Diverse terrain, climate and peoples
Siddhartha Gautama
Tathagata, "He who arrived at the truth"
Sakyamuni “Sage of the Sakyas”
Prince
Path to enlightenment
Leaves family
*Asceticism
*Meditation on Middle Path
1) Saw past lives
2) Saw realities of the cycles of existence
3) Saw life was suffering (samsara)
4) *Nirvana
Becomes the Buddha, “The Enlightened One”
1) Life is Samsara (suffering)
2) Desire (thirst) is the source of suffering
3) Ending desire is the solution to ceasing suffering
4) Holy Eightfold Path
Moral code (1-6)
Meditation (7-8)
Karma
Nirvana
“The Middle Path”
Social equality
*Stupa
Buddha’s Relics
Monks
Lay believers
Karma
*Ashoka or King Piyadasi (r. 268-232 BCE)
Conquest of Kalinga, 260 BCE
Ashoka, “Rock and Pillar Edicts” Small Pillar Edict 1 (249 BCE)
"Twenty years after his coronation, Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi [Ashoka], visited this place and worshipped because here the Buddha, the sage of the Sakyans, was born. [44] He had a stone figure and a pillar set up and because the Lord was born here, the village of Lumbini was exempted from tax and required to pay only one eighth of the produce." Quoted from: https://www.cs.colostate.edu/~malaiya/ashoka.html#MINORPILLAR
How did the edicts help to promote the spread of Buddhist Dharma (teaching)? Why did the edicts represent political propaganda meant to promote Ashoka's power?
Sarvastavadins, Dharmaguptakas, Theravada (Teaching of Elders), etc.
Monasticism
Vinaya rules (Foltz, p. 38)
Meditation
Connected to popular worship
Gandharan-style statues
Kushan Empire (50-260 CE)
Kanishka II (reigned ca. 230 CE)
*Mahayana (Greater Vehicle) Buddhism as state religion
Gandharan-style statues
1. How do Foltz and Whitfield differ on their approaches to the study of Buddhism on the Silk Road? 1a. Does Whitfield ever mention the various Buddhist schools? 1b. Does Foltz ever mention stupas and monasteries?
2. Foltz and Whitfield agree that Buddhism was a missionary religion. Foltz writes that it was, “the first large-scale missionary effort in the history of the world’s religions” (p. 37) and Whitfield says that it was, a “proselytizing faith with a proclivity for long-distance travel” (p. 83). Do they have points of agreement about the spread of Buddhism?
3. Foltz writes that “What is true of all the [Buddhist] schools is that their activities had important economic dimensions” (42). Whitfield writes, “Throughout the early Buddhist world we see a symbiotic link between Buddhists and merchants” (p. 85). What do they mean by this? Do they supply adequate evidence to support their positions? Does Whitfield prove that it was merchants or wealthy landowners who supported the building and maintenance of the Amluk Dara Stupa?
4. On page 87, Whitfield writes, “The need for an architectural infrastructure accompanies the growth of religious communities.” What does she mean by this? How does it influence her analysis of the origins of the Amluk Dara Stupa? What is the advantage of Whitfield’s approach if we consider that the vast majority of people in the premodern world were illiterate? What different aspects of Buddhism does Foltz’s doctrinal-based analysis reveal?