Buddhist persecution
The persecution of Buddhists refers to measures taken by authorities that restrict religious freedom and are directed against the Buddhist communities ( Sangha ). Often this was done for reasons of supposed reason of state. The aim was almost always to limit economic and often associated political influence, which is why the repressive measures almost always included the secularization of monastery property, along with iconoclasm . Especially for processes in antiquity, the assessment of processes depends heavily on the few surviving sources, which are often strongly tendentious.
Indian subcontinent
King Pushyamitra
The first persecution of Buddhists known in literature took place in the 2nd century BC. Under the Indian king Pushyamitra . This had overthrown the Maurya . With the destruction of the monuments of Ashoka- sponsored Buddhism, the traces of the fallen dynasty were also to be eradicated. According to legend, Pushyamitra, who had offered a bounty for severed monks' heads, was killed while trying to destroy the Bodhi tree - by falling rocks.
Sassanids
In the Sassanid Empire (224–651; focus: Persia), as part of the strengthening of central power after the establishment of the empire under Bahram II, people who did not follow Zoroastrianism were sometimes persecuted . However, the religious policies of the individual kings differed greatly from one another.
Punjab
Mihirakula (d. 542/50; Ch .: 摩 醯 羅 矩 羅), a king of the Hunas (which is more likely to be understood as the Alchon than the Hephthalites ) in Punjab , began persecution of Buddhists around 520. As a direct result, the number of Indian Buddhist refugees in the capital Luoyang rose to around 3,000, which was fertile for Chinese Buddhism.
Muslim invasion
As early as the 8th century, in the wake of the Muslim invasion, individual Buddhist rulers were destroyed. The University of Nalanda was destroyed during the Mughal invasion in 1197 . As a result, Buddhism almost completely disappeared from the Indian heartland.
Sri Lanka / Ceylon
Persecutions in Sri Lanka were mostly directed against individual doctrines, not Buddhism as a whole. In the Nikayasangraha it is reported that Gothabhaya had the books of the Abhagirivihara burned and their followers branded in the 3rd century .
Until the unification of the Mahavihara in the 12th century, there was repeated suppression of individual schools. Under the South Indian King Shri Harsha one was tantric school - the "blue robes" eradicated.
British colonialism
During the British rule in Burma , the Himalayas and Sri Lanka , after initially violent repression and massacres (also by the other colonial powers), discrimination took place more through a general and institutionalized preference for Christianity. This also explains why a politicized sangha, especially in Burma, was able to become the bearer of the protest movement (1916, 1948).
China
Most of the persecutions in China can be understood from a Confucian reaction. (Begging) monks not only did not pay taxes, they were also “homeless” outside the traditional family and value system. They were therefore "parasites" in the eyes of Confucian officials. At the same time, gains for the state treasury were to be expected through expropriations of monastery property.
From 424 to 450 or 452
The first persecution in China reached a climax under Wei Emperor Tàiwǔ (太 武, ruled from 423 or 424 to 452). As early as 424 it was forbidden to teach Buddhism or to give shelter to such teachers. It was also ordered to destroy portraits. The persecution intensified again in 446 when large quantities of weapons were found in a monastery.
574
Wu Di (r. 561-578), an emperor of the northern Zhou dynasty , stipulated that only temples approved by the emperor were allowed to exist. Permission was granted for 2,946, but around 30,000 buildings were destroyed.
The monk Tao-chi starved himself to death with seven others in protest of these measures. At the same time, Ching-ai († 579) cut himself into pieces over a period of five years, temporarily hanging his bowels in a tree to dry. These are the first such martyrs in China. The third Zen patriarch Sengcan (僧璨, † 606) is said to have hid meditating in caves for 24 years.
714
An edict of Xuanzong (Xuánzōng Lǐ Lóngjī, 玄宗 李隆基) forced the return of 12,000 ordained to the laity. The production of images and copies of Buddhist texts was prohibited.
844
As early as 800 there was a further Confucian reaction against Buddhism, especially against the prevalence of the secular power of the monasteries. Statesman and stylist Han Yu , 819 publicly protested against alleged abuses.
Emperor Wuzong (武宗, ruled 840-46), issued a strict edict in 844 to confiscate the monastery property. The Hui-chang persecution (so called after the era name 會昌 Huì chāng) came about. Monasticism is forbidden, around 265,000 ordained people from around 4,600 monasteries that have been destroyed are forcibly returned to the laity. The monks from Wutai initially fled to Youzhou (today: Beijing), where five rich temples were located, but were then handed over to the imperial officials by the officials there. Only in Hubei Province was the edict not carried out. This brief but intense persecution led to the permanent weakening or collapse of most sects, almost only Chan schools survived the catastrophe, until Emperor Tang Xuanzong ((宣宗 李 忱; W.-G .: Hsüan-Dsung), r. 847-59) lifted the ban and allowed monasteries again to a limited extent.
Subsequently, up to the end of the empire, there were repeated periods of restriction of monasticism, less in a violent form, but rather through stricter official controls (authorization of ordinations etc.). From 14.-18. Century the "Society of the White Lotus," which had also organized armed uprisings.
republic
Under the republic from 1911 and the chaotic period that followed, which culminated in the anti-Japanese war, followed by the civil war, there were repeated riots and expropriations, looting and devastation of monasteries , especially through warlords .
Cultural revolution
At Mao 's behest, the Red Guards smashed the ossified structures of the administrative organization and attacked revisionists, among whom they believed the Chinese sangha belonged. Most of the young people shot over the target and irreplaceable cultural assets were damaged.
Tibet
7th - 9th centuries
After the first contact with the Dharma - according to legend, through the mediation of the two wives of King Srong btsan sgam po († 650) - Buddhism continued to spread in Tibet until the death of Khri-srong († 798). The next century brought national disagreement and the sometimes bloody return of the autochthonous Bon religion. This period ended under King Yeshe-'od , with the so-called "second conversion."
From 1951 or 1959 to 1976
After the lamas were ousted by the invasion of the People's Liberation Army (Oct. 26, 1951) (finally after the suppression of the Tibetan uprising in 1959), land reform and far-reaching secularization began with the beginning of the cultural revolution , also in Tibet from Aug. 26, 1966 of monasteries. Thousands of lamas who did not flee to India were sent to re-education camps.
Many treasures - especially in Tibet - were destroyed and desecrated during the Cultural Revolution. This barbarism was admitted after 1980, but more than a partial repair of the damage will no longer be possible.
Korea
During the Mongol invasions there was general devastation of the country and with it the destruction of Buddhist monasteries, art and literature.
Persecution occurred particularly in the 15th and 16th centuries under the strictly Confucian-oriented Joseon dynasty (1310-1910).
At the time of the Japanese administration 1905 / 10–45, Korean sects were discriminated against compared to established Japanese.
Japan
Kimmei-Tennō
During the Asuka period , Buddhism was not yet a popular religion in Japan, but only spread within a section of the ruling class, which could derive its claim to power from the sutras. One of the most progressive families at court were the grand- grandmothers of the Soga , responsible for finances. A power struggle developed between these descendants of the new invading elite (who had come from Paekche in 369 ; descendants of Takechiuchi ). They were in contrast to the Muraji of the Nakatome and especially the Monobe (who were responsible for the military). They feared losing their benefices. The Kimmei -Tennō (ruled 539-71) had allowed the Sogas to build a private temple. At the instigation of the Nakatome, this was destroyed by Yuge no Ō-Muraji no Kimi when an epidemic hit the country, the Buddha statue was thrown into a canal. The epidemic (probably smallpox) got worse, however, and the Kimmeis palace burned down for no apparent cause.
Around 585, the Soga returned to Buddhism and built a temple again. When an epidemic broke out again, which did not subside after the temple was destroyed again, they were allowed to continue practicing Buddhism. This spread nationwide and became state-sponsoring. This phase only ended with the dominance of neo-Confucian teachings.
From 1868 to 1875
The forces behind the Meiji Restoration wanted to destroy the remaining base of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1868 . Up until then, every Japanese subject had to be registered with a temple ( 寺 請 制度 , terauke seido ; in German about "system of temple confirmations"). The initiated policy of separating Shinto and Buddhism resulted in Haibutsu kishaku ("Abolish Buddhism and destroy Shākyamuni "). Confiscations of temple lands and property were rigorous. These were also a means of the new central government, which at that time did not yet have an independent source of finance, to balance the state budget. In 1870 there was no longer a single temple in the provinces of Satsuma , Ōsumi and Hyūga .
communism
True to Marx 's dictum that religion is the opium of the people , most socialist governments in the 20th century restricted religious freedom. Persecution occurred in practically all countries that were primarily Buddhist. Often these cannot be exactly separated from mass murders of a general kind (which the 20th century was rich in). Examples are:
Kampuchea, Laos
The victors of the civil war, the Khmer Rouge (ruled 1975–79), murdered around 2 million "reactionaries", including most of the monks. About 90% of the Buddhist literature in the country is said to have been lost. The suppression continued even under the Vietnamese-backed government of Heng Samrin 1979-89 / 91.
The repression of religion in Laos has not been that bloody. The Pathet Lao , who had been in government since 1957 , had originally tried to make the Sangha subservient as an anti-colonial force. After their sole takeover of power, extensive repression began in 1975.
literature
- Encyclopedia of Buddhism. Gale, New York 2004, ISBN 0-02-865720-9 , therein: Vol. II, Persecutions. Pp. 640-646
- James Ketelaar: Of Heretics and Martyrs in Meiji Japan: Buddhism and its Persecution. Princeton 1990
- J. Müller: Sectarianism and Religious Persecution in China. 2 vols. Amsterdam 1903–1904
- T. Watters: Buddhism in China. In: Chinese Recorder (Shanghai), Vol. II (1870), pp. 1-7, 38-43, 64-68, 81-88, 117-122, 145-150. "A valuable series of articles by an excellent Chinese scholar, discussing the history, persecutions, and various Buddhas of China."
- Yu Xue: Buddhism, War and Nationalism. Honolulu 2005, ISBN 978-0-415-97511-7 (China 1931-45)
Individual evidence
- ^ Encyclopedia of Buddhism: Persecutions , p. 640.
- ^ Encyclopedia of Buddhism: Persecutions , p. 642.
- ↑ Fernando, C .; The Nikāya Saṅgrahawa; Colombo 1908, p. 19.
- ^ Encyclopedia of Buddhism: Persecutions , p. 644.
- ↑ Edkins, Joseph; Chinese Buddhism; London 1880, p. 92.
- ↑ Edkins (1880), p. 99.
- ↑ Buddhist Selfimmolation in Medieval China; Hist Religions Vol. 4 (1965), p 252; Citing Taishō 2060, 626c.
- ↑ http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/zen/fm/fm.htm Hsin-hsin Ming
- ↑ Edkins (1880), p. 122.
-
^ Gundert, Wilhelm ; Bi-Yan-Lu ; Munich 1963-70 (Carl Hanser), 3 vol .; Wiesbaden 2005 (marix), Zeittafel p. I 558f
Buddhism and Buddhists in China, by Lewis Hodus E-Book # 8390 - ^ Encyclopedia of Buddhism, p. 643.
- ↑ in detail in: Yu Xue; Buddhism, War and Nationalism; Honolulu 2005, ISBN 978-0-415-97511-7 .
- ↑ Tom Lowenstein; Buddhism; Munich 1998, ISBN 3-426-66602-2 , pp. 125ff.
- ↑ Kuntze, Peter; Mao Tse Tung; Hamburg 1977, p. 148f.
- ↑ Lowenstein (1996), p. 126.
- ↑ entire paragraph: Encyclopedia of Buddhism, p. 643.
- ↑ The events in: Nihon Ryōiki , I, 5; Konjaku monogatari shū (XI, 23); Fusō ryakki (III, IV).
- ↑ In the early Reichsannals : Nihon shoki III, VI, XX, XXI (Kimmei, Bitatsu); Aston, Nihongi I, 128, 184; II, 90, 102-12.
- ↑ Yu Xue; Buddhism ..., p. 207.
- ^ Encyclopedia of Buddhism: Persecutions , p. 646.