People, Places, Texts, and Topics: Another Look at the Larger Context of the Spread of Chan Buddhism in Eastern Central Asia during the Tibetan Imperial and Post-Imperial Period (7th–10th C.)

Type:

Book Chapter

Author:

Carmen Meinert

Published:

2024

The region east of the Blue Lake, which was part of the Tibetan Empire (ca. 8th c. to 842, Tib. Bod chen po) and later the Tangut Empire (ca. 1038–1227, in Chinese sources known as Xixia 西夏), was an important multicultural area connecting the equally diverse oasis towns of the Hexi Corridor (Chin. Hexi zoulang 河西走廊) and the Tarim Basin with Sinitic and Tibetan cultural areas. The present chapter explores the development of the contested space between these cultures in a broader historical context. It also discusses religion, especially Chan in both its Chinese form and as adapted into Tibetan, its links to the famous Samyé Debate, and its use in a power struggle during the ninth and tenth centuries that relates to the well-known Tibetan master Gongpa Rapsel (892–975, Tib. dGongs pa Rab gsal). This expands our picture of how Chan masters, Buddhist works, and religious themes might have interacted on the micro-historical level through local and transregional exchanges in Eastern Central Asia. The chapter thereby brings together information on people, places, texts, and topics related to Chan Buddhism in order to actually locate them in geographical space in the contested region east of the Blue Lake.

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