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South Asian Studies
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Exile and Return: The Reinvention of Buddhism and Buddhist Sites in
Modern India
Upinder Singha
a
Department of History, University of Delhi, Delhi, India
Online publication date: 22 September 2010
To cite this Article Singh, Upinder(2010) 'Exile and Return: The Reinvention of Buddhism and Buddhist Sites in Modern
India', South Asian Studies, 26: 2, 193 — 217
To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/02666030.2010.514744
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02666030.2010.514744
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South Asian Studies
Vol. 26, No. 2, September 2010, 193–217
Exile and Return: The Reinvention of Buddhism
and Buddhist Sites in Modern India
Upinder Singh*
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Department of History, University of Delhi, Delhi, India
The objective of this paper is to highlight the processes that have led to the reinvention of Buddhism and Buddhist sites in
modern India. A major aspect of this reinvention is the conversion of members of the Scheduled Castes to Buddhism, a
movement especially associated with B. R. Ambedkar. Another important factor is the exile and internationalization of
Tibetan Buddhism. These have coalesced with the pervasive visibility of the material remains of ancient Buddhism; state
interest in promoting spiritual tourism; global movements of pilgrim-tourists; improving bilateral ties between India and
Japan; and Japanese investment in the conservation of ancient Buddhist sites in India. The convergence of all these
factors has led to a revitalization of Buddhist tourism-cum-pilgrimage circuits and to a dramatic resurrection, or rather
reinvention, of ancient Buddhist sites. This is demonstrated with special reference to the site of Nagarjunakonda in
Andhra Pradesh. Extinct sites such as this one offer wide open spaces that can be appropriated by various religious and
secular groups and by agencies seeking to strengthen their presence, visibility, and/or profit. The paper emphasises that
histories of ancient sites must take cognisance of their transformations in the modern, increasingly globalized world.
Keywords: Buddhism; archaeological sites; Ambedkar; Dalits; Tibetans; pilgrimage; tourism; Nagarjunakonda
A great deal of scholarly attention has been bestowed on
the early history of Buddhism in the Indian subcontinent,
but the understanding of its longer-term trajectories is
very inadequate. The general view is that Buddhism
declined drastically during the early medieval period
(c. 600–1200 CE). However, there are grounds for
arguing that the hypothesis of a virtual extinction of
Buddhism during that period is at least in part the result
of a lack of investigation and the non-acknowledgement
of textual, epigraphic, and archaeological evidence that
suggests otherwise.1
Eastern India is often seen as the last Buddhist bastion,
where monasteries such as those of Nālandā, Odantapura,
Vikramaśilā, and Somapurī flourished under the patronage of the Pāla kings.2 But there is evidence from other
regions as well. In Orissa, remains of early medieval
stūpas, monasteries, and sculptures are known from
Lalitagiri and Ratnagiri. Many Buddhist vihāras were
built during this period in Nepal. The Chachnāmā, an
early thirteenth-century Persian translation of an old
Arabic history of Muhammad bin Qasim’s conquest of
Sind in the early eighth century, suggests that Buddhism
was an important part of the religious landscape of this
north-western region. In Kashmir, the Ratnagupta and
Ratnaraśmī monasteries at Anupamapura flourished in
*Email: upinders@gmail.com
ISSN 0266-6030 print/ISSN 2153-2699 online
© The British Association for South Asian Studies
DOI 10.1080/02666030.2010.514744
http://www.informaworld.com
the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Several major ancient
Buddhist monastic centres – for instance those at Sanchi
(in modern Madhya Pradesh), Amaravati (in Andhra
Pradesh), and Nalanda (in Bihar) – continued to flourish
until the twelfth to thirteenth centuries. Even after the
thirteenth century, the monastic tradition was alive in the
western Himalayas in Ladakh, Lahaul, and Spiti, which
had close connections with the monasteries of Tibet. In
fact, some of these monasteries have a more or less continuous history from the early medieval period right down
to the present. It is clear that Buddhism never really disappeared from India, though it did decline, and was relegated to the geographical, political, and cultural margins.
Just as problematic as the assessments of the extent of
Buddhism’s decline are the explanations for this decline.
