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The Buddhist Maritime Silk Road (1)
Professor Lewis R. Lancaster is the founder and Director of the Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative (ECAI). With over 20 years spent on the “Atlas of Maritime Buddhism” research, Dr. Lancaster has recently entrusted his writings The Buddhist Maritime Silk Road to the Fo Guang Shan Institute of Humanistic Buddhism for translation and publication. The book comprises five chapters, to be published chronologically in this journal.
The Buddhist Maritime Silk Road (2): Origin and Spread of Buddhism
The Buddhist tradition can be traced back to its founder Sakyamuni, a wandering ascetic, who traversed the Ganges River basin, teaching and attracting a group of followers. It was a significant time for the history of social and economic developments in the basin, which was covered with what can be called a “rainforest.” One part of the area, at the delta, was made up of the largest mangrove forest in the world. Along the embankments of the Ganges and its tributaries, some settlements have been characterized as the “Second Urbanization” of the subcontinent. Archaeological remains show that the “First Urbanization” of the Indian region had occurred along the Indus River as far back as the third millennium BCE. The “Second Urbanization” was in full bloom by the 6th century BCE, composed of cities and towns spread throughout the Ganges basin. The economy was based on active trade between the population centers.
The Buddhist Maritime Silk Road (3): The Great Circle of Buddhism and Its Rim
The spread of the Buddhist movement throughout the peninsula and across to Sri Lanka was impressive. However, a far greater challenge awaited the tradition outside the cultural and linguistic domains of India. The “Great Circle”would carry Buddhist ideas and practices thousands of miles away from India. New homes for it were found along the coasts and rivers, wherever merchants needed to go. Eventually, the arcs of the “Great Circle” of Buddhism would encompass the whole of Southeast Eurasia. One portion of the arc went from the West Coast of India up the Indus Valley and around the far end of the Himalayas to the Tarim Basin leading to Chang’an (Xi’an), a route of more than 4,000 miles. The connecting maritime segment of the “Great Circle” started on the western shores of India, circling the peninsula and Sri Lanka up the East Coast to the Bay of Bengal and then moving East around the coastlines of Bangladesh, Myanmar, Malay Peninsula, across to Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, before turning north to East Asia and the ports of China, Korea, and Japan. The circumference of both arcs land and sea, measured enough miles to encircle the equator of the earth; the indented shorelines contained 20,000 miles of surface, five times the land route mileage.
The Buddhist Maritime Silk Road (4): Buddhism along the Sea Routes
The Buddhist Maritime Silk Road (5): Conclusion
The study of the spread of Buddhism eastward from the shores of India to the South China Sea is being changed by contemporary views of political history for these regions. No longer is there a goal of describing nation-states, “empires,” that had firm boundaries and centralized governance in a fixed capital city setting. The previous descriptions, of ancient “kingdoms” in control of the three major riverine areas and the islands off the coast of mainland Southeast Asia, are being challenged. Whether it is the Irrawaddy River of Myanmar, the Chao Phraya basin of Thailand, the Mekong Delta of Vietnam and Cambodia, or the islands and peninsula of Malaysia and Indonesia, significant shifts are occurring in our understanding of how these areas were governed in the past.
The Buddhist Maritime Silk Road Online Book Launch: the Long-Forgotten Voyage of Trade and Religion Back to Life
Prominent Buddhist Masters such as Faxian, Bodhidharma, Yijing, and Atiśa took sea routes to learn and propagate Buddhist teachings. Viewers’ comments and reflections: The Buddhist Maritime Silk Roa.....
《佛教海線絲綢之路》第一章——前言
電子文化地圖協會（ECAI）創辦人蘭卡斯特教授，鑽研「海線佛教」已有20 餘年，近年為其研究成果撰寫研究專書《佛教海線絲綢之路》（The Buddhist Maritime Silk Road），並授權財團法人佛光山人間佛教研究院出版及翻譯全文，感謝中山大學外國語文學系特聘教授黃心雅審定中文譯文。本書一共分為5章，本刊將以連載方式刊登，以饗讀者。
《佛教海線絲綢之路》第三章——教大圓環的弘傳和發展
佛教在整個印度半島乃至斯里蘭卡的傳播運動，令人感到震撼。然而，離開印度文化及其語言境域的佛教傳統，面臨更大的挑戰。藉由「大圓環」路線，佛教的思想與實踐傳播至距離印度數千英里之外的地方，商人必經的沿海與河岸一帶，皆是佛教拓展的新據點，致使這個佛教「大圓環」的弧線涵蓋整個歐亞大陸的東南部。「大圓環」的一部分由印度西海岸延伸至印度河谷，穿越喜馬拉雅山脈的盡頭到達塔里木盆地，最後抵達長安（今西安）地帶，這是一條超過4 千英里的陸路。而與海域相連的「大圓環」路線則始於印度西海岸，環繞半島和斯里蘭卡，沿著印度東海岸到孟加拉灣，再經由孟加拉、緬甸、馬來半島的海岸線向東延展，經泰國、柬埔寨和越南，向北轉到東亞的中國、韓國、日本的港口。此沿海路圓環所串連的陸地與海洋，其周長加總起來足以環繞赤道一圈，其中曲折的海岸線長達2 萬英里，是陸路里程的五倍。
《佛教海線絲綢之路》第二章 ——佛教的起源和傳播
佛教的歷史可追溯至其創始人釋迦牟尼佛，他是一位穿梭於恆河流域的苦行僧，透過教化，吸引了 大批追隨者。其所屬時期，同時也是恆河流域歷史上，社會和經濟發展的重要階段。此處有一大片「雨林」覆蓋，其中一隅的三角洲，有世界上最大的紅樹林。恆河及其支流的沿岸，是印度次大陸「第二次城市化」的聚落代表區，根據考古遺蹟顯示，印度地區的「第一次城市化」最早可追溯至公元前三千年，發生於印度河沿岸；「第二次城市化」則於公元前六世紀達到鼎盛期，城鎮遍布恆河盆地。人口中心區域之間的活躍貿易，奠定了當時經濟發展的基礎。
