Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
time in the 5th or 6th century, and focused on attaining enlightenment through
meditation.
Buddhist Schools
Regardless of its various forms, most Buddhism in China belongs to the Ma-
hayana school, which holds that since all existence is one, the fate of the indi-
vidual is linked to the fate of others. Thus, Bodhisattvas, those who have
already achieved enlightenment but have chosen to remain on earth, continue
to work for the liberation of all other sentient beings.
Ethnic Tibetans and Mongols within the People's Republic of China (PRC)
practise a unique form of Mahayana Buddhism known as Tibetan or Tantric
Buddhism (Lama Jiao). Tibetan Buddhism, sometimes called Vajrayana or
'thunderbolt vehicle', has been practised since the early 7th century AD and is
influenced by Tibet's pre-Buddhist Bon religion, which relied on priests or
shamans to placate spirits, gods and demons. Priests called lamas are be-
lieved to be reincarnations of highly evolved beings; the Dalai Lama is the su-
preme patriarch of Tibetan Buddhism.
Taoism
A home-grown philosophy/religion, Taoism is also perhaps the hardest of all
China's faiths to grasp. Controversial, paradoxical, and - like the Tao itself -
impossible to pin down, it is a natural counterpoint to rigid Confucianist order
and correctness.
Taoism predates Buddhism in China and much of its religious culture con-
nects to a distant animism and shamanism, despite the purity of its philosoph-
ical school. In its earliest and simplest form, Taoism draws from
The Classic of
the Way and its Power
(Daode Jing), penned by the sagacious Laotzu (Laozi;
c 580-500 BC).
The Classic of the Way and its Power
is a work of astonishing insight and
sublime beauty. Devoid of a godlike being or deity, Laotzu's 's writings instead
endeavour to address the unknowable and ineffable principle of the universe
which he calls dao (
dao
), or 'the way'. This way is the method by which the
