The story appears on

Page A7

April 21, 2016

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

Home » Opinion » Chinese Views

TV documentary series sheds new light on story of Tibet’s great Buddhist master

TO many people, Tibet stands out as a land of natural wonder, with azure skies and crystal-clear rivers. Many people, frustrated by mundane pursuits, also take refuge in Tibetan Buddhism, which advocates selflessness.

My father, now nearly 90, worked in Tibet for about six years in the 1950s and 1960s as a doctor. He left for east China after he suffered a back injury in an accident. My father still has a fondness for Tibet. Although old age has robbed him of many memories and slowed his tongue, he still knows a few simple Tibetan words he learned there half a century ago.

But what else about Tibet? Most important probably, when did Tibet become part of China? Who were the heroes in bringing Tibet peacefully into China? Even my father does not know clearly.

Like many friends, I had only vague ideas about those historical events, until I watched a popular TV documentary film on the great Tibetan Buddhist and social activist Phagspa (1235-1280).

The five-part documentary aired on CCTV in prime-time last summer and has since been rebroadcast many times to commemorate the 780th anniversary of the birth of Phagspa. It’s an eye-opener to anyone who wishes to understand Tibet more deeply.

Garwa Nyakwang Zangbo, the chief consultant for the documentary, a living buddha and vice president of the Buddhist Association of Qinghai Province, told Shanghai Daily that it will be translated into several foreign languages.

Titled “Phagspa, the Imperial Preceptor,” the documentary gives a succinct introduction to how he helped the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) establish central authority over Tibet, and how Phagspa persuaded the dynasty’s first emperor, Khubilai, to pursue peace and allow all schools of Buddhism to flourish in Tibet, instead of giving preference only to his own school — Saskya.

A digression is necessary here to explain the relationship between Phagspa and Khubilai. Actually, before the two men met to make history, Phagspa’s uncle, Saskya Pandita, another great Buddhist scholar, had already held talks with certain Mongol nobles, in which both sides agreed to peacefully bring Tibet under Mongol administration.

The Mongols attacked Tibet in 1239 because of its geopolitical importance. According to the documentary, Mongol armies had hoped to flank attack the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279). To enable the armies to march smoothly, the Mongols decided to put Tibet under their administration. By that time, Tibet had been contested by several rival factions for hundreds of years.

“When Mongols attacked the neighboring Southern Song Dynasty, a fractured Tibet had no way to be alerted in time,” says the documentary. “In about one year, Mongols had occupied key areas of Tibet.” The Mongols would later send a letter of invitation to Phagspa’s uncle for negotiation.

Meeting challenges heads-on

“Although he hated Mongol armies’ cruel behavior, as a great scholar, he knew that it would be better to meet challenges heads-on rather than dodge them. So he accepted the invitation,” explains the documentary. “When unification becomes inevitable, it is those who are more open-minded and more firm in actions that will make legends.”

Saskya Pandita traveled two years, along with Phagspa and his brother, before they finally reached the Mongol field headquarter in Liangzhou (in today’s Gansu Province).

Having consulted along the journey with major religious and earthly leaders in Tibet, Saskya Pandita was able to strike a peace deal with the Mongols, in which Tibet would abide by Mongol rule and pay tribute to Mongol, among other things, but otherwise retain much of its own rights. “This means that Tibet would come under Mongol rule, and eventually be unified into the Yuan Dynasty China,” says the documentary.

But in the time between the historic deal in Liangzhou and Khubilai’s becoming the new Great Khan, Tibet was largely ruled by different Mongol nobles who might align with different religious factions, so a central authority was still lacking in Tibet after it initially came under Mongol rule.

It was Phagspa, says the documentary, who finally reformed and replaced fractured family and religious politics with 13 new administrative units, which answered more effectively to central authority.

“Phagspa’s achievement in the administration of Tibet in the Yuan Dynasty was like a peak that could hardly be surpassed,” says the documentary. “His system lasted throughout the Yuan Dynasty and well extended into later times.”

In conclusion, the documentary says: “Yes, Phagspa made the Mongol royal family accept Buddhism and created a new language for the Mongols (the Phagspa script); but more importantly, he and Khubilai created a new religious and political relationship between the central government and Tibetan Buddhist leaders. Phagspa devoted all his life to strengthening the central administration of Tibet and protecting national unification. Such a tradition has continued to the present.”

Administrative reforms were extremely difficult, though, as interests had to be redistributed. As difficult was achieving religious harmony. Not all Buddhist sects in Tibet supported Phagspa and his Saskya sect in reforms. At one time, Khubilai suggested that those sects which would not obey Phagspa’s order be banned, but Phagspa disagreed. He insisted that all sects should be allowed to study and spread their own principles.

According to Chen Qingying, a scholar on Tibetan Buddhism, Phagspa also took the initiative to learn Buddhist theories from the great scholars of other sects. His humble spirit earned him sympathy and support from many Buddhist monks and scholars from different schools.

“He also persuaded the Mongol royal family to tolerate various thoughts,” says Chen Qingying. “That helped consolidate the historical trend of Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism and other thoughts growing together.”

Wisdom of compassion

Before Khubilai gained supreme power within the Mongol ruling class, there was a time when his rivals — mostly conservative nobles — argued that, after defeating the Southern Song Dynasty, the Han people should be massacred and their arable land be turned into grassland for sheep herding. On hearing the news, says the documentary, Phagspa sided with Khubilai, who was more sympathetic to the Han people and other cultures.

“Phagspa used his Buddhist wisdom of compassion to tactfully nudge Khubilai to embrace peace and abandon force,” says Garwa Nyakwang Zangbo.

Chen Qingying says Phagspa seldom forced his Buddhist ideas of compassion onto others, let alone on Khubilai. “Phagspa smartly shared his compassion for other people with Khubilai, so that Khubilai, a worldly ruler bent on doing great, could do good as well.”

Historian F.W.Mote wrote in his book “Imperial China: 900-1800” (Harvard University Press 2003): “Phagspa is one of the more remarkable figures in Yuan history; he was an intellectual figure of undoubted genius, an administrator, and a spiritual leader and writer of great influence.”

Phagspa died at 46, but his dreams had come true: a unified nation where peace and common prosperity prevailed.




 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend