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#Post#: 30690--------------------------------------------------
Re: Buddhism
By: SirGalahad Date: July 30, 2025, 4:26 am
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@90sRetroFan In the old article on Buddhism, you mentioned the
Dunhuang manuscripts and murals as a dubious source. Can you
elaborate on this? I would like to know which manuscripts you
consider dubious, if not all of them
I'm trying to learn more about Zen Buddhism by reading the
actual texts, but the book I'm reading for the Platform Sutra
relies on the version of it found in Dunhuang, since that's
actually the earliest copy of it that we have
#Post#: 30692--------------------------------------------------
Re: Buddhism
By: 90sRetroFan Date: July 30, 2025, 8:04 pm
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The quote you are referring to reads:
[quote]present-day Zionist agents (such as CIA/Mossad-backed
Tenzin Gyatso) are attempting to subvert Siddhartha’s teachings
by giving Tibetan Buddhism and other compromised sects primacy
in public consciousness, along with emphasis on dubious sources
such as the Dunhuang manuscripts and murals.[/quote]
HTML https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunhuang_manuscripts
[quote]Pelliot retrieved a large number of documents from Caves
464 and 465 in the northern section of the Mogao Caves. These
documents mostly date to the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368)[/quote]
Firstly, the Yuan dynasty had a pro-Tibetan bias:
HTML https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuan_dynasty
[quote]Buddhism had a great influence in the Yuan government,
and the Tibetan-rite Tantric Buddhism had significantly
influenced China during this period.
...
Kublai Khan, the founder of the Yuan dynasty, favored Buddhism,
especially the Tibetan variants. As a result, Tibetan Buddhism
became the de facto state religion. The top-level department and
government agency known as the Bureau of Buddhist and Tibetan
Affairs (Chinese: 宣政院; pinyin:
xuānzhèngyuàn) was set up in Khanbaliq (modern Beijing) to
supervise Buddhist monks throughout the empire.[/quote]
All of this stuff should therefore be excluded. This leaves
(back to first link):
[quote]Most of the manuscripts originate from a cache of
documents produced between the late 4th and early 11th
centuries. These were sealed in what is now known as the Library
Cave (Cave 17) sometime in the early 11th century.[/quote]
The problem here is:
[quote]From 1907 onwards, Wang began to sell them to Western
explorers[/quote]
Which brings us to:
HTML https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Dunhuang_Programme
[quote]The International Dunhuang Project (IDP) is an
international collaborative effort to conserve, catalogue and
digitise manuscripts, printed texts, paintings, textiles and
artefacts from the Mogao caves at the Western Chinese city of
Dunhuang and various other archaeological sites at the eastern
end of the Silk Road. The project was established by the British
Library in 1994
...
The IDP was initially founded with 3-year grant from the Chiang
Ching-kuo Foundation,[18] and had only one member of
staff.[16][/quote]
(
HTML https://trueleft.createaforum.com/questions-debates/chiang-ching-kuo-who-succeeded-his-father-chiang-kai-shek-married-a-woman-emigra/msg27336/#msg27336<br
/>)
What could the IDP's agenda possibly be?
HTML https://thediplomat.com/2015/11/tibet-taiwan-and-china-a-complex-nexus/
[quote]the Dalai Lama has travelled three times to Taiwan, in
March 1997, March 2001, and September 2009. The first trip was
during the tenure of President Lee Teng-hui, the second was
after the victory of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)
under the leadership of President Chen Shui-bian, and the third
was right after the KMT had been reelected to power under
President Ma Ying-jeou. All visits evoked fierce condemnation
from China.
...
But is this coalescing of Tibet-Taiwan forces meant to counter
Beijing?
...
For instance, in his March 10 statement in 1994, when the
Tibetans had just begun stabilizing relations with Taiwan, the
Dalai Lama had argued that better relations with the “Chinese
living in free countries, especially in Taiwan” would help in
explaining the Tibetan situation to them, which he hoped “will
gradually percolate to China.”[/quote]
Therefore, even if we generously assume that all the collectors
are submitting all the manuscripts they have to the IDP (which
is dubious in itself, since any of the collectors (
HTML https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Dunhuang_Programme#Collections<br
/>) could be serving their own agendas by withholding parts of
what they possess), the IDP could trivially be withholding from
the public whatever they want by claiming that whatever is being
withheld is stuff that they have not gotten around to processing
yet. If I had to guess, whatever is being released is curated to
give a pro-Tibetan slant. albeit probably not more so than the
Yuan dynasty stuff, which ironically will be used as an argument
that they reinforce one another and hence are similarly
reliable!
Related:
HTML https://trueleft.createaforum.com/true-left-vs-false-left/jews-have-nothing-in-common-with-us!/msg5164/#msg5164
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