The West is most familiar with Buddhism through novels such as Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Journey to the West (
History paints a different picture, however, as numerous Indian missionaries traveled to China to promulgate the Buddhist faith. One, named Bodhidharma (
By the time he died on the banks of the Lo River in 534, he had sown the seeds of Chan Buddhism (
Bodhidharma's ideas were not immediately welcomed. Indeed, his disciple and successor, Hui Ke (
Failing to interest the established Chinese Buddhist hierarchy in his ideas, Bodhidharma, the "Blue-eyed Barbarian," spent nine years in "wall-gazing" meditation. Hui Ke, his first disciple, chopped off his arm to demonstrate his commitment to learn his master's difficult methods.
One of these teachings was that the realization of one's Buddha-nature is attained through mystic and intuitive practices rather than scriptures and ritual. From the 10th century, though, sutra-learning gained a more central role in Chan Buddhism as the number of followers grew and made intense personal meditation less feasible.
Bodhidharma traced his esoteric teachings to the Buddha, who is said to have answered his disciple Kasyapa by merely plucking a flower.
His elevation to Bodhisattva and 1st Patriarch of the Chan School was largely due to subsequent religious and political developments in China. His story became synthesized with those of two other important monks, which connects him with the important Shaolin Monastery.
Routine hagiograhical "facts" were subsequently added to this amalgam. He was given an age of 150 years and reported to have returned to India following his death.
This legend suggests Daoist influences affecting Chan Buddhism, just as Buddhism was also coloring China's own religions at the time. On hearing that he had been spotted in India, disciples opened the Bodhidharma's grave and found it empty but for a single straw sandal. This is commemorated in Chinese Buddhist art, where Bodhidharma is portrayed walking home on one sandal. Other portrayals show him as legless, having lost the use of his legs during nine years of meditation.
This fusion of historical characters and the addition of local traits mark the origins of Chan Buddhism, the first truly Chinese Buddhism.
The tropic of cancer bisects the city of Chiayi (嘉義). The morning heat is, predictably, intense. But the sky is blue and hued with promise. Travelers brave the heat to pose for photos outside the carriages lined up at the end of platform one. The pervasive excitement is understandable. HISTORIC RAILWAY The Alishan Forest Railway (阿里山森林鐵路) was engineered by the Japanese to carry timber from the interior to the coast. Construction began in 1906. In 1912, it opened to traffic, although the line has been lengthened several times since. As early as the 1930s, the line had developed a secondary function as
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) National Congress tomorrow will potentially be one of the most consequential in the party’s history. Since the founding of the DPP until the late 2000s or early 2010s, the party was riven with factional infighting, at times getting very ugly and very public. For readers curious to know more about the context of the factions and who they are, two previous columns explore them in depth: “The powerful political force that vanished from the English press,” April 23, 2024 and “Introducing the powerful DPP factions,” April 27, 2024. In 2008, a relatively unknown mid-level former
July 22 to July 28 The Love River’s (愛河) four-decade run as the host of Kaohsiung’s annual dragon boat races came to an abrupt end in 1971 — the once pristine waterway had become too polluted. The 1970 event was infamous for the putrid stench permeating the air, exacerbated by contestants splashing water and sludge onto the shore and even the onlookers. The relocation of the festivities officially marked the “death” of the river, whose condition had rapidly deteriorated during the previous decade. The myriad factories upstream were only partly to blame; as Kaohsiung’s population boomed in the 1960s, all household
In Taiwan there are two economies: the shiny high tech export economy epitomized by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and its outsized effect on global supply chains, and the domestic economy, driven by construction and powered by flows of gravel, sand and government contracts. The latter supports the former: we can have an economy without TSMC, but we can’t have one without construction. The labor shortage has heavily impacted public construction in Taiwan. For example, the first phase of the MRT Wanda Line in Taipei, originally slated for next year, has been pushed back to 2027. The government