Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c7.60

v1.c7.60

During the Qing Dynasty, Buddhist exchanges between India and China did not continue. The Chinese did not know anything about the situation of Indian Buddhism. Due to developments in means of transportation, some individual Chinese monks went to the Buddhist holy places in India to pay obeisance to the Buddha. In 1891, Damo Boluo (*Dhammapāla*) convened an international conference of Buddhists in Bodh Gayā. A Chinese delegation attended. At the end of the Qing and the beginning of the Republic master Wanhui from Sichuan wanted to rescue the Buddhist cause by “going West in search of the law.” During the reign of the Guangxu, emperor went from Guiyang to Yunnan. He made a detour via Myanmar to India and he looked for learning in a Sanskrit school in Benares/Varanasi. He studied Sanskrit, Hindi and the *Ṛgveda*. He later went to the Asiatic Society Library in Kolkata and undertook the task of putting in order the Chinese books. In the reign of Guangxu, the Sri Lankan monk Damo Boluo (Dhammapāla) came to China and he consulted the layman Yang Renshan. They both agreed to revive Indian Buddhism. Dhammapala described the condition of Buddhist sites in India. The Chinese found out about a great gathering to revive the Bodhi tree in the twin forests outside of the city of Kuśinagara. For the Buddha’s birthday each year, Buddhists from every country gathered together about one month and 30,000-40,000 people a day (visited the place). Master Qingfu from Chengdu, Sichuan, went at the end of the Qing to India via Myanmar. “When the master was in India, he stayed altogether more than a year. He travelled all over the five parts of India and visited places: where Buddha was born, where he meditated and realised the path and where he preached the law and died.”