Dalai Lama In Arunachal : In tune with Ancienttimes

The exchange of journeys by the Indian and the Chinese monks goes back to pre-Christian era. It is this great tradition between Tibet and India that Dalai Lama has kept alive with his visit to  Arunachal

Dr B S Harishankar
The exchange of  journeys by the Indian and the Chinese monks  goes back to pre-Christian era.
The first record of it says that in 122 BC,  a golden statue was gifted to the Chinese emperor, the first Buddhist statue, to mark Buddhist  entry into the country, according to the Chinese Chronicle.
In 62 AD, Emperor Ming–ti dispatched an ambassador to India  to collect Buddhist canons and to  invite monks to China.
Kasyapa Matanga from Central India reached China, translated an important Sutra and later died at Lo-yang.  Bodhidharma came to China in 470 AD and became the founder of the esoteric schools and based his philosophy on that of Nagarjuna, the patriarch of Mahayana Buddhism.
The biography of Nagarjuna was translated into Chinese by Kumarajiva  around 405 AD. Kumarajiva is regarded as the first teacher of Madhyamika doctrines  in China and also the expounder of Cheng-shih-tsung (Satyasiddhi) and Nieh-p-an-tsung (Nirvana) Schools. Then we have Paramartha and I-tsing who kept alive the cultural links between India and China. Fa Hien , was first of the three Chinese pilgrims, who travelled from Central Asia across the Gobi desert, crossing the Hindu Kush and  and Ganga Valley  to Tamralipti in Bengal.
Yuan Chwang became famous for his seventeen-year overland journey to India,  during the Tang dynasty. His book Great Tang Records on the Western Regions is  one of the primary sources for the study of medieval Central Asia and India.
Lamas visit to India should not be seen as a mere  political event.After Santarakshita of ancient Nalanda and Padmasambhava who went to Tibet,  the first great Tibetan monastery  at Bsam-yas was built on the model of Udyantapuri in Bihar. Further, we should understand that the cult of Tara Mahavidya, second among Dasamahavidyas, is most prominent in Tibet, Bengal and Assam–Arunachal regions. Malinithan excavations  in Arunachal have unearthed Surya and Ganesa images. At Bhishmakanagar, in Debang Valley, in Arunachal, thick brick structures  enclosed by fortified ramparts have been unearthed  that belong to Chutiya rulers of 11th century.
Beijing’s Peking University has now launched an ambitious programme  in Sanskrit  research to  help translate hundreds of manuscripts containing scriptures that have been found in Tibet and other centres of Buddhism, such as Hangzhou in China’s east. The Sanskrit programme at Peking University has a long history as it was set up in the 1960s and was developed by veteran Indologist, Ji Xianlin, who translated numerous works of  classical Indian literature. Classes on the ancient Sanskrit language are being resumed at the Hangzhou Buddhism Institute. Cao Yan,  who teaches at Wuhan University in  China, came to India on a mission to decode ancient Buddhist literature largely written in Sanskrit.
Huang Baosheng, China’s greatest living Sanskrit scholar and translator proposed to gift Prime Minister Narendra Modi  Chinese translation of ancient Indian texts. Huang Yiting at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences emphasised on Chinese interest in Indian culture Buddhism and Sanskrit.
Assam–Arunachal region served as a  cultural exchange route between Tibet and China. This is evident from seals of Bhaskaravaraman of Kamarupa in Assam recovered from Nalanda.
Vikramasila Mahavihara  in Bihar had considerable links with Tibet. Great masters from this University were active  during the Second Transmission period. Sompura Mahavihara was another centre of learning which considerably attracted Tibet monks and was  regularly visited by them. Bikrampur Vihara in Bangladesh  was continuously visited by Buddhist monks from Tibet, Nepal and China.
Kibithoo in Arunachal  is the eastern most and  direct route into Tibet and China.The Dihang Pass  situated at an elevation of 4000 ft links Arunachal with Myanmar.Arunachal is also linked by Siphu pass. Kibithoo is the easternmost  and lowest direct route to Tibet and China. Dibrugarh–Tezoo-Walong–Kibithoo  is the lowest crossing point into Tibet from India. It is these crucial passes and routes that China has now targeted  to  annex Northeast India, Myanmar and Bangladesh.
The Tawang monastery in Arunachal is one of the largest monastery of Mahayana sect in Asia.  It was  founded by Mera Lama Lodre Gyaltso during the 17th century, and a contemporary of the 5th Dalai Lama. It has a 28 ft high golden statue of Buddha. It contains 700 prized Buddhist scriptures of which eight volumes of Getama are its prized possession. Other monasteries of medieval and late period includes Bomdila, Rigyalling, Urgelling, Tawang Taktshang. Urgyelling monastery is the birth place of Thangyang Gyatso, the sixth Dalai Lama.The Chong  or Buddhist Viharas of Namsai and Manmao are major centres of Theravada sect in Arunachal.
It is this great ancient tradition between Tibet and India that Dalai Lama has kept alive with his visit to  Arunachal. In fact, Communism  has an  inborn animosity to Buddhism. This  is evident from looting of Buddhist monasteries and temples in Russia and China  by the Communist regimes.
The Guardian reported that a Buddhist Institute in Tibet’s autonomous region, Chinese officials made students denounce the Dalai Lama and swear allegiance to the Communist party. If China has to understand  its  past ties with India it should do some introspection.
(The  writer is a Kochi-based research scholar)