Description
Book SynopsisRelations between China and India underwent a dramatic transformation from Buddhist-dominated to commerce-centered exchanges in the seventh to fifteenth centuries. The unfolding of this transformation, its causes, and wider ramifications are examined in this masterful analysis of the changing patterns of the interaction between the two most important cultural spheres in Asia.Tansen Sen offers a new perspective on Sino-Indian relations during the Tang dynasty (618907), arguing that the period is notable not only for religious and diplomatic exchanges but also for the process through which China emerged as a center of Buddhist learning, practice, and pilgrimage. Before the seventh century, the Chinese clergygiven the spatial gap between the sacred Buddhist world of India and the peripheral Chinasuffered from a borderland complex. A close look at the evolving practice of relic veneration in China (at Famen Monastery in particular), the exposition of Mount Wutai as an abode of the bodhisat
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Foreword by Prasenjit Duara Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Introduction: China’s Encounter and Predicament with the Indic World Chapter One: Military Concerns and Spiritual Underpinnings of Tang-India Diplomacy Chapter Two: The Emergence of China as a Central Buddhist Realm Chapter Three: The Termination of the Buddhist Phase of India-China Interactions Chapter Four: The Reconfiguration of India-China Trade and its Underlying Causes Chapter Five: The Phases and the Wider Implications of the Reconfiguration of India-China Trade Conclusion: From Buddhism to Commerce: The Realignment and Its Implications Bibliography Index About the Author