While the Turks have been blamed for the sack of Nālandā
at the close of the twelfth century, they were certainly not
responsible for the demise of monasteries in other parts of
the country. Apart from the Turks, the most frequently
cited reasons for the religion’s decline include its being
swallowed up by Hinduism due to its lack of distinctiveness, the ‘open frontier’ between Buddhism and local cults,
‘corruption’ by Tāntric influences, a decline in political
patronage, and the saṅgha’s loss of material support due to
economic dislocation caused by frequent wars.3
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Upinder Singh
There is a view that Buddhism’s eclipse was never
complete, and that there was a connection between its
lingering, simmering ancient residue and the Buddhist
resurgence in modern India. For instance, Benoy Gopal
Ray has argued that a handful of Buddhists survived in
Bengal after the religion had virtually disappeared in
other parts of the subcontinent, and that this spark was
re-ignited by Buddhist revivalist movements in the late
nineteenth century.4 Similarly, there is a hypothesis that
in Orissa the religion did not disappear but went underground and survived in the form of a ‘crypto-Buddhism’
(a combination of Tāntric, Buddhist, and Vaiṣṇava elements), its echoes surfacing several centuries later in the
Mahima Dharma movement of the nineteenth century.5
Notwithstanding such assertions, there is no doubt about
the ultimately relatively diminutive dimensions of an
identifiably Buddhist saṅgha and laity in medieval
times. Buddhism survived on the margins and may have
left a strong latent impression on Indian soil, but its
revival, or rather reinvention, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries seems to be largely a result of completely
new factors and forces.
According to the 2001 Census of Religions carried out
by the Government of India, Buddhists constitute about
0.8% of the total Indian population, a mere 7, 955, 207 out
of a total population of 1, 028, 610, 328. They are sprinkled
all over the country, with larger concentrations in the
north-east and in Maharashtra: Sikkim (28.1% of the state’s
population), Arunachal Pradesh (13%), Mizoram (7.9%),
Tripura (3.1%), Jammu and Kashmir (1.1%), Himachal
Pradesh (1.2%), and Maharashtra (6%).6 A comparison
of the data for 1961, 1971, 1981, and 2001 suggests that
the numbers of Buddhists in India have more than doubled
between 1961 and 2001, from approximately 3,256,000 in
1961 to 7,955,207 in 2001. Of course, this is within an overall phenomenon of population growth, in which the numbers of adherents of other religions have increased as well.
But it is not just a matter of numbers. Apart from the
‘official’ Buddhists, i.e. those who declare themselves as
Buddhists in the census operations, Buddhism has a larger
constituency and acceptability, especially among the
Indian intelligentsia. Ling talks of two types of
Buddhism in modern India – one is a comprehensive
religious and cultural package, the other is personal and
has a strong philosophical and meditational element.7 It is
the appeal of the latter that explains the otherwise perplexing fact that in spite of the negligible presence of Buddhists
in India at the time of Indian independence, the cakra
(wheel) and the addorsed lions of the Sarnath capital of
the Maurya emperor Aśoka, symbols with strong Buddhist
resonance, were incorporated by the newly born Indian
state into its national flag and national emblem.8
The idealized view of Buddhism as an ancient faith
marked by rationality, non-violence, and an egalitarian
message was one of several competing twentieth-century
imaginings of the ancient Indian past, but it was one that
was and continues to be very influential. In this construction of ancient India, the Buddha – the charismatic founder of the faith – and Aśoka – its most famous royal
patron – are valorized for the virtues they are seen to
have embodied and propagated. This idealization of
Buddhism had its roots in the West’s discovery and
understanding of Buddhism,9 but it also seems to have
been connected with the centrality of non-violence in
Gandhian nationalism. It is also significant that this
valorization of Buddhism has not – at least until now –
been seen as particularly threatening or problematic by
adherents of India’s other religious communities and their
leaders.
What is most directly significant from the point of
view of this paper is that within the national and international community of Buddhists, India’s status as the
homeland of Buddhism (we know how important homelands are!), never really forgotten, is becoming increasingly important. And although it never completely left
India, Buddhism has returned, although in different
forms.10 The extent of this revival should not be exaggerated: in actual demographic terms it is of modest
proportions, but its global visibility and impact are
greater than what the demographic statistics would lead
us to expect. The most important source of this revival is
the conversion of people belonging to Scheduled Castes
and Tribes to Buddhism. Another important factor is the
exile and internationalization of Tibetan Buddhism.
These two factors have connected with an increasing
state interest in promoting ‘spiritual tourism’ in an
increasingly globalized world. Simultaneously, fueled
by improving bilateral ties and pan-Buddhist sentiment,
there has been increased Japanese investment in the conservation of ancient Buddhist sites in India. The main
argument of this paper is that the conjunction of all these
factors has led to a distinct and sustained revitalization of
Buddhist pilgrim-cum-tourist circuits, increased activity
at many ancient Buddhist sites, and a dramatic resurrection, or rather reinvention, of many extinct ones.
