PACIFIC WORLD - The Institute of Buddhist Studies

Yamada: Buddhism of Båmiyån 115surrounding them a great many miniature votive st¥pa-s and other votivearticles have been unearthed, but few Buddhist texts, the existence ofwhich would suggest the flourishing of doctrinal developments, have beenrecovered. Further, we must take note of the narrative elements, as well aselements of folk belief which can be richly seen in the relics of antiquarianart. Their unique feature lies in their having a character which coincidedwith a form of faith possessed by lay believers, but which was, within theactual undercurrent of Indian Buddhist history, seldom outwardly manifestedas such in Buddhist literature.VI. MIXTURE WITH LOCAL FOLK BELIEFSIt is unthinkable that the development of Buddhism in India couldhave been shouldered solely by practicing monks or by scholar-monks inthe upper stratum of the saµgha. Common lay believers rarely makeappearances in Buddhist literature. Yet, any attempt to undertake a reconstructionof Indian Buddhist history while ignoring the existence of anoverwhelmingly large number of householders who supported the foundationsof the Buddhist order would limit one’s understanding to dogmaticor doctrinal aspects. If one were to discuss Central Asian Buddhismonly from the side of dogmatic or doctrinal history, one would not be ableto see very much there.Viewing Buddhism from the standpoint of its transmission throughthree countries—India, China, and Japan—would disclose the developmentof a theoretical Buddhism that was filled with metaphysical debate.It would not reveal the overall character of Buddhism, which broughttogether the faith and beliefs of many ignorant and illiterate commonpeople during nearly a thousand years in the non-agricultural regions ofCentral Asia. As we have stated above, the character that one can stronglysense in the Buddhism of Central Asia is that of a Buddhism of the caitya,that is, a Buddhism of worship and salvation, which was completelydifferent in nature from a Buddhism of doctrine and emancipation centeredon the vihåra, or, monastery.It is clear that the phrase “one hundred deities” that appears withinHsüan-tsang’s writings regarding Ghazni refers to non-Buddhist deities,while the phrase “heavenly deity” is a reference to a Hindu deity, possiblyS¥rya, the Sun-deity. However, it is not known whether “heavenly deities”also refers to deities of other paths in general, or whether it is limited toHindu deities. Most likely it is the former. In any case, this state in whicha “myriad monks and followers” in this land who “revere the ThreeTreasures” of Buddhism while they also “pray to the one hundred deities”are “learning the Mahåyåna teaching” creates the strong sense of a fairlychaotic hodgepodge of magical beliefs. Further, the character of the “heav-