Himalaya Calling: The Origins of China and India PDF
Preview Himalaya Calling: The Origins of China and India
HIMALAYA CALLING The Origins of and U020hc_9781938134593_tp.indd 1 5/2/15 5:14 pm May2,2013 14:6 BC:8831-ProbabilityandStatisticalTheory PST˙ws TThhiiss ppaaggee iinntteennttiioonnaallllyy lleefftt bbllaannkk H IMALAYA C ALLING The Origins of and Tan Chung Institute of Chinese Studies, India World Century U020hc_9781938134593_tp.indd 2 5/2/15 5:14 pm Published by World Century Publishing Corporation 27 Warren Street, Suite 401-402, Hackensack, NJ 07601 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. HIMALAYA CALLING The Origins of China and India Copyright © 2015 by World Century Publishing Corporation All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission from the publisher. For photocopying of material in this volume, please pay a copying fee through the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. In this case permission to photocopy is not required from the publisher. ISBN 978-1-938134-59-3 In-house Editor: Sandhya Venkatesh Typeset by Stallion Press Email: [email protected] Printed in Singapore Sandhya - Himalaya Calling.indd 1 18/3/2015 4:57:45 PM 9”x 6” b1937 Himalaya Calling: The Origins of China and India Dedicated to Ji Xianlin (cid:4499)(cid:13777)(cid:7623) (1911–2009) Eternal Camaraderie in Chindia bb11993377__FFMM..iinndddd vv 33//1100//22001155 11::4422::2211 PPMM May2,2013 14:6 BC:8831-ProbabilityandStatisticalTheory PST˙ws TThhiiss ppaaggee iinntteennttiioonnaallllyy lleefftt bbllaannkk 9”x 6” b1937 Himalaya Calling: The Origins of China and India FOREWORD It is the historian’s constant endeavour to prevent the present from colour- ing our view of the past, but not vice versa. In this attempt, he uses several tools to strive for as objective an understanding of the past as possible. Himalaya Calling is one of the more successful attempts to understand India and China through the prisms of civilization, culture and historical origins. By positing a Himalaya sphere as a geo-civilizational paradigm, Dr. Tan Chung stands in a long line of those who have seen India and China in civilizational and cultural terms — Tagore, Tan Yun-shan, Ji Xianlin, Xu Beihong, P.C. Bagchi, Amartya Sen, among others. But this work goes further than reflecting two great civilizational tradi- tions, the links between them and creating understanding between them. The basic message of the book is that India and China share origins, have been linked through the ages, and complement each other. “Our intelli- gence, knowledge and scholarship actually are rooted in a past that is uni- fied and comes from one civilization”, is the central argument of this work of deep and persuasive scholarship. This is not an easy message when the headlines and television channels focus on the ephemeral, on issues that count for less in the long duration civilizational and historical terms that Dr. Tan uses. Dr. Tan addresses those issues too, as in Chapter 4 when he discusses the India–China boundary issue. There is a fundamental truth about borders that emerges from the manner in which Dr. Tan approaches this issue. Throughout history, borders have been zones of contact, diffusion, and cultural and ethnic mingling between civilizations and cultures, as opposed to boundaries vii bb11993377__FFMM..iinndddd vviiii 22//2266//22001155 66::0022::5588 PPMM b1937 Himalaya Calling: The Origins of China and India 9”x 6” viii Himalaya Calling: The Origins of China and India which are lines defining the present limits of sovereignty. As a result of this difference, boundaries reflect the present balance of power between sover- eignties while borders reflect the accumulated weight and experience of history. That is why almost no international boundary line is where it was a few centuries ago, while border zones have been relatively constant over historical time. So-called realists will criticize Dr. Tan’s approach of Indian and Chinese civilisational unity. What they ignore is that there is indeed a basis among the populace on both countries for what Dr. Tan says. In 2002 when a Buddhist temple was being consecrated in Xuanzang’s birthplace, over six thousand Chinese from all walks of life, including Communist Party members, came to the event from near and far. Many had travelled consid- erable distances, some had walked, and most brought their families to what became a celebration of the life of a monk who passed away a mil- lennium ago! A younger generation in both countries is more comfortable with each other, and carry the burdens of the past lightly. This book is probably the most detailed attempt that I have seen to square the circle of reconciling India and China’s present preoccupations with their past in order to build a future, or, in other words, to unify think- ing about today’s politics and yesterday’s civilizations to permit a “golden” future. Coming from someone who is uniquely placed to speak for both India and China, whose life exemplifies the best in both traditions, this book must be taken seriously for what it suggests of new ways for India and China to approach a future that is increasingly common. It is my hope that this book will tilt the balance in the minds of many more Chinese and Indians to a better understanding of our glorious past that Dr. Tan speaks of with such erudition and passion, thus doing both Dr. Tan’s homes a great service. Shivshankar Menon New Delhi, June 2014 bb11993377__FFMM..iinndddd vviiiiii 22//2266//22001155 66::0022::5588 PPMM 9”x 6” b1937 Himalaya Calling: The Origins of China and India PREFACE THE MEMORIED LIGHT OF COMRADESHIP “We welcome you as a messenger of China’s great culture; you have brought to us in India the gift of spiritual sympathy which, centuries ago, united our ancient humanities. China and India shared the dawn of a great Renaissance, and even in these days of political cataclysm the memoried light of that comradeship remains”. Rabindranath Tagore: Welcome to Xu Beihong, February 1940, Santiniketan The matrix in which the relationship between the two Asian giants, India and China, rests is one of civilizational synergies, defined by the image of indomitable souls like the ancient Chinese pilgrim to India, Xuanzang, his tattered robes rustling in the winds of the Gobi, standing in front of the ‘great ice Mountains’1 of the Himalaya, charting a course of pilgrimage, metaphysical and spiritual enquiry, contemplating the littleness of human life and the greatness of the Buddha. It is in envisioning this old glory of the proud cultures that flourished along the desert sands of Central Asia, fed by the cross-fertilization of minds from India and China that the imagination, 1 Kenneth Saunders, Epochs in Buddhist History: The Haskell Lectures 1921, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1924, p. 73. ix bb11993377__FFMM..iinndddd iixx 22//2266//22001155 66::0022::5588 PPMM
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