Chinese scholar slams claim that Buddha was of Chinese origin

A Chinese scholar on religions has slammed an article that claimed Gautam Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, was actually of Chinese origin, saying it lacks evidence and amounts to abuse of patriotism.

State-run Global Times today reported that an article has gone viral on the Chinese Internet since January 1, claiming that a Nepalese scholar named Amuhanson discovered that Sakyamuni (Buddha) was actually Chinese and not of "Indian nationality".

The report said the same article was carried by Chinese news portal sohu.com in November last year without mentioning the name of any Nepalese scholar.

The sohu.com article suggested that it was originally written by Li Liangsong, a professor from the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine and an expert on Buddhist medicine.
 

Li listed 10 main reasons for his claim, such as the fact that Nepal, where Lumbini, the birthplace of Budha, was located used to be a "special district" of the ancient Chinese empire, and the content of Buddhist Scriptures shows the culture originates in Central China.

Li is not the first person who has tried to prove that Sakyamuni was Chinese. One influential study that he referred to is "Rethinking the Origin of Buddhism" by Zhang Rubai, a mineralogist from Chengdu University of Technology at Southwest China's Sichuan Province, the report said.

Zhang believed that Buddhism spread from China to Central Asia and the western regions through India, and later came back to China's interland. His study was published in the journal of Chengdu University of Technology in January 2016, the report said.

According to the journal, Zhang's findings were based on "Buddha figures carved on jade and ivory wares," as well as "a crystal Buddha head" from the ancient Shu Kingdom, which could be traced back to 1,000 BC. The kingdom is located in present day Sichuan.

In 2009, Zhang published a book on these cultural relics "unearthed at the Sanxingdui ruins", the report said.

However, the Sanxingdui Museum in March 2016 slammed Zhang by saying that none of the relics in his book were from the ruins. The museum said Zhang had fabricated the contents and written nonsense by claiming that Buddhism originated in Sanxingdui, the report said.

The report quoted a post in Weibo, akin to Twitter in China, saying "we've never seen anyone so shameless."

"I could not see the meaning of the (Sakyamuni being Chinese) study," said Shen Guiping, a religious expert at the Central Institute of Socialism in Beijing.

"Such studies are invalid and their methods are improper if it is to show patriotism, it is arrogant. Such a sense of national pride needs to be controlled, otherwise it would be abnormal and even dangerous," he told the paper.

Buddhism came to China in 68 AD when first Buddhist temple called White Horse temple was built in Luoyang by Chinese Monk Xuanzang after a 17-year-long voyage to India.

Chinese Buddhist scholars Fa Xian and Xuan Zang travelled from China to Nalanda, the seat of Buddhism to collect the great Buddhist works.

The then Indian President Pratibha Patil inaugurated an Indian-style Buddhist temple in 2010 which was built in Luoyang in association with India to revive the age old spiritual links between the two countries.