Legendary Tale, Journey to the West

The popular Chinese legendary tale, Journey to the West, is a novel written in 16th century, telling the travel of a monk who  went on a long journey to bring Buddhism sutras from India back to China during Tang Dynasty.

The novel:

It was a long and tough journey for a monk like XuanZang(602-664), on a horse back from China to India, and back to China then, it requires 3 talents i.e. a Monkey King who could not be captured by the Sky army, a great general each from the sea and sky, plus the dragon Prince who became his horse to carry him on his back. The four of them, have to overcome lots of greed and temptations, fight the demons who wanted to kill them, in order to complete their journey. The essense of the tale is, the world was full of such obstacles.

This tale was probably a record of  China journey from Han Dynasty until Ming Dynasty, in order to establish the teaching of Buddhism in China, when Buddhism was new and alien then.

The travel of Xuanzang(extracted from Wikipedia):

Xuanzang left Chang'an in 629, in defiance of Emperor Taizong of Tang's ban on travel. Helped by sympathetic Buddhists, he traveled via Gansu and Qinghai to Kumul (Hami), thence following the Tian Shan mountains to Turpan. He then crossed what are today Kyrgyzstan,Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan, into Gandhara, reaching India in 630. Xuanzang traveled throughout the Indian subcontinent for the next thirteen years, visiting important Buddhist pilgrimage sites, studying at the ancient university at Nalanda, and debating the rivals of Buddhism.

Xuanzang left India in 643 and arrived back in Chang'an in 646. Although he had defied the imperial travel ban when he left, Xuanzang received a warm welcome from Emperor Taizong upon his return. 

To know more about Journey to the West:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey_to_the_West

About this blog

In this blog, I am sharing my thoughts, don't meant to be the expert. If you have a  good idea, please leave a comment. Sharing is a way where people wants to have a peaceful mind in order to carry on with their work the way which is fit for them, good for their group of people, and not do harm to other people. They want to be effective in their work..

Languages

When Gautama Buddha taught Buddhism in India about 2500 years ago(5th century BCE), his teachings were passed down by oral tradition and first recorded 400 years later, in Sanskrit language(the ancient language of  Hindoos, long since obsolete in vernacular use, but preserved as the literary and sacred dialect of India).

Buddhism was brought into China during Han Dynasty(206 BCE - 220 CE)  and was well accepted by the Chinese people, mainly they learnt that the philosophy and values were similar to theirs. As such, Buddhism sutras were translated into Chinese language starting from Han Dynasty. While doing translation,Chinese also composed many of their own scriptures based on the teaching of these sutras(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Buddhism).

Buddhism was once disappeared from the continent of India, China has done a great job to carry on the teaching of this religion through their strong faith and all the work they have achieved by translating the sutras in Sanskrit into Chinese. Language must has played an important part.

Some languages have been widely accepted as international language(language used among a group of people when they are from different countries). These are English, French, Spanish(they managed to spread the use of their language from their colonization of various countries during the era of imperialism..). In the 20th century, these languages are convenient to use as tools to promote communications and spread of knowledge in the less developed countries.

Inter-National language, here means the language used between people from two countries only. The choice is usually the use of both their national language.

Chinese language is multinational as Chinese has the vision to be seen all over the world, this vision has been around since Confucious time. Confucious(551 BC - 479 BC) is the famous Chinese philosopher, he advocated a World of Harmony(大同世界).

National language is the most common language used in a nation. It promotes unity among the people, prevent colonisation, gives a nation its unique character......

To know more about Gautama Buddha:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gautama_Buddha

To know more about Confucious:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucius
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confucius_Institute

Buddhist Organizations

It's commonly accepted among buddhists that Buddhism teaches universal values.
International buddhist organizations is setup to promote mutual understanding, support and etc.(what's important and critical around the world) among buddhist organizations from around the world. To be qualified as being international, there must be a minimum no. of membership from different country.
Multinational buddhist organization is formed when a buddhist organization wants to share their model with buddhists in other countries. Such organization aims to achieve a uniform buddhist culture and a united voice in all these countries.
National buddhist organization is only found in one country, it has strong local culture and practices to cater for the needs and requirements of the local people to lift them up mentally and spiritually.
Ethnic group buddhist organization is for a specific race in nations. Such group has distinct racial, cultural and linguistic character.