwakanon
     Deputy Director of International Affairs,
     Institute of Thai Studies, Chulalongkorn University

 

Dr. Pram Sounsamut
     Deputy Director of Research Affairs,
     Institute of Thai Studies, Chulalongkorn University

 

Dr. Chanwit Tudkeao
     Lecturer, Department of Eastern Languages,
     Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University

 

Acting 2, Lt. Thongsuk Jitwimolprasert
     Finance and Supplies Section,
     Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University

 

Dr. Arthid Sheravanichkul
     Lecturer, Department of Thai,
     Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University