The reinvention of Buddhism in modern India may
not have happened were it not for the fact that in spite of
Buddhism’s earlier decline and peripheralization, and in
spite of the vandalism inflicted by time and archaeologists, the material remains of ancient Buddhism were,
and still are, very visible all over the subcontinent. These
continue to provide important anchors for the Buddhist
revival, and the revitalized ancient remains have in turn
become potent symbols as well as catalysts of this revival, ones that are likely to multiply in number and
increase in importance and visibility in the coming
decades.
Certain aspects of this phenomenon have been noted
and discussed by some scholars. For instance, Toni Huber
has described the Tibetan diaspora’s very deliberate use
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of ancient Buddhist sites in India as a resource to further
its own concerns.11 Catherine Becker has detailed how
the Tibetan Buddhists’ Kālacakra celebrations in 2006
altered the landscape of Amaravati in Guntur District,
Andhra Pradesh.12 However, there is need for a broader
historical perspective, one which takes into account
many other features of the revitalization of ancient
Buddhist sites within the larger context of the twentieth
century Buddhist revival India. Apart from the activities
of the Tibetan exiles, there are several other important
aspects of this larger context including Dalit conversions,
global flows of tourists and pilgrims, government investment in sites associated with spiritual tourism, and international cultural diplomacy in the form of the funding of
conservation projects. This paper discusses how all these
factors have coalesced to generate a reinvention of
Buddhism and Buddhist sites in modern India.
Ambedkar, the neo-Buddhists, and ancient Buddhism
The most important source of the resurgence of Buddhism
in modern India has been an internal socio-political one,
and consists of the conversion of sections of the Scheduled
Castes or Dalits, the modern representatives of communities which suffered centuries of oppression and marginalization in caste society as ‘Untouchables’. This process is
inextricably linked with Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar
(1891–1956) and the dramatic event that took place in
Nagpur in the state of Maharashtra in western India on
14 October 1956, the year when the 2,500th anniversary of
the Buddha’s parinibbāna was celebrated in various parts
of South and Southeast Asia. On that day, in a large open
field – later known as the Diksha Bhumi – Ambedkar took
Buddhist vows, along with 400,000 of his ‘Untouchable’
followers, publicly declaring their conversion to a new
faith.
Although Buddhist conversions are generally associated with Ambedkar, it is important to note that the
Buddhist revivalist movement in India had a background
and precursors.13 The Maha Bodhi Society, founded by
the Ceylonese Anagarika Dharmapala in 1891, was an
institution which contributed greatly towards generating
an international interest in Buddhism within and outside
India. But there were other institutions and individuals as
well. For instance, in 1891 Kripasharan set up the
Bauddha Dharmankur Sabha, which was very active in
Bengal.14 In South India Pandit Iyothee Thass (1845–
1914) established the Sakya Buddhist Society (also
known as the South Indian Buddhist Association), and
spearheaded a social protest movement among Paraiya
labourers which spread through the labour diaspora to
South Africa and Burma.15
Ambedkar had declared in 1935 that although he had
been born a Hindu, he would not die one. But he took a
195
long time to reach the decision to lead his community
into the Buddhist fold, and it was a decision that was
simultaneously personal and political. Ambedkar’s personal interest in Buddhism is said to have been sparked
off by a book on the life of Gautama Buddha given to him
by one of his teachers in Bombay in 1908. But as a
political leader of India’s ‘Untouchables’, Buddhism was
neither his first nor his only choice, and he carefully
weighed it against other options such as Sikhism,
Christianity, and Islam. A combination of several factors
gave Buddhism an edge for being chosen as the religion
of salvation for India’s oppressed and marginalized millions – the fact that the Buddha’s teaching could easily be
mined for messages of egalitarianism, rationality, and
ethics; its international presence; its deep roots in
Indian soil (this was very important for Ambedkar); and
the fact that in the mid-twentieth century, there were
actually very few Buddhists in India. The field was
more or less clear – the new converts would not have to
contend with any strong, entrenched ecclesiastical elite.16
His opponents called the mass conversion at Nagpur a
political stunt; most of his own political advisors and
colleagues were against the idea, but Ambedkar’s stature
was such that that they all fell in line.
