The heritage of the Buddha country

When Buddhism became the only official ideology in the subcontinent under the promotion of Emperor Ashoka, our ancestors were still in the Warring States period, before the unification war began.

When the glory of the Axial Age finally shone on the land of Yanhuang (before Confucianism alone), India had become a state of division among the wars of the states, and countless nomads from Central Asia and West Asia rushed into this rich, semi-enclosed subcontinent. India's upper and ruling classes are rife with alien blood. It's a melting pot of ethnic integration.

Before the Islamization of India, there were only three major religions: Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam had not yet entered the Gangetic Plain and the Deccan Plateau, and Sikhism had not yet been shadowed. In the lower classes, Hinduism as the core of the caste system occupies an absolute advantage, but this is not the case in the upper class, Jain believers rely on the highest literacy rate in the whole society, take the absolute elite line, from the scale of the model has always been a small but fine type, has been expanding Jainism to the Christmas 21st century is only 4.2 million people. The upper-class Buddhist regimes in India were even more numerous and short-lived, with almost none of them living longer than 300 years. The number of Buddhists in the subcontinent did not exceed 10 million at its peak, while the number of Hindus remained above 50 million for a long time. The birthplace of Buddhism, Kapila (in present-day Nepal), was basically a popular Hindu religion. At this time, only one country in the subcontinent believed in Buddhism, and the other countries of the subcontinent were Hindu. The few Jains entrenched in the big cities can only hold on, and it is difficult for them to expand into the countryside and compete with Hinduism for lower-class believers.

And after the people who traveled to the subcontinent. A large number of Han merchants brought the fruits of Han Buddhism in the hundreds of years after Master Xuanzang, and a large number of Buddhist temples were built in various places under the opening of the Jin Yuan and privileges. Most of them were built near the stone pagoda where Emperor Ashoka enshrined the Buddha's bone relics. The presiding officers of each of the wealthy empires sent to India to revive Buddhism were naturally top Buddhist masters who were proficient in Sanskrit and the Tripitaka scriptures. Coupled with a few high-ranking monks from the outer courtyard who were good at lending, managing money, and running temple properties, this great missionary cause naturally saw an unprecedented prosperity in the subcontinent.

Although Shakyamuni is only the meaning of the wise man of the Shakyamuni clan, the legacy he left behind is not only beneficial to the Shakyamuni clan. Each stupa dedicated to the relics was a sacred relic in the eyes of the imperial monks, and the pagoda on which it was located should be able to build a wonder like Borobudur. The Imperial Government was also prepared to do the same, and almost every stupa with the Buddha's bones was bought by wealthy imperial monks within a radius of one kilometer, and almost all of the buildings built on a large scale were modeled after Mount Meru into a huge spectacle of stepped pyramids.

Employing a large number of local laborers to build hundreds or thousands of temples can directly boost the local economy, and there is an annual salary of three or four times the annual income of food and well-fed. Naturally, countless poor workers flocked to it, completely throwing away the spiritual shackles of Hinduism and turning to Buddhism to the Buddhas.

Many middle- and lower-class landlords and merchants are also actively like Optimus Prime with thick legs (many of the high-ranking monks sent by the empire wear many hats.) It can only be similar to that of Western missionaries, who cooperate with diplomacy and trade intermediaries while proselytizing. The cultivation of local specialties and cash crops purchased by the temple at a high price, and the production of various medicinal materials, minerals, and industrial raw materials needed by the temple brought great benefits to these middle-class elites with a keen sense of smell and smell.

After taking over the entire territory of Chola. The Viceroyalty of South India, the supreme body of the imperial colonies of the subcontinent, was established. Less than a year. The number of Buddhists in the vicinity of settlements where Buddhist temples were built in large numbers exceeded the number of Hindus. The number of Buddhists in the subcontinent has increased by 20% in just one year. Each temple and its estate became a state within a state of ownership and lease.

These temples had several functions, mainly to spread Buddhism and contribute to the ideological expansion of the empire, as well as to educate religious elites from primary school to university, to train compradors and agents in international trade and commerce, to disseminate the advanced way of life and culture of the empire, and to protect the rights of the citizens of the empire in the countries of the subcontinent (Buddha bone stupas were generally built near the populous plain towns of the Ashoka era with large populations, and developed agriculture, Naturally, it is still a densely populated settlement, and naturally diplomats are still building embassies and consulates in convenient places near the temple). There are also agents of various enterprises and institutions in the empire before they enter (mainly imperial immigration to India, Indian immigration to Southeast Asia and Australia in urgent need of labor, bank deposit and loan business, relief, medical care, pension and welfare institutions, etc.).

