Second Storey

Also situated towards the end of the hall on this floor is the Aranya Sutra Chamber, the Depository of Buddhist Texts, where the entire Maha Prajna Paramita Sutra is kept. Here you will see a splendid Manjusri Bodhisattva inspiring those seeking wisdom and the Sixteen Shaka Protectors.

According to Buddhist legend, the sutra was entrusted by Buddha to the nagas, until the time when the faithful were ready to hear it. It was discovered by the Indian monk Nagarjuna, in the 1^st century.

Ven Xuanzang returned from India's Nalanda to China with three copies of the Mahaprajnaparamita Sutra. Xuanzang, with a team of disciple translators, commenced translating the voluminous work in 660 CE, using all three versions to ensure the integrity of the source documentation. Xuanzang was being encouraged by a number of his disciple translators to render an abridged version. After a suite of dreams quickened his decision, Xuanzang determined to render an unabridged, complete volume, faithful to the original of 600 fascicles. It is the fundamental philosophical work of the Mahayana school, the formulation of wisdom, which is the sixth paramita.

According to the founder of the Tiantai school, Buddha taught for forty-nine years and could be divided into five periods, namely: 1) the Avatamsaka sutra period; 2) the Mrigadava & Agama sutras period; 3) the Vaipulya sutra period; 4) the Prajna sutra period; and 5) the Saddharma-pundarika sutra period. Just for the Prajna Sutra period alone, Buddha had spent twenty two years teaching the Dharma. These were collected into one sutra called "Maha-prajna-paramita Sutra", with a total six hundred chapters.

"Prajna" is a Sanskrit word, with a very sophisticated meaning; just simply translating this word into 'knowledge' or 'super-knowledge' is unable to express its meaning fully. There is no single ancient Chinese phase that is able to incorporate its total meaning and to replace it, hence could only use transliterate.

This is because the Buddhata (Buddha-nature) is without form, unable to express in words, unable to describe, can not be named and can't be seen. Therefore, during Prajna period, Buddha applied two "temporary plans" and one "real plan" for teaching, i.e. using two temporary methods and one real Dharma. "Temporary plan" is to use simplified theory that suit the understanding level of the followers; the other way is using simple convenient examples to illustrate the sophisticated theory that is not easily understood by normal people. The real plan is to teach the real Dharma, the true Dharma, the Ekayana (the One Vehicle), pointing directly to our Buddhata, true and genuine Suchness, the Shunya principle.

The "real plan" is applied during the Avatamsaka period, the "temporary plan" is applied during the Agama and Vaipulya period, while only during the Prajna period, Buddha applied both the temporary and the real plans. As the Prajna is the cream of the Dharma, it is the directory to become the Buddha. During the entire period of teaching, Buddha never moved away from the Prajna, therefore Prajna Dharma not only connects from the past but also leads us to the future. At this time just like the sun rises to the optimum high, its rays shine over the entire earth. The Buddhist circle using "ripe crisp" as metaphor, the crisp turning from green to ripe, the taste is getting better, this is what is said to the great Bodhisattva. This shows how exquisite and sophisticated the "Maha-prajna-paramita-Sutra" is.

Xuanzang was born near Luoyang, Henan in 602 as Chén Huī or Chén Yī (陳 褘) and died 5 February 664 in Yu Hua Gong (玉華宮). Xuanzang, whose lay name was Chen Hui, was born into a family noted for its erudition for generations. He was the youngest of four children.

At a young age Xuanzang expressed interest in becoming a Buddhist monk as one of his elder brothers had done. After the death of his father in 611, he lived with his older brother Chensu (later known as Changjie) for five years at Jingtu Monastery (淨土寺) in Luoyang, supported by the Sui Dynasty state. During this time he studied Mahayana Buddhism and various early Buddhist schools, preferring Mahayana.

In 618, the Sui Dynasty collapsed and Xuanzang and his brother fled to Chang'an, which had been proclaimed as the capital of the Tang state, and thence southward to Chengdu, Sichuan. Here the two brothers spent two or three years in further study in the monastery of Kong Hui, including the Abhidharmakosa-sastra (Abhidharma Storehouse Treatise). When Xuanzang requested to take Buddhist orders at the age of thirteen, the abbot Zheng Shanguo made an exception in his case because of his precocious knowledge.

Xuanzang was fully ordained as a monk in 622, at the age of twenty. The myriad contradictions and discrepancies in the texts at that time prompted Xuanzang to decide to go to India and study in the cradle of Buddhism. He subsequently left his brother and returned to Chang'an to study foreign languages and to continue his study of Buddhism. He began his mastery of Sanskrit in 626, and probably also studied Tocharian. During this time, Xuanzang also became interested in the metaphysical Yogacara school of Buddhism.

In 629, Xuanzang reportedly had a dream that convinced him to journey to India. The Tang Dynasty and Eastern Türk Göktürks were waging war at the time; therefore Emperor Tang Taizong prohibited foreign travel. Xuanzang persuaded some Buddhist guards at the gates of Yumen and slipped out of the empire via Liangzhou (Gansu), and Qinghai province in 629. He spent 16 years away from China travelling to India and back.

On his return to China in AD 645, Xuanzang was greeted with much honor but he refused all high civil appointments offered by the still-reigning emperor, Emperor Taizong of Tang. Instead, he retired to a monastery and devoted his energy to translating Buddhist texts until his death in AD 664. The Jade Flower Palace was transformed into a temple for him to work in, where he translated the Mahaprajnaparamita sutra.

During Xuanzang's travels, he studied with many famous Buddhist masters, especially at the famous center of Buddhist learning at Nālanda University. When he returned, he brought with him some 657 Sanskrit texts. With the emperor's support, he set up a large translation bureau in Chang'an (present-day Xi'an), drawing students and collaborators from all over East Asia. He is credited with the translation of some 1,330 fascicles of scriptures into Chinese. His strongest personal interest in Buddhism was in the field of Yogācāra (瑜伽行派), or Consciousness-only (唯識).

Xuanzang's work, the Great Tang Records on the Western Regions, is the longest and most detailed account of the countries of Central and South Asia that has been bestowed upon posterity by a Chinese Buddhist pilgrim. While his main purpose was to obtain Buddhist books and to receive instruction on Buddhism while in India, he ended up doing much more. He has preserved the records of political and social aspects of the lands he visited.

This Avalokiteshvara stone statue (above), displayed in our Buddhist Cultural Museum on the 3rd floor, is iconographically closest to the South Seas Freedom Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara statue. It shares common features such as the hands and legs postures. Seated in the lalitasana posture (the pose of royal ease) with Her head backed by an aureole and Her hair neatly combed and tacked into a tall and ornate tiara, she wears flowing scarves and dhoti with lotuses sprouting from gushing water supporting Her feet. The main difference here is that her upper body twists in the opposite direction of her lower body, forming an S Curve (i.e., She looks towards Her left while Her feet points to Her right forming a diametrically opposed 'S' shape). Her left hand resting on a stack of scriptures holds an upturned vase.

Shown above is another stone statue in our Museum (ZZ030) which also shares many common iconographic features with the South Seas Freedom Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara. Here Avalokiteshvara's bare feet rest on the rocky formation itself. She wears a thick necklace made of tightly knitted plates of various shapes and sizes, and sports the S Curve figure with Her left hand resting on a rock holding a ruyi sceptre. She is flanked on Her left by a benign squatting male lion clenching one end of Her long scarf in his mouth glancing upwards. Looking to Her left, she holds the other end of the scarf in Her right hand.

The binded sutra was then wrapped and individually placed into their respective lacquered box, produced by Xianyou Longwei Arts & Crafts Ltd, Putian, Fujian, China. These lacquered boxes were a result from an extensive search of numerous craftsmen from several cities. There were several designs developed before the final was selected for production.

The artworks in the sutra were painted by Mr Zhang Jian of Shanghai You Shan Guan Decorative Design Co Ltd. The gold leaf on the external sides of the sutra was also added on by him.

1. Mahaprajnaparamita Sutra - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2. http://www.fodian.net/world/largeprajnaparamita.pdf

3. Prajnaparamita - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia