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Christianity and Buddhism in Tibet: Shreds of Evidence Abstract Francis V. Tiso In the year 792/3, Patriarch Timothy I of the Syro-Oriental Church in Baghdad wrote of nominating a metropolitan (archbishop) for the Turks (probably West Turkestan) and indicated that he was about to name one also for Tibet (Syriac: Bet Tuptaye) See: R. Bidawid, Les lettres du patriarche nestorien Timothee I. Studie e Testi 187 (Vatican City: 1956). And: Mark Dickens, “Patriarch Timothy I and the Metropolitan of the Turks,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Series 3, 20, 2 (2010): 117-139. And: Dickens, “The Syriac Bible in Central Asia” in Erica Hunter (2009), p. 94 n. 13.. In order to nominate a metropolitan, the canons required the prior existence of at least six bishops in a territory. Material evidence for these bishops and their Christian communities has so far eluded Himalayan archeology. However, some extremely rare fragments provide evidence for contact between Tibetan civilization and the Syriac-speaking Church of the East. The essay proposes to examine the evidence in detail in order following the methodology applied to the question of dzogchen origins in Rainbow Body and Resurrection (2016). We will examine the Pelliot tibetain 351 protection amulet mentioning Jesus, Vajrapani, and Shakyamuni; the Tanktse, Ladakh inscriptions dated 825-826 CE, proclaiming a Sogdian mission to the Tibetan kingdom; Sogdian materials from Central Asia, especially Turfan; the Chinese Christian texts from Dunhuang along with contemporary Tibetan materials indicating common areas of interest; and the 11th century Life of Garab Dorje, which seems based on a core narrative from the Qur’an, surah 19, with additional traits from Syriac sources. We will examine similarities and differences in the three-fold descriptions of the spiritual path in Tibetan imperial-period Buddhism and Christian Syriac mysticism. Ritual actions not attested in Indian sources, such as can be observed in the Bon po long life ceremony, may also point to an origin in the Antiochian/East Syriac Eucharistic rite. Searching among traces: The encounter between the Church of the East (the Syro-Oriental Church using Syriac/Aramaic in its liturgy, and based on a Patriarchate in Seleucia-Ctesiphon, and later in Bagdad) and other religions along the Silk Road in Central Asia remains one of the little-known periods of “enlightenment” in human history. In almost complete contrast with wars of religion and conquest, with proselytism at the point of a sword, this history of dialogue and debate was held in a diversified environment of political and economic interests that were seemingly capable of sustaining the work of contemplatives and scholars across several generations. Thanks to archeological discoveries in Central Asia especially at Dunhuang and Turfan, it is possible to recover something of this lost world in which identity, inculturation, dialogue, assertion, and resilience all played a part. Our objective in this essay is to explore the rare remaining fragments of the Silk Road dialogue insofar as it penetrated the Himalayan plateau of Tibet during the Imperial Period (approximately 6__-1000). We will discover that, of all the Asian cultures in which Persian merchants were active, Tibet remained uniquely aloof from Christianity. Christian institutions: churches, monasteries, cemeteries, liturgical objects, inscriptions, and manuscripts, seem strangely absent from Tibet. We will first examine the material evidence for content and context, in order to summarize the most recent scholarship, in order to proceed with a reflection on the possible reasons for the absence of Christianity in Tibet. The Dunhuang divination formula linking Jesus the Messiah in syncretism with Buddha Shakyamuni and the tantric deity Vajrapani. Pelliot 351: “Man, your ally is the god called ‘Jesus Messiah.’ He acts as Vajrapani and Sri Sakyamuni. When the gates of the seven levels of heaven have opened, you will accomplish the yoga that you will receive from the judge at the right hand of God. Because of this, do whatever you wish without shyness, unafraid, without apprehension. You will become a conqueror, and there will be no demons or obstructing spirits. Whoever casts this lot (mo), it will be very good.” (trans. by Sam Van Schaik from Uray Geza; cf. Huaiyu Chen, p. 209). (40) || myi khyod gi rogs ni lha’i shi myi shi ha zhes bya ste || phyag na rdo rje dpal shag (41) kya thub pa byed de || gnam rim pa bdun gi sgo phyes nas|lha’i phyag g.yas pa’i khrim. (42) pa nas bsnams pa’i rnal ‘byor du dgrub ‘oh gyis|| ci bsams rnams ma (43) mdzem ma ‘jigs ma skrag bar byos shig || khyod rgyal bar ‘ong | gdon bgegs ci (44) yang myed te || m{y}o ‘di ci la btab kyang bzang {b}rab bo|| Transcription from G. Uray, “Tibet’s Connections with Nestorianism and Manicheism in the 8th-10th Centuries”, in Steinkellner and Tauscher, p. 413, text altered to conform to Wylie transcription. Other Dunhuang fragments in which Tibetan writings are found with crosses of the kind used by the Church of the East. Pelliot tibetain 1182 and 1676; IOL Tib J 766. Were these mere sketches or copies of an object seen by the “doodler”, or were they perhaps symbols of protection and of actual personal faith on the part of those who drew them? The sign of the cross – often without reference to the execution of Jesus – was a typical identity-marker for the Church of the East. Bishop Eliya of Merv made the sign of the cross in his famous intervention to make peace between a Turkish prince and his opponent. The clergy (shamans?) of this prince had brought on a thunderstorm to intimidate their rivals, but Bishop Eliya’s liturgical gesture put an end to the “demonic illusion”, whereupon the prince and his host requested baptism. Thus a weather miracle brought about the conversion of an entire tribe of Turkic people East Syriac (Khuzistan Chronicle) Chronicle (ca. 660-680) describes this as taking place in 644, when the Metropolitan of Merv, Eliya, sought to reach out to a minor Turkic tribe. See: E. Hunter, “The Conversion of the Kerait to Christianity in A.D. 1007”, Zentralasiatische Studien 22 (1989-91): 159-60. And Mingana, (1925): 305-6. See also: Mark Dickens, op. cit., pp. 121-122.. In view of the repugnance of Christians (and others) for the idolatry, polytheism, and dark practices typical of Indian tantra, could these crosses have been an attempt to exorcise the Tibetan interest in the tantric form of Buddhism? The inscriptions at Tanktse in Ladakh, with crosses, names, and the date (820’s ? 840’s?) of the arrival of Sogdian delegates to the Tibetan leadership. The translation of the Sogdian inscription is (from Sims-Williams, fn 62, Gilman and Klimkeit p. 337): “In the year 210 (i.e. 841/842 AD) we [were?] sent – [we, namely] Caitra of Samarkand together with the monk Nosh-farn [as] messenger[s] to the Tibetan Qaghan.” Pl 2-6; 2/1:2 Sims Williams p. 158-9: srδ pr ‘δw 100 δs | pr (‘š) ym | c’ytr’ | sm’rknδc | <šmny> nwš –prn | “s’t | (‘z-γ - ) ‘nt kw | twp (‘y) t | x’ γ‘ n s’r Sims-Williams suggests that these messengers, a Samarkandian, or more likely someone from Chinese Turkestan and a Buddhist monk, as being sent to Tibet by the Uighur Turkish Khan after the invasion of his empire by the Kirghiz in AD 840. Antiquities of Northern Pakistan, Volume 2. Nicolas Sims-Williams, p. 157. According to Sims-Williams, we are to understand that Caitra and Nosfarn were likely to have been Buddhists, not Christians. This seems to remove the Sogdian inscription from consideration as evidence for Christianity in or near Tibet. Sims Williams also corrects the unlikely dating of 822-23 by showing that the year 210 is in reference to the Persian calendar- i.e. the era of Yazdigerd, and not A.H., the Islamic calendar as Dauvillier thought Op. cit., Sims-Williams, p. 156. Cf. Marcel Lalou (in Dauvillier, 1983) who follows Dauvillier III, p. 110, “L’evangelisation du Tibet au Moyen Age par l’eglise chaldeenne et le problem des rapports du Bouddhisme et du Christianisme.”. However, the rocks in the area of Thangtse, Ladakh, include clearly marked Persian/Church of the East crosses Pl 1b; Pl 2 Ladakh, Sims-Williams, op. cit. similar to those seen, for example, on the Stele of 781 at Xi’an. The fact that Christians passed this way on the southern directed Silk Road does not, however, sustain the hypothesis that actual Christian communities existed in Tibet. At best, as Sims-Williams points out, the various fragmentary inscriptions in Ladakh attest to the transitory presence of “all three of the religions known to us from the Sogdian literature of Turfan and Tun-huang and so notably ill-attested in the Sogdian inscriptions of the Upper Indus: Buddhism, Christianity, and Manichaeism.” Sims-Williams, op. cit, p. 158. G. Uray, in his indispensable article on “Tibet’s connections with Nestorianism and Manicheism”, discusses the form of the name I shi myi shi ha, the Tibetan form of the name Jesus the Messiah as found in this divination text (pp. 413-416). He also takes note of the expression “judge at the right hand of God” (pp. 416-7) and the “heaven with seven levels”. (pp. 417-418) Uray concludes that the Tibetan form of the name of Jesus corresponds most closely to the Chinese form ie-shiwo miei-shi-Xa, attested in the Hsu-t’ing mi-shih-so ching discovered at Dunhuang, that is, in fact in the form in the Taisho text no. 2142. This text is…rightly categorized in the literature as a Nestorian work. (p. 416). Uray notes that the expression “judge at the right hand of God” can be found in the Apostles’ Creed, which is however, a Western Christian creed. The formula has also been discovered in a Sogdian version of the creed in use in the Church of the East, found in the Turfan area at Bulayiq in the ruins of a Christian church. This theological expression also applies to Manichean doctrine. The doctrine of seven heavens is also shared by Christians and Manicheans, deriving from the Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, the Slavonic Book of Enoch and other works (p. 417). The Manicheans divided the heavens into ten, with the lower seven ruled over by the “rex honoris”, and this figure is not mentioned in the divination text in Tibetan found at Dunhuang. In fact, nothing particularly Manichean can be found in this text. For this reason, Uray concludes provisionally that the text could only have come from a Chinese work originating in the Christian Church of the East. “The treated paragraph from the Book of Divination Pelliot Tibetain 351 represents a passage of a Nestorian text which superficially had been assimilated to Buddhism.” (p. 418). Uray continues with a text from Bulayiq showing similarities to the Tibetan divination text. Further work needs to be done on the Pelliot 351 text of divinations to see whether or not there are other Christian allusions. A bronze-iron amalgam cross in the Kaligat (Calcutta) Museum, and a beaker from Lhasa inscribed with a cross in the Tucci collection. Again, these are movable objects that might have had no relationship with a Christian place of worship. At best, they indicate that some items produced by and for Christians of the Church of the East, did in fact arrive at some point in Tibet, perhaps as trade objects, or left by traders temporarily residing in Tibet. It is not possible to date the arrival on the Tibetan plateau of the objects in question. Further research on the location, current condition, and authenticity of these objects should be undertaken. A stone monument in the Ueno Museum in Tokyo. This object seems no longer to be in the museum Paul Pelliot, L’Inscription Nestorienne de Si-Ngan-Fou. Edited with Supplements by Antonino Forte. (Kyoto: Scuola di Studi sull’Asia Orientale, 1996). Forte’s essay, “On the So-Called Abraham from Persia,” fn. 7, pp. 377-378. Antonino Forte in his supplementary materials to the Pelliot translation and commentary of the Stele of 781 presents strong arguments about the correct reading of this earlier monument, which is in fact a tombstone, or to be more precise, a rubbing of a tombstone. It is possible that the original was found in Luoyang, in South China, where later Christian funerary monuments have also been found. A number of authors have followed its translator, P. Saeki, in believing the stele to be a funerary monument to A-luo-han, a Persian general in the service of the Tang emperor at the end of the seventh century. The inscription on the tombstone is dated to 710. It was thought that this monument commemorates a Christian from Persia who actively evangelized Tibetan tribes in what is now northern Afghanistan. See for example: John England, p. 55, who is citing Dauvillier, who in turn seems to be relying on Muller’s research in 1925. Saeki’s 1951 publication of the text and a translation is based on a rubbing of the stone monument. Forte presents a detailed critique of the scholarship on this object, based on linguistic comparisons with other Tang era monuments, and comes to the following conclusions: A-luo-han was a Persian of considerable status who, following the defeat of the Sassanians (Battle of al-Qadisiya, 636-7, and later with the final defeat of Shah Yazdegerd at Nihavand in 642. Yazdegerd was assassinated at Merv in 651) (Forte p. 403) went to China and became a military advisor to the newly empowered Tang Dynasty during the period 679 to 708 (Forte p. 406-7). He became governor of the Fulin region, which can be identified with northern Afghanistan. He was also involved in the construction of the important imperial monument in Luoyang, the Axis of the Sky, in the early 690s. This monument commemorates Tang Dynasty supremacy in Central Asia (Forte pp. 408-410). The policies he implemented had nothing to do with Christianity, and his epitaph makes no reference to the religious beliefs of the general. Instead, his military mission was to enforce the judiciary and governing principles of the Chinese Empire in this border area (Forte, p. 406), threatened by the ascendant Muslim caliphate during the period after the defeat of the Sassanians. This epitaph can no longer be considered a witness to an attempt to Christianize a Tibetan population. Moreover, this general’s name cannot be read as a form of “Abraham” and he was not the same person as the A-luo-ben mentioned in the Xi-an stele of 781. Thus, another shred of evidence for a Christian mission in Tibet must be set aside. Various bronze crosses found in burial sites. Most of these are from the Ordos region and are likely to have been buried with Turkic or Mongolian Christians during the Yuan Dynasty period. They are not relevant to a Christian presence in Tibet. At best, should they be compared with crosses found in Tibet by Giuseppe Tucci, they may indicate a transient foreign Christian presence in Tibet. The letters of Patriarch Timothy I (cf. Bidawid: 792 and 796) regarding the appointment of a metropolitan for Bet Tubtaye (Tibet). The texts read: “In letter XLI to the monks of the monastery of Mar Maron, there are two passage which concern [Christianity in Tibet]. In one of them, Timothy discusses the various standpoints of the Nestorians [sic] and the Maronites in question of Christology, in connection with the controversial wording of the so-called Trisagion. At the same time, he gives us a comprehensive list of the lands and peoples where the Trisagion is recited according to the Nestorian (sic) teachings. Among these peoples he also mentions the Tuptaye or Tibetans and the Turkaye or Turks. In another part of the letter, Timothy declares that he was “13 years more or less” in office and that a “king of the Turks” malka dturkaya, was converted to Christianity ten years previously, together with the greatest part of his people, and requested by letters to the Patriarch that a metropolitan should be sent – a request which had been granted…[allowing dating the letter XLI to 792/3 and the conversion of the Turks to ca. 782/3; Timothy became Patriarch on May 7, 780.] In letter XLVII Timothy reports to his confidential friend Sergius that he has recently consecrated a metropolitan for the land of the Turks, bet turkaya and that he is also preparing to anoint one for the land of the Tibetans, bet tuptaye. R. Bidawid, editor of Timothy’s letters, estimates that this letter could have only been written after Sergius’ consecration as Metropolitan of ‘Elam in 794/5, roughly between 795 and 798. (pp. 401-404, G. Uray). “As far as Timothy’s reports about the tuptaye and their country are concerned, there no longer is any doubt that tuptaye is a derivative of the name Tibet. One, however, must not merely think of Tibet itself, but of the entire Tibetan empire which in the 790’s had reached the point of greatest expansion. Apart from the Tibetan highland and areas of north-west China, it also at this time embraced the area around the Pamir, the southern part of the Tarim basin and, even if only for a short time, the area around the eastern T’ien-shan.” (G. Uray, p. 404) …. This Patriarch was one of the most noteworthy leaders of the Church of the East for a number of reasons. He launched an-Asia-wide missionary enterprise from his base in Mesopotamia at Baghdad, seat of the Muslim Abbasid Caliphs with whom he engaged actively in dialogue. He was a noted scholar, having written commentaries on the writings of the Byzantine intellectual, patriarch and saint Gregory of Nazianzenus (fn: Berti, p. ___). He engaged frequently in inter religious dialogue with Caliphs Al Mahdi, Al Mamun, etc. (____) in Baghdad, and was familiar with the rationalist movement among Islamic philosophers known as the Muktazalites (fn: Beulay, Berti, pp. ___). In order to nominate a metropolitan archbishop, the canons required the prior presence of at least six diocesan bishops in a region. Nicolini-Zani observes (fn: Via Radiosa, p. ___) that the dioceses of the Church of the East in the Turkic lands accompanied the nomadic tribes in tents. In this way, the “cathedrals” and “episcopal residences” were just as mobile as the people to whom these prelates ministered. It is thus possible that the six bishops in Tibet were itinerant. Unfortunately, there is no documentary or archeological evidence for these bishops. For this reason, it is not possible to use the letters of Patriarch Timothy I as proof for the physical presence of institutional Christianity of the Church of the East in Tibet. It is also significant that Timothy I condemned the teachings of Syriac-speaking mystics such as John of Dalyatha, Joseph Hazzaya, and Nestorius of Nahadra at a synod in ___ AD. These mystics offered a profoundly contemplative approach to the monastic life that ought to have made a dialogue with Buddhists not only possible, but remarkably fruitful (see my Chapter III, Rainbow Body and Resurrection). After the death of Patriarch Timothy, the excommunications were lifted by the successor, Patriarch ______ (Berti….). The inscription in Ladakh is from the period subsequent to this reprieve, but there is nothing in these fragmentary texts to assert an actual Christian mission to Tibet. The most likely Church of the East metropolitanates from which a Tibetan mission to Tibet might have emanated were Merv, Balk, and Samarkand (give geographic locations and relations to the Silk Roads). Balk in Tocharistan, for example, is the city of Milis, a priest whose son the Chorepiscopus Yazdbozid was listed as the donor of the Xi’an Stele of 781. Balk is in northern Afghanistan, possibly the Fulin of Aluohan, the Persian general in the service of the Tang emperor (Forte). The region of Khwarezm, southeast of the Aral Sea (modern Uzbekistan), was the site of both Church of the East and Melkite Christian festivals attested by al-Biruni around the year 1000. This is the region in which Garab Dorje, the human originator of dzogchen, was said to have been born according to the Bi-Ma sNying Thig of approximately the same date. Khwarezm is the site of the town of Urgyen, which compares linguistically with the birthplace of Padmasambhava. Nyingmapa traditions cite Sogdiana, Kotan, and other Central Asian regions as the place of origin for several early Tibetan Buddhist/dzogchen masters (See: History of the rNyingmapa, and P. Kvaerne, the Eighteen Great Countries). We might look at (a) a brief history of each Christian center; (b) Remains of Christian monuments found at these sites; (c) Evidence for contact with Tibet. Our terminus ante quem will be the year 1025 (1035?), when the Dunhuang caves were sealed off, preserving thousands of Chinese, Tibetan, Turkic, Sogdian, Uighur and other manuscripts of great variety of content. Leonard Van Der Kuijp (Peter Zieme, p. 19) has identified an interesting expression for Christian in a text by the Third Karmapa (Second?): er ga’o. This term refers to the Qagan Mongke, who was a Christian. The term seems to derive from the Mongolian erkegud. The Karmapa later mentions er ka’i slob dpon mang po (many Christian clerics) attempting to bring Christianity into the imperial household, but the Karmapa was instead able to convert the court to Buddhism. Dan Martin, personal communication: ER GA 'O — Also spelled, Er ka 'un, Or ka bo, Erga bo.  Mongolian loan, Erke'ün.  It means Christians (Nestorians?).  See Kuijp in CAJ (1995) 282 (n. 18).  Kapstein, Dialectic 280 (E rga 'o).  Dungkar Rinpoche's dictionary, p. 2203 (Er ka 'un), believes it refers to the original nonBuddhist religion of Mongolia.  Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim discusses this in her article "Re-Visiting Galen in Tibet," p. 363, finding its origins in the Greek word arkon (archon). The text also refers to a house (temple?) in west Central Tibet, Gung Thang (the land of Milarepa, who was named “Thos pa dga’” at birth: good news) belonging to a Christian (er ka ‘un) by the name of ‘dzu ki na. This would seem to be the only reference to a Christian who actually resided in Tibet, and in this case the reference is from the thirteenth century. We will then proceed to examine evidence for Christian and Buddhist mutual exchange and influence, making use of materials that suggest areas of common interest, including -The Syriac Christian mystical texts, especially those of John of Dalyatha, Joseph Hazzaya, Nestorios of Nonhadra, and others, indicating the contemplative orientation and formation of the missionaries of the Church of the East. -the works of the Christian prelate Jingjing, especially his Chinese theological text, “The Attainment of Peace and Joy”. Jingjing’s controversial collaboration with the Sogdian monk Prajna, which has been variously interpreted as a “fiasco” (Weinstein) or as a triumph of inter religious cooperation (Tiso, Nicolini-Zani, Forte), nevertheless indicates that at least some Buddhists in Tang China were interested in Christianity, and vice versa. It is also interesting, and not cited by anyone, that this very same Prajna, rather than being ostracized for his “faux pas” of collaboration with a Christian prelate, went on to translate the large Hua Yen (Avatamsaka Sutra)- or more precisely, the Gandhavyuha Sutra Paul Copp, pp. 360-362, Orzech et al. It is difficult to believe that Prajna, who was from Kapisa in what is now Afghanistan – known to have been a center of Christianity in the area of Balkh – did not know some form of Middle Persian, Sogdian, or even Syriac in order to communicate with Jingjing. Moreover, it is clear that Jingjing knew Chinese very well, as can be seen in the Xi’an Stele of 781, written in the year before the arrival of Prajna in Xi’an. Prajna had been in India for decades, and knew Sanskrit and other Buddhist scriptural languages at a very high level, having studied at Nalanda, and previously most likely in Kashmir where he studied the Sarvastivadin texts the Abhidharmakosha and the Mahavibhasha. (Copp p. 360). The real reason for the rejection of their collaborative translation of the Dasheng liqu liu boluomi jing (The Six Paramita Sutra?) seems to have been ideological rather than linguistic. In other words, the argument is ad hominem, and not related to a lack of competence on the part of either collaborator. After all, subsequent to this “fiasco”, Prajna produced excellent translations in Chinese, having learned Chinese from Jingjing, rather obviously. And one of his translations, the Gandhavyuha portion of the Avatamsaka, not only reflects his own devotion to Manjusri (Copp p. 361), but also indicates a kind of vindication of his having studied with a non-Buddhist.. The final volume of this sutra includes the Gandhavyuha Sutra, in which the Bodhisattva Manjushri instructs his disciple Sudhodana to study with fifty-three teachers of various religions, castes, and genders. Prajna’s translation was accepted, and in a way, this monk from Central Asia, vindicated his own career “deviations” by translating this particular Mahayana sutra. In fact, he was awarded the purple robe and became the head of the Imperial translation department. Moreover, Prajna was known for translations of other Buddhist scriptures, including tantric texts (see: Huaiyu Chen). He was also one of Kobo Daishi (Kukai)’s teachers in Xi’an, and thus a crucial link between Chinese and Japanese esoteric Buddhism. These relationships indicate the high level of inter religious exchange in the Tang capital during the second half of the eighth century. Huaiyu Chen has elucidated these connections in some detail, suggesting an exchange of terminology between Christians and tantric Buddhists in this fertile period, and leaving us with the impression that the Christians were anything but inept in their grasp of Buddhism. They seem to have been in fact well informed about the possible connections between their own Evagrian tradition of contemplative spirituality, and the Chinese Buddhist way of expressing similar forms of realization. -the Ch’an and Dzogchen (e.g. Garab Dorje “three points”) Buddhist documents from Dunhuang in Chinese and in Tibetan. Dzogchen as a way of practicing and interpreting Vajrayana rituals. Compare to the three-fold patterns found in the Evagrian trajectory, including the Turfan hermit text: At least one important text from this tradition was found in Turfan in a Sogdian translation, and we know of several works of Evagrius (such as his Antirrheticus, a work on antidotes to evil thoughts that arise during meditation), also in Sogdian. Sogdian traders, some of whom were Christians, were the key to the economic success, and cultural impact, of the Silk Road in the period 600-800. Here for example is an example of a text on hermit practice from the Syriac tradition, translated into Sogdian and discovered at Turfan: …What one needs is an understanding of conflicts (reached) by experience- that (experience) at which the wise and sensible have often been confounded and (which) comes to fools through action. Just as it is not possible that archery be taught amongst crowds and in the streets, but rather, (in a place apart)…in the same way they cannot reach anyone skill in spiritual conflicts and how to race well towards the divine goal, and to learn skill in controlling the thoughts and the science of spiritual navigation on this terrible ocean, and to understand many stratagems, until a man shall dwell in constant quietude and in retreat from everything by means of which the mind becomes empty of or ceases from constant prayer – he who does not do thus shall fall. The course of this quietude is in three periods. Labor is the initial period, and to this first period belongs fear, and that grief which results from the recollection of previous things. And to that second period belong encouragement and the manifold consolation whereby the wise penitent approaches divine favors by virtue of the purity which he receives from weeping and penitence….when he shall complete this former period with manifold labours by the help of Christ and shall begin to prepare for the second period, the sign of his repentance will be turned to exultation, although he does not wish it to be so because he fears that it is perhaps an illusion. And the sign of this is that hope begins to enter his spirit and by virtue of his repentance consolation begins to increase little by little; then from time to time thoughts which make him joyful stir within him, and he sees within himself that he can easily cleanse the mind of wandering. These things come about when he enters completely into this second period, when his thought is changed into another which does not resemble the former. Then those things which occur to his thoughts are not of his nature and he begins to pay heed to the mystical words which are hidden in the Psalms…for sweetness begins to be mingled with his service, both with his fasting, and with the words of his worship and with the other labors of his way of life, and as soon as he begins to pray his limbs become composed without his willing it and his thoughts begin to be collected, for they themselves realize how to bring forth something which is above the struggle, and he sees aright that the ship of his mind is going day by day in growth towards improvement. These things, together with other yet greater things, belong to this middle period, until by the Grace of Christ a man arises to that course of life which is above his nature. Nicholas Sims-Williams in Orientalia Christiana Periodica 47 (1981):441-446. -The Buddhist Yogavidhya text from Turfan, which has been neglected by scholarship on tantric Buddhism in central Asia, including in Orzech, Payne et al. This text has references to various visualization exercises involving Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of various colors emanating light. One of these exercises involves the sapphire light known to the Evagrian contemplative trajectory. - Christian objections to esoteric Buddhism, magic, and demonic/possession/oracle practices may have contributed to a certain reticence on both sides. However, there is a widespread Christian use of amulets, attested in Europe, Ethiopia, Egypt, Palestine, Mesopotamia, and Central Asia. The divination text from Dunhuang seems to have arrived at a kind of syncretism of esoteric Buddhism and Christianity, or at least the cult of Christ as a “protector”. See also: Erika Hunter’s translation of a Christian amulet (and Ethiopian examples…). There is mention of Christian objections to esoteric Buddhist idolatry, particularly with regard to the wrathful deities (Mahakala, Yamantaka) that appear to resemble demons known to Middle Eastern lore down through the millennia (cf. Ancient Near East images of demons and exorcism). - The biography of Garab Dorje from the Bi-ma Snying thig , indicating knowledge of Christianity and Islam by Tibetans, without confirming the presence of Christians in Tibet. We will also explore some speculative aspects of the exchange: Vajrayana Buddhist interaction with Christians: the painting on silk at Dunhuang. “The Encounter of Nestorian Christianity with Tantric Buddhism,” by Huaiyu Chen [Encounters: Studies on East Syriac Christianity in China and Central Asia, edited by D. W. Winkler and Li Tang (Berlin, LIT 2009)]. Japanese and Indian Vajrayana figures in contact with Christians in the 8th century in the Tang capital of Xi’ian (see Orzech, Payne, et al; Huaiyu Chen; Shih Miao Zhe, “Tripitaka Master Prajna of the Tang Dynasty,”____). Christian presence in the lands around Tibet: Uighurs, Sogdians, India, Korea, Japan, China (England, Dauvillier, Nicolini-Zani, etc). This is so well-attested that it compels us to offer an explanation for why Christianity seems to be uniquely absent from the archeological record of Tibet. Tibetan ritual objects and liturgies with affinities to Eastern Christian practices (Eucharistic spoons and patens; censers; chalices; the communion rite of the Long Life Vajrayana liturgies, Bon po and Buddhist; the A-practice as a summary of the Eucharistic Anaphora). These similarities are often so striking as to make us think that at some point in history some actual Christian worshipping communities were in fact present in Tibet, only to become absorbed into the vast array of ritual practices typical of all the Tibetan Buddhist schools as well as the Bon pos. The emergence of the rainbow body attainment as a Bonpo and Nyingma response to the “second diffusion” of Vajrayana in Tibet: possible influence of the Christian doctrine of the resurrection, as discussed in RBRS. In any case, we are dealing here with a possible influence converging with native (heavenly rope) and Indian yogic traditions of the body of light. At the margins and among the subaltern traditions of the ngag pas, many alien elements could have easily entered the stream of practices indigenous to Tibet, already rich with shamanic, ritualistic, animistic, and esoteric aspects (John V. Bellezza, Divine Dyads: Ancient Civilization in Tibet. Dharamsala, LTWA, 1997). Even the gter ma tradition gives ample scope to alternative visions of reality entering the marginal and subaltern sectors of Himalayan religious life. However, it is not possible to deduce the institutional presence of Christian communities in Tibet without archeological evidence that might confirm it. So far as we know, none of the gter ma texts are in Syriac or Sogdian, even though they are claimed to be written in “the language of the dakini”. The various rituals for eliminating bad karma through the intervention of compassionate Bodhisattvas reflecting the influence of the Christian doctrine of atonement (Lalou?). An influence is not evidence of the presence of a community. A persuasive individual would be sufficient, or a narrative shared along the caravan trails, or opinions shared in the multi cultural oasis civilization of Central Asia, would be sufficient to offer a stimulus to revised thinking. In the History of the Nyingmapa, we have many references to early masters from heavily Christianized areas such as Kwaresmia and Sogdiana. Compare also the “18 Great Countries” surrounding Tibet: Tokharia, Sogdiana, sTag gzig, Gilgit, (Yavanas), sTag ste and gZig ‘phan (Persia) As for these, the Eighteen Great Countries are: (1-2) to the east, China and the Khitans; (3-4) to the north, Ge-sar and the land of Hor; (5-6) to the west, Persia (sTag-ste and gZig-'phan); (7-8) to the south, India and Kashmir; (9) (in) the centre, (the land) fenced in by snow-mountains (i.e. Tibet) – (in all) nine. (10-11) To the east, on the border of China, (are) (the land of) 'Chinese Women with Dog Husbands' and the Tokharians; (12-13) to the north, on the border of Hor (B: Ge-sar), (are) Sogdiana and Balkh; (14-15) to the west, on the border of sTag-gzig, (are) Gilgit and the Indo-Greeks; (16-17) to the south, on the border of India, (are) the Malla (?) (Gyad-yul) and the Hūṇa; (18) (in) the centre, Zang(-gling), gSer(-gling), Mu-thig(-gling), and gNam-stong (D: gNam-yol) – (in all) nine. . Of course, there were Zoroastrians, Manicheans, and Buddhists in these countries as well as Christians. Moreover, the Buddhist and Chinese chronicles do not make careful distinctions among these groups: Manicheans, Christians, Muslims. Beyond the period that mainly interests us, we have the emergence of the Mongolian alphabet based on Uighur, based in turn on Sogdian, based in turn on Syriac alphabets, each of which was a bearer of Christian content. ‘Phags pa’s attempt to supersede this alphabet with a Tibetan-Mongol alphabet written vertically: the Tibetan attempt to convert the Mongols to Vajrayana Buddhism is illustrated by ‘Phags pa’s revision of the alphabet. The transmission of medical, botanical, astronomic, philosophical, and architectural traditions from the Eastern Mediterranean into Central Asia and thence into Tibet. We have argued for contacts between Tibet and the surrounding civilizations of Central Asia, India, and China, and the evidence especially for India and China is immense. India was the paradigmatic source for Tibetan Buddhism. Chinese Buddhism, after an initial impact in the imperial period, came to be marginalized and even vilified in later historiography. Connecting the dots and “shreds” of evidence. Given the presence of Christians in the peripheral areas of Tibet, and given the efforts of the Syro-Oriental missionaries to engage with and even to integrate with the cultures of Central Asia, and given several significant areas of common interest with regard to contemplative practice, it would seem likely that Christian influence entered Tibet and stimulated the evolution of the dzogchen approach to tantric practice both Nyingma and Bonpo. Dzogchen began as part of a syncretic movement during the imperial period that brought together spiritual teachings foundational to Zen/Ch’an Buddhism and Indian tantric Buddhism (Van Schaik). The state to which dzogchen practitioners aspired was a non-dual state of luminous consciousness, delocalized as to the self of the yogin, grounded in the natural state “pure from the beginning” (ka dag) (Germano; A’Khrid; etc.). In this state, it was possible to experience the highest states of contemplation as offered in the ritual cycles associated with the Vajrayana. Indeed, this state was understood as the hermeneutical principle by which Vajrayana should be understood and through which enlightenment could be attained. This state subsumes and enables the structured yogas (mahayoga, anuyoga, atiyoga) of the nine-fold path. In our analysis of the early eleventh century Life of Garab Dorje, (from the Bi ma snying thig) we took note of the core story, which derives from the 19th Surah of the Qur’an, the story of Mary (Maryam) and Jesus. This core narrative is elaborated and ornamented with extravagant tantric features in order to articulate the notions of the natural state, ka dag, primordial awareness, and the skill needed to remain in the contemplative state under all circumstances, including the most severe forms of duress. In addition to the Qur’anic core narrative, the tale is told in concert with the underlying “First Story” typical of the Central Asia epic. Throughout the narrative, there are references to the Christ figure borrowed from oral sources suggestive of Central Asian Christian folklore. The time period of 32 years, for example, may connect with the age of 30 at which Christ began his ministry (Tibetan age counts the year prior to the first and last years). The references to Garab Dorje as a “Good Zombie” who rose from the dead and ascends into heaven is suggestive more of Christian than Islamic folklore, passed through the ghoulish sieve of tantric imagination. Battles with demonic forces are common enough in folklore of most cultures, but in this biography the battles are particularly highlighted as occasions for growth in mastery of the mind under any and all circumstances, a topic dear to both Buddhist yoga and to Christian contemplation in the trajectory of Evagrius of Pontus. Evagrius’ work, the Antirrheticus, was found at Turfan in a Sogdian translation. This work, in common with Indo-Tibetan works such as the Bhavanakrama of Kamalashila, offers antidotes in the struggle with evil thoughts and demonic temptations. A three-fold pattern of ascent, while not exclusive to these traditions, is certainly an emphatically convergent feature of the dzogchen and Eastern Christian paths. The way the paths are described, and the dynamics by which they unfold on the path to realization, are suggestive of the exchange of ideas that we are claiming for Tibet, along the same lines as those observable in the “Realization of Perfect Peace and Joy” (Chinese: Zhixuan anle jing) text found at Dunhuang and authored by the Syro-Oriental prelate Jingjing as a way to reconcile Buddhist, Daoist, and Christian approaches to the spiritual life. The three-fold pattern can be identified in the Christian hermit text found at Turfan, and in the Three Points of Garab Dorje, and is still operative in the Bon po text of the A Khrid teachings from the 13th century. It is tempting to continue along these lines, but we will refrain from anything beyond that which can be located in texts and artifacts that have survived from the earlier period of Buddhist diffusion in Tibet. It does seem that Christianity in the form of viable communities with a hierarchical leadership should have entered Tibet from centers such as Samarkand, Merv, Balk, and ‘Elam along the Silk Roads either on the western flank of Tibet through Ladakh, Afghanistan, and what is now Pakistan (Bactriana), or else via the Turfan and Dunhuang routes into China proper. The fact that archeological remains have been identified along the Silk Roads around Tibet, but not within Tibet, would seem to indicate an absence rather than a presence. In addition to the archeological blank page, we need to explore some political questions. It does seem that Khri srong lde bcan (Tibetan bstang po 755-782?) in order to stabilize his regime needed first of all to quell a rebellion in 755 C. I. Beckwith, “The Revolt of 755 in Tibet”, in Steinkellner and Tauscher, editors, Contributions on Tibetan Language, History, and Culture. 1983.. The primary internal challenge he faced was the persistence of an attachment among some aristocratic families to the traditional religion of Tibet retrospectively called Bon. Some elements of the old kingdom of Shang Shung were certainly ready to rebel against the new Yar lung ascendancy and its Buddhist, literate system of chos. The institutional presence of an additional religion might unbalance an already precarious socio-political situation. Moreover, the Tibetans had already had experience of the aggressive Arab-Muslim invaders of their western territories, and would have been wary of any Western religio-cultural influxes arising out of that conflicted part of the world. We notice in the article on a reference to Manicheism in the decision to make Buddhism the state religion, which shows that the Tibetan Yar lung leadership was well aware of the risks of hosting one or more of the competing West Asian religious movements of the 7th and 8th centuries R. A. Stein, “Une mention du Manicheisme dans le choix du Bouddhisme comme religion d’etat par le roi Tibetain Khri-srong Lde-Bcan.” In Indianisme et Bouddhisme, Melanges Offerts a Etienne Lamotte, 1980.. A careful study of the Sino-Tibetan treaties in the imperial period also allows us to notice that strong walls make good neighbors Yihong Pan. “The Sino-Tibetan Treaties in the Tang Dynasty,” T’oung Pao, Second Series, Vol. 78, Livr. 1/3 (1992): 116-161. Fang Kuei Li. “The Inscription of the Sino-Tibetan Treaty of 821-822,” T’oung Pao, January 1, 1956; 44:1-99.. Tibet did not need to fear isolation, being land-locked and in tangential contact with the most populous parts of the world via the trade routes. However, Tibet could and did opt for a specific kind of Buddhism of an Indian provenance and following the Indian model of the state buffered by esoteric rituals of protection and aggression. Tibet’s own geography is described in the legends of the imperial period as in the precarious hands of demonic forces identified with geographical features of the land itself. Geography often determines mentality, and holds in place those ancient traditions that sink into the collective imagination of a people through myths, identity markers, and narratives of the epic kind. John Bellezza’s research on the relationship between spirituality and geography tends to support a view of imperial Tibet as a land and people readily inclined to isolation and cultural homogeneity of a certain kind. (expand on the kind of homogeneity we observe in the lithographs, wall paintings, thangkas, statues, and the syncretism of native traditions with the rituality of the various kinds of tantras). In this way, we may offer a first attempt at an explanation for the Tibetan rejection of Christianity on cultural, geographical, economic, and political grounds. Just as Zoroastrianism and Manicheanism, Ch’an Buddhism, and indigenous Bon were set aside, so too the Christianity of the Church of the East was not seen as a viable component of the Tibetan state as imagined by the Yar lung dynasty See: Geza Uray. “The Structure and Genesis of the Old Tibetan Chronicle of Dunhuang,” Cadonna… Brandon Dotson. The Old Tibetan Annals: An Annotated Translation of Tibet’s First History. Wien: Verlag der Osterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2009. Lewis J. A. Dotson. Transforming Tibetan Kingship: The Portrayal of Khri Srong lde brtsan in the early Buddhist Histories. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies, 2011., in spite of many points of contact that were fruitfully explored in other neighboring civilizations such as the Uighur and China under the early Tang. Even today, in spite of some missionary inroads, Tibetans are not particularly drawn to Christianity even as a topic of dialogue and study. The rare exceptions, e.g. Loppon Tendzin Namgyal, the Bon po master who spent a long sojourn with the Benedictine monks on the island of Caldey in the English Channel, and H. H. the Dalai Lama with whom I was privileged to engage in dialogue in July 1997, only prove the overall impression of a Tibetan resistance to an in-depth encounter with Christianity as a religion with philosophical and contemplative traditions comparable to its own.