PACIFIC WORLD - The Institute of Buddhist Studies

168Pacific WorldCuriously, Tibetans like Bu-ston or ‘Gos-lo gZhon-nu-dpal have largelyrejected Pu√∂ar∆ka’s position in favor of that stated by RaviΩr∆jñåna. 57Be that as it may, there can be little question that the Ûambhala myth isclosely tied to an ideology of a Buddhist kingdom surviving the onslaughtsof the Muslim armies, depicted both in the text of the received tantra andin the commentarial literature. Thus, the interest in the mythic kingdom ofÛambhala combines themes already seen about the origin of the Dharma,its demise, and (in this instance) its resurrection at the hands of thevictorious armies of the final future king of Ûambhala, Raudrakalkin. 58Orfino has pointed out that, whoever the author of the Kålacakra may havebeen, he must have had a thorough exposure to both the ideology of Islamand the violence of the Muslim armies of the day. We might observe thatresurgent Islamic threats by agressive Nak≈bandi Sufis in the Tarim Basinprobably precipitated the resurgence of the Ûambhala myth for the Mongols,resulting in the 1775 CE guidebook to the imaginary land by bLo-bzangdPla-ldan ye-shes, the Third Pa√-chen Rin-po-che. 59Even with the Ûambhala myth, the eclipse of Central Asia as a Buddhistdomain was ultimately to cause its sites to become reidentified and relocatedinto South Asia, specifically Nepal. John Brough has already calledattention to the identification of Swayambh¥ with specific Khotaneselegends, and we certainly can see that the Bodhanåtha st¥pa has appropriatedTibetan legends in its search for authenticity. 60 The importance ofCentral Asia in all of this is, well, central, since Bodhanåth itself was olderthan Buddhism in Tibet, as our medieval Nepalese inscriptions affirm. Themovement of pilgrimage sites, involving the identification of one pilgrimagesite with another by changing the names or equating their designations,is a common phenomenon in South Asia. It certainly occurred beforePu√∂ar∆ka’s time and occupied much attention in Ûåkyarak≈ita’s review ofsuch sites, where many of the pilgrimage centers are equated to each other.The same phenomenon is visible in Southeast Asia and Tibet, which haveidentified areas with the names of important places in Buddhist India. Yetthe aura of a sanctified zone which pervades the South Asian image ofCentral Asia became important in the establishment of Nepalese authenticity,even with Nepal’s greater antiquity.THE WILD NORTH ON THE FRONTIERS OF REALITYThe idea that a frontier area became influential on the parent civilizationhas certainly been part of the American persona since the time ofFrederick Jackson Turner’s “frontier hypothesis.” In what must be thesingle most influential conference paper in the history of Americanacademia, Turner’s 1893 paper, “The Significance of the Frontier in AmericanHistory,” proposed that American values—the speedy integration of