Buddhist chants are performed for the opening ceremony of the Sanskrit summer camp. From xinhuanet.com
Sixty Chinese students enrolled at Hangzhou Buddhism Institute in China’s eastern Zhejiang Province this month for a free six-day summer camp to study Sanskrit, the literary and liturgical language of Buddhism and other religions. Amid the growing popularity of Buddhism, yoga, and Indology in China, the study of this ancient Indian language is rapidly gaining traction among a new generation of students.
Sanskrit classes resumed in March for the first time in more than a decade at the Hangzhou Buddhism Institute as part of a national campaign in China to breathe new life into traditional culture. Since then, more than 100 students have attended a free, two-hour, twice-weekly Sanskrit class at the institute.
Guang Quan, the abbot of Hangzhou’s Lingyin Temple and president of the Hangzhou Buddhism Institute, said he had initiated the class in an effort to turn the city into a center for Sanskrit research. “We wish to facilitate domestic Sanskrit study to strengthen academic and Buddhism exchanges with India,” he stated. (Xinhua)
The participants in this month’s summer camp were selected from more than 300 candidates representing a broad cross section of professions, including yoga instructors, mechanical designers, performers, hotel management staff, and environmental protection personnel.
According to course instructor Li Wei, who holds a doctorate in Indology from the University of Mainz in Germany, Sanskrit grammar is complex—for the present tense alone, the inflection of one verb can have 72 forms. “Although the summer camp is only [a] week long, I hope all participants grasp basic reading and writing, while those who aspire to learn further can also get the assistance they need,” he said. (Xinhua)
A Sanskrit-emblazoned flag is displayed during the opening ceremony. From xinhuanet.com
Li Wei noted that there was a long history of Sanskrit scholarship in China, with Sanskrit being the second most common source of foreign words in the Chinese language after English and the source of twice as many words as French. “The earliest Sanskrit study in China began at temples, with clergy of different generations spending more than 1,000 years translating Sanskrit Buddhist scripture,” he said. “The influence of Sanskrit upon the Chinese culture is so subtle that few people realize it.” (Xinhua)
One attendee, Pan Long, who holds a PhD in mechanical design and automation from Zhejiang University, joined the camp hoping to better understand Buddhist scriptures in Sanskrit. “In my spare time, I often read classical literature and Buddhist works such as the Heart Sutra and the Diamond Sutra, but do not understand them well. This summer camp gives me a chance to live a different life and provides a getaway from everyday stress,” he said. (Xinhua)
Yoga student Li Yimei travels from Shanghai with her husband Du Fu to attend the regularly scheduled classes. Having studied yoga in India. Li said she was eager to learn more about Indian culture. “An excellent yogi must thoroughly understand the way of thinking of ancient Indian philosophers,” she said. (Xinhua)
Her equally enthusiastic husband said he hoped he could read Buddhist scriptures in Sanskrit to learn how Buddhism had influenced Chinese culture.
Sanskrit was the main language used by early Mahayana Buddhists in India, and most of the major Mahayana sutras were composed in this language. Although the earliest Buddhist texts were composed in Middle Indo-Aryan languages called Prakrits, Sanskrit gradually became the main language of Buddhist scriptures, mirroring its adoption in India as a political and literary language. Buddhism spread to China through Mahayana missionaries sent by the Indian emperor Ashoka (r. 269–232 BCE), and as a result the Chinese language absorbed many Sanskrit words and terms.