Interactions between Buddhism and Local Cults - Case Study Example

April 28, Buddhism and Local Cults: Interactions and Inter-Exchanges Buddhism is not a monolithic religion with only one strand of thinking and practices. In reality, early Buddhism showed interactions with local cults with an argued general trend of adaptation than rejection of the latter. The study of local cults is limited through access to textual documents from opposing religions that had written or physical art evidence, many of which showed biased against the former (Decaroli 9). Nevertheless, the paper aims to describe and analyze the interactions between Buddhism and local cults. It argues that these interactions are more like cultural inter-exchanges, which allowed Buddhism to integrate or complement or assimilate local spiritual/religious beliefs in ways that promoted the former’s development as a dynamic, heterogeneous religion and culture. Interactions between Buddhism and Local Cults One of the interactions between Buddhism and local cults is that between it and Shintoism in Japan, also called shinbutsu shūgō (Rambelli 35), as modern studies find differences in how Buddhism is seen in relation to its effects on and linkages with local cults. Rambelli studied shinbutsu shūgō through the perspective of cultural semiotics. He cites Allan Grapard who describes shūgō as a product of sophisticated semiotic operations where divinities of different religious/spiritual systems are expressed in similar linguistic forms of metaphors, anagrams, associations, palindromes, and anagogies (Rambelli 37). Tsuji Zennosuke offers the historical development of shinbutsu shūgō in three distinct stages that a number of scholars accept. The first stage states that Buddhists envisioned the kami (gods, spirits, or ancestral spirits) as under a state of suffering because of their entrapment in the cycle of transmigration (rokudō), so they needed Buddhism to save them (Rambelli 37). The second stage shows the shift in perceptions of the kami as protectors of Buddhism, like Indian gods (Rambelli 37). The last stage sees the kami as “manifestations” or manifest remains (suijaku) of buddhas, bodhisattvas, and other Buddhist sacred elements, which became perceived also as “original states” (honji) of Japanese kami (Rambelli 37). Sueki Fumihiko just added a fourth stage, where Buddhism created the new kami (Rambelli 37). These were not seen as purely distinct stages, but overlapping and affecting one another (Rambelli 37). An example is that during the Edo Period in Japan, the kami was seen in all four stages, as sufferers, performers of religious ceremonies, protectors, or manifest entities (Rambelli 37-38). Moreover, apart from these historical stages, some scholars saw shinbutsu shūgō as a feature of ancient, medieval Japan. Such thinking tends to overlook other local cults that may not neatly be part of shinbutsu shūgō (Rambelli 38). Rambelli mentions examples of isolated kami deities that Buddhism did not co-opt, such as shinbutsu kakuri of the court and the Ise Shrines (Rambelli 38). These deities may be called as “real kamis” (jisshashin or jissha) because of their separation from Buddhism, although a critical perspective has been set against these cults of the kami (Rambelli 38). Scholars stressed that the interactions or shinbutsu shūgō, nevertheless, can be argued as an acculturation process, instead of an assimilation process (Rambelli 41). Buddhism and Local Cults in Early Indian Buddhism Since Buddhism started in ancient India, it did not generally try to repress local cults, but either integrated them or gave a complement to them. Buddhism is as much as a cultural phenomenon as it is religious, where it merges different cultural values and beliefs from local cults. For instance, early Indian Buddhism showed addition of Indian local cult deities, such as the Brahmanical deities and local gods (i.e. yakshas and nagas) (Rambelli 41). Brahmanism was the official Aryan religious system, which believes in the Vedic ritual, believed as the key for political legitimacy and social order in the world (Rambelli 42). Brahmanism created a hierarchical social order called the caste system, which did not require popular support, or even the support of merchants, depending entirely on upper-class domination (Rambelli 42). Buddhism occupied the missing political and cultural spaces that Brahmanism left open. Buddhism interacted with these local cults, which formed a distinct cultural space that appealed to the elites, the masses, the Aryans and non-Aryans, states, groups, and individuals (Rambelli 42). Instead of strongly rejecting the hierarchical social structure, early Indian Buddhism used Brahmanical models for integrating the elite and the masses. Buddhism followed hierarchy in dividing ritual labor. Buddhism had its own Brahman and religious specialists (Rambelli 42). Aside from these specialists, Buddhism also used local cult deities, like other Indian religions. These religious systems offer a complex name of supernatural beings that cannot be all correctly translated in English for the lack of proper equivalents (Rambelli 43). These entities may not even be seen as supernatural all the time because some co-exist with human beings in the real world (i.e. nagas, devas, and yakshas, as well as demons and ghost elements), something that not all people are aware of as part of the history of Buddhism (Rambelli 43). Buddhism has even resulted to the translocal conversion of local deities. Some examples are spirit-deities, or ghosts of the dead, ancestors, and heroes, among others, that share some qualities of the dead and the gods (Rambelli 43). Rambelli called these local spirit-deities as not original to Buddhism but original to India, ideas that Buddhism brought outside of India in the process of acculturation, and produced through interactions between Buddhism and local cults (Rambelli 43). Buddhism and Local Cults in Tibet Bön is at times claimed as the religion of Tibet before the arrival of Buddhism, but it may also have developed alongside it. On the one hand, there are documents showing its early development. In the twelfth century, there were found Buddhist and Bonpo works (229). Tun-huang manuscripts were from ninth to tenth centuries, but they were more of fragments than systematic evidence (229). On the other hand, the chronicles mentioned Buddhist beliefs but not Bonpo in particular (229). It is possible that Bonpo was handed on to these early generations, such as Taoism in China, and more of based on tales, riddles, and fragmented folk beliefs and customs (229). Its religious specialists are also called bönpo (also shen). King Songtsen Gampo, who was responsible for introducing Buddhism authoritatively to Tibet, did not abandon Bon. Later, during the reign of King Trhisong Detsen, a debate between the Buddhists and Bonpo resulted to the former wining, and forced conversions happened afterwards (240). Bon was officially declared as a heresy that was open to persecution by the state (240). To survive, Bon assimilated Buddhism. The bonpos made their collection of written text that they did not practice before (Kangyur and Tengyur) (241). They also formed their nine vehicles that was comparable to Nyingma-pa, while establishing monasteries and technical language for philosophy and meditation from Lamaism (241). Works Cited Decaroli, Robert. “Coming to Terms.” Haunting the Buddha: Indian Popular Religions and the Formation of Buddhism. ---. “Making Believers.” Haunting the Buddha: Indian Popular Religions and the Formation of Buddhism. Powers, John. “Bön: A Heterodox System.” Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism. Rambelli, Fabio. “Interactions between Buddhism and Local Cults: Considerations from the Perspective of Cultural Semiotics.” Read More