1 Introduction
My time as a fellow in Bochum fell into the year 2016â17 when the general topic â I have to confess: to my horror at first â was âthe evolving of the distinction between transcendence and immanence as triggered by intra- and interreligious encounterâ (academic year October 2016âSeptember 2017). When I read the exposé on the TID (transcendence-immanence-distinction) â the âLeitlinieâ by Knut Martin Stünkel1 â I became a little bit more confident that I could indeed apply the material of my ongoing research project, a study (translation and extensive commentary) of the 7th century Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzangâs
2 Buddhism and Transcendence
When I thought through the three stages of transcendence proposed by Knut Stünkel, the basic one of pointing (or deixis), the formal one of âgoing beyond oneself,â and the specific one of an expressive and dichotomic distinction between immanence and transcendence, I â as probably every scholar working in the field of Buddhist Studies â immediately thought of two dichotomic terminological and conceptual pairs as an example for a Buddhist distinction of the third stage or category.
In a Buddhist context transcendence is clearly expressed by space metaphors around the concept of âcrossing overâ.3 The term kat exechon for transcendence is Skt. pÄramitÄ (and its translations into Chinese and Tibetan), traditionally interpreted as meaning âhaving gone to the other shoreâ (pÄra(m) + itÄ), and the âcanonicalâ texts (sÅ«tra) contain plenty of references to this soteriological metaphor of crossing a water body (river, ocean), sometimes by a raft or a boat. The distinction between immanence and transcendence is most clearly, although not completely congruent with the âusualâ distinction,4 formulated in the two terms laukika, âworldly, mundane,â and lokottara, âtranscending the world.â5 Although these concepts are valid and will work in a lot of Buddhist contexts, the discursive use of this terminology is restricted to doctrinal-philosophical texts and commentarial literature. In narrative and âdescriptiveâ sources as the ones I am working with, the terms will not be found very often. Instead, we will have to look out for semiotic placeholders referring to transcendence indirectly, or, to use Stünkelâs terminology, pointing at transcendence.
Following up on the spatial connotation of the terms discussed in the previous paragraph (shore, crossing) I found it striking that the narratives and naturally the âdescriptiveâ parts of the travelogues in my sources, in the biographical literature but also in the travelogues, were not always but often enough linked to some particular space, place or site bearing a specific religious importance or meaning that may be understood as referring to transcendence. This raised the question of the role and function of narratively constructed space in general and more specifically in relation to the TID.6 I particularly want to emphasize the constructed or âfictionalâ dimension of my sources7 because of the tendency to read them, particularly the travelogues, as historical âeyewitnessâ reportsâ,8 an uncritical use of the texts which leaves no room for more sophisticated hermeneutical approaches that do the complexity of the sources more justice.
In the sources, moments or instances (in case of the biographical sources) and places or sites (in the travelogues) of contact between the immanent and the transcendent are often, but not necessarily, marked by miraculous events; these are, for example, miracles which the Buddha performs or phenomena of light emitting from a stÅ«pa. It is striking that places which have no clear reference to and direct link with the âhistoricalâ Buddha ÅÄkyamuni and his life are predominantly attributed these features (saints, Buddhas of the past) which then seem to function like âboosters of transcendenceâ, while the sites of the events in the life of the Buddha ÅÄkyamuni seem to be âchargedâ with transcendence by the sheer fact of being linked to these events and, through them, to the Buddha. It seems that places linked to the âdeep pastâ of the former Buddhas (pre-ÅÄkyamuni) or the âshallow pastâ of Buddhist saints (post-ÅÄkyamuni) need specific signs of transcendence because it is assumed that the transcendent quality of the places becomes weaker over time. There is therefore a paradox by which a high degree of transcendence is caused by a distance of time which creates, at the same time, its inaccessibility. Closeness in terms of space â being at the place where something happened â is not enough to give places the transcendent quality needed to attract the attention of the religious followers. It is also important to reassure oneself that the time distance to the events which make these places special is not neutralizing this very quality.
In this context, it is interesting to note that some biographical traditions of the Buddhaâs life make a distinction of time which reflects this observed quality of transcendence marked by time distance to the auctorial presence: the biography of the Buddha in the PÄli NidÄnakathÄ, the introduction to the commentary of the collection of âbirth storiesâ (jÄtaka) of the Buddhaâs previous existences by Buddhaghosa, for instance, divides the biographical âcareerâ of the Buddha into three phases: the âdistant periodâ (dÅ«renidÄna) from the bodhisattvaâs initial vow to become a Buddha in his existence as Sumedha at the time of the Buddha of the past DÄ«paá¹ kara and the Buddhaâs career as a bodhisattva going through the ten different stages of perfection (pÄrami); the ânot [so] distant periodâ (avidÅ«renidÄna) of the bodhisattvaâs descent from Tuá¹£ita-heaven to the achievement of enlightenment; and the âclose periodâ (santikenidÄna) of the time from enlightenment onwards. Not only do these three periods express different time distances, but Buddhaghosa also seems to refer to spatial closeness and accessibility of sacred places linked to the post-enlightenment period in the biography of Gotama Buddha:
Herein, from the very outset, should the division of those periods be understood. The continuous narrative from the time of the resolution made by the Great Being at the feet of the Buddha DÄ«paá¹ kara up to his birth in Tusita heaven after passing away from his existence as Vessantara, is called the Distant Epoch. The continuous narrative from the time he passed away from Tusita heaven up to his attainment of Omniscience at the throne of Enlightenment [at the foot of the Bodhi tree], is called the Intermediate Epoch. And the Recent Epoch can be accessed at all the places, at each place [where he] had dwelt [as a Buddha].9
There is a general difference of referring to transcendence, depending on the genre of the sources: in the narrative genre (hagio-biographies), the movement of the agents is clearly laid out as an itinerary, and their emotions when confronted with the transcendent are often expressed in statements or exclamations.
While in a specific Chinese context, the contact with transcendence can be a very direct one when the agent becomes âtranscendentâ or immortal (xian
In travelogues this direct reference to transcendence of the agent through the experience of going from one place to another or of encountering the transcendent in form of a miracle or an appearance of a âdivineâ or a âsaintâ â the/a Buddha, an arhat, a bodhisattva, etc. â is missing exactly because usually there is no agent; in the very few cases where the agent/author comes into play, this then may be exactly in reference to a situation of an (attempted) encounter with the sacred/transcendent (see the examples discussed below).
Starting from these points, I began to rethink my own approach to the texts I am mostly working with â the records of the Chinese Buddhist travellers to India â in relation to the function of the basic categories of space and time. Accepting that space and time are socially and culturally constructed,12 I began to look for structures and patterns in the texts which could mark a quality of transcendence related to the places presented in the texts.
The first observation was that in the specific context of the Chinese Buddhist travelogues âsacredâ places or sites â particularly the ones referred to in Xuanzangâs Record â achieve, as already indicated above, their transcendent character by a notion of an in illo tempore: it was the sacred past of the Buddhaâs or, even projecting further back into a more remote past, the Buddhas of the pastâs presence, which marked them as soteriologically relevant and endowed with an aura of transcendence. Transcending space, in a way, as an attempt to access a temporally reverted transcendence â undertaking the difficult and dangerous journey from China to India â would, however, often lead to an experience of disillusionment in situ and corresponding expressions of sorrow or grief to not be able to meet the Buddha himself (see the examples discussed below). One could call this the paradox of inaccessibility: it is exactly the very fact that something or someone cannot be directly contacted because they are lost in a remote past which gives the places which are linked to these âobjectsâ their aura of transcendence.
The transcendence of the Buddha (or other âitemsâ) can then only be âpointed outâ (Stünkel) by spatial-material markers such as caves (shishi
The visit of such places â often called pilgrimage â in a Buddhist context is paradigmatically narrated in the âLegend of AÅokaâ (AÅokÄvadÄna) where the paradigmatic Buddhist king AÅoka is led around to the most important places linked with the Buddhaâs life by his spiritual teacher Upagupta.13 The first of these places which are visited according to their biographical sequence is LumbinÄ«, the place of the Buddhaâs birth,14 and the last one KuÅinagara, the place of the Buddhaâs parinirvÄá¹a. The narrative of the first visit at LumbinÄ« reflects quite well what I have, in a more general way, discussed above: the inaccessibility of the transcendence of the place caused through temporal distance and the emotions of sadness and frustration which are triggered thereby:
First, Upagupta took [AÅoka] to the LumbinÄ« Wood, and stretching out his right hand he said: âIn this place, great king, the Blessed One was born.â And he added: âThis is the first of the caityas of the Buddha whose eye is supreme. Here, as soon as he was born, the Sage took seven steps on the earth, looked down at the four directions, and spoke these words: âThis is my last birth, Iâll not dwell in a womb again.ââ AÅoka threw himself at Upaguptaâs feet, and getting up, he said, weeping and making an añjali: âThey are fortunate and of great merit, those who witnessed the birth of the Sage and heard his delightful voice.â Now for the sake of further increasing the kingâs faith, the elder asked AÅoka wether he would like to see the deity who witnessed in this wood the birth of the most eloquent Sage, saw him take the seven steps, and heard the words he spoke. AÅoka replied that he would. Upagupta, therefore, stretched out his right hand toward the tree whose branch Queen MahÄmÄyÄ had grasped while giving birth, and said: âLet the divine maiden who resides in this aÅoka tree and who witnessed the birth of the Buddha make herself manifest in her own body so that King AÅokaâs faith will grow greater still.â And immediately, the tree spirit appeared before Upagupta in her own form, and said, making an añjali: âElder, what is your command?â The elder said to AÅoka: âGreat king, here is the goddess who saw the Buddha at the time of his birth.â AÅoka said to her, making an añjali: âYou witnessed his birth and saw his body adorned with the marks! You gazed upon his large lotus-like eyes! You heard in this wood the first delightful words of the leader of mankind!â The tree spirit replied: âI did indeed witness the birth of the best of men, the Teacher who dazzled like gold. I saw him take the seven steps, and also heard his words.â âTell me, goddess,â said AÅoka, âwhat was it like â the magnificent moment of the Blessed Oneâs birth?â âI cannot possibly fully describe it in words,â answered the deity, âbut, in brief, listen: Throughout Indraâs threefold world, there shone a supernatural light, dazzling like gold and delighting the eye. The earth and its mountains, ringed by the ocean, shook like a ship being tossed at sea.â Hearing this, AÅoka made an offering of one hundred pieces of gold to the birthplace of the Buddha, built a caitya there and went on.15
As John Strong has correctly pointed out, there is a focus on âseeingâ in this paradigmatic encounter with Buddhist sacred places which links quite neatly to the Indian concept of darÅan (Skt. darÅana) in the sense of images or places of pilgrimage highlighted by Diana Eck as a crucial element of Hindu religions16 which is, however, also applicable to other South Asian religious traditions.17 Staying in the framework of Stünkelâs transcendence model, one could argue that before one points out at something, one must first see it (or experience it with other senses). The episode in the AÅokÄvadÄna, however, also refers to a very important point linked to the transcendence of time, or rather to the impossibility to transcend time which creates an inaccessibility of the transcendent represented by the Buddha.
Travelogues seem to be promising texts for tracing notions of transcendence since any spatial movement, naturally, implies transcending space in the most common sense of the word. This seems to be a trivial statement, but it links well with the emphasis of the so-called âspatial turnâ on mapping in defining the relation between space and place,18 but also between places. Such mapping links different places through a common narrative which is often, in religious contexts, based on the biography (or hagiography) of a religious founder or an eminent religious individual (saint, seer, prophet, etc.).19
If the previously stated is true then travelogues should reflect, on the semantic and semiotic level, this kind of âbasicâ (Stünkel) transcendence, a passing from A to B. They are, to use and appropriate the âsmartâ title of a book on travel writing edited by James Duncan and Derek Gregory on travel writing, âwrites of passage.â20 The specific âgenreâ of Chinese Buddhist travelogues, often and wrongly called âpilgrim records,â21 also reflects dimensions of transcendence of space: the spatial metaphors of âcrossingâ (Chinese du
At places, Xuanzangâs Record reflects the transition from one to a particular spatial sphere of a different quality which may be called âtranscendentâ. There are, in my view, two dimensions represented in the texts with relation to transcendence; one could be called a macro-spatial transcendent dimension, the other one micro-spatial transcendent dimension. By the first term I refer to transitions in a wider regional sphere where certain spaces are defined and singled out as bearing a higher degree of transcendence by geographically defined and/or constructed through culturally and religiously meaningful â in the sense of assigned meaning â boundaries and features. By the second, which can play a role in the construction of space of the first category, I refer to specific sites or places or clusters of them which are religiously meaningful because they are linked or linkable to narratives of the founder of the religion, the Buddha, and deliver both religious identity and soteriological meaning. Visiting and venerating these places where the Buddhaâs transcendence becomes, at least to a certain degree, âtangibleâ and at the same time allows to generate religious benefit or âmeritâ (puá¹ya/gongde
3 Narrative Encounters with the Transcendence
In my presentation at CERES in my fellowship year, I focused on the Chinese concepts of ganying
While in this example the transcendent realm of Tuá¹£ita heaven, the âwaiting roomâ of the future Buddha Maitreya, is accessible in a potential situation of transition â the pending execution and death of the hero â and a âresponsive manifestationâ is triggered by this, in another example from the earliest extant Chinese Buddhist travelogue, Faxianâs Foguo-ji
Faxian bought incense, flowers and oil lamps in the New City of [RÄjagá¹ha] and asked two local bhiká¹£us to lead him up to the Gá¹dhrakÅ«á¹a Mount. [There he] offered the flowers and the incense and lighted the lamps to illuminate [the place when it got dark]. [He] was very upset and sad, wiped off [his] tears and said: âOnce the Buddha preached the ÅÅ«raá¹ gama[-sÅ«tra] at this place. [I] Faxian was born [at a time] when [I] cannot meet the Buddha but can only see the traces where had had dwelled.â Thereupon, [he] recited the ÅÅ«raá¹ gama[-sÅ«tra] in front of the cave, stayed one night [on top of the mountain] and returned to the New City of [RÄjagá¹ha].26
What is missing in this episode is a responsive manifestation of the transcendent, a âdefectâ which obviously was felt and rectified by the biographer of Faxian when he describes how wild lions become tame when the monk recites a sÅ«tra. The inaccessibility of a place loaded with transcendence is in the same biography in Huijiaoâs
4 Constructing Transcendent Space
Seen from a Chinese Buddhist worldview up to the Tang period, there is a concentricity of âsacrednessâ or transcendence which has its centre in India, the land of the Buddha. The Chinese travellers approached this âcentreâ through different stages or regions of increasing âsacrednessâ. For Xuanzang it was obviously very important to state this very fact by clearly discerning between the different regions of India. The Record â I deliberately avoid the terms âtravellerâ or âpilgrimâ as the text itself does not have such an agent â moves from an outer, peripheral area to an increasingly relevant and meaningful religious centre, or rather centres, in terms of soteriological transcendence which is, or which are, directly linked to major, soteriologically important events in the biography of the Buddha, for instance the four Great Places (mahÄsthÄna) of birth at LumbinÄ«, of enlightenment at BodhgayÄ, of the first sermon at SÄrnÄth near VÄrÄá¹asÄ« and parinirvÄá¹a at KuÅinagara.31
In the other direction, from centre to periphery, necessarily but in some contexts the sacred centre is the bodhimaá¹á¸a(na) (daochang
Moving away from the centre, the next circle is Magadha, a region to which Xuanzang dedicates two complete chapters (out of twelve) and which includes, among others, RÄjagá¹ha and PÄá¹aliputra, the two capitals of the most important early royal supporters of Buddhism, BimbisÄra, AjÄtaÅatru and AÅoka. Accepting the Gaá¹ gÄ as the northern border of Magadha Xuanzang seems to adopt the extension of the kingdom at the time of the Buddha and the kings BimbisÄra and AjÄtaÅatru, while in reality and historically Magadha included a considerable bigger territory north of the great river,32 a process which, according to Buddhist tradition, already started with king AjÄtaÅatruâs imperial ambitions towards the end of the lifetime of the Buddha.
The next âcircleâ is Central India â Zhong-yindu
In concrete terms, the âdescriptionâ in the Record starts at the periphery of the Central Asian borderland (biandi
With the âFive Indiasâ Xuanzang uses a divisional geographical scheme for India which is neither found in other Indian texts around his time but also not in earlier Buddhist texts. It is a very ancient one from the Vedic period. The idea of India being divided in five greater regions is based on the archaic concept of five janapadas, the ancient á¹gvedic âfive regionsâ or âtribesâ (pañca ká¹£itayaḥ, pañca janÄḥ)34 according to which India (JambudvÄ«pa) was divided of five parts: the centre or madhyamÄpratiá¹£á¹hÄ diÅ corresponding to the later madhyadeÅa (zhongguo
So, what intention may lie behind the construction of India in this way, particularly when looking at the territory defined as Central India? According to Xuanzang the most western region of Central India was MathurÄ, the most eastern kingdom Puá¹á¸ravardhana; the southern border is defined by BodhgayÄ and (southern) Kosala, and in the north it still includes ÅrÄvastÄ« and Kapilavastu and LumbinÄ« which one may expect to belong to North India. This geographical definition creates, as can be seen on the 19th-century archaeologist and Xuanzang-âenthusiastâ Alexander Cunninghamâs map (Figure 2.1),37 a disproportionately distributed Central India in terms of size and position, the goal of which seems to be to include all sacred sites linked to the traditional biography of the Buddha; but it also includes, on its extreme western side, places like MathurÄ, probably as the place of origin of the important Buddhist patriarch Upagupta,38 and SthaneÅvara as the home region of the ruling dynasty of king ÅÄ«lÄditya Hará¹£avardhana (which happens to be the place of the dharmaká¹£etra, the great battlefield of the MahÄbhÄrata).39
Alexander Cunninghamâs map of Xuanzangâs India (1871)
When the Record âentersâ India proper, into the North(-West) Indian region of Greater GandhÄra, Xuanzang expressively points out this transfer into a different realm of sanctity: Bei-yindu, âNorth India,â the region which, according to one Buddhist tradition, is also consecrated by a visit of the Buddha â it is a centre at the periphery of the real centre, Magadha. It is interesting that the access to this peripheric centre of transcendence is marked by a spatial âtranscendingâ:
[If one] goes from there (i.e., from the region around KÄpiÅÄ«, MD) more than six hundred miles in eastern [direction], [with] the valleys running parallel [and] the mountain peaks [being] steep, one crosses the âBlack Mountain Rangeâ, enters the territory of Northern India [and] arrives in the kingdom of Lanbo (territory of Northern India).40
The described route from KÄpiÅÄ« (Begram), the last place described before entering India/North India proper, to Lanbo/LampÄka (modern LaghmÄn) does not follow the most natural way through the valleys in southern direction towards Kabul and then along the course of the Kabul river but instead crosses the mountains (Figure 2.2). The route comes from an area which was not sanctified by the presence of the Buddha, to the first region in (Northern) India which was, according to the version of the Buddha biography known to Xuanzang, visited by the Buddha, and still had considerable remnants of this visit, south of LampÄka. After another crossing over mountains41 â which does not exist in reality since the natural access to the Kabul river valley from LampÄka follows the course of the Alishing river (modern Laghman-Sukhakhan highway) â, the area around NagarahÄra (modern JalÄlÄbÄd) is reached. The Record âtranscendsâ, as it were, to the site where the Buddha, on his visit to the Northwest of the subcontinent, left the most tangible/visible trace of his presence, his famous shadow image (foying
Routes from KÄpiÅÄ« to NagarahÄra (blue: described route; red: natural route)
A similar âdescriptionâ44 of crossing is found when the Record enters Magadha, the inner circle of Central India; it is explicitly stated that this is marked by crossing the river Gaá¹ gÄ although the cultural-political borders of Magadha at that time (first half of the 7th century) and before certainly were not restricted through the river (see above).
5 Narrative and Spatial Density of Transcendence
If a hierarchy of transcendence is expressed through loci/places which are religiously meaningful because they are linked, in one way or another, to the biography of the Buddha one may expect places where this transcendence is âcompressedâ by frequent visits of the Buddha. The âVulture Peakâ (Gá¹dhrakÅ«á¹a) near RÄjagá¹ha, for instance, is highly venerated and frequently visited because of its accumulated transcendent aura as could already be seen in the episode of Faxianâs visit discussed above. The reason for this importance as a place of transcendence is not that the mountain is connected with one particularly important episode in the life of the Buddha but because it is here that the Buddha delivered many of his sermons; it is the place where most of the MahÄyÄna-sÅ«tras like the ÅÅ«raá¹ gamasamÄdhi-sÅ«tra mentioned and recited by Faxian (see above) locate the preaching of the Buddha.
Other places attain their status as sites of transcendence by the soteriological importance of a series of biographical events connected to them. They usually reflect a higher âdensityâ of sites echoing the narrative of the Buddhaâs biography in which events âdensifyâ towards the important main event, the point of narrative culmination, as it were, in a dramatic way. This phenomenon can be observed in the case of the four major events, the birth, the enlightenment, the first sermon and the parinirvÄá¹a. Translated in spatial terms, this could create a high density of sites in a quite narrow environment around a centre of veneration which the travelogues, particularly the Record, reflect.
The most prominent site of this kind has been and is BodhgayÄ, the place of the Buddhaâs enlightenment45 where the described feature of densification is most prominent. Here some of the places are only some steps away from each other, but they all lead to or from the centre which is the place where enlightenment was achieved, symbolized through the bodhi tree and called the âdiamond seat,â the vajrÄsana.46
A list of places which are described in the Record â brought into a narrative-biographical order in which they are told in the biographies which is not completely but followed in the topographical sequence of the places towards the centrum dramatis (marked bold below) in Xuanzangâs Record â are:47
F. The place of the bodhisattvaâs extreme austerities for a period of six years.
G. The place where the bodhisattva took a bath before accepting food.
H. The place where the bodhisattva ended the practice of harsh asceticism and accepted the milk gruel from two village girl.
I. The encounter of the bodhisattva with the nÄga KÄlika (or KÄla) and the crossing (sic!) of the NairañjanÄ-river.
J. The place where the bodhisattva entered the NairañjanÄ-river to take a bath.
K. The cave in which the bodhisattva meditated before approaching the bodhi-tree (prÄgbodhi).
L. The place where the bodhisattva received grass for the diamond-seat for the from a grass cutter.
M. The place of the appearance of the ominous birds guiding the bodhisattva to the bodhi-tree.
N. The bodhi-tree (enlightenment).
O. The diamond-seat (vajrÄsana) (enlightenment).
P. The place where the Buddha realized the law of cause and effect (enlightenment).
Q. The place of MÄraâs temptation (enlightenment).
R. The place of the image of the earth-deity (enlightenment).
S. The pond where the Buddha washed himself after the enlightenment.
T. The place where the Buddha received food from two village girls after enlightenment.
U. The Buddhaâs caá¹ kramana-path where he walked in meditation for one week after his enlightenment.
V. The place where the four guardian deities of the four directions donated the alms bowl to the Buddha.
W. The places of the Buddhaâs post-enlightenment contemplation (7 Ã 7 days).
X. The pond of the nÄga-king Mucilinda who protected the Buddha from a thunderstorm.
Y. The place of the food donation by the two merchants (Trapuá¹£a and Bhallika).
Z. The place where BrahmÄ urged the Buddha to turn the dharma- wheel.
AA. The place where the Buddha ascended to Trayastriá¹Åa-heaven to teach the dharma to his deceased mother.
BB. Departure for VÄrÄá¹asÄ« â another place of transcendence â to teach the first sermon.
The microspatial aspect of a hierarchy of transcendence is expressed in the Record through an increasing density of religiously meaningful places (see e.g. Figure 2.3 for Alexander Cunninghamâs identification of most sites). The bodhisattva is moving towards the centre, the vajrÄsana, accompanied by a series of ominous or miraculous signs (e.g., the blind nÄga KÄlika regaining his eyesight). The centre itself is described as the eternal centre of the world which does, however, already show signs of inaccessibility (invisibility) due to the decline of the dharma:
BodhgayÄ (Alexander Cunningham, MahÄbodhi, 1892)
Right in the centre of the wall [around] the bodhi-tree is the âDiamond-Seatâ. It came into existence at the beginning of the bhadrakalpa, rose together with the Great Earth, occupies the centre of the three thousand great thousand worlds, reaches all the way down to the âGolden Wheelâ and above gets near the extreme [ends] of the earth; [it is] built from diamond, has a circumference of more than one hundred paces; the Buddhas of the bhadrakalpa sit on it and entered [the stage] of âDiamond-Contemplationâ: that is why it is called âDiamond-Seatâ. Where the sacred Dao (bodhi) is realized is also called âPlace of the Daoâ. [Even when] the great world is shattered [by an earthquake], only [this place] does not collapse. Therefore, [when] the Bodhisattva was about to realize full enlightenment and [he] passed the four corners of this [âDiamond Seatâ], the whole earth shook, [but when he] then arrived at that place [the earth] was calm and did not shake [anymore]. From [the time when the world] has entered the end of the kalpa [and] the True Dharma degenerates, sandy soil covers [the seat] [so that one] cannot see it anymore.48
6 Individual Places and (Again) the Transcendence of Inaccessibility
As another example of transcendence indicated through the inaccessibility of space I would like to discuss an example in the inner circle of the region or kingdom of Magadha which is linked to an unspecified episode in the life of the Buddha which I had, so far, not been able to identify in the extant biographical sources.49 The place identified with the site described by Xuanzang was visited and identified by a research team on a field trip in the Indian state of BihÄr in January 2020.50 On this trip we were trying to identify, among others, a site described by Xuanzang as follows:
More than ninety miles southwest of the TailÄá¸haka-monastery [one arrives] at a big mountain with one rock next to the other [reaching up to] the clouds, [where] spirits and immortals reside. Poisonous snakes and violent nÄgas gather in its caves; fierce beasts and birds of prey dwell in its forests. On the crest of the mountain is a huge boulder, and on top of it is a stÅ«pa, more than ten feet high and [marking] the place where the Buddha entered contemplation. Formerly, [when] the TathÄgata had subdued a local spirit (shen
ç¥ ) and stayed there, he was sitting on this boulder, entered the âContemplation of Extinctionâ, [and] at that time he spent the night there. All the gods and divine immortals made offerings to the TathÄgata, played celestial music, [and] had celestial flowers rain down. [When] the TathÄgata emerged from contemplation, all the gods felt grateful and built a stÅ«pa from jewels, gold, and silver. [Now that] the [lifetime] of the Saint is already so far away, the jewels have turned into stone. Since ancient time until today, it is only [when one] looks at the high mountain from the distance that [one] sees the strange creatures3. [Together like] close relatives4 huge snakes and fierce beasts circumambulate [the stÅ«pa] clockwise. Celestial immortals and divine saints come follow each other according to their seniority to pay reference [to the stÅ«pa].51
What already becomes clear through this passage is that the transcendent nature of the miraculous stone stūpa on top of the mountain described in the text is characterized by its inaccessibility to humans: it is originally built by the gods and only venerated by wild animals.
Following the corrected distances and directions given in Xuanzangâs Record, we were looking for this site at or around the rock formation of the BarÄbÄr Hills, about 50 kilometres south of the modern city of Paá¹nÄ (Figure 2.4), the site of the old Magadhan capital PÄá¹aliputra from the Mauryan (2nd cent. BC) to the Gupta period (5th cent. AD). The BarÄbÄr Hills were a good candidate for the site described by Xuanzang, who probably never visited the site himself, since they house man-made rock caves with inscriptions identifying them as dwelling places given to the ascetic ÄjÄ«vika denomination from the Mauryan period onwards.52 As remote mountain caves for religious specialists, ascetics and Åramaá¹as, searching for transcendence in form of being released from the circle of rebirth they were, per se, places of transcendence â but unfortunately there was no direct evidence for a Buddhist presence at or around the main rock formation of BarÄbÄr.
Map of Southern BihÄr (with Kawadol/ Kauwadhola)
When we left the BarÄbÄr Hill complex in the late afternoon and drove back in western direction, we suddenly were stunned by the scenery of an individual conical hill at some distance and in the dimming light of the sunset (Figure 2.5); this hill was crowned by a rock boulder that looked like a stÅ«pa. The hill itself, the flanks of which are covered by rock boulders, is called Kauvadol in HindÄ«, which literally means âCrowâs Swingâ: a local narrative has it that the rock on top of the hill â the one we saw from the distance â starts swinging when a crow is landing on it.
Kauvadol, sunset (approaching direction west from the Barabar Hills)
Photo: M. Deeg
On the bottom of the hill there is a shrine with a huge statue of the Buddha (Figure 2.7) in meditational posture, and on the lowest row of rocks around the hill there are images of the Buddha in meditation and various deities (Figure 2.6). The hill does not show any sign of human modification to make it accessible â as, for instance, the staircases hewn into the rock at the nearby BarÄbÄr Hills do. This and the other features (the shrine and the stone reliefs) allow for a clear identification of Kauvadol with the site described by Xuanzang. The setting of the place also makes it very likely that the âstone stÅ«paâ on top of the hill has been venerated only from below, as Xuanzangâs description implies as well. This veneration from the distance is, I would claim, a clear reference to the inaccessible transcendence of an individual place.
Kauvadol: rock images, Buddha and other deities
Photo: M. Deeg
Kauvadol: Buddha statue (8th/9th cent.)
Photo: Courtesy Laxshmi Greaves
7 Conclusion
In this chapter, I based my analysis of some passages in the Chinese Buddhist travelogues and related sources (bio-hagiographies) on a distinction between â and separation of â immanence and transcendence which is not the absolute one of religious metaphysical-doctrinal discourses. Such a more fluid and flexible understanding of transcendence and the transcendent can change the theoretical perspectives and interpretative approach to the sources I am studying in a wider hermeneutical framework which allows to clearly articulate a layer of meaning which goes beyond the positivist reading of the text as a description of a historically ârealâ landscape. In my sources, the notion of transcendence is intensified through a tension between spatial accessibility and temporal inaccessibility. To understand the construction of space and landscape in a text like Xuanzangâs Record, one has to take into account the different layers of meaning expressed in the text, and this includes implied references to transcendence.
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For an overview of the texts (Faxian
This concept is, of course, not restricted to Buddhism. The Jains call their Jinas âford-makersâ (tÄ«rthaá¹ kara). On the âcrossingâ nature of Hindu tÄ«rthas see Diana Eck, âIndiaâs âTÄ«rthasâ: âCrossingsâ in Sacred Geography,â History of Religions 20, no. 4 (1981): 323â344.
In Buddhist uses and discussions the term lokottara â for instance, in the YogÄcÄrabhÅ«mi â does only refer to what could be called âhigh transcendence,â the âunconditionedâ dharma of the parinirvÄá¹a and therefore excludes many phenomena discussed here. See Christoph Kleine, âZur Universalität der Unterscheidung religiös/säkulär: Eine systemtheoretische Betrachtung,â in: Religionswissenschaft, ed. Michael Stausberg (Berlin, Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2012), 65â80, and Christoph Kleine, âReligion and the Secular in Premodern Japan from the Viewpoint of Systems Theory,â Journal of Religion in Japan 2 (2013): 1â34.
David Seyfort Ruegg, Lâordre spirituel et lâordre temporel dans la pensée bouddhique de lâInde et du Tibet: Quatres conférences au Collège de France (Paris: Collège de France, 1995). See also Max Deeg, âInnerhalb und jenseits der Welt: Kritische Ãberlegungen zum buddhistischen Begriffspaar laukika/lokottara im Verhältnis zu säkular/religiös,â in: Proceedings of the 8th workshop of the Arbeitskreis Asiatische Religionsgeschichte (AKAR), forthcoming.
For a discussion of the different aspects of a ânarratology of spaceâ in which, surprisingly, the aspect of transcendence is not touched upon is Katrin Dennerlein, Narratologie des Raumes (Berlin, New York: De Gruyter, 2009).
In my view, the dimensions of narrativity and fictionality of this âgenreâ of texts are still understudied.
For a âhistoryâ of using (or sometimes: misusing) these texts see M. Deeg, âThe historical turn.â
Translation adapted from N.A. Jayawickrama, N.A., The Story of Gotama Buddha: The NidÄna-kathÄ of the JÄtakaá¹á¹hakathÄ (Oxford: The Pali Text Society, 2002), 2; PÄli text: Viggo Fausbøll, The JÄtaka, Together with its Commentary, Being Tales of the Anterior Births of Gotama Buddha. Volume 1 (London: Pali Text Society, 1962), 2: tattha Ädito tÄva tesaá¹ nidÄnÄnaá¹ paricchedo veditabbo. DÄ«paá¹karapÄdamÅ«lasmiá¹ hi katÄbhinÄ«hÄrassa MahÄsattassa yÄva VessantarattabhÄvÄ cavitvÄ Tusitapure nibbatti tÄva pavatto kathÄmaggo DÅ«renidÄnaá¹ nÄma. Tusitabhavanato pana cavitvÄ yÄva bodhimaá¹á¸e sabbaññutappatti tÄva pavatto kathÄmaggo AvidÅ«renidÄnaá¹ nÄma. SantikenidÄnaá¹ pana tesu tesu á¹hÄnesu viharato tasmiá¹ tasmiá¹ yeva á¹hÄne labhatîti.
Robert F. Campany has worked extensively of the narratological aspects of such figures and encounters (miracles, divination, etc.) in early medieval Chinese literature: see Robert Ford Campany, To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth: A Translation and Study of Ge Hongâs Traditions of Divine Transcendents (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 2002); âSecrecy and Display in the Quest for Transcendence in China, ca. 220 BCEâ350 CE,â History of Religions 45, no. 4 (2006): 291â336; Making Transcendents: Ascetic and Social Memory in Early Medieval China (Honolulu: Hawaiâi University Press, 2008).
This is, of course, different in case of the literary âextensionâ and âtransformationâ of Xuanzangâs biography, the Ming novel Xiyou-ji
Barney Warf, Time-Space Compression: Historical geographies (London, New York: Routledge, 2008), 2; for the ancient Chinese construction of space see Mark Edward Lewis, The Construction of Space in Early China (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2006).
See John S. Strong, The Legend of King AÅoka. A Study and Translation of the AÅokÄvadÄna (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983), 119ff. & 244ff. (translation of the Sanskrit text for which see Edward B. Cowell & Robert A. Neil, The DivyÄvadÄna. A Collection of Early Buddhist Legends (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1886), 389ff.). Strong emphasizes the parallel of the thirty-two places visited and the thirty-two marks of the Buddha as a âGreat Beingâ (mahÄpuruá¹£a) which reflects the constructed nature of such âpilgrimagesâ another example of which is young Sudhanaâs journey in the Avataá¹saka-sÅ«tra.
On LumbinÄ« in different sources see Max Deeg, The Places where SiddhÄrtha Trod: LumbinÄ« and Kapilavastu (LumbinÄ«: LumbinÄ« International Research Institute, 2003).
atha sthavirOpagupto rÄjÄnam AÅokaá¹ sarvaprathamena lumbinÄ«vanaá¹ praveÅayitvÄ daká¹£iá¹aá¹ hastam abhiprasÄryovÄca: âasmin, mahÄrÄja, pradeÅe bhagavÄñ jÄtaḥ,â Äha ca: âidaá¹ hi prathamaá¹ caityaá¹ buddhasyottamacaká¹£uá¹£aḥ, jÄtamÄtreha sa muniḥ prakrÄntaḥ saptapadaá¹ bhuvi. caturdiÅam avalokya vÄcaá¹ bhÄá¹£itavÄn purÄ: âiyaá¹ me paÅcimÄ jÄtir, garbhÄvÄsaÅ ca paÅcimaḥ.ââ atha rÄjÄ sarvaÅarÄ«reá¹a tatra pÄdayor nipatya utthÄya ká¹tÄñjaliḥ prarudann uvÄca: âdhanyÄste ká¹tapuá¹yai(á¹yÄ)Å ca yair dá¹á¹£á¹aḥ sa mahÄmuniḥ, prajÄtaḥ saá¹ÅrutÄ yaiÅ ca vÄcas tasya manoramÄḥ.â atha sthaviro rÄjñaḥ prasÄdavá¹ddhyartham uvÄca: âmahÄrÄja, kiá¹ draká¹£yasi tÄá¹ devatÄm? yayÄ dá¹á¹£á¹aḥ prajÄyan sa vane âsmin vadatÄá¹ varaḥ tramamÄá¹aḥ padÄn sapta ÅrutÄ vÄco yayÄ muneḥ.â rÄjÄ Äha: âparaá¹, sthavira, draká¹£yÄmi,â atha sthavirOpagupto yasya vá¹ká¹£asya ÅÄkham avalambya devÄ« mahÄmÄyÄ prasÅ«tÄ, tena daká¹£iá¹ahastam abhiprasÄryovÄca: ânaivÄsikÄ yÄ ihÄÅokavá¹ká¹£e saá¹buddhadarÅinÄ« yÄ devakanyÄ; sÄká¹£Äd asau darÅayatu svadehaá¹ rÄjño hy AÅokasya {manah}prasÄdavá¹ddhyai.â yÄvat sÄ devatÄ svarÅ«peá¹a sthavirOpaguptasamÄ«pe sthitvÄ ká¹tÄñjalir uvÄca: âsthavira, kim ÄjñÄpayasi?â atha sthaviro rÄjÄnÄm AÅokam uvÄca: âmahÄrÄja, iyaá¹ sÄ devatÄ, yayÄ dá¹á¹£á¹o bhagavÄñ jÄyamÄnaḥ,â atha rÄjÄ ká¹tÄñjalis tÄá¹ devatÄm uvÄca: âdá¹á¹£á¹as tvayÄ laká¹£aá¹abhÅ«á¹£itÄá¹ gaḥ prajÄyamÄnaḥ kamalÄyatÄká¹£aḥ, ÅrutvÄs tvayÄ tasya narará¹£abhasya vÄco manojñÄḥ prathamÄ vane âsmin.â devatÄ prÄha: âmayÄ hi dá¹á¹£á¹aḥ kanakÄvadÄtaḥ prajÄyamÄno dvipadapradhÄnaḥ/ padÄni sapta kramÄá¹a eva ÅrutÄ ca vÄcam api tasya ÅÄstuḥ.â rÄjÄ Äha: âkathaya, devate, kÄ«dá¹ÅÄ« bhagavato jÄyamÄnasya ÅrÄ«r babhÅ«veti,â devatÄ prÄha: âna Åakyaá¹ mayÄ vÄgbhiḥ saá¹prakÄÅayitum, api tu saá¹ká¹£epataḥ Åá¹á¹u: vinirmitÄbhÄ kanakÄvadÄtÄ sendre triloke nayanÄbhirÄmÄ, sasÄgarÄntÄ ca mahÄ« saÅailÄ mahÄrá¹avasthÄ iva nauÅcÄla.â yÄvad rÄjÃ±Ä jÄtyÄá¹ Åatasahasraá¹ dattam, caityaá¹ ca pratiá¹£á¹hÄpya rÄjÄ prakrÄntaḥ. (Cowell & Neil, The DivyÄvadÄna, 389f.); translation: Strong, The Legend of King AÅoka, 244ff. A similar sub-narrative is given when Upagupta and AÅoka visit the place where the nÄga KÄlika praised the Buddha: see Strong, The Legend of King AÅoka, 249f.
Diana Eck, DarÅan: Seeing the Divine Image in India (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2007).
In the context of Buddhism this has been highlighted by Malcolm David Eckel, To See the Buddha: A Philosopherâs Quest for the Meaning of Emptiness. Princeton (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1992); in the context of the Buddhaâs relics the aspect of darÅan has been emphasized by John S. Strong, Relics of the Buddha (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004): 234f.
Barney Warf, Santa Arias, âIntroduction: the reinsertion of space into the social sciences and humanities,â in The Spatial Turn: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, ed. B. Warf, S. Arias (London, New York: Routledge, 2009), 1.
As such the more dynamic projection of ânarrative placesâ into an otherwise meaningless space goes beyond the pure symbolic value of imagined places as claimed by J. Corrigan, âSpatiality and religion,â in The Spatial Turn: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, ed. B. Warf, and S. Arias (London, New York: Routledge, 2009), 116.
Duncan, James, and Gregory, Derek, eds., Writes of Passage: Reading Travel Writing (London, New York: Routledge, 1999).
For a critique see Max Deeg, âWhen Peregrinus is not Pilgrim: The Chinese âPilgrimsâ Records â A Revision of Literary Genre and its Context,â in DharmayÄtra â Buddhist Pilgrimage in Time and Space, ed. C. Cueppers, and M. Deeg (eds.) (LumbinÄ«: LumbinÄ« International Research Institute, 2014), 65â95.
See, for example, Robert H. Sharf, Coming to Terms with Chinese Buddhism: A Reading of the Treasure Store Treatise (Honolulu: University of Hawaiâi Press, 2002), 26, who translates the term as âstimulus-responseâ (p. 78).
Also translated as âmiraculous manifestationâ or âmiraculous responseâ: see Robert Ford Campany, Signs from the Unseen Realm. Buddhist Miracle Tales from Early Medieval China (Honolulu: University of Hawaiâi Press, 2012). Almost synonyms are lingyan
For the sake of convenience, in this chapter I refer to passages from Xuanzang Biography and his Record not directly quoted and translated by myself to Li Rongxiâs English translations. For the present story see Li Rongxi, A Biography of the Tripiá¹aka Master of the Great Ciâen Monastery of the Great Tang Dynasty (Berkeley: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, 1995), 76ff. (Chinese text: T.2053. 233c.23ff.).
This episode has been discussed at some length and with a focus on the aspect of darÅan by Eckel, To See the Buddha, 131ff.
T.2085.862c.29ff.
On this Buddhist âKyffhäuserâ tradition see Max Deeg, âDas Ende des Dharma und die Ankunft des Maitreya. Endzeit- und Neue-Zeit-Vorstellungen im Buddhismus mit einem Exkurs zur KÄÅyapa-Legende,â Zeitschrift für Relgionswissenschaft 7 (1999): 145â169. An inscription from the area around RÄjagá¹ha shows that the narrative has been well-known in the region: see Vincent Tournier, âMatériaux pour une histoire de la légende et du culte de MahÄkÄÅyapa: une relecture dâune fragment de statue inscrit retrouvé à Silao (BihÄr),â In Autour de BÄmiyÄn: de la Bactriane héllenisée à lâInde bouddhique (Archaeologia Afghana, Série scientifique), edited by G. DucÅur. Paris: De Boccard, 2012: 375â413.
Deeg, Das Gaoseng-Faxian-zhuan: 615f.
See T.H. Barrett, âExploratory Observations on Some Weeping Pilgrims,â in The Buddhist Forum, Volume 1, edited by Tadeusz Skorupski (London: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 1990): 99â110.
Max Deeg, âWailing for Identity: Topical and Poetic Expressions of Cultural Belonging in Chinese Buddhist Literature,â in Identity and Network: Exchange Relations between China and the World, ed. A. Heirman, C. Meinert, and C. Anderl (Leiden: Brill, 2018): 227â252.
It is interesting to note that the birth of the bodhisattva at LumbinÄ« ontologically is the moment when the Buddha transcends but, as it were, invertedly, from a transcendent place, the Tuá¹£ita-heaven, into immanence â at least from a âBuddhologicalâ (in the sense of âtheologyâ) standpoint which does not assume the overall transcendency of the Buddha, so to speak: his dharmakÄyic nature. John Strong (The Relics of the Buddha, 230), has referred to this aspect as âthe comings and goingsâ of the Buddha/TathÄgata, without using, however, the concept of transcendence.
On Magadha and its specific place in the cultural development of India see Johannes Bronkhorst, Greater Magadha. Studies in the Culture of Early India (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2007).
Indirectly, the special status of Central India is also expressed by the general description of India in the second chapter where the overall geographical character of the other four regions is specified but Central India is left out (T.2087.875b.27ff.):
Sudama Misra, Janapada State in Ancient India (VÄrÄá¹asÄ«: BhÄratÄ«ya VidyÄ PrakÄÅana, 1973): 24; Hartmut Scharfe, The State in Indian Tradition (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1989): 11f.
Mishra, Janapada State, 44; the list in the PurÄá¹as has seven janapadas, a number also found in the DÄ«ghanikÄya: Scharfe, The State in Indian Tradition, 14.
Mishra, Janapada State, 262; this number is also given in the Jain BhagavatÄ«sÅ«tra, while other Buddhis texts (MahÄparinirvÄá¹asÅ«tra) have twelve janapadas.
Alexander Cunningham, The Ancient Geography of India, I. The Buddhist Period Including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang (London: Trübner and Co., 1871).
Xuanzang himself probably did not visit MathurÄ: see Max Deeg, âHas Xuanzang Really Been in MathurÄ? Interpretatio Sinica or Interpretatio Occidentalia â How to Critically Read the Records of the Chinese Pilgrims,â in Essays on East Asian Religion and Culture. Festschrift in honour of Nishiwaki Tsuneki on the occasion of his 65th birthday, ed. C. Wittern, and Shi Lishan (Kyoto: Editiorial committee for the Festschrift in honour of Nishiwaki Tsuneki, 2007), 35â73.
On Xuanzangâs description of this region see Max Deeg, ââShow Me the Land Where the Buddha Dwelled â¦â â Xuanzangâs âRecord of the Western Regionsâ (Xiyu ji): A Misunderstood Text?â China Report 48 (2012): 101ff.
T.2087.875b.4ff.:â
T.2087.878b.25f.:â
Li, The Great Tang Dynasty Record, 67f. For a discussion of the legend attached to this site see Max Deeg, Miscellanae Nepalicae: Early Chinese Reports on Nepal â The Foundation Legend of Nepal in its Trans-Himalayan Context (LumbinÄ«: LumbinÄ« International Research Institute, 2016), 100â113.
Li, The Great Tang Dynasty Record, 69.
For obvious reasons, I use âdescriptionâ in inverted commas to point to the fact that the travelogues are more complex than documentaries: they are situated between inherited tropes of Chinese geographical and ethnographical concepts and a complex intentionality of the authors to project an idealized Buddhist India to their Chinese readership and to âproveâ that what is known from Buddhist texts is âreallyâ found in situ.
The AÅokÄvadÄna, for instance, singles out BodhgayÄ, particularly the bodhi tree, as the place which receives the utmost attention and veneration of the king: see Strong, The Legend of King AÅoka, 125ff. & 257.
Another aspect is how the different stages are ârepletedâ with doctrinal content: see, for instance, the analysis in Ghiorgo Zafiropulo, LâIllumination du Buddha. De la Quête à lâAnnonce de lâEveil: Essais de chronologie relative et de stratigraphie textuelle (Enquête sur lâensemble des textes canoniques bouddhistes se référant â à titre principal ou accessoire â à lâ«â Abhisaá¹bodhiâ » du fondateur at à quelques épisodes connexes: antérieurs ou postérieurs) (Innsbruck: Institut für Sprachwissenschaft der Universität Innsbruck, 1993).
Li, The Great Tang Dynasty Record, 243ff. (T.2087.915a.14ff.).
T.2087.915b.15ff.
From the description and the fact that Xuanzang himself probably never visited and saw the place it may be concluded that this is a local tradition.
The trip was part of the ongoing project âThe Xuanzang Trail,â funded by the Bihar Heritage Development Society and co-investigated by Dr. Bijoy Choudhary and me with a team of colleagues from different disciplines (archaeology, history, science); the goal of this project is to revisit, reassess and identify the different sites in Bihar mentioned in Xuanzangâs Record.
T.913c.2ff.
On the BarÄbÄr Hills and caves see Harry Falk, AÅokan Sites and Artefacts. A Source-Book with Bibliography (Mainz: Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 2006), 258ff.