4 - Traces of Indonesian Influences in Tibet

Summary

EVER SINCE THE REDISCOVERY by the French scholar George Coedès (1918) of the Indonesian kingdom of Śrīvijaya, which for more than half a millennium (7th–13th century ad) played a major role in the history of Southeast Asia, the study of this polity has assumed a prominent position in the research of the ancient history of Indonesia. This kingdom and its capital Śrīvijayapura, probably located near the modern city of Palembang in Sumatra, functioned for a long period as a relay station and resting point in the vibrant sea trade between India and China, to which it also contributed an array of products. Apart from this, Śrīvijaya also maintained close contacts with kingdoms on the mainland of Southeast Asia. Its important position in Asian commercial traffic aside, Śrīvijaya was for many centuries a prominent international centre in the Buddhist world. Chinese monks, on their way to India by sea, often stayed in the cpital of Śrīvijaya for some length of time to familiarize themselves with Sanskrit before travelling on to India. Of these Chinese monks the best known was perhaps Yijing, who stayed in the capital for a period of six months in the year 671. However, bhikṣus from India itself also did travel to the famous Śrīvijaya. Thus we read in Tāranātha's History of Buddhism in India (in Tibetan, 16th century) that, after his retirement from Nālandā University, Dharmapāla, originally from Kāncī and a contemporary of Xuanzang, left for Sumatra to stay there for the rest of his life. According to this late Tibetan source he gained immortality (amṛtasiddhi) there, never to be reborn again. This Dharmapāla followed the spiritual tradition of the famous Buddhist scholar Diṇnāga (5th century), who in turn is mentioned in the Old Javanese SaṇHyaṇKamahāyānikan as the proclaimer of the fourfold Yoga.

Because of the many foreign contacts, both commercially and in religious matters, it almost goes without saying that non-Indonesian sources could contain important information regarding the history of Śrīvijaya. Apart from indigenous sources (inscriptions, artefacts, etc.), the Chinese in particular have contributed much to our knowledge of the kingdom of Śrīvijaya.