Kumārajīva
Kumārajīva ( Chinese 鳩摩羅什 / 鸠摩罗什 , Pinyin Jiūmóluóshí , W.-G. Chiu 1 -mo 2 -lo 2 -shih 2 , Japanese Kumarajū ; * 343 ; † 413 ) was born in the Central Asian Kingdom of Kucha Monk and scholar. One of his most important works is the translation of the Lotus Sutra from Sanskrit into Chinese . This translation is generally considered to be the most authentic and accurate and formed the theoretical basis of many Chinese and Japanese schools of Mahayana Buddhism.
Life
Kumārajīva was born into a noble family in 343 AD. As a Buddhist monk, he first turned to the study of Hinayana Buddhism and then concentrated only on the teachings of Mahayana Buddhism. At a time when Kumārajīva had already gathered more scholars around him and was already 40 years old, his homeland was subjugated by Chinese troops in 383 AD.
In 401, he and other scholars of his day were called to the capital Chang'an by King Yao Xing to take part in an extensive translation project of Buddhist scriptures. Kumārajīva was appointed head of this translator group. In addition to the Lotus Sutra ( Saddharmapundarika Sutra), he also translated the Prajnaparamita Sutra and Vimalakirtinidesa Sutra, among others .
Kumārajīva left four disciples:
swell
- Margareta von Borsig: Lotos Sutra. The great book of enlightenment in Buddhism . Herder-Verlag, Freiburg 2009, ISBN 9783451301568
Web links
- Literature by and about Kumārajīva in the catalog of the German National Library
- quod-est-dicendum.org: Introduction to the Lotus Sutra
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kumārajīva |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | buddhist monk |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 343 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Kucha |
| DATE OF DEATH | 413 |