India-China Cultural Contacts

We've discussed the validity of the Bodhidharma myth here before (along with 7 AM Arivu). Didn't know about cucumbers however...

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SINO-INDIAN RELATIONS
Tagore's birthday party in China and the Indian roots of Shaolin kung fu, all in one book
Two weeks ago, the ministry of external affairs released a tome called the Encyclopaedia of India-China Contacts, which documents the long association between the nations.
Mridula Chari · 13 hours ago

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The vice presidents of India and China jointly released a book on June 30 that had been more than four years in the making. Commissioned after Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to India in December 2010, the English version of the substantial Encyclopedia of India-China Cultural Contacts is more than 1,000 pages long.

The two-volume book is a collaboration between Indian and Chinese scholars. On its website, India’s ministry of external affairs explains that the volumes have the same content in both English and Mandarin. This perhaps explains the sanitised version of history, as writers from both countries attempt to tone down any criticism of the other.

There are the expected entries, such as ones on veteran travelogue writers Faxien and Xuanzang’s journeys to India. Almost a quarter of the book is devoted to interactions based on and around Buddhism.

But interspersing the official prose are little-known anecdotes of how cucumbers came to China and how dictionaries developed as interactions between the countries increased.

Here is a selection from the encyclopedia:

Tagore has a birthday party in Beijing
In 1924, while visiting Beijing, Rabindranath Tagore received a pair of precious stones inscribed with his name in Chinese: Zhu Zhendan. The encyclopedia says that Zhendan, meaning the sun that rose after a storm during the day, was what Indians used to call China. Tianzhu, on the other hand, was China’s name for India.

While giving him the stones, the philosopher and journalist professor Liang Qichao told Tagore that this was a perfect symbol of Sino-Indian unity.

Tagore celebrated his 63rd birthday in Beijing by attending one of his own plays performed in Chinese. His birthday in May coincided with a longer 49-day tour he was taking of six cities in China.

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A rare colour photograph of Rabindranath Tagore in 1921
Photo credit: Albert Kahn

He had arrived in the country at a time of some turmoil. The Republic of China had deposed the last emperor from the Manchu dynasty in 1912, but by the 1920s was finding it difficult to retain power, as local military leaders began to fight back. But Tagore’s trip was free of disturbance. He gave six speeches across six cities and returned home duly impressed with both his name and the people he met.

Cucumbers cause a minor diplomatic incident in China
The encyclopedia says that the Indian kachumber was taken to China around the 2nd century BC by Zhang Qian, a subject of the Western Han dynasty. The locals called the plant “gourd from Hu”. Hu happened to be the Han word for people not from their region, but it was also the name of people in the western regions.

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The fruit that annoyed an emperor
Photo credit: Muu-karhu

When the Zhao dynasty assumed power some years later, the emperor was a Hu. Shi Le, the new emperor, did not want his people to be associated with a foreign-looking gourd, which is why he renamed it huanggua. And in this simple manner peace was restored.

India teaches China kung fu
The 2011 Tamil film 7aum arivu (7th Sense) begins a thousand years ago when a Tamil prince, Bodhidharma, leaves his home and travels to China to prevent a deadly disease from spreading to India. He does so at great peril to himself and then knocks out a band of raiders single-handedly, as an afterthought. The villagers beg him to stay and teach them his secrets. With that is born Shaolin kung fu.

7aum arivu – later dubbed in to Hindi as Chennai vs China – crosses the boundaries of the ridiculous when it becomes a science fiction thriller in the present day. But at least parts of its Bodhidharma lore are accurate.

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Shaolin kung fu, made in India
Photo credit: Kevin Poh

The Buddhist monk is actually acknowledged as the founder of the Shaolin school of kung fu and finds several mentions outside the entry dedicated to him in the India-China Encyclopedia. Instead of riding a horse across India and China, he is said to have sailed to Guangzhou by sea. Sadly, he did not miraculously cure an entire village.

Chinese scholars used a children’s book to learn Sanskrit
In the 10th and 11th centuries CE, as Chinese scholars once again showed interest in translating core Buddhist texts from Sanskrit, they only had to fall back on existing tools.

The Siddharastu, says the encyclopaedia, could be read by a six-year-old in six months. The Sanskrit book was also a useful primer for all Chinese scholars seeking to learn the language of Buddhist religious texts. Reports from that time said that chapter 12 was particularly useful to both Indians and Chinese as it also had an uplifting moral message.

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Rigveda manuscript in Devanagari, early 19th century
Photo credit: Nasjonalbiblioteket

There were other dictionaries as well. In the 9th century CE, Kride Zukzain, tsampo or ruler of Tibet, commissioned Indian and Tibetan scholars to put together a list of Sanskrit-to-Tibetan words to help them read Indian texts. That book was later included in the Tibetan canon.

Chinese doctors might have studied ophthalmology in India
Surgery, according to the encyclopaedia, was not well developed in China. The Chinese preferred holistic healing. While there is little recorded evidence of the exact procedure, several Chinese scholars mention cataract surgery with some interest, referring to it as the surgery of the golden needle that returns vision to people.

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Acupuncture chart from the Ming Dynasty
Photo credit: The History of Medicine

There was little experimentation apart from this because Indian and Chinese medical practices were based on different founding philosophies. Among the few who experimented in combining Indian and Chinese medical practices was Yu Fakai, a monk of the Jivaka school of philosophy, who was skilled at acupuncture. Tao Hongjing, a medical scholar, praised Indian medical theories in his works as well.

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'perform together at'....what? 'at' what? Kerala Evening?

Been meaning to post this little news item somewhere on this forum for two weeks now but couldn't figure out where. Then I stumbled on this old thread.

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Kalaripayatu and Shaolin Kungu exponents perform together at
Press Trust of India | Thiruvananthapuram June 26, 2015 Last Updated at 18:57 IST

In a rare fusion of two traditional art forms, exponents of Kalaripayatu, the classical martial art form of Kerala and Shaolin Kung Fu, performed at the Chinese capital of Beijing today as part of a programme organised by Kerala Tourism.

Six performers of 'Kalaripayattu' joined hands with Shaolin exponents at 'Kerala Evening', a programme organised at the Indian Embassy in Beijing, Kerala Tourism Minister A P Anilkumar, presently leading a high-level state delegation to China, said in a release here.

Kerala Tourism is making its foray into China, a vast market with 107 million Chinese tourists traveling worldwide, according to figures available for 2014.

A shared cultural heritage was the theme as Shaolin exponents effortlessly mingled with Kalaripayattu performers in a scintillating display of martial arts.

Two Kathakali artists from Kerala then went on to enthrall the audience, which had the who's who of Chinese travel and tourism industry.

"The breathtaking fusion of Kalaripayattu and Shaolin showed that Kerala and China have a lot in common," said Anilkumar.

"Like Kerala, China has a rich tradition of classical art forms such as the famous Dragon dance, making it easy for us to understand the country and its culture and also for the people of China to understand our culture," a press release quoting the minister said.

"Relations between the people of China and Kerala go back to centuries when traders from China and Kerala exchanged commodities like spices and silk," the minister said, adding that China and Kerala shared several cultural traditions like martial arts, ancient medicinal systems and even kitchen utensils.

"Kerala is a tiny state of India, but it is blessed with a rich geographical and cultural diversity," said Kerala Chief Secretary, Jiji Thomson, who is part of the state delegation.

"With an easy connectivity and ideal proximity, Kerala is a natural destination for visitors from China.

"The first thing that tourists from worldwide see on our famous backwaters is the Chinese fishing net along its coast. The most important thing in a kitchen in Kerala is the Chinese frying pan," Thomson said.

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I have always had this theory that Shaolin actually derived from Kalaripayatu.

I'm not exactly sure what the point of this article is but I like the pic.

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Brand Shaolin’s Indian genes
Atul Aneja JUNE 04, 2017 00:00 IST
UPDATED: JUNE 04, 2017 03:34 IST

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AFP

At any given time of the year, busloads of tourists visit the Shaolin temple — the home of Kung Fu and Chan or Zen Buddhism. Despite the usual cacophony, inevitable wherever legions of travellers visit a world heritage site, the overall atmosphere at the monastery base is surprisingly becalming. The red and black buildings that dot the sprawling temple complex along a gentle gradient blend pleasingly with the green abundance of the Songshan Mountains that seem to embrace the monastery.

With 1,500 years of history — it was destroyed and re-built several times — the Shaolin temple is one of the most powerful exhibits of China’s soft power. Its often controversial abbot, Shi Yongxin, also called the ‘CEO monk’, has never lost sight of running the complex as an efficient, market-driven enterprise, but without losing its soul. This has ensured that the temple, in Central China’s Henan province, has had a steady revenue stream. Ticket sales have soared ever since the 1982 release of the Hollywood blockbuster Shaolin Temple , starring Jet Li in the lead role. Once inside the complex, visitors do not mind spending the extra yuan on a Kung Fu demonstration by monks.

The mesmerising performance is the result of the practitioners’ mastery over a combination of Qigong and Kung Fu. Qigong is a set of exercises that trains the mind to focus, and energises the body. Kung Fu imparts a complementary physical dimension of speed, power and precision. A late evening sound and light show, spanning nearly two hours, is also a money-spinner. Set against the backdrop of towering cliffs, a live performance by more than 600 artists narrates the story of Zen Buddhism — a harmonious combination of Mahayana Buddhism and China’s Taoism.

History and folklore

Acknowledged the world over as a global brand, the story of the Shaolin Temple, however, seems to underplay its critical Indian part. A combination of history and folklore traces the origin of the temple to the reign of Emperor Xiaowen, who set up the monastery as an abode for Buddhabhadra, a wandering Indian Buddhist monk. Apart from spreading Nikaya Buddhism, Buddhabhadra is credited with laying the foundations for Kung Fu. Another prominent Indian figure, Bodhidharma, arguably, steered the temple’s spiritual direction towards Zen Buddhism. According to a hazy admixture of history and legend, the monk may have belonged to present day Tamil Nadu or Kerala and landed up in China on the urgings of Prajnatara, his ageing guru.

If Zen Buddhism and Kung Fu are takeaways of a Sino-Indian spiritual fusion, China’s famous Buddhist grottoes epitomise yet another trans-Himalayan enmeshment — in the field of architecture and art. The Longmen Grottoes, an hour’s drive from the Shaolin Temple, are a fine example of what is called Serendian art — the confluence of the Graeco-Buddhist Gandhara School, known for depicting Buddha in human form, and a Chinese artistic tradition. Serendian art has flourished and evolved in and around the Hwang He or Yellow River, the cradle of Chinese civilisation. Bisected by the Yi River — a part of the Yellow River system — the imposing limestone cliffs of the Longmen mountain and the Xiangshan mountain are home to a jaw-dropping 1,00,000 Buddhist statues.

In Dunhuang, an oasis town in the nearby Gansu province, there is yet another symbol of Serendian art. Hewn out of solid rock in the bone-dry Gobi desert, the Mogao grottoes, housed in hundreds of intricately painted caves, describe the epic journey of Buddhism, from its home base in India to China.

A combination of history and folklore traces the origin of the temple to the reign of Xiaowen, who set up the monastery for Buddhabhadra, a wandering Indian monk

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It started with sugar, says Ashwin Sanghi of ‘The Vault of Vishnu’
Mini Anthikad ChhibberFEBRUARY 04, 2020 16:00 IST
UPDATED: FEBRUARY 04, 2020 16:00 IST

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Like his other works, the author’s latest novel is a heady mix of history, myth, science and thrills
Ashwin Sanghi was enjoying a delicious cup of tea from a roadside vendor when inspiration for his latest book, The Vault of Vishnu, (Westland) struck.

“The vendor kept saying ‘cheeni maar ke’ meaning he had been generous with the sugar,” says Ashwin of the book that was launched at the 2020 Jaipur Literature Festival. “It struck me then that we call sugar cheeni, which means ‘from China’. Later on, I found out that the first Chinese immigrant to Bengal in the late 18th Century was someone called Tong Achew who had established a sugarcane plantation and a sugar refinery. The region where he started the refinery was called Achipur thereafter. Hence the term ‘cheeni’ for sugar.

“I also found that when the Chinese traveller Xuanzang visited India 11 centuries earlier, he had been excited to discover sugar and candies and took some back for the emperor. This meant that sugar had travelled from India to China and back again. I wondered how many such ideas went back and forth. These are two great civilizations and the exchange between them would have been substantial.”

The Vault of Vishnu, like all of Ashwin’s books is a heady mix of history, myth, science and thrills. The book, which will be launched in Bengaluru, is extensively researched. “As is my usual pattern, I invested almost a year in my research — reading books, articles and papers that would enable me to build the historical narrative around this ancient relationship.”

Ashwin visited China for the final part of his research. “I had never been to China before and it felt slightly intimidating. My itinerary was not determined by tourist cities but by specific locations that were part of my book’s narrative, places such as the Terracotta Army, the Wild Goose Pagoda, the White Horse Temple and the Shaolin Temple. The research was more difficult because of the China dimension. Ask me to weave a story around an Indian idea and the process is almost automatic. An alien culture is far more challenging.”

Fascinating fact

Of interesting nuggets of information Ashwin came across in his research, the Mumbai-based author says, “I was studying the Silk Road. One of the most famous spots along that route was Samarkand, which boasted of the cleverest merchants. As I did my reading, I came across a passage that said that when the traders of Samokien gave birth to a son, they put honey on his lips and placed glue in his palms. It was to ensure that when he grew up, he would speak only sweet words while grasping coins in his hand as if they were glued there. I found that very similar to the thinking of traders from Jewish or Marwari backgrounds.”

Saying he loves research in those areas that have overlaps, the 51-year-old says, “I am the overlap guy — between history and mythology; between spirituality and science; between past and present; between geography and politics… ”

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Feminine principle

Like all Ashwin’s novels, The Vault of Shiva also has strong female characters from Pam Khurana, the young investigator from DRDO tasked with finding the secret of the Chinese soldiers’ superhuman strength to Jaya Roy, the veteran RAW agent and Anu Rao. “You know my fascination for Shakti. I have always believed that darkness is not the opposite of light but the absence of it. Shiva is not the opposite of Shakti but the absence of it. Male energy is the absence of female energy. The Rozabal Line had Martha-Swakilki-Alissa, Chanakya’s Chant had Chandini, The Krishna Key had Priya and Radhika... each of my novels has always had strong female leads. This one is no different.”

All the six novels in Ashwin’s Bharat Series have ‘Bharat’ as a common thread but not a common character.

“I want to build a character that will be common across a new series — as of now a closely guarded secret. The Bharat Series will always have different characters. The reason for that is the storylines will be different — one may require a scientist as the protagonist while another may need an academic or detective. Given that the Bharat Series is one in which I wish to write a book every two years until I die, I wish to keep my flexibility.”

With the many web series available on streaming platforms, there is every chance of the books having a screen avatar. “Currently The Sialkot Saga is with Hansal Mehta for an OTT adaptation. The Krishna Key is with Eros Entertainment for a movie adaptation. The Rozabal Line is with a third entity for a mini-series. I am sure that the remaining books will also get optioned or acquired soon. But remember one thing. Any adaptations of Bharat Series is always challenging owing to the scale and scope of these stories. Hence, patience is key.” The Vault of Vishnu alternates between the present and Xuanzang’s journey to India between 627 and 645 CE.

“It was the final journey among the three most important travellers (Bodhidharma and Faxian). Xuanzang’s journey was documented extensively by his biographer. Writing about that particular journey was far easier than the other two.”

Almost 80% of the journey is true, says Ashwin. “I have made deviations at places to suit the fictional narrative. Xuanzang talks about a third statue at Bamiyan but he does not actually visit it. He only makes a mental note to visit it on his return tour but does not end up crossing Bamiyan on his return.”

Xuanzang’s journey has extensive footnotes mentioning the old and new names of the places he visited. “I was worried that the footnotes would distract but the consensus between editor and publisher and me was that the footnotes added the required information for the places in the travelogue without interrupting the first-person narrative. Actually, one could read the entire story without referring to the footnotes at all. The footnotes are for avid history buffs who would like to have that additional information.”

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THREADS
India-China Cultural Contacts (changed titles from Encyclopedia of India-China Cultural Contacts)
The Vault of Vishnu