Sanskrit is only the religious language spoken by a small number of high-ranking intellectual elites in India. Its status and influence in the classical era are equivalent to that of Latin to Christianity. The majority of the illiterate population still speak a wide variety of dialects and unwritten languages. Hindi is basically spoken in North India and Dravidian is basically spoken in South India (this language family includes about 20 languages). However, in the later period, some languages with small populations have been discovered in the mountains, and the exact number remains to be investigated. The most important languages in this language family are Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, also known as Kanaris, and Telugu. ）

All the colonies use bilingual teaching, the local written language plus Chinese characters and Central Plains Chinese, the Chola belongs to South India, and the people in most areas use Tamil, so all Buddhist temples and schools built by the colonial government only teach Sanskrit Siddhan and Chinese characters, and the local private schools teach the compulsory Chinese language and the optional Tamil and indigenous dialects.

The final result is naturally that those who don't know Sanskrit can't get into the upper echelons, and those who don't know Chinese can't become officials.

Even the kingdom of Pala handed over the last legacy of Buddhism, the management and estate of Nalanda Monastery, in the face of huge trade interests.

For this alone, the empire spent 3 million dragon yuan to obtain the spiritual treasure of the last Buddha Kingdom. Tens of thousands of books and classics were saved from destruction in the flames of war, no less important than the preservation of the Library of Alexandria. The collection of books in Nalanda Temple is basically a classical collection written in Sanskrit, most of which are made of bay leaves, and were the highest peak when Xuanzang came in the Tang Dynasty. The 2 million fragments left behind after centuries of moth-eaten decay and poor preservation are also a huge legacy. At its peak, Nalanda Temple had a collection of 9 million volumes, 2,000 teachers, and attracted more than 10,000 students from China, Japan, Korea and other countries to study here. Teaching here is centered on the Buddhist tradition, imparting knowledge of science, philosophy, literature, mathematics, logic, and medicine. There are many scholars in Nalanda Temple, and the Chinese monk Xuanzang "West Heaven" learned scriptures, which is to seek Buddhism in Nalanda Temple. Yijing, a famous translator of the Tang Dynasty, also studied here for 10 years.

During Xuanzang's practice, it was the time when the academic atmosphere of Nalanda Temple was at its strongest. Scholars from all over the world crowded the lecture halls of the monastery, which often presided over various academic seminars, public lectures and debates. At that time, Nalanda Temple was like an "Ivy League" university of Buddhism, where all the profound Buddhist ideas were taught, studied, and transmitted.

In 1193, Islamized Turkic armies invaded India, ransacked Nalanda Temple, and set fire to its massive library. At that time, Western institutions of higher learning such as the University of Oxford were just becoming larger.

Rama Polo, an emerging Indian economist, inventor of small productive interest-free loans, winner of the Chenji Prize, and king of the Baltic kingdom, became the school's headmaster. He introduced that the university's graduate school has sent out invitations to recruit researchers and faculty members from all over the world. Starting next year, Nalanda University will open its doors to the first cohort of students who will study in the university's only two faculties: Philosophy and Ecology and Environment.

The university will gradually strengthen its disciplines, focusing on the development of humanities, economics and management, Asian integration, sustainable development and oriental languages.

Rama Polo emphasized that Nalanda University's academic direction is internationalization and Asian integration, and will actively exchange ideas with Chenji College, Imperial University, Shenkyo University, and Peking University.

Nalanda University will be an inspiration and dynamism for Asia, but the knowledge it imparts, the subjects it excels at, and the people involved in it come from all over the world, he said. "What works in India works everywhere." Ramapola said.

Although it is an Indian university, Nalanda University can be described as a product of Asian cooperation. As early as 1947, at the East Asia Summit, Ramaporo called on Asian countries to work together to rebuild Nalanda University. Countries such as Sri Buddha, Angkor, and China responded positively.

In 1949, Sri Buddha established the Nalanda Research Center of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies and held a symposium to discuss plans to establish an international university in Nalanda. In 1950, the Imperial Government donated 1 million Dragon Dollars to the reconstruction project. Yang Wen, former foreign minister and head of the Nalanda International Advisory Group, said that the rebuilding of Nalanda University is of great significance, and that the "reunion" between India and East Asia will be the highlight of this century.

The entire monastery also became the core of Tibetan Buddhist tantric and Indian Buddhist exchanges.

Turning temples into universities is also the best and fastest way to solve the problems of the subcontinent, and its input costs and scale benefits are the largest and longest among the many options. In the eyes of the traversers, colonial India could not choose the British approach, which was too crude and untechnical. The exorbitant cost of maintaining stability nearly crippled the finances of British India, making it impossible for the colony to provide revenue for its overlord, and the result of having to give it up was simply stupid.

If the alien invaders have been able to succeed in India again and again, maintaining a long and stable rule, why can't the British? It will take no more time to assimilate India than Japan to assimilate the Ryukyus. What is there to struggle with in former nation-states that don't even have a written word (which can be considered unwritten given the horrific low literacy rate, which is barely 3%)? In the face of entering the capitalist empire, India is simply fat on the chopping block. (To be continued......)