From the point of view of the present paper, several
things seem especially significant about the Nagpur conversion ceremony. A replica of the Sanchi stūpa was
prominently displayed on the dais, a reminder of
Buddhism’s long, grand heritage in ancient India. The
sentiment of pan-Buddhist internationalism was palpable. The dignitaries seated on the dais included
D. Valisinha, the General Secretary of the Maha Bodhi
Society.17 Ambedkar took his vows from a Burmese
bhikkhu named U. Chandramani, apparently the oldest
Buddhist monk in India at the time. After the event,
messages of congratulations flowed in from prominent
individuals from other Buddhist countries, such as the
Prime Minister of Burma.18 Ambedkar had appropriated
ancient Indian Buddhism, linked it with modern, internationalized Buddhism, and transformed it into something new, something he himself called Navayāna (‘the
new vehicle’). The strong element of anti-Hindu sentiment and protest that accompanied the ceremony was
very evident from the vows taken by Ambedkar and the
other converts.19 Early Buddhism had to a large extent
adjusted itself to existing social hierarchies and created
in the saṅgha an island of equality in the midst of a very
unequal world; it had also co-existed with the Hindu cults
without undue acrimony. In the twentieth century, in
Ambedkar’s hands, Buddhism blended with strident
social protest and political assertion, and took on a
sharp anti-Hindu stance.
True religion, in Ambedkar’s view, was an important
aspect of society, one that was necessary to maintain the
moral basis of both individual and community. In his
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Upinder Singh
opinion, the Buddha, like Marx, put forward a doctrine
aimed at radically transforming society. But Ambedkar
went on to argue that while both Marx and the Buddha
put forward a call for social equality, Buddhism was
superior to Marxism because of the peaceful, democratic
means it advocated to achieve this end.20 Ambedkar’s
book, The Buddha and his Dhamma, was completed just
before he died, and was published posthumously in 1957.
Written in pithy, lively point-form, this book presented
his final and most detailed understanding of the Buddha’s
life and ideas. He asserted that there was a fundamental
difference between the western notion of religion and the
idea of dhamma in Buddhism; the latter was preeminently social and moral, and its purpose was to reconstruct the world. True dhamma (saddhamma) is that
which breaks down barriers between man and man,
which maintains that worth and not birth is the measure
of man, and which promotes social equality. Ambedkar
described the confusion about what constituted the core
of the Buddha’s teaching as in large part a result of the
misreporting of his ideas by monks. He asserted that the
touchstone of ascertaining whether a particular interpretation of the Buddha’s teaching was correct or not was
whether that interpretation was logical and rational. He
denied that the four noble truths made Buddhism a pessimistic doctrine. He scoffed at the hagiographical explanation of the Buddha’s disenchantment with worldly life
as a result of witnessing the ‘four sights’ in Kapilavastu.
As for the role of the saṅgha, he asserted that the bhikkhus
should be servants of society.21
Ambedkar clearly saw himself as an agent for the
revival of a once-great Indian religion and wanted his
book to inspire and ignite the reader to change his destiny.
The Buddha and his Dhamma ends with prayers for the
return of the Buddha to his native land and for spread of
his dhamma. Not everyone was impressed. A review of
the book in Mahabodhi, the journal of the Maha Bodhi
Society in Calcutta, described it as a dangerous book, and
remarked that it should have been titled Ambedkar and
his Dhamma.22
Ambedkar used the term ‘neo-Buddhists’to refer to the
Scheduled Caste converts. The prefix ‘neo’ was apt for two
reasons – they were new converts to the religion, and the
religion they embraced was in fact a new interpretation of
Buddhism, one with a strong element of social and political protest. Indian neo-Buddhism differed from
Buddhisms in other parts of the world in many fundamental ways, including in its religious ideas and social orientation. It was essentially a lay Buddhism, one in which lay
leaders predominated and monks played a very insignificant role. During the 1950s and 1960s the majority of the
converts came from two groups among whom Ambedkar
enjoyed an especially strong following – the Mahars of
Maharashtra (who had traditionally been service providers in villages – watchmen, removers of cattle carcasses,
wall-repairers, etc.) and the Jatavs of Agra (largely
employed in shoe-making) in Uttar Pradesh. Ambedkar
also invented a new myth of origin for the neo-Buddhists,
one which connected them directly with ancient India and
ancient Buddhism. His hypothesis (put forward in his
essay The Untouchables, published in 1948) was that the
twentieth century ‘Untouchables’ were the descendants of
the Buddhists of ancient India, ‘broken men’ who stuck to
their religion and to beef-eating, and who were reduced to
their pathetic position due to the machinations of the
Brāhmaṇas.
The mass conversion of Dalits to Buddhism does not,
however, seem to have had a massive or sustained legacy
after Ambedkar, and today the vast majority of the
Scheduled Castes in India are in fact not Buddhist. There
have been a few episodes of conversions of members of
Scheduled Caste and Tribe groups, including some wellpublicized ones, in recent times. For instance, on 27
October 2002 a small number of Dalits publicly converted
to Islam, Buddhism, and Christianity at a ceremony held in
Gurgaon, near Delhi. The organizers were the All-India
Confederation of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes
Organisations and the Lord Buddha Club.23
On 4 November 2004 a Diksha (conversion) ceremony was organized in Delhi by the All India
Confederation of Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes
Organizations and the Lord Buddha Club. The number
of conversions that took place on that day is debated. It
seems that about 20,000 people eventually took their
vows, but the organizers allege that the police had prevented as many as 50,000 people from entering the city.
In fact, the rally was originally supposed to be held in the
centrally located Ram Lila grounds and the venue had to
be shifted to the more out-of-the-way Ambedkar Bhavan
due to police insistence that it would create a law and
order problem.24
One of the biggest post-Ambedkar conversion rallies
took place on 28 May 2007 when it was reported that
about 50,000 (100,000 according to some sources) Dalits
and tribals converted to Buddhism at Mahalaxmi Race
Course in Mumbai, on the fiftieth anniversary of
B. R. Ambedkar’s death and the Nagpur Diksha. The
ceremony was organized by an organization called the
Babasaheb Ambedkar Pratishthan, and was apparently
also supposed to be a show of strength by a Dalit leader
of Maharashtra named Ramdas Athawale (alias Udit
Raj), who sought to establish his credentials as the true
torch-bearer of Ambedkar’s legacy.25 A Dalit writer
named Laxman Mane, who had organized a smaller conversion of some 140 tribals at Nagpur in 2006, was also
involved. Monks from several countries were present on
the occasion. The Dalai Lama was scheduled to attend,
but for some reason did not make an appearance.
On the whole, it is evident that mass conversions of
Dalits and tribals to various religions (mainly Buddhism,
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Christianity, and Islam) are not as frequent or substantial
as certain Hindu groups who have spear-headed moves
towards the passing of strict anti-conversion laws in
some states maintain. This is in spite of the fact that
according to law, Scheduled Caste converts to
Buddhism and Sikhism do not lose their special privileges after conversion, whereas converts to Christianity
and Islam do.
Various reasons have been cited for the sparseness of
Buddhist conversions in the post-Ambedkar era.
Although Adele Fiske’s study was based on data collected
in 1966–67, its conclusions are still relevant. There is the
very loose structure of Buddhist organizations, the lack
of co-operation and coordination among them, political
in-fighting, a weak financial and personnel base, and the
absence of a charismatic leadership transcending local,
regional, and caste boundaries. Connected to the last
point is the fact that neo-Buddhism is basically a lay
religion, one in which the saṅgha has little presence or
importance (Ambedkar’s attitude towards the saṅgha was
one of suspicion and distrust). There is a lack of interest
among young neo-Buddhists to don monastic robes, and
the training facilities for monks or baudhacharyas (laypersons who can officiate at life-cycle rituals) are weak.26
Instead of looking towards religious conversion,
Scheduled Castes today seek more direct gains through
political positioning both within parties with a wide
social base or through association with political parties
that explicitly have a Dalit base. The electoral successes
of the Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh are illustrative of the latter trend. Although the fortunes of this party
were significantly diminished in the 2009 national elections, there is no doubt that today, in their quest for social
justice and advancement, groups low in the caste hierarchy seek salvation through politics rather than through
religion. Political parties, for their part, can no longer
ignore the Dalits.
Tibetan Buddhism in India and its links with Ladakh,
Lahaul, and Spiti
The second major facet of the increased visibility of
Buddhism in twentieth- and twenty-first century India
has its source in political processes in India’s neighbourhood. In ancient times Tibet was home to the Bon religion. According to tradition, Buddhist influences started
making their impact there from the reign of King
Songsten Gampo in the seventh century. Tibetan
Buddhism was strongly influenced both by Indian
Buddhism and by the autochthonous Bon traditions.
Buddhism was transmitted to Tibet by many Buddhist
monks, the best known among whom were the Indian
monks Śāntarakṣita, Padmasambhava, and Atiśa. The
various Tibetan sects identified themselves as belonging
197
to the Mahāyāna stream with respect to their philosophy
and religious practice, and were strongly influenced by
Buddhist tantra (known as Vajrayāna or Mantrayāna).
The ‘dark period’ of the ninth and tenth centuries was
followed by a revival in the eleventh to fifteenth centuries, during which time the major Tibetan sects such as
the Nyingmapa, Kagyu, Sakya, and Geluk took shape.27
The exile of Tibetan Buddhism from Tibet and its
refuge in India was a twentieth-century phenomenon, and
was a direct outcome of the Chinese invasion of Tibet in
1949 and the subsequent Chinese crack-down on Buddhist
monastic institutions. In 1959, ten years after the invasion,
Tenzin Gyatso, the fourteenth Dalai Lama and the chief
spiritual leader of the Tibetan Buddhists, fled to India along
with about 85,000 followers. Subsequent to that event, a
Central Tibetan Administration, functioning as a government in exile, was established. It continues to function,
with headquarters at McLeodganj in Dharamsala in
Himachal Pradesh. The internationalization of Tibetan
Buddhism was thus a result of its forced exile from its
homeland.
With the help of the Indian government, the United
Nations High Commission for refugees, and various foreign donors, the Tibetan refugees were ultimately settled
in fifty-two settlements spread across ten Indian states
(apart from thirty-five settlements in Nepal and seven in
Bhutan). The largest numbers of refugees were located in
five settlements set up between 1960 and 1974 in the
southern state of Karnataka. The new settlers mainly
devoted themselves to agriculture (they also took to
agro-based industries and handicrafts) and established
monasteries and schools. The biggest settlement of
Tibetan refugees is the Lungsung-Samdupling settlement
in Bylakuppe, Karnataka. Starting off with a population
of 3000, this now consists of seven villages or camps,
with an average of 30 families in each camp.
Over 8,000 Tibetans live in Dharamsala, which is also
the official residence of the Dalai Lama. The Tibetan
government in exile has set up a library and archives of
Tibetan works, and has made efforts to promote the study
of Buddhist philosophy and Tibetan language and culture, including the study of traditional Tibetan medicine,
astrology and handicrafts. Several monasteries and nunneries are located in the town.
Although physically concentrated in India, the
Tibetan diaspora has an international spread. The
Department of Information and International Relations
of the Government in exile places the Tibetan diaspora at
about 111,170. Of these, 85,000 live in India, 14,000 in
Nepal, 1,600 in Bhutan, and 1,540 in Switzerland. About
640 Tibetans are scattered across other countries of
Europe, 110 in Scandinavia, 7,000 in the USA and
Canada, 1,000 in Taiwan, 220 in Australia and New
Zealand, and 60 in Japan. Thus, in contrast to the neoBuddhist movement, which has an essentially Indian
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Upinder Singh
perspective, Tibetan Buddhism has acquired a strong
international flavour. This has led to a greater international visibility of the Tibetan Buddhists in India, a highlighting of the ancient Indian Buddhist heritage, and of
the fact that India is the original homeland of Buddhism.
A corollary to the substantial international exposure that
Tibetan Buddhism has received and the interest it has
attracted is that the second half of the twentieth century
has seen the creation of a Buddhist following beyond
Asia into Europe and America, one that is notable not
so much for its numbers as for the high-profile celebrity
status of some of its members.
The international awareness and sympathy that the
Tibetan cause enjoys today has much to do with the
current Dalai Lama. He has travelled to over sixty-two
countries, meeting many dignitaries and heads of state
(most recently President Obama of the United States),
and has received numerous international awards including the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize for leading a non-violent
struggle for the liberation of Tibet. He was awarded the
Congressional Gold Medal – the highest civilian honour
in the United States of America – in 2006. Although he
has visited Japan, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia,
Mongolia, and Taiwan, the maximum number of foreign
visits made by the Dalai Lama have been to the United
States and Germany. Devotees from various countries
come to seek his blessings and guidance in Dharamsala.
Through his discourses, visits, and various kinds of
initiation ceremonies held in different parts of the
world, the Dalai Lama has personally played an important role in highlighting the plight of the Tibetan refugees
and strengthening the international profile of Tibetan
Buddhism.
While the scale of international, especially western,
attention that Tibet has received in recent years may
appear novel and unprecedented, it is important to
remember that this attention is part of a longer-term
engagement. Donald S. Lopez Jr has pointed out that
Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism have long been a focus of
European desire and fantasy. In the eighteenth and nineteenth century, western scholars considered ‘Lamaism’
(the term they used for Tibetan Tāntric Buddhism) as a
corrupt version of the original pristine faith. The midtwentieth-century Tibetan diaspora led to a significant
shift in attitude and perspective. Buddhism started claiming American and European converts and became internationalized. Now, because of Tibet’s seclusion, Tibetan
Buddhism came to be considered as more authentic than
that of any other land, and became an object of academic
inquiry in western universities. This academic inquiry
had an urgency about it, as its practitioners saw themselves as engaged in a rescue operation to save a culture
that stood on the brink of extinction.28 Lopez has also
elaborated on the creation of a new sort of myth about
Tibet as a perfect, ethereal, idyllic world before the
Chinese invasion. In this new mythologizing, Tibet is
seen as a spiritual panacea for a materialistic western
world.29
But coming back to India, it should be noted that the
persecution and exile of Tibetan Buddhism has in fact
contributed towards revitalizing Buddhism in India,
especially in the northern mountainous areas of Lahaul
and Spiti (both in the state of Uttarakhand) and in Ladakh
(in the state of Jammu and Kashmir), regions where the
Buddhist tradition has ancient roots. In Lahaul-Spiti the
evidence of the Buddhist impact dates from the eighth
century, and this impact became especially marked
between the late tenth to twelfth centuries under the
patronage of the Guge kings, although the situation in
the neighbouring areas of central and southern Himachal
was different. 30 Although it looks like a remote area,
Laxman S. Thakur points out that Lahaul-Spiti and specific sites within the region, Kinnaur in particular, occupied a strategic position between two major international
trade routes – the silk route which linked China, India,
central Asia, and Europe; and the Great Northern Trade
route of the subcontinent, which swept from the eastern
Indian port of Tāmraliptī across the Gangetic plain to
Taxila in the north-west. The brisk trans-Himalayan
Indo-Tibetan trade was in fact an important sustaining
feature of the economy of Lahaul-Spiti from early times.
The area was also a cultural melting-pot – people of
diverse origins traversed the high mountain terrain,
bringing in new ideas and technologies and enriching
its cultural mosaic. 31
This cultural mosaic is visible, for instance, in the
paintings at Tabo (in the Spiti valley), one of the most
important ancient and still-active monasteries. Its history
goes back to the late tenth century and its walls bear
exquisite murals. When the monk Geshe Sonam
Wangdu came from Tibet to Tabo in 1976, there were
only two monks living there; today it houses 45 monks. 32
The Dalai Lama has visited Tabo several times; he conferred the initiation into the practice of Kālacakra tantra
there in 1983, and sat on the throne of the main temple in
1996 to celebrate the thousand-year anniversary of the
monastery. In 2004 he visited the monastery to teach and
bestow the Vajradhātu initiation. He was supposed to
visit the monastery again in 2009 to consecrate the
Kālacakra stūpa being built there, but the visit did not
take place. It was during the time of Geshe Sonam
Wangdu that the new Kālacakra temple (in which the
initiation was held) was built. The Tabo monastery has
for many years now been running a school for training
young monks as well as making arrangements to send
some of them to monastic universities elsewhere. 33
Close interaction with Tibet is also a centuries-old
phenomenon in Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir, where
Buddhists are concentrated in the north and east, while
Muslims predominate in the south and west. The
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Buddhist parts of the region are marked by ubiquitous
lamas (monks), chortens (the term used for stūpas in this
region), gompas (monasteries), colourful prayer flags,
and mani walls with prayer stones bearing prayers and
invocations in the Tibetan script. Buddhism made its
impact on Ladakh from much earlier times, but the
major Ladakh monasteries date from the eleventh to
nineteenth centuries, when royal patronage became
available, and many of them are living institutions with
a rich but highly endangered artistic heritage. A prominent example is Alchi monastery, noted for its exquisite
murals, which was founded in the eleventh century by a
Tibetan noble who extended his political control over
Ladakh.34
From a long-term point of view, it is important to note
that in the western Himalayas the connections through
patronage and interaction between Buddhist monasteries
and the villages in which they are situated have been
increasing in strength. Although most of the senior
monks in these monasteries are Tibetan, a few young
monks are drawn from nearby villages. Many monasteries are involving themselves in secular education,
thereby consolidating their links with the aspirations of
the laity. Lamas play an important part in the daily life of
the people, especially in the performance of life-cycle
rituals, and also function as astrologers and exorcists.
There is a close interdependence between monasteries
and villages. In Ladakh (as also in Lahaul and Spiti),
families frequently give over a son to the monkhood,
farm the monastery’s land in return for a share of the
produce, make donations to monasteries, and extend
financial help to monks on various occasions. 35
Clearly, then, the monastic tradition is thriving in
Ladakh, Lahaul, and Spiti, and the long-standing religious and cultural links with Tibet have strengthened
since the 1960s. In fact, there has been an interesting
reversal – in ancient times, Tibetan monks imbibed learning from the Buddhist homeland. Now, exiled from its
own home, Tibetan Buddhism is playing a key role in
consolidating and deepening the Buddhist tradition in
Ladakh, Lahaul, and Spiti. 36
Dalit Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism: an
unbridgeable chasm?
There does not seem to be any significant interaction
between the two faces of the Buddhist revival in modern
India – the Dalit and Tibetan movements. Dalit Buddhists
do not figure prominently among the supporters of the
Tibetan cause. The Dalai Lama, for his part, has only
occasionally spoken about issues of social inequality and
the Dalits. For instance, when a million Dalits were
expected to convert to Buddhism on 14 October 2001,
under the aegis of the All India Confederation of
199
Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe Organizations, the
Dalai Lama reportedly made a supportive statement.37
Similarly, as mentioned earlier, he was supposed to be
present at the mass conversion rally of Dalits and tribals
in Mumbai in May 2007, but eventually did not participate, for unknown reasons.
The Dalai Lama emphasizes that formal conversion
to Buddhism is not sufficient in itself; it is essential that
converts (Dalit or otherwise) deeply imbibe the religious
doctrines. 38 There is also a major divergence in the
orientation of the two movements. The Dalai Lama’s
Middle Path, emphasizing love and compassion, even
towards one’s adversary, has in recent years been questioned even within the Tibetan community. 39 It has never
struck a chord with Dalit Buddhists, for whom Buddhism
constitutes a way out of the harsh and sometimes brutal
realities of caste oppression and conflict. It has also been
suggested that the Tibetan Buddhists have little to gain
from integrating with a group that has a low social and
economic status,40 but the chasm between Tibetan and
Dalit Buddhists runs much deeper than this.
Apart from enormous differences in religious belief
and practice, there is also the radical difference in the
place of the monastic tradition. As mentioned earlier,
monasticism is of little importance among Dalit
Buddhists, among whom full-time monks are few and
unimportant, and several Buddhist organizations offer
short-term crash courses for monks and lay
Baudhacharyas. This is a far cry from the rigorous and
long-term training required for becoming a monk in the
Tibetan tradition. The enormous cultural divide, including
that of language, between neo-Buddhists and monks from
other lands has been a major reason why the few attempts
made by the former to connect themselves with monastic
communities in various parts of the world have not been
very successful. Dalit converts do not feel comfortable
with monks from other countries and prefer interfacing
with monks or laypersons from their own community:
Buddhist monks from other countries have played a
minor role in the mass conversion movement [of the
Scheduled Castes] of the past decade. Differences in
rite, custom, and language have hampered the efforts of
monks from Japan, Tibet, Burma, Cambodia, and
Ceylon. Several laymen said, ‘We are Indians, we do
not want to adopt Japanese or Ceylonese ways’. Others
indicated that monks should be recruited from Scheduled
Caste communities so they would know the language and
mentality of the people.41
Furthermore, the Tibetan Buddhists in India have very
self-consciously and deliberately maintained their distance, not only from Dalit Buddhists but also from the
rest of India and Indians. The scattered Tibetan communities in India are ‘intentionally nonassimilative’ and the
overall level of acculturation among exiles in is rather
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Upinder Singh
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low.42 I noticed in the course of my travels in Ladakh,
Lahaul, and Spiti that senior Tibetan monks, including
those who had lived in India for decades, did not know
how to speak any Indian language. Huber has argued that
the exiles have no real interest in India, except for their
own settlements and the sacred places associated with
Buddhism, with which they identify strongly. Further, he
asserts that although official statements made by the
Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government in exile allude
to India being the birth-place of the Buddha and
Buddhism and therefore a Holy Land, for a variety of
reasons most Tibetans living in India have an ambivalent,
even negative, attitude towards their adopted country.43
Given all this, it is hardly surprising that on the occasions when neo-Buddhists and Tibetan Buddhists do
interface, nothing much happens:
I met two Tibetan monks living in the guest room of a very
simple vihara in a very small poor Buddhist community
outside Pune in Maharashtra. They had been there several
weeks and had learned enough Pali to chant some formula
familiar to the Maharashtrian Buddhists, and were making
plaster Buddha images from molds they had brought with
them to repay the hospitality they were given. No other
communication was possible, and I expect the connection
did not last long.44
The deep cultural divide between the Buddhisms of the
Dalits and the Tibetans constitutes a huge obstacle to the
prospect of the emergence of a pan-Buddhist unity in
India. These two Buddhisms are embedded not only in
very different cultural matrices but also in very different
political contexts and orientations. For Ambedkar,
Buddhism was a way of raising the position of the
Scheduled Castes to a new level vis-à-vis the upper castes,
linked to a strident rejection of Hinduism and all that it
stood for. For the Tibetan Buddhist elite, on the other
hand, it is part of a way of life that is threatened, one that
has to be zealously protected in exile. While Dalit
Buddhist organizations and Tibetan Buddhists share a
history of persecution and may on some occasions share
a platform, the political, social, ideological, and cultural
differences between the two are too great to allow any
genuine dialogue. While Tibetan Buddhism has embraced,
in fact thrives on, internationalism and international support, the neo-Buddhist movement has an inward orientation. Nevertheless, there is at least one important spatial
meeting ground between Dalit Buddhists, Tibetