Transcript

Images of Tibet in the 19th and 20th CenturiesVolume I

tudes thmatiques 22

Images of Tibet in the 19th and 20th CenturiesVolume I

Edited by Monica ESPOSITO

Paris EFEO

2008

Images of Tibet in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Textes runis et prsents par Monica Esposito, Paris : cole franaise dExtrme-Orient, collection tudes thmatiques , 22, vol. I, 2008. 427 + xxiv p. ; 27,5 18,5 cm. Notes en bas de page. Illustrations. Rsums en anglais et en franais. ISBN : 9782855396736 ISSN : 1269-8067 Mots-cls : Reception of Buddhism, Tibet, Japan, China, West, Sino-Tibetan relations, Orientalism, Tibetology, Esoteric Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhist Art, Anthropology of Religion, History of Ideas

Ralisation : KOBAYASHI Tsuneyoshi

2008, cole franaise dExtrme-Orient. 22, avenue du Prsident Wilson, 75116 Paris, France http://www.efeo.fr/

VOLUME I

CONTENTSx xiii xxi xxii

List of illustrations Introduction by Monica ESPOSITO Conventions Map of TibetWEST

5-60

Urs APP The Tibet of the Philosophers: Kant, Hegel, and Schopenhauer Isrun ENGELHARDT The Nazis of Tibet: A Twentieth Century Myth Elena DE ROSSI FILIBECK Tibet: The Ancient Island of Giuseppe Tucci Lionel OBADIA Esprit(s) du Tibet Le bouddhisme tibtain en France : topographies paradoxales, territorialisation et conomie de limaginaire tibtophile Hartmut WALRAVENS Some Notes on Early Tibetan Studies in Europe Donald S. LOPEZ, Jr. Tibetology in the United States of America: A Brief History

63-96

99-111

113-147

149-176

179-198

JAPAN 203-222

OKUYAMA Naoji The Tibet Fever among Japanese Buddhists of the Meiji Eratranslated by Rolf Giebel

225-242

ONODA Shunz The Meiji Suppression of Buddhism and Its Impact on the Spirit of Exploration and Academism of Buddhist Monkstranslated by Monica Esposito

245-262

FUKUDA Yichi The Philosophical Reception of Tibetan Buddhism in Japantranslated by Rolf Giebel

CHINA Part 1 267-300

SHEN Weirong & WANG Liping Background Books and a Books Background: Images of Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism in Chinese Literature Gray TUTTLE Tibet as the Source of Messianic Teachings to Save Republican China Ester BIANCHI Protecting Beijing: The Tibetan Image of YamntakaVajrabhairava in Late Imperial and Republican China Franoise WANG-TOUTAIN Comment Asaga rencontra Maitreya : contact entre bouddhisme chinois et tibtain au XXe sicle CHEN Bing The Tantric Revival and Its Reception in Modern Chinatranslated by Monica Esposito

303-327

329-356

359-385

387-427

VOLUME II

CONTENTSCHINA 433-471

Part 2

LUO Tongbing The Reformist Monk Taixu and the Controversy about Exoteric and Esoteric Buddhism in Republican China Monica ESPOSITO rDzogs chen in China: From Chan to Tibetan Tantrism in Fahai Lamas (1920-1991) Footsteps Henry C. H. SHIU Tibetan Buddhism in Hong Kong: The Polarity of Two Trends of Practice YAO Lixiang The Development and Evolution of Tibetan Buddhism in Taiwantranslated by Liu Jingguo

473-548

551-577

579-609

611-681

CHEN Qingying and WANG Xiangyun Tibetology in China: A Survey

TIBET 687-704

Erberto LO BUE Tibetan Aesthetics versus Western Aesthetics in the Appreciation of Religious Art Karnina KOLLMAR-PAULENZ Uncivilized Nomads and Buddhist Clerics: Tibetan Images of the Mongols in the 19th and 20th Centuries

707-724

727-745

Patricia BERGER Reincarnation in an Age of Mechanical Reproduction: The Career of the Narthang Panchen Lama Portraits Antonio TERRONE Tibetan Buddhism beyond the Monastery: Revelation and Identity in rNying ma Communities of Present-day Kham Sabina RAGAINI Life and Teachings of Tashi Dorje: A Dzogchen Tulku in 20th Century Kham Matthew T. KAPSTEIN Tibetan Tibetology? Sketches of an Emerging Discipline Index of Proper Names List of Contributors

747-779

781-796

799-815

819-856 858-859

ILLUSTRATIONSxxii Map of Tibet (CHGIS version 2, China in Time and Space, August 2003, DEM)WEST

19 44 59 101

Pallas: Sammlungen historischer Nachrichten vol. 1 (1771): Plate 10 Pallas, Sammlungen historischer Nachrichten vol. 2 (1801): Plate 14 Schopenhauers Buddha statue. (Schopenhauer Archiv, Frankfurt am Main) Giuseppe Tucci with a local dignitary. (Negative stored [Istituto Italiano per lAfrica e lOriente, Rome] 6027/21)

JAPAN

204 204

Kawaguchi Ekai (1866-1945) The departure of Kawaguchi Ekai from Lhasa for India. (Scroll of Kawaguchi Ekai, no. 24: courtesy of Miyata Emi )

CHINA Part 1

304 316 319 320 327 327 330 332 332 334 341

The ninth Panchen Lama. (Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art) Ritual implements used by the Ninth Panchen Lama in Hangzhou, China 1930s. (Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art) Peace Mandala of Shambhala on floor of Temple, Oct. 1932. (Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art) Kyil Khor of Shambhala, Oct. 1932, Back of inside Throne. (Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art) The Living God of Asia, 1934. (Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art) The Panchen Lama during the retreat, 1934. (Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art) Sign in front of Shanyindian, Beihai. (Photo by E. Bianchi) Mandala on the vault of Shanyindian, Beihai. (Photo by E. Bianchi) Statue of Vajrabhairava in Shanyindian, Beihai. (Photo by E. Bianchi) Nine niches on the ceiling of the Taihedian, Forbidden City. (Photo by E. Bianchi) Detail of Shanyindian, in front of the Baita, Beihai. (Photo by E. Bianchi) x

343 343 343 367

Statue of Vajrabhairava in Mizongdian, Yonghegong. (Photo by E. Bianchi) Statue of Vajrabhairava in Dongpeidian, Yonghegong. (Photo by E. Bianchi) Statue of Vajrabhairava in Yamandagalou, Yonghegong. (Photo by E. Bianchi) Asaga. (Collection of M. Donald Rubin)

CHINA Part 2

433 475 477 477 478 480 481 481 483 484 485 495

Venerable Master Taixu. (Source: Yinshun Cultural and Educational Foundation, Xinzhu County, Taiwan) Fahai Lama at Qianfo chansi. (Gift of Fahai Lama) Miaokong, the young Fahai Lama. (Gift of Fahai Lama) Gangs dkar rin po che. (Source: Yangdui , Hong Kong/Taibei: Tantrayana Publications, 1981-1985, vol. 3) Gangs dkar monastery, Mi nyag region [Khams]. (Photo by M. Esposito) Qianfo chansi , the Thousand Buddhas Monastery. (Photo by M. Esposito) Taijidong , the Great Ultimate cave. (Photo by M. Esposito) Fahai Lama and his disciples in front of Taijidong. (Source: Mianhuai Fahai shangshi , Hong Kong, 1995) Nuns practicing koutou at Qianfo chansi. (Photo by M. Esposito) Rev. Folian practicing the sixfold yoga of Nropa at Qianfo chansi. (Photo by M. Esposito) Fahai Lamas teaching session at Qianfo chansi. (Photo by M. Esposito) Dayuanman guanding yiji quanji Fahai lama [Complete collection of the explicative commentaries on Great Perfection initiations]. (Photo by M. Esposito) The Lamp of the Pure Space. (Source: Dayuanman guanding , Fahai Lama's manuscript) Adamantine strands. (Source: Dayuanman guanding , Fahai Lama's manuscript) Adamantine strands like a string of pearls. (Source: The Collected Rediscovered Teachings [gter ma] of Gter-chen Mchog-gyur-gli-pa)

513 517 517

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517 518 525 525

Adamantine strands like knots tied into a horses tail. (Source: The Collected Rediscovered Teachings [gter ma] of Gter-chen Mchog-gyur-gli-pa) The manifestation of forms of deities. (Source: The Collected Rediscovered Teachings [gter ma] of Gter-chen Mchog-gyur-gli-pa) Guanyin. (Gift of Rev. Folian) Vajrayogin. (Gift of Rev. Folian)

TIBET

729 729 730 733 733 735 738 741 753 757 762 775

Gyaltsen Norbu in the Sunlight Hall, Tashilhunpo Monastery. (Source: Fomen shengshi: The Confirmation and Enthronement of the 11th Bainqen Erdeni, 1996, 103) Sakya Paita, sixth portrait in the Narthang Panchen Lama series. (Theos Bernard Collection, Gift of G. Eleanor Murray) Sakya Paita, sixth portrait in the silk textile series of the Panchen Lamas. (Source: Xizang tangka, pl. 60) The 4th Panchen Lama, eleventh in the Narthang Panchen Lama series. (Theos Bernard Collection, Gift of G. Eleanor Murray) The 6th Panchen Lama, thirteenth in the Narthang Panchen Lama series. (Theos Bernard Collection, Gift of G. Eleanor Murray) The 4th Panchen Lama, eleventh in the series sent to the Qing court by the 6th Panchen Lama. (Palace Museum, Beijing) rya Lokevara, sent by Polhanay in 1745 to the Yonghegong, Beijing. (Source: Precious Deposits, vol. 4, no. 13) The 9th Panchen Lama, silk textile portrait made in Hangzhou. (Source: Xizang tangka, pl. 81) The Buddhist teacher and Treasure revealer Grub dbang lung rtogs rgyal mtshan. (Photo by A. Terrone) Monks outside the main assembly hall of Bla rung sgar in gSer rta (Sichuan). (Photo by A. Terrone) A view of the Buddhist center Thub bstan chos khor gling in mGo log (Qinghai). (Photo by A. Terrone) A group of Chinese lay Buddhist devotees enjoy sacred dances at Ya chen sgar. (Photo by A. Terrone)

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INTRODUCTIONThese two volumes were conceived as an attempt to capture various images of Tibet from Western and Eastern perspectives. How did these various images take form? What were their sources of inspiration? How do they relate to the real Tibet? And what do these images tell us about the people who created them? Whilst a certain number of publications on the images of Tibet from the perspective of the Westits dreams and projectionshave appeared in recent years,1 a study on the image of Tibet in Far-Eastern countries during the 19th and 20th centuries was still missing. The present work represents the first attempt to explore various manifestations of the images of Tibet from a more global point of view, one that includes religious, aesthetic, and intellectual-historical dimensions. It is divided into four sections: the West, Japan, China, and Tibet. The China and Tibet sections do not strictly correspond to geographical or political entities but rather to cultural areas. While the China section includes contributions on the reception of Tibetan Buddhism in Hong Kong and Taiwan,2 the Tibet section features both studies related to Tibetan areas today assimilated within Peoples Republic of China (PRC) and to Tibets religious and cultural interaction with Mongolia, India, Himalayan regions, and the West.3 Each section ends with a history of the Tibetology of the respective areas. To facilitate use of these two volumes, I added an index of proper names at the end of the second volume. The twenty-five contributions by scholars from all over the world offer case studies spanning more than two centuries, beginning with the image of Tibet of the Western philosophersKant, Hegel, and Schopenhauerand ending with the question of whether a Tibetan Tibetology can exist in todays China. In between, images of Tibet from Western and Eastern travelogues, myths, religious literature and artworks offer pertinent examples of cultural intersections between Tibet, Japan, China, and the West. These studies are based on extensive original research and field-work, and analyses and translations of numerous primary sources are presented here for the first time. Instead of summarizing their content in this introduction, I decided to include an abstract in English and French at the beginning of each contribution. The case studies in these two volumes reveal not only a variety of images of Tibet but also mirror the changing world views and motivations of observers in both East and West.See among the others: Peter Bishop, Dreams of Power. Tibetan Buddhism and the Western Imagination (London: Athlone Press, 1993); Donald S. Lopez, Prisoners of Shangri-La, Tibetan Buddhism and the West (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1998); Thierry Dodin and Heinz Rther (eds.), Imagining Tibet: Perceptions, Projections & Fantasies (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2001); and Martin Brauen, Dreamworld Tibet: Western Illusions (Bangkok: Orchid Press, 2004; orig. Traumwelt Tibet Westliche Trugbilder, Zurich: Haupt, 2000). 2 See the contributions by Henry Shiu and Yao Lixiang in the second volume. 3 See the contribution by Erberto Lo Bue, Tibetan Aesthetics versus Western Aesthetics in the Appreciation of Religious Art, in the second volume.1

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At the end of the 19th century, with the opening of China to the Western world, a violent process of re-evaluation of the Chinese empire and its political and religious structures took place. The confrontation between West and East led to a clash of civilizations that shook the foundations of their respective world views. The discovery of the other and its different history, language, culture, and religion elicited the need to define ones own identity. The search for origins, the race to track down the roots of civilization, language, and religion was launched. At the same time as the tradition of Noahs Ark began to founder as Biblical authority waned in the West,4 Buddhist countries experienced a movement of modernization and transformation triggered by the contact with the Wests science and its religious and philosophical systems. Through the influence of missions from and to the West, they became aware that survival in the modern world required better education and training for the spreading of their teachings and that there was a need to unite within each country and worldwide through the creation of national and international Buddhist associations. One of the aims of such associations was to promote selfawareness among believers of their religious identity and, at the same time, to join with other Buddhist countries of Asia in advocating international solidarity based on Pan-Asian Buddhism.5 In the context of a certain colonial frustration fueled by Western imperialistic and nationalistic desires, a new generation of Buddhist monks and lay devotees dreamed of building a strong Orient to counter the dominance of the Christian world. Stimulated by Oriental studies in the West and their 19th-century obsession with Sanskrit sources, a call for Buddhist revival and a return to its primitive spirit were discussed with fervor, thanks in part to the philological investigation of its origins. This had a strong impact on the establishment of modern Buddhist studies in Japan and the Meiji movement to reform Japanese Buddhism. It was among such circles that a phenomenon known as Tibet fever arose as the most radical manifestation of this investigation. In the face of doubts of Western Orientalists, Japanese reformistsas representatives of Mahayanawanted to prove that Mahayana Buddhism was an original teaching taught by the historical Buddha. The investigation of Tibetan Buddhism was supposed to help in fulfilling such a hope. The quest for acquiring the Tibetan canon and the original Sanskrit texts transmitted in Tibetan translation was set up among Japanese explorers. In 1901 Kawaguchi Ekai (1866-1945) was the first Japanese to reach the Forbidden City of Lhasa with this aim in mind. 64 The interrelation of the Western biblical world view and the discovery of Buddhism and Tibet are explored in the opening study of this volume, the one by Urs App on The Tibet of the Philosophers: Kant, Hegel, and Schopenhauer. 5 See the contributions by Onoda Shunz, The Meiji Suppression of Buddhism and its Influence on the Exploration Spirit and Academicism of Buddhist Monks, and Luo Tongbing, The Reformist Monk Taixu and the Controversy among Exoteric and Esoteric Buddhism in Republican China. 6 On Tibet fever and the role of Kawaguchi Ekai in the Japanese discovery of Tibet see Okuyama Naoji, Tibet Fever among Japanese Buddhists of the Meiji period. For the development of Buddhist studies in todays Japan see the contribution by Fukuda Yichi, The Philosophical Reception of Tibetan Buddhism in Japan.

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The renewal of Buddhism in Japan and its Tibet fever came also to influence China, its pedagogical activity, and the formation of Buddhist educational institutions that took the nascent Japanese Buddhist universities as model.7 China also discovered Buddhist traditions and texts lost to them but still preserved in Japan. This incited a generation of Chinese monks and laymen to go study in Japan. They hoped to reestablish via the living Japanese Buddhist esoteric tradition the lost Chinese esoteric tradition of the Tang. By the late 1920s Chinese turned progressively to the esoteric tradition of Tibet, and Chinese monks went for the first time to study in Tibet at the feet of Tibetan lamas.8 Like the first Japanese explorers they were also searching for Indian Buddhist original teachings that were reputedly preserved in the Tibetan Tripitaka. Thanks to these monks Tibetan scriptures came to be translated into Chinese, and this in turn led to a gradual assimilation and popularization of Tibetan wisdom.9 At the same time, the arrival of Tibetan high-ranking lamas in China proper stimulated a stronger interest in Tibetan Buddhism as a living tradition.10 The sense of mystery and secrecy embodied in Tibetan esoteric rituals and its paraphernalia not only fascinated those who were looking for new religious paths of salvation but also provoked strong debates within Chinese circles advocating the preservation of Chinese Buddhist traditional forms of practice.11 In spite of this revived interest, Tibetan Buddhism had in fact remained since immemorial times a source of cultural and historical misunderstanding. Though it enjoyed great popularity among the ruling class as early as the Yuan dynasty (1206-1368) and was an important part of the cultural and religious lore of the Qing (1644-1912),12 it wasAs Onoda Shunz (The Meiji Suppression of Buddhism) shows in his contribution, the Chinese monk Taixu (1890-1947) was inspired by Bukky University (present-day Rykoku University) to reform his Wuchang Buddhist Institute, and his observation of the Buddhist universities in Kyoto made him feel necessity of training Buddhist priests academically. 8 More on this in the contribution of Chen Bing, The Tantric Revival and Its Reception in Modern China. An important source documenting the shift of interest in Chinese Buddhist circles from the esoteric tradition of Japan to Tibet is illustrated by the articles published in the monthly Haichaoyin or Sound of the Tide, a review founded and edited by the reformist monk Taixu. In 1920, a special issue was devoted to Shingon; see the contribution by Luo Tongbing, The Reformist Monk Taixu. 9 This process of popularization of Tibetan teachings is well illustrated in the contribution by Franoise Wang-Toutain, Comment Asaga rencontra Maitreya: Contact entre bouddhisme chinois et tibtain au XXe sicle. 10 Tibetan esoteric traditions and practices like rDzogs chen or Great Perfection came to be transmitted and translated for the first time into Chinese; see Monica Esposito, rDzogs chen in China: From Chan to Tibetan Tantrism in Fahai Lamas (1920-1991) footsteps. For the transmission of rDzogs chen among Tibetans and Chinese by a living Tibetan master from Kham see the contribution by Sabina Ragaini, Life and Teachings of Tashi Dorje, a Dzogchen Tulku in 20th century Kham. 11 This is exemplified by the work of the reformist monk Taixu and his changing strategy in integrating both exoteric and esoteric teachings into a new unified and modernized Chinese Buddhism. See the contribution by Luo Tongbing, The Reformist Monk Taixu. 12 See the contribution of Ester Bianchi, Protecting Beijing: The Tibetan Image of Yamntaka-Vajrabhairava in Late Imperial and Republican China, on the worship of the Tantric deity Yamntaka-Vajrabhairava (Tib. rDo rje jigs byed) at the Imperial Court.7

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always the target of sharp criticism by Chinese literati. Negative images of Tibetan monks and their religion abound in Chinese background books from the 11th century until today.13 Yet Tibet was also a subject of Japanese and Western background books that produced countless fantastic and conflicting images as well as fascinating hypotheses and speculations. Among Western historians and philosophers of the 18th century an image of Tibet arose that identified it as the cradle of humanity, the place where the original human race had survived the great flood.14 Ever since, Tibet has continued to haunt the imagination of academics, as well as novelists and seekers after concealed truths fascinated with the alleged powers of its Himalayan yogis and the mysteries of its hidden kingdoms of Shambhala and Agarti.15 Tibet and its image were also involved in the construction of international relations and the shaping of new political alliances and imperialistic dreams. Parallel to the creation of an image of Tibet which, as product of the British agenda, had a distinct Indo-Tibetan face, others images of Tibet emerged, for instance, as products of Far-Eastern agendas.16 While the Japanese were dreaming of a political and religious cooperation between Japan and the sphere of Lamaism encompassing Tibet, Manchuria, and Inner Mongolia, Chinese reformers had already been working since the end of the Qing on the foundation of a new Chinese modern state that would include Tibet. At the beginning of the republican era, as profound distress and severe famine ravaged the country, Tibetan Buddhism was called on to overcome the crisis. Massive dharma assemblies and rites for averting national calamities were organized and sponsored by Chinese lay Buddhists and political leaders alike. As the new re13 Through the analysis of Emptiness (a collection of modern short stories of Ma Jian), Shen Weirong and Wang Liping (Background Books and a Books Background: Images of Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism in Chinese Literature) trace the long history of misrepresentation of Tibetan culture rooted in Chinese background books. It is under the influence of these background booksan expression taken from the Italian writer Umberto Ecothat the traveler or explorer, irrespectively of what he discovers and sees, interprets the other world. In her contribution, Uncivilized Nomads and Buddhist Clerics: Tibetan Images of the Mongols in the 19th and 20th centuries, Karnina Kollmar-Paulenz examines instead the representations of the Mongols in Tibetan background books. 14 Interesting cases of Japanese and Western representations of Tibet are presented in the contributions by Okuyama Naoji, Tibet Fever, and Urs App, The Tibet of the Philosophers. 15 The development of popular perceptions of Tibet in the West as the land of the occult and the home of such powers is discussed in the contribution of Isrun Engelhardt, The Nazis of Tibet: A Twentieth Century Myth. She presents in detail the growth of myths about the occult and Nazism as exemplified by the Ernst Schfer Tibet expedition of 193839. On Tibets representation of the Italian Tibetologist Giuseppe Tucci see Elena De Rossi Filibeck, Tibet: The Ancient Island of Giuseppe Tucci. 16 On the British construction of the Indo-Tibetan image see the study by Alex C. McKay, Truth Perception and Politics: The British Construction of an Image of Tibet, in Imagining Tibet, 67-89.

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publican politicians became increasingly aware of the advantages of using Tibetan Buddhism for solving the Sino-Tibetan conflict, they followed their Qing imperial predecessors steps in promoting the performance of Tibetan state-protecting rites and conferring prestigious titles, like protectors of the country, on Tibetan lamas. As a result, first the Chinese republicans and later the communists came to form an image of Tibet linked with China and to promote a distinct Sino-Tibetan identity. This identity gradually gained a profile by the use of Tibetan religion as a fundamental link between China and Tibet.17 Whereas a whole generation of Tibetologists studied Tibet primarily in connection with India and its culture because of political restrictions from the foundation of the PRC in 1949 until the end of the Cultural Revolution, they could not enter Tibet but were instead obliged to study in the Himalayan regions and Tibetan refugee communities of South Asia, it has more recently become possible for a new generation of scholars to pursue their Tibetan studies in Tibet itself and turn their attention also to Tibeto-Chinese relations. In the 1980s, Tibetological research in China gradually began to emerge and the term zangxue or Tibetology also came into use. This produced a dramatic increase in publications on Tibetan studies and the opening of two important establishments: the Tibetan Academy of Social Sciences in Lhasa (1980) and Chinas Tibetology Center in Beijing (1986).18 Riding the wave of the religious revival and reenergized religious research in academia that occurred after the Cultural Revolution years (1966-1976), there was a constant flow of publications on Chinese and Tibetan religions and their esoteric techniques, modern Buddhism, and religious texts.19 Among them were reprints of materials on Tibetan Buddhism from the republican period, local histories and biographies, studies on Tibeto-Chinese and Tibeto-Japanese relations, works of Chinese monks who went for the first time to study in Tibet, etc. Thanks to the availability of such materials and under these new circumstances it became possible to consider, for instance, how a Sino-Tibetan identity could be built in those eastern Tibetan areas which, while aspiring to autonomy, seemed to accept closer ties with China. Important figures like the Panchen Lama (1883-1937), who had served in diplomatic relations17 See the contributions by Chen Bing, The Tantric Revival, Luo Tongbing, The Reformist Monk Taixu, and Gray Tuttle, Tibet as the Source of Messianic Teachings to Save Republican China: The Ninth Panchen, Shambhala and the Klacakra Tantra. Tuttle, in particular focuses on the Panchen Lamas religious and political role in linking Tibet to China. 18 See the contribution by Chen Qingying and Wang Xiangyun, Tibetology in China: A Survey. 19 Antonio Terrones contribution, Tibetan Buddhism beyond Monastery: Revelation and Identity in rNying ma Communities of Present-day Kham, emphasizes how and why the relative freedom that was inaugurated after the Cultural Revolution by the new religious policy of Deng Xiaoping had an impact on the revitalization of Tibetan Buddhist practices in todays Kham. As shown in the contributions by Chen Bing, The Tantric Revival, and Monica Esposito, rDzogs chen in China, Tibetan Buddhism also gained new momentum in the wave of religious revival and increase in publications fueled by the so-called qigong fever phenomenon in China during the 1980s and 1990s.

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between China and Tibet since the Qing Empire, came to be at the center of this new construct.20 Presenting such phenomena from a Far-Eastern perspective and in its religious, cultural, and political terms through case studies is one of the purposes of the present book. While observing the progress of Tibetological research in these two last centuries,21 this study wants to provide a moment of reflection about past and present ways of seeing Tibet in order to gain a better understanding of outlooks colored by historical misunderstandings and of current tensions. Although these two volumes document some little-known trends of modern Tibetan studies, particularly in Tibetological research in China and Japan, they also show that the examination of Tibets cultural and historical image is only at its beginning. 22 Difficulties in evaluating Tibetan society and its history critically, in particular when it comes to religious issues, persist for all parties. Nonetheless, they become more pressing for ethnic Tibetans and Han Chinese involved in the Tibet-China conflict.23 In this volume this is illustrated by the study of Chen Bing and his Sino-centric and nationalistic way of reviewing the assimilation of Tibetan Buddhism in the PRC24 and, above all, by this books lack of contributions by ethnic Tibetan scholars or Tibetan religious figures living in todays PRC. Without any doubt the Tibet section should

This is well illustrated by Tuttles discussion in Tibet as the Source of Messianic Tea-chings, of the role of the Panchen Lama and his Kalacakra Tantra transmission in republican China. The Chinese Communist government is continuing to work on this construction in order to shape Tibetan Buddhism to suit its political requirements. An image of the dilemma facing Chinese religious policy in contemporary Tibet is captured by the contribution of Patricia Berger (Reincarnation in an Age of Mechanical Reproduction: The Career of the Narthang Panchen Lama Portraits) on the controversy over the selection of the 11th Panchen Lama. 21 While Lionel Obadia presents the assimilation of Tibetan Buddhism in France (Esprit(s) du TibetLe bouddhisme tibtain en France: territorialisation et conomie de limaginaire tibtophile), Harmut Walravens (Some Notes on Tibetan Studies in Europe), and Donald S. Lopez (Tibetology in the United States of America: A Brief History) offer an overview on the development of Tibetan studies in Europe and America. 22 See the first introduction in a Western language to the status of Tibetan studies in China by Chen Qingying and Wang Xiangyun, Tibetology in China, as well as the contributions by Fukuda Yichi, The Philosophical Reception on Tibetan studies in Japan, and by Matthew T. Kapstein, Tibetan Tibetology? Sketches of an Emerging Discipline. 23 On this issue see, for instance, the study by Elliot Sperling, The Tibet-China Conflict: History and Polemics, Policy Studies 7 (East-West Center Washington, 2004): 1-48, and Melvyn C. Goldstein, Tibet and China in the Twentieth Century, in Governing Chinas Multiethnic Frontiers, ed. Morris Rossabi (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2004): 186-229. See also the volume edited by Anne-Marie Blondeau and Katia Buffetrille, Le Tibet est-il chinois? (Paris: Albin Michel, 2002) and its English edition: Authenticating Tibet. Answers to Chinas 100 Questions (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008). 24 See in particular the section entitled Difficulties and Problems of the Reception of Tantrism in the PRC where Chen Bing presents nave and simplistic views on Tibetan Buddhism emphasizing the lack of a critical evaluation of Tibetan religion that still persists in certain Han Chinese academies and Chinese Buddhist circles.

20

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have included contributions by ethnic Tibetans who, as men on the spot, could have reflected on their own self-image; but the present situation in the PRC has not allowed the realization of such a project.25 We cannot but hope that this new century may fulfill this expectation. ., The present two-volume work would not have been possible without the help of several people and institutions. First of all, I want to express my gratitude to all the members of the scientific committee who were in charge of reading at least one of its twenty-five contributions: Ester Bianchi, Anne-Marie Blondeau, Anne Chayet, Hubert Durt, Donald Lopez, Okuyama Naoji, Donatella Rossi, and Shen Weirong. Among them, my special thanks go to Anne-Marie Blondeau not only for having checked the Tibetan transcription of this volume but also for her incisive reading of almost all contributions. Her precious advice was of primary importance for the completion of this book. As main consultants for the sections West, Japan, and China, Donald Lopez, Okuyama Naoji, Shen Weirong, and Ester Bianchi equally deserve a special mention for their valuable suggestions and helpful criticisms. I am also grateful to Hubert Durt who, as member of the scientific committee, read a substantial number of contributions and checked their Sanskrit transcription. A special, heartfelt thank you goes to Phyllis Brooks and Cate Pearce who copyedited the book with exceptional dedication and turned the articles written by contributors speaking about seven different native languages into readable English. I am also indebted to Karnina Kollmar-Paulenz for supervising the simplified transcription of Mongolian letters (see Conventions below), and to Chen Qingying, Donatella Rossi, Onoda Shunz, and Jay Goldberg for their help in identifying Tibetan masters, places, and Sino-Tibetan texts. I am grateful as well for the precious suggestions I received during the preparatory phase from Funayama Tru, Toni Huber, Roberto Gimello, David Germano, Nagano Yasuhiko, and Samten Karmay. I wish to thank the ex-director of the cole franaise dExtrme-Orient, JeanPierre Drge, for having accepted this project, and the present director, Franciscus Verellen, for offering the necessary institutional and financial support for its accomplishment. I owe a great debt of gratitude to my Institute, the Jinbun Kagaku Kenkyjo at Kyoto University, and its members, in particular director Kin Bunky and Mugitani Kunio for giving me the opportunity to devote myself to research and realThis does not mean that ethnic Tibetans are not involved in critical debates about this issue; but due to restrictions in the PRC, available studies on this topic are often confined to specialist circles of Tibetologists or intellectuals living abroad (for example the well-known studies of Tsering Shakya or Jamyang Norbu, or of religious figures and members from the Tibetan community-in-exile). However, as Toni Huber has noted, the publications from the Tibetan exile community are not necessarily free from propaganda and censorship. See Toni Huber, Shangri-la in Exile: Representations of Tibetan Identity and Transnational Culture, in Imagining Tibet, 357-371.25

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ize this project. I extend my gratitude to Zio Pio of the Magic Mountain for his generosity and support; to Evelyne Mesnil for revising and translating the majority of the English abstracts into French; to Sandra Bessis for her help in revising my French translations; to Benot Jacquet for his reading of French contributions and abstracts; to Fabienne Jagou, Wang Xiangyun, and Gray Tuttle for their kindness in answering to my inquiries; to David Riggs for his help in finding translators; to Rolf Giebel and Liu Jingguo for their translations from Japanese and Chinese into English; to the Tucci Institute and Francesco DArelli for sending me a photo of Giuseppe Tucci; and to Merrick Lex Berman for the base map of Tibet.26 Finally I wish to thank Kobayashi Tsuneyoshi for having not abandoned the work of layout in spite of the throes of multiple drafts and last-moment revisions, and my husband Urs App for his constant companionship, his unstinting support and encouragement of all my projects, for his help with this two-volume work and for his willingness to prepare the book cover.27

26 The base map is available at http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~chgis/. Please note that it includes territory disputed by the Tibetan-government-in-exile and the India government (territory on the northwest frontiers). The boundaries for the Tibetan cultural world (and autonomous political units under the PRC) are drawn from the county boundaries in 1990 on the CHGIS version 2, China in Time and Space, August 2003, DEM. 27 The base image for the book cover is from Peter Simon Pallas, Sammlungen historischer Nachrichten ber die mongolischen Vlkerschaften (St. Petersburg: Kaiserliche Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1801): vol. 2, pl. 15.

xx

CONVENTIONS

Systems of transcription Chinese: The pinyin system of alphabetic transcription from Chinese is used throughout the book, except for names better known in the vVade-Giles, Taiwanese, or Cantonese transcription systems. In this case, pinyin followed by Chinese characters has been put into brackets (ex. Chiang Kai-shek Uiang Jieshi Jlff1r;p D. Traditional Chinese characters have been privileged. In references, however, some authors have chosen to use either simplified or traditional characters depending on where works referred to were published, the People's Republic or Taiwan. Japanese: The book adopts the Hepburn system. Mongolian: The book generally adopts the simplified transcription of Mongolian letters adjusted to common usage (though in few cases a different transcription has been used according to the sources utilized by the authors):Standard transcription Simplified transcription

c

yq

gorkh kh

Sanskrit: The book generally adopts the International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) system. The diacritics have not been used for Sanskrit terms that are part of the common usage and included in English dictionaries like MerriamWebster or the Oxford dictionary. Examples of such words are Mahayana, Hinayana, Vajrayana, Tripitaka, tantra, sutra, prajna, mandal~, stupa, dharani, vinaya, shastra, deva, etc. Tibetan: The book generally adopts the Wylie system, with capitalization of the radical letter (ex. Klong chen, sNgags chen, etc.). When the authors in their contributions have used the Tibetan phonetic as adopted in their country (Chinese phonetic adopted in the People's Republic of China or in Taiwan; Japanese phonetic according to the katakana system; etc.), the Wylie transcription has been put into parentheses by the editor, except in the case of common terms like lama, rinpoche, thangka, etc. AbbreviationsBCE CE

T.

Before Common Era Common Era Taish6 Buddhist Canonxxi

MOrigolia

Basemap from CHGIS version 30 Underlayer: DEM images by USGSo

KEY:

* .6

Site of Tibetan Buddhist activities Tibetan Town

The Tibet of the Philosophers: Kant, Hegel, and Schopenhauer The manifold discussions in the wake of Edward Said's 1978 book on "Orientalism" and pioneer attempts to portray the history of the Western discovery of Buddhism showed that there is a dire need for case studies that throw light on the views of specific persons about specific Asian phenomena at specific points in time. Here, the views of three well-read philosophers from Germany, a nation without any colonial interest in Tibet or neighboring regions, are explored. The views of all three men are well documented through their own writings or through lecture notes by students. What kind of information were they gathering, and from what sources? What did they focus on, and what did they come up with? What motivated them to read about Tibet, and to what extent did their world view, their religion, their philosophY, and particular interests shape their ideas of the mysterious country in the Himalayas? The views expressed by Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) from the 1750s to the turn of the gentury reflect a rapidly changing breakdown of the biblical view of history and the philosopher's pronounced interest in the history of the earth and of humanity. To Kant Tibet appeared as the first country to emerge from the latest great flood. He ignored the Bible in viewing Tibet as the cradle of humanity and the seat of mankind's most ancient culture and religion. G.W.F. Hegel (1770-1831) also adopted an Asian origin of history and a gradual progress from a primitive state to perfection, but in contrast to Kant he still clung to a strictly biblical timeframe. Unlike Hegel, Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) showed a pronounced philosophical interest in Asia. He is the first European philosopher to be influenced by Asian philosophy and religion at an early stage in his career. He became convinced that the Kangyur was the oldest and most complete repository of Buddhist texts and admired early translations of some of its texts. In 1850s the philosopher . became the first Westerner to refer to himself as a Buddhist.

Le Tibet des philosophes : Kant, Hegel et Schopenhauer Les discussions apres la publication du livre "Orientalisme" d'Edward Said, ainsi qu'un nombre d'esquisses pionnieres de I'histoire de la decouverte du bouddhisme par les occidentaux ont montre la necess.ite d'etudier des cas .parliculiers mettant en lumiere les points de vue de personnes distinctes concernant des phenomenes orientaux specifiques dans un cadre historique defini. Cette contribution presente les opinions de trois philosophes erudits originaires d'Allemagne, un pays sans interets coloniaux au Tibet ou dans les regions voisines. Ces points de vue sont relativement bien documentes tant par les ecrits de ces trois philosophes que par les notes de leurs etudiants. Quelle sorte d'information ont-ils cherche et quelles etaient leurs sources? Quels phenomenes ont attire leur attention et quel etait Ie resultat de leurs recherches ? Quels motifs animaient leur lecture sur Ie Tibet et comment leur vision du monde, leur religion, leur philosophie et leurs interets particuliers ont determine leurs idees sur ce pays mysterieux de I'Himalaya ? Telles sont les questions posees. Le point de vue exprime par Emmanuel Kant (1724-1804) entre 1750 et la fin du siecle reflete I'affaiblissement' progressif de la conception biblique de I'histoire, ainsi que I'interet prononce du philosophe pour I'histoire de la terre et de I'homme. Pour Kant, Ie Tibet est Ie premier pays iL emerger des oceans du deluge. Abandonnant I'approche biblique, Kant voit Ie Tibet comme Ie berceau de I'humauite et par consequent de toutes culture et religion. G.W.F. Hegel (1770-1831) situe, lui aussi, I'origine de I'histoire de I'homme en Asie. A ses yeux, cette histoire se presente comme un progres graduel vers la perfection iL partir d'un etat primitif mais, iL la difference de Kant, il ne parvient pas iL abandonner Ie cadre chronologique de I'histoire biblique. Contrairement a Hegel, Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) montre un interet prononce pour les religions et les philosophies de I'Asie. II est Ie premier philosophe europeen iL s'etre laisse autant influencer par elles au cours de sa periode formative. II etait persuade que Ie Kangyur representait la collection la plus ancienne et complete des textes bouddhiques et "tait un ardent admirateur des premieres traductions de certains de ses textes. Dans les annees 1850 ce philosophe fut Ie premier occidental iL se dire bouddhiste . . .

THE TIBET OF THE PHILOSOPHERSKANT, HEGEL, AND SCHOPENHAUER

UrsAPpKANThe 1757 announcement of Kant's pioneering course on "physical geography"-by far his most popular lecture series which ended only in 1796- signals his interest in theories of our earth's formation. For example, the presence of sea shells and maritime fossils on high mountains indicated that "all firm land once formed the bottom of the sea"i but how did animals and plants of the tropics end up petrified or frozen in faraway lands? Had there been a drastic climate change due to a changing inclination of the 'earth's a;j:is?' Kant had little sympathy for the likes ofvVoodward l and Whiston4 who, in the wake of Father Athanasius Kircher, had ended up using science to prop up the Old Testament narrative. Already in his General Theory ofNature and The01J1 of the Heavens of 1755 Kant had outlined an earth formation process in which an initial liquid state was followed by the gradual formation of a crust. Subsequently, the familiar features of the earth gradually took form primarily through erosion by the receding sea and by mighty rivers which carried water from higher plains to lower regions.' At this early stage

T

Immanuel Kant, Kants Worke (Akademie-Textausgabe; Berlin: "Valter de Gruyter, 1968): voL 2 (Vorkritische Schriften II), 8. Note: All translations from non-English materials in this contribution are by the author. 2 Kant, Werke, vol. 2, 8. Louville D'Allonville had proposed in 1714 that over the unheard-of period of 200,000 years a drastic climate change had occurred. See Manfred Petri, Die Urvolkhypothese - ein Beitrag zum Geschichtsdenken der Spiitaufilikzmg ztnd des deutschelz Idealismus (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1990): 31. 3 John Woodward, An Essay towa/d a Natural History of the Emoth: and Te1restrial Bodies,especially iVIinertt!s: As also of the Sea, Riven, and Spzoings. With an Account of the Univezosal Deluge: and ofthe Effects that it had upon the Earth (London: R. Wilkin, 1695). 4 William Whiston, A New Theory of the Earth from its Original to the Consummation of All Things. ~VheZ"ein The Czoeation of the Wodd in Six Days, The Universal Deluge, And the General Conflagzoation, As laid down in the Holy Sc,oiptzl1"es, A,oe sbown to be perfectly agTeeable to Reason and Philosophy (London: Tooke, 1696).5

Kant, Worke, voL 1, 199.

Images afTibet in the 19 111 and 20 1/; Centuries Paris, EFEO, coIL Etudes thematiques" (22.1), 2008, p. 5-60

6

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in his career Kant still used the biblical number of around 6,000 years for the age of the earth6 but guessed that it "may have existed a thousand or more years before it was in a condition to support humans, animals, and plants.'" He soon agreed with the naturalist Buffon that it was wiser to separate the history of the earth altogether from that of humanity. Buffon was convinced that Asia had been the first part of the earth to get dry; it therefore had to be substantially older than Europe, Africa, and of course also the region that was home to the Old Testament. 8 Kant also concluded that "humans first inhabited the most elevated regions of the globe; only at a late stage did they descend to the plains.'" The cradle of humanity was thus likely to be located in the high plains of Asia rather than the alluvial lowlands around the Eastern Mediterranean. This new birthplace of the human race is just one symptom of the profound change of world view that took place between Kant's first writings in the 1750s and Schopenhauer's death in 1860 (a year after the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species). Just as the earth and entire galaxies had, in Kant's eyes, become mere specks of dust floating in an immense universe,'o so the "crown of creation," the human being, appeared to him like a louse on someone's head which harbors the delusion of being the center and goal of every thing. 11 Such insight by the young Kant already points in the direction of his immortal philosophical achievement: the demonstration that our perception determines our reality rather than the other way around. Naturally, this fundamental change in Europe's view of the world's and mankind's origin and history is also reflected in the prism of the European image of Tibet and its religion; here, too, the reigning world views had a way of determining reality. Most of Kant's views on Tibet were aired in his Physical Geography lectures, but he only published the short announcement of these lectures mentioned above. The bulk of information is found in a complex set of materials comprising Kant's own lecture blueprint (the so-called "Diktattext" redacted before 1760); several printed compilations by other authors based on these notes as well as student notes; and finally heaps of lecture notes by Kant's students which for the most part were redacted, revised and combined with other student notes or with the "Diktattext" at some later pointY Quite a number of important manuscripts disappeared at some point or were destroyed during World War II, but luckily Helmuth von Glasenapp had before the war studied some of them and proceeded to cite or summarize relevant bits and pieces in his book Kant and the Religions of the East. A thoroughKant, vVerke, vol. 1,204. Kant, We7-ke, vol. 1, 352-353. g Erich Adickes, Kants Ansichten iiber Geschichte zmd Bau der Erde (Tubingen: J. c. B. Mohr, 1911): 37. 9 Kant, vVerke, vol. 1, 200. 10 Kant, Wer!", vol. 1, 352. II Kant, Werke, vol. 1, 353. 12 See Erich Adickes's detailed source studies in Untersuchungen ZZI Kants physischer Geogmphie (Tubingen: J. B. Mohr, 1911); Helmuth von Glasenapp, Kant und die Religionen des Ostens (Kitzingen, am Main: Holzner, 1954); and the web pages by Werner Starke on Kant's physical geography and its forthcoming critical edition.67

The Tibet of the Philosophers: Kant, Hegel, and Schopenhauer

7

study would obviously necessitate a comprehensive review of all extant manuscript sources. However, the currently available printed materials permit gaining an idea of the development and content of Kant's view of Tibet and its religion. Tibet first appears in a part of the "Diktattext" which can be reliably dated to before 1760.lJ Kant began his discussion of Chinese religion as follows: Here [in China], the religion is treated rather indifferently. Many do not believe in a God; others who adhere to a religion do not bother much about [God]. The sect ofFo is most numerous. They conceive this Fo as an incarnated deity which in particular inhabits today the great Lama in Barantola14 in Tibet. It is venerated in him, but after his death it goes into another Lama. The Tartar priests are called Lamas, the Chinese ones Bonzes. ls In preparation for his lectures Kant had read La Croze's essay on the idolatry of the Indies!6 which gives the lie to modern assertions to the effect that the European discovery of Buddhism began "by the mid-1830s" when" 'Buddhism' came to define the religious beliefs and practices of most of Asia,"17 or that the "joint birth of the word and the object" began effectively around 1820."18 Along this line, Almond boldly states: Throughout the preceding discussion, I have tried carefully to avoid giving the impression that Buddhism existed prior to the end of the eighteenth century: that it was waiting in the wings, so to say, to be discovered; that it was floating in some ethereal Oriental limbo expecting its objective embodiment. On the contrary, what we are witnessing in the period from the later part of the eighteenth century to the beginning of the Victorian period in the latter half of the 183 Os is the creation of Buddhism. 19 But La Croze's 1724 discussion of the religion of the "Samaneens" whose founder is "Budda"-a religion of Indian origin which after its disappearance from India survived in Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Japan and probably also in Tibet-shows just how baseless such assertions are. Using information from a wide variety of sources La Croze came to the conclusion that this religion

Adickes, Unte1"suchzmgen, 7-44. According to Kircher Barantola was the Saracen name for Lhasa. Athanasius Kircher, China Illustrata withSaC1"ed and Seculm" Monuments, Vi".ious Spectacles of Nature and Art and OtheT Nlemombilia, trans. Charles van Tuyl (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University, 1987): 46. Sometimes it is also used for the Potala palace. IS Kant, We1:ke, vol. 9, 381 (Physical Geography). 16 Mathurin Veyssiere de la Craze, Histoire du Christianisme des Indes (The Hague: Vaillant & N. Prevost, 1724). 17 Philip C. Almond, Tbe British Discovery of Buddhism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988): 11. 18 Roger-Pol Droit, Le culte du neant. Les pbilosophes et Ie Bouddha (Paris: Seuil, 1997): 36; similarly also Bernard Faure, Bouddhisnzes, philosophies et TeZigions (Paris: Flammarion, 1998): 17; Frederic Lenoir, La rencontre du Bouddhisme et de l'occident (Paris: Fayard, 1999): 90; and others. 19 Almond, The B1"itish Discovery ofBuddhism, 12.II

14

8

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had been opposed to the Indian caste system20 and to the cults of Vishnu and Shiva, did not recognize a God,21 and had a founder called "Boudda" who was identical with the Chinese Xe-kia, the Sino-Japanese Xaca, the Siamese Sonznzona-codonz, etc.: "Boudda, Sommona-Codom, & Xaca refer to the same person. This is all the more probable as the inhabitants of the kingdom of Laos, where the Siamese Talapoins study, use all these names interchangeably to denominate their idol of which the cult has been established in China and Japan under the name of Xaca."" According to La Croze, "Boudda" had lived "several centuries before the Christian era" and likely came "from a kingdom in central India"23 or from Ceylon. 24 Since the Ceylonese monks wear the same yellow robes, follow similar customs, and have the same sacred language "Bali" as the Siamese, La Croze also concluded that the "Budu" of the Ceylonese must refer to the same founder. Thus "one may surmise that this Boudan, who apparently is in no way different from the Boutta of Clement of Alexandria and the Boudda of St. Jerome, is none other than the SommonaCodom of the Siamese who also call him Pouti-Sat, and consequently the Xaca of the Indians."" To La Croze this meant that the religion in question "which, apart from China and Japan, has infected the kingdoms of Siam, Cambodia, Laos, Cochin China, Tonkin, and several other countries to the North and South of India, "is much larger than Islam,,26-the religion which for some time had been regarded as the world's largest. vVhile' the world's religious geography, one step behind its physical cousin, showed its approximate outlines in the 16,h and 17'h centuries, these proportions only really sunk in during the 18,h century with its profusion of travel accounts and syntheses of the world's customs and religions. By far the most important collection for Kant was Astley'S New Geneml Collection of Voyages and Ti-avels.27 The relevant

20 La Croze, Histoire, 498. This is the earliest printed assertion I have so far found in the ,Vest of Buddhist opposition to the Indian caste system. La Craze drew this information from his careful study of the fifth chapter of the Halle manuscript of Bartholomaus Ziegenbalg's Genealogie de>' malaba17schen GO"tte1' (manuscript of 1713) which was only published in 1867 by vVilhelm Germann with many alterations; cf. Daniel Jeyaraj, Bartholomitus Ziegenbalgs 'Genealogie dermalabarischen Gotter' (Halle: Francke, 2003): 14. 21 La Croze, Histoire, 498. La Croze bases much of his atheism argument on Simon de la Loubere, Du Royaume de Siam (Amsterdam: Abraham Wolfgang, 1691). " La Croze, Histoire, 502. La Craze uses various spellings for the name of the founder of Buddhism. 23 La Croze, Histoire, 502. 24 La Craze, Histoire, 505. 25 La Craze, Histoire, 513. Earlier identifications of the common referent of such diverse names which were not yet published in 1724 include Fernao de Queyroz's detailed comparison of Chinese and Ceylonese biographical data about the Buddha in the The Temporal and Spiritual Conquest of Ceylon (Colombo: A: C. Richards, 1930): 118-141; and Engelbert Kaempfer's chapter on "Budsdo" (Buddhism) in The History of Japan (London: Thomas Woodward, 1727): vol. 1,241-243. 26 La Croze, Histoire, 504-505. 21 Thomas Astley, A new general collection of voyages and travels: consisting of the most esteemed relations, which have been hitheno published in any language, comp"ebending every thing

Tbe Tibet of tbe Pbilosopben: lVint, Hegel, and Scbopenbazie7~

9

portions of the German translation which Kant relied upon had been published just a few years before he launched his geography lecture series." It was an exceedingly rich source of information consisting both of original sources and critical surveys and expositions. For example, Kant's major source about Tibet, volume 7 of Schwabe's German version of Astley, contained not only comprehensive descriptions of Tartary and Tibet but also many major travel accounts about these regions, from the 13 m century reports of Carpini, Ruysbroek and Marco Polo to materials from 17'h and 18,h century travelers and missionaries such as Johannes Grueber, Ippolito Desideri, and Francesco Orazio della Penna. Thus Kant was familiar with the view of Tibetan religion as a kind of degenerated Christianity communicated or implied by Andrade, Desideri and other missionaries featured in Astley/Schwabe's collection: The catholic missionaries describe the doctrines regarding Fo in such a way that they appear as nothing other than Christianity degenerated into great heathendom. Reportedly they [of the doctrine of Fo] posit three persons in the Godhead, the second of which had furnished the law and had shed his blood for humankind. The great Lama is also said to administer a kind of sacrament using bread and wine.29 Since Kant offered this description in his treatment of Chinese religion and immediately afterwards went on to describe other living religions of China (such as the veneration of Confucius), it is clear that for him the dominant religion of China, the "sect of Fo" which we today call Chinese Buddhism, formed the essence of the religion of Tibet: Fo (Buddha) is the divinity incarnated in the great Lama. Unlike Hegel who, more than 60 years later, was still wondering whether Lamaism was connected with the religion of Fo, Kant had, thanks to his study of La Croze and Astley/Schwabe, grasped this connection from the outset. Furthermore, Joseph de Guignes (1721-1800), another important source of Kant, had also identified a very widespread religion with an Indian founder that reigned in many Asian countries including China, Japan, Siam, Tartary, and Tibet. 3D In his works de Guignes portrayed this pan-Asian religion as a mixture of Egyptian idolatry (in Indian guise and propagated by a mighty impostor called Buddha) and early Christian teachings, with Christian heresies and Manichean doctrines thrown into the mix. We will see below that this potent brew inspired the fertile imagination of one of Kant's later sources, Father Agostino Giorgi, and formed a root of the two-Buddha theory that confused Hegel.Te77ZaTkable in its kind, in Emope, Asia, Africa, and A71Ze,~ica, wit" Tespect to t"e sev,,al E77Zpi,~es, Kingdoms, and P,~ovinces (London: Thomas Astley, 1745 -1747). 28 Johann Joachim Schwabe (ed.), Allgemeine Histo,.ie d,,~ Reisen ZZt 1-Vasser ad,, zZt Lande; odeT Sa77Z11Zlzmg alle,. ReisebeschTeibungen, 21 vols. (Leipzig: Arkstee & Merkus, 1747-1774). For

information on China and Tibet Kant mainly relied on vols. 6 and 7 (both published in 1750). 29 Kant, vVe,.ke, vol. 9, 381-382 (Physical Geography). )0 Joseph de Guignes, Histoi1~e ginrh~ale des Huns, des TuTCs, des NIogols, et des autl~es ta1~ tates occidental/X, & c. avant ]eSZts-Cb,ist jl/squ'a present, 5 vols. (Paris: Desaint & Saillant, 1756-1758): vol. 2, 234.

10

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The impression that Asian religions with monks, rosaries, statuary, etc. (religions that we today identify as forms of Buddhism) resemble Catholicism had already been reported for centuries; but such reports gained in exposure when 18 th century protestants such as La Croze, Astley, and Schwabe were thrilled to fill pages with parallels between "heathen" customs and those of the Roman Catholic "papists."ll After Tartary and Japan etc. it was now Tibet's turn to exemplify that the degeneration of Christianity had not stopped in Rome, In the words of the protestant Kant: This Lama does not die, his soul soon inhabits a body that totally resembles the former one, Some subordinate priests also pretend to be animated [beseelt] by this divinity, and the Chinese call such a person a living Fo, What was said above [about similarities to catholic Christianity] and the fact that the great Lama, whom they also call Father, is in effect the pope of the heathens and could be said to have the patrimony ofPeter' in Barantola: this all confirms the guess mentioned above [that it seems to be a degenerated form of Catholicism],l2 Regarding the doctrine of this "sect" Kant also reproduced the dominant opinion of the time, namely, that it focuses on metempsychosis and karmic retribution and can be divided into an inner and an outer teaching. De Guignes had explained that the outer teaching varied depending on time and place, which explained the "considerable differences between the heathens of India and those of Tibet and Tartary.'>ll This was a very handy way of gathering the whole herd of Asian paganisms under a common roof, but it also meant that "transmigration" and the "secret teaching" had to provide a measure of unity to the "sect," Thus Kant wrote: The sect of Fo believes in the transmigration of souls. There is a notion among them that nothingness is the origin and end of all things, wherefore an insensibility [Fiihllosigkeit] and a temporary renunciation of all work are godly thoughts [gottselige Gedanken].34 Kant thus boiled the teaching ofFo down to three main features: L transmigration; 2. nothingness as the origin and end of everything; and 3. torpor and inactivity. These were the teachings of the Chinese "sect of the false contemplators [Secte de1' folschen BetmchterJ" about which Kant had read in volume 6 of his trusty collection of travel accounts. This sect reportedly aims at "ceasing to be and being engulfed by nothingness" and, "becoming like a rock or a stick." Its contemplators want to attain a state of happiness consisting in a "total insensibility and motionlessness, the ceasing of all desires [.,.J and annihilation of all forces of the soul, and in a total

J!

Schwabe's Allgemeine Hist01'ie devotes an entire section to such parallels (vol. 7, Kant, We,'ke, voL 9, 404-405 (Physical Geography). De Guignes, Histoi,.e, voL 2, 225. Kant, We,'ke, vol. 9, 382 (Physical Geography).

212-215),12JJ 34

The Tibet of the Philosophers: Kant, Hegel, and Schopenhauer

11

quietude of thoughts.,,)5 Like many other 18'h-century intellectuals Kant was an avid reader of Pierre Bayle's dictionary, and this is exactly how Bayle, in his article on Spinoza, had portrayed "quietism": The sectarians ofFo teach quietism since they say that all those who seek for genuine beatitude must let themselves be absorbed in profound meditations to such a degree that they make no use whatsoever of their intellect and, in consummate insensibility, plunge into the quietude and inaction of the First Principle; this they hold to be the true method of resembling it perfectly and to participate in happiness.)6 The associatiol;l of Chinese quietism, pantheism, and Spinozism with Tibet was still evoked by Kant a decade before his death in The End ofAll Things of 1794: From this [mysticism] arises the monstrous system of Laohun [Laozi] of the highest good which is supposed to consist in nothingness: i.e., in the consciousness of feeling oneself engulfed in the abyss of the divinity through confluence with it and thus through annihilation of one's personality. Chinese philosophers, in order to anticipate such a state, strive in dark rooms with closed eyes to think and feel this nothingness of theirs. Hence the pantheism (of the Tibetans and other Eastern peoples); and the Spinozism which subsequently arose through metaphysical sublimation of the same. Both are closely related to the extremely old system of emanation of allliuman souls from the divinity (and its eventual resorption in the same).) vVhile Kant believed that it was Fa who was repeatedly incarnated in the Tibetan' lamas, he apparently was not yet able to link the lamas to other pieces of the mosaic such as the Siamese and Burmese Talapoins who venerate an erstwhile Talapoin called Sommona Cada71z,l8 Ceylonese monks who visit the footprint of their "God Budda,")9 and so on. But he was fascinated by the religion of the Siberian Kalmylcs and Mongols and its center in "Barantola"40: In Barantola, or as others call it, in the Potala resides the great supreme priest of the MongolTartars, the very image of the pope. The priests of this religion, who have spread from this region of Tartary to the Chinese sea, are called Lamas; this religion seems to be catholic Christianity degenerated into the blindest heathendom. They maintain that God has a son who came into the world as a man and lived as a beggar but was solely preoccupied with' making people blissful [selig]. In the end he reportedly was raised to heaven.

l5 Schwabe (ed.), Allgemeine Histo";e del' Reisen zu Wasse,' zmd zu Lande; od,,' Sa11Z71,izmg all,,' Reisebescb,'eibungen (Leipzig: Arkstee & Merleus, 1750): vol. 6, 368-369. 36 Pierre Bayle, Dictionnaire histohque et c)'itique (Rotterdam: R. Leers, 1702): 2769, s.v.

"Spinoza." 17 Kant, W"'ke, voL 8, 335 (Das Ende all,,' Dinge, first published 1794). )S Kant, We,'ke, voL 9, 385-386 (Physical Geography). )9. Kant, We"ke, vol. 9, 394 (Physical Geography) .. 40 See note 14 above.

12

UnAppGmelin41 himself heard this from a Lama. They also have a mother ';f this savior and make likenesses of her. They also have the rosary. The missionaries also report that they.posit a threefoldness in the divine essence and that the Dalai Lama administers a certain sacrament with bread and wine enjoyed only by him."

Though Kant reported some of this in a skeptical tone and thought that "what some travelers report, namely that the adherents of this creed carry the excrements of the Lama on them as a fine powder in boxes which they spread on their food" was probably no more than "simple slander,''''' there is not much evidence of a personal opinion at this point. But it must be emphasized that the "Diktattext" simply represents a basis of notes for Kant's lectures. In the lectures themselves he often introduced more recent information and contrasting viewpoints. Herder's notes from Kant's 1763-1764 lectures 44 are a case in point; they show that near the beginning of his career Kant already had a less confused picture of the religious geography of Asia than Hegel in the early 1820s: The [Chinese] national religion is that of the Fo or the Lamas; Xaca in Japan; Fo in Tartary; Brama in Ceylon; Sommonacodom in Siam probably is a man who had formerly lived and still animates the Lamma in Tartary, and as Sommonacadom in Siam a Talepoin. The supreme priest in Tibet (Daleylamma) is a living Fo, sits in the dark like God, underneath lamps; the Lammas are subordinated to him as the eternal father; they have a rite with bread and wine; also incarnation, or more properly enthusiasm [Begeisterung] of the Lamma. They believe in transmigration of souls [Seelenwanderung]; (so also Fo) = sect which approaches nothingness [Sekte, die sich dem Nichts ntfhen] 45 Herder's hasty notes are not without ambiguity, but Kant's overall view was dearly , influenced by La Croze, Astley/Schwabe, and de Guignes: 46 A Talepoin (Sommonacodom) seems to be one with many others: the Fo of China; Xaca ofJapan; Budda of Ceylon; and the Daleylamma is a living Fo:'41 Kant refers to Johann Georg Gmelin (1709-1755), the German botanist and explorer of Siberia. 42 Kant, vV;".ke, vol. 9, 404 (Physical Geography). 43 Kant, vVerke, vol. 9, 405 (Physical Geography), 44 These notes form part of Herder's manuscript remains at the Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz in Berlin (Kapsel XXv, no. 44): Notes from Kant's lectures' on physical geography. See Hans Dietrich Irmscher & Emil Adler, Der handschriftliche Nachlass Johann Gottfried Herders: Katalog CWiesbaden: Harassowitz, 1979): 195. 45 Herder, Kant lecture notes, Kapsel XXv, no. 44: 5v. Thanks to vVerner Starke for sharing his German draft transcription from the microfilms on which this translation is based, Abbreviations and punctuation were adapted to increase legibility. 46 In the Herder notes (Kapsel XXv, no, 44: 51) Kant also mentioned de Guignes's book on the Egyptian origin of the Chinese: lVIemoir'e dans lequel on p,'ouve, que les Chinois sont une colonie egyptienne (Paris: Desaint & Saillant, 1760). 47 Herder, Kant lecture notes, Kapsel XXv, no. 44: 6r.

The Tibet of the Philosophers: Kant; Hegel, and SchopenhaueT

13

Tibet as Mankind's Al'kReports that Tibet was the destination of pilgrims from various surrounding countries were numerous; Andrade, for example, had written in 1626 that he accompanied Indians on their pilgrimage toward Tibet.4B For Kant this was an important confirmation of Tibet's antiquity.It is the most elevated land, was also probably inhabited earlier than any other, and could even be the original seat [Stammsitz] of all culture and science. The learning of the Indians, in particular, stems with great likelihood from Tibet, as on the other hand all our arts seem to have come from India, for example agriculture, numbers, the game of chess, etc. It is believed that Abraham hailed from the frontiers ofHindustan. 49

Already in the 16,h century Guillaume Postel had suggested that Abraham was the ancestor of the Brahmins or Abrahamins and that some Indian books were older than the deluge;50 but like Martino Martini a century later51 and the Jesuit figurists in his wake,s' Postel did not want to undermine the validity of the Old Testament but rather defend it. Though such defense became increasingly costly, the basic course of history from a golden age (paradise) via degeneration (the fall, etc.) to regeneration remained unchanged, and the geographical center of the whole enterprise was naturally Israel. But during the 17'h and the first half of tlle 18'h centuries, in the run-up to Kant's trailblazing lectures on physical geography, the situation took an ominous turn. 53 This change of outlook was not only due to travelers who were exploring the customs and religions of foreign lands but also to scientists like Buffon who gave increasing importance to the "book of nature." Furthermore, in Kant's time the traditional view was frontally attacked by Burne's Natu1'al Hist017 of Religion (1757) and its persuasive argument that religion had not begun with pure monotheism and god-given wisdom somewhere near Jerusalem but rather with primitive cults everywhere that were mainly driven by fear of accidents and natural

48 Hugues Didier, Les pom'gais au Tibet. Les pTemi'TeS 1'elations jesuites (1624-1635) (Paris: Chandeigne, 1996): 42. 49 Kant, We,ke, va!. 9, 228. For sources on Abraham and India see Glasenapp, Kant, 73 and Adickes, Untemtebungen, 189. The Indian origin of chess was first argued by Freret in 1719; see the references in Wilhelm Halbfass, India and Emope (New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1990): 472 note 25. 50 Guillaume Postel, De 01"iginibus seu de va7'ia et potissimum o1"bi Latino ad bane diem

incognita, aut inconsydeTata bistoria, quztrlz totius 07"-ientis, tum nUl,;'Cime Tat"tarorunt, Penan177t, TzwCaTZtnZ, &' OmniU17t Abl1tbami &' Noacbi alzmznont1lt oTigines, &' myste1-ia Bracbmanunt rete-

gente: Quod ad gentium, litenmtn'que quib.

utzmtu1~ Tationes attinet (Basel: J. Oporin, 1553): 70. See also Daniel Georg Morhof, Po1yhist01~ iiteTfl1'ius, pbilosopbieus et pmeticus (Lubeck: Peter Boeckmann, 1708): va!. 1, 50-51. 51 Ivlariino Martini, Sinicae bist01'ia decas p"ima (Munich: Lucas Straub, 1658). 52 See for example Claudia von Collani, Die Figzwisten in del' Cbinilmission (Frankfurt a. M.I Bern: Lang, 1981). 53 See my forthcoming monograph on Europe's IS rl'-century discovery of Asian religions.

14

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disasters, Instead of a golden age followed by degeneration and marked by decadent plagiarism, a model of gradual progress from primitive beginnings gained adherents-a model, incidentally, that had prominent forerunners in pagan Greece and Rome. Kant, the avid reader of Hamann's translation ofHume's treatise, was among them;54 and Tibet as the nursery of mankind was about to take on some of the vibrant hues of Eden, With the shift of the world's center of historical gravity from the Mediterranean region to the mountains of Asia, Hebrew also gradually lost its status of being mankind's original language. 55 If all of the arts and even Abraham had come from the mountains north ofIndia, why not also language? For Kant this was only logical: China, Persia and India received their inhabitants from there. Here and nowhere else one ought to look for the trunk-roots of all primal languages [Ui'spmchenJ of Asia and Europe .... Abraham probably lived in the environs ofIndia, and his parentage with Brahma might not just be one of name. 56 Of course Sanskrit offered itself as an attractive candidate; long before vVilliamJones, the Italian Sassetti,57 the German Benjamin Schulze" and Father Cceurdom: from France s9 had detected a relationship between Sanskrit and European languages, and Kant had read in de la Loubere's travel account that Sanskrit could be the mother of all living Indian languages. 60 Thus it is hardly surprising that Kant thought that "Sanskrit has a quite definite quality and seems to be related to alllanguages."61 Another facet of this momentous shift concerned the traditional view of the origin of human races. How was it possible that in just a few thousand years the descendants of three sons of Noah could have acquired such diverse features and multiplied so much? Characteristically, Kant's 1775 treatise About the dif!emzt Races of iVlankind starts out with Buffon and seems to ignore the biblical narrative completely. However, underneath the scientific and speculative surface the remnants of the traditional worldview still show through: mankind's monogenetic origin (Kant's "original species" [Stmnmgattzmg]); a region warm enough for the naked first couple; and a catastrophic universal flood. 62 Kant, Wedee, voL 18, 428, See the brief overview of this process in Maurice Olender, The Languages of Pm'adise (New York: Other Press, 1992): 1-11. 56 Cited in Glasenapp, Kant, 73 from Vollmer's 1816 edition of Kant's physical geography lectures (see Adickes, Unte1"Suchzmgen, 11-12). See note 50 for the source of this idea. 57 Theodor Benfey, Geschichte de1' Spl'achwissenschaft und del' o1"ientalischen Philologie in Deutschland (Munich: Cotta, 1861): 222-223 and 333. Sassetti had been in India from 1583 to5455

1588.58 Benfey, Geschichte der Spmchwissenschaft, 261 and 336-338. In 1741 Schulze published the first Hindi grammar in Madras. 59 Benfey, Geschichte del' Spmchwissenschaft, 341. Coeurdoux's treatise comparing Sanskrit with Latin and Greek was read before the French Academy in 1768. 60 Glasenapp, Kant, 29-30. 61 Ms. 2599: 327 (Adickes Ms. Q); cited after Glasenapp, Kant, 29.' 62 Kant, Wel'ke, vol. 2, 440 (Von den vel'schiedenen Racen de," IVIensche,,). Kant here situated this region between the 31" and 52 nd degree of latitude.

The Tibet of tbe Philosophers: Kant, Hegel, and SchopenhauerThe native of Hindustan can be seen as originating from one of the oldest human races. His land, which to the north borders on a high mountain range ... (and to which I add to the north Tibet, possibly the general shelter of the human race during the last great revolution affecting our earth, and its nursery thereafter) features, in a temperate region, the most perfect watershed (drainage to two seas) " .. In the remotest antiquity it thus could be dry and habitable .... So it was here that over long periods of time a solid human race could be formed. 6J

15

Kant's speculations were soon boosted by those of Jean-Sylvain Bailly, a renowned historian of science who later became mayor of Paris. Published in the same year as Kant's treatise on human races, Bailly's multi-volume Hist01J1 of Ancient Astronomy'4 created quite a stir through its claim that the cradle of humankind was situated around the 49,h degree of latitude in Siberia. Though he seemed to have thrown the Old Testament overboard, Bailly's edifice rested on the old idea of a period of great wisdom at a very early time in human history; traces of this wisdom, he claimed, had survived in the form of the surprisingly advanced astronomical knowledge of antiquity. Bailly's enterprise shows some similarity to 20 th-century fantasies about extraterrestrials,65 which hold that mankind's supposedly very advanced ancient knowledge can only be explained by the influence of a "teacher" group. In Bailly's case these teachers were not extraterrestrials but rather the divinely inspired original human race hailing from Siberia. Like his modern successors, Bailly found "proofs" of his hypothesis just about everywhere; but in his case the data did not point to outer space but rather to North Asia whose celestiil phenomena appeared to match ancient observations. According to Buffon's theory the earth's poles had cooled first and could provide shelter to our naked ancestors. Bailly held that in mankind's Siberian cradle surprisingly advanced observational knowledge had accumulated and that later this knowledge had taken refuge in Tibet, where it survived the great flood and subsequently made its way to India and China-a scenario supported by the pilgrimages by Indians and Chinese to Tibet. 66 Tibet thus became, to put it provocatively, the enlightened European's Ark of Noah. Bailly's stunning theories seemed to confirm Kant's view of this region's "white-skinned yet brunette inhabitants"67 as the remnants of the original human species from which all known pure and~mixed races stem. 68

63 Kant, We1ke,vo!. 2, 439. Jean Sylvain Bailly, Histoire dd'astrononzie ancienne (Paris: Debure, 1775). 65 See for example Erich von Daniken, In Seal'cb of tbe Gods (New York: Avenel Books,64

1989).66 Preface by translator C. E. Wunsch to Jean Sylvain Bailly, Des Herr" Bailly Aufsebers iibeT den kO'niglichen Bildersaal wie auch deT kO'niglichen Akadenzie del' vVissenscbaften ZZl Pm'is Zlnd des Instituts ZZl Bologlle Nlitgliedes Gescbicbte deT Sternlamde des Altel'tbunts his auf die E1'7'icbtlmg del' Sol"tle zuAlexand1'ie1l (Leipzig: Schwickert, 1777); see Glasenapp, Kant, 27-28. 67 Kant, Werke, vo!' 2, 441. 68 Kant, We,'ke, voL 2, 432-434 and 440-441. For changes in Kant's view of races see Adickes, UmersZtcbu1lgen, 194-197.

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Bible-based chronology had long been under discussion and sometimes attack, but Chinese historical records-which, according to some Jesuit experts, predated the deluge-had shocked many l7 th -century Europeans. It is in this context that astronomical information gained in importance as a tool for nailing down dates in the dawn of time. This is why Bailly's well-documented claims regarding the character and accuracy of ancient astronomical data attracted much attention in Kant's time and beyond. 69 When Kant lent his copy of Bailly's History of Astronomy to a friend in the summer of 1777 he urged him to take note of the North-Asian origin of science and to return the book expeditiously.?O His interest is understandable since Bailly's History of Astronomy appeared to confirm Kant's long-held view that the human race had survived the latest global catastrophe in the highest plains of Asia, which thus had to be the homeland not only of the Chinese, Persians, and Indians but of all humankind: Nowhere else than here ought one to locate the genetic roots of all original languages of Asia and Europe. It is from here that the Indian [religion] and all our religions came, learning, agriculture, numbers, chess, etc.... Pilgrimages are always made to the place of origin of a religion. The Europeans make pilgrimages to Jerusalem, the muslims to Mecca, the old Egyptians formerly to Abessinia ... and the Indians to Tibet, to the temple in the center of the city of Lhassa.71 Instead of India, which Voltaire in 1761 had famously declared to be the home of the most ancient and purest religion and the cradle of all civilizations,?' Kant in the 1780s came to regard Tibet as the mother of all homelands since it had given birth to the "pure basis and fundamental conception" of the Brahmanic religion. 7) Spurious texts like the EZOll1'Veda77Z 74 and Holwell's Cbm7:ab Bbade of Bmlmw75 were

69 Bailly followed up his Hist01j with his Lew'es sm' l'origine des sciences, et sur celle des peuples de l'Asie (Paris: Debure, 1777) and the Lettres sttl" l'Atlantide de Platon et S7". l'ancienne bistoire de l'Asie (London: E. Elmesly, 1779). In the latter the whole edifice is linked to Plato's Atlantis legend. 70 Kant, vVe"ke, vol. 10,209; letter to A. J. Penzel of August 12, 1777. 71 This passage is from Vollmer's 1816 edition of Kant's physical geography lectures which in general is a source of little value (see Adickes, Untenuchungen, 11-12). However, this line of argument is supported by various other sources; see Glasenapp, Kant, 72-77. In 1773, Voltaire expressed a similar opinion about the Indian origin of numbers, chess, the first principles of geometry, etc.; see Halhfass, India and Em'ope, 59. n Halbfass, India and EZl7'ope, 57-58. 7J Ms. 1296: 314 (Adickes Ms. 0); cited after Glasenapp, Kant, 38. 74 Guillaume Emmanuel Sainte-Croix (ed.), L'Ezozw-Vedam on Ancien C071lmentaire du Vedal", contenant l'exposition des opinions religieuses & pbilosopbiques des Indiens (Yverdon: De Felice, 1778). 75 John Zephaniah Holwell, Interesting hist01'ical events, "elative to tbe provinces of Bengal, and the emph'e of Indostan (London: Becket & De Hondt, 1767, part 2). A German translation appeared in 1778: Holwells merkwiinlige tmd bisto"isc"e Nacb1'ichten von Hindostan Zlnd Bengalen, nebst ehw- BeschTeibung de?' Religionslehren, det Nlythologie, etc. (Leipzig: Weygandsche Buchhandlung, 1778).

The Tibet of the Philosoph en: Kam, Hegel, and Scbopenbazte7

17

earnestly discussed by men like Voltaire, Bailly, Raynal, and Herder as expressions of ancient monotheism; but what had happened to this creed? And what relation did it have to the present religion of the Lamas in Tibet which, according to La Croze, was "a veritable paganism so similar in many respects to that of the Indies that there are authors who do not distinguish them at all"? 76 In Kant's view, the pure ancient religion of Tibet had made its way to India where it had become "mixed with many superstitious things several hundred years before Christ's birth, things which were in part supposed to be symbolic but ended up being objects of devotion."n The instigator of this mLx-up was none other than "Buda" who 300 years before Christ brought about in India a change of religion which almost immediately propagated itself back to Tibet." As a close reader of La Croze and de Guignes, Kant knew well that this "Buda" was identical with the Gotama of Burma, Samana Gotama of Siam, Butso and Shaka of Japan, Fo of China, and the Burchan of Tibet and Tartary.79 But how did Tibetan religion end up as the strange pseudo-Christian mishmash of which Kant got the latest news in the travel accounts of Pallas and Bogle?SO Had there been, after the Buddhist' conquest of Tibet in pre-Christian times, a second religious invasion of mankind's originally pure cradle-this tim~ by Catholics or by Christian heretics? At this stage, "the Lamaist religion" seemed to Kant "one of the strangest phenomena on this globe" and a showcase "that with regard to religion man has tried out just about any absurdity one could think of"" Although few details of such "absurdities" are mentioned it is clear that Kant was actually rather well informed about religious practices of the Tibetans which were not mentioned in the usual travel accounts. vVbat was his source of information? In student notes as well as Kant's own writings the name of the German scientist Peter Simon Pallas occasionally pops up. Pallas (1741-1811) was famous for his 1777 study on the formation of mountains in which he wrote that the granite peaks of the Himalayas had never been touched by any flood and that the southern slopes of the Himalayas were likely to be "the first homeland of the human race and of the white

La Croze, Histo;"e du cbTistianimze des Indes, 518. Ms. 2599: 237 (Adickes Ms. Q); approx. from 1781. Cited after Glasenapp, Kant, 33. 78 Ms. 1296: 310 (Adickes Ms. 0); after Glasenapp, Kant, 58. 79 Ms. 1729: 156 (Adickes Ms. S); Ms. 2599: 310, 329 (Adiclees Q); see Glasenapp, Kant, 59. Regarding Burchan see also Ms 2599: 309 (Adiclees Q); Glasenapp, Kant, 75. 80 Peter Simon Pallas, Sammlungen bistoTiscber NacbTicbten iih,,' die nzongoliscben VolkeTschaften (St. Petersburg: Kaiserliche Akademie der vVissenschaften, 1776): voL 1. For Bogle-related sources see Adickes, Untenucbungen, 121. In such reports Kant learned about the three head Lamas (Dalai, Taisha, and Bogdo Lama), etc. See Ms. 2582a: 63b and Ms. Dohna: 216 cited in Glasenapp, Kant, 76. 81 Ms. 2599: 309 (Adiclees Ms. Q); approx. from 1781. Cited after Glasenapp, Kant, 75. Kant might have been thinldng of the Tibetan prayer wheels which he described as similar to Christian pilgrimages to Loretto or Jerusalem. Immanuel Kant, Die Religion inne1'halh der' Grenzen deT bloflen Vennmft (Stuttgart: Reclam, 1974): 228-229. The original edition was published in 1793.76 77

18

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humans."" But he was also the author of a three-volume illustrated travel account of his explorations of the Russian East S) and a two-volume study of the history and culture of Mongolia which contains some of the earliest accurate depictions of Tibetan Buddhist statuary (see pI. 10).84 Kant certainly read the former, which confirmed that pea-sized black "holy pills (Schalirr)" were imported from Tibet and given by Lamaist clergy to the rich and noble suffering from very grave illnesses." This information formed part of Pallas's pioneering 33-page survey of Tibetan Buddhism as practiced by the Kalmyks which included not only accounts of Tibetan cosmogony, apocalypse, and doctrine (as relayed by a Christian Kalmyk) but also a wealth of first-hand observations by Pallas and his collaborators on clergy, rituals, and religious customs 86

Tibet at tbe CrossroadsToward the end of his lecturing years Kant came across a worthy successor to Kircher's China Illustmta: Father Antonio Giorgi's Alphabetzmz Tibetammz." This is' not just a book about Tibetan letters but rather an ABC of all things Tibetan, a very rich' source of information, disinformation and speculation that exerted a great influence on the Tibet image of the aging philosopher. In particular, Giorgi addressed the mystery of Tibetan religion, which to Kant appeared so exceedingly strange. Struggling with the discrepancy between Asian sources (which held that Shakyamuni Buddha lived six or even ten centuries before Christ's birth) and the views of de Guignes (which regarded even the reputedly most fundamental text of Buddhism, the Forty-Two-Cbaptel' Sutm, as a concoction 'of early Christian times),88 Giorgi came up with an ingenious theory powerful enough to confuse some of the

82 Pallas, Ubel' die Bescbaffenbeit del' Gebi1-ge ztnd die Vel'iindemngen del' vVeltkztgel (Leipzig: Geest & Portig, 1986): 32. 8J Pallas, Reise dul'cb verscbiedene P,'ovinzen des Russiscben Reichs in den Jabl'en 1768-74 (St. Petersburg: Kaiserliche Akademie der vVissenschaften, 1771-1776). Reprint Graz: Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt, 1967. 84 Pallas, Sa11Z11Zizt71gen bistol'iscbel' NaclJ1-icbten iiber die mongoliscben Viilkerscbaften (St. Petersburg: Kaiserliche Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1776 and 1801). Reprint Graz: Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt, 1980. 85 Pallas, Reise, vol. 1,358; Kant Ms. Ub 9: 187a (Adickes Ms. T); summer of 1793. Cited after Glasenapp, Kant, 75. Kircher had reported that Tibetans wear pellets of the excrement of the Dalai Lama as talismans around their necks and mi." his urine with their food. Kircher, Cbina Illustrata, 67. 86 Pallas, Reise, vol. 1, 333-364. 87 Augustinus Antonius Giorgi, Alpbabetwn Tibetanzt111 missiontlm apostolicant,n c011Zmodo editzmz. p1~ae11tissa est disquisitio qua de Va1~io litteraru'm ac regionis nomine, gentis oTigine 71t01~i bus, s'ltperstitione, ac lVlanichaeis71Zo fuse disse1~itzw: Beausobrii calu7nniae in sanctu77Z Augustinu7n, aliosque ecclesiae patl'es refutantuT (Rome: Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide, 1762). Latin reprint edition by Rudolf Kaschewsky (Cologne: Editiones Una Voce, 1987) and German translation by Peter Lindegger (Rikon: Tibet-Institut; 2001). 88 De Guignes, Risto;,'e gthu!mle des Runs, vol. 2, 233-234.

The Tibet of the Philosoph en: Kant, Hegel, and Schopenbauel'

19

Fig. 1: Pallas: Sm1Z7"lzmgen bistorisclm' Nacbricbten vol. 1 (1771): Plate 10

brightest minds of the age: the two-Buddha theory. Faced with the danger that malevolent Europeans or Asians could portray Christianity as a plagiarism of the far older Buddhist religion,S9 Father Giorgi decided that he needed "to conclusively pulverize and eradicate" this "heresy which has extended widely across the lands of the Scythians, India, Tartary and Tibet, from the riverbeds of the Indus to the Chinese and Japanese at the extremity of world.,,90 Ieis with this ambitious purpose in mind that Giorgi ,established the thesis that "there are two Buttas or Xacas and that the Tibetans mixed up the first with the second."9! Giorgi's thesis, proposed in 1762, was a courageous attempt to shore up once more the centrality of the Eastern Mediterranean: the "old" Buddha is linked, mostly by hilarious etymological contortions, to the Egyptian Osiris, whereas the "younger" Buddha is none other than a distorted image of Jesus Christ." While the "old" Buddha was an amalgam of the worst paganism Egypt and Greece had to offer, including the ridiculous idea of transmigration, the "younger" Buddha was a parody of the Son of God from Israel. Word of him had reached India and China "around 60 A.D.," and without delay "his name and fame came to the ear of the Tibetans" who "soon afterwards received images brought to Lhasa from both Indiago See for example Simon de la Loubere, Du Ro)'au17le de Sia11Z, vol. 1, 413; and Astley, Collection, vol. 4, 220-221. 90 Giorgi, Alpbabetu11Z Tibetanzmz, x..'C (Lindegger trans., xxv). 9! Giorgi, Alpbabetzt17l Tibetanu11Z, xx (Lindegger trans., x..wi). As mentioned above, de

Guignes inspired this theory; but a different two-Buddha scheme was already proposed by Kaempfer (The Hist01Y ofJapan, 37). 92 Giorgi, AlphabetZt11Z Tibetanzmz, xxii (Lindegger trans'., 1Lwii'xxviii).

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Genesis only to show (among others to his erstwhile pupil Herder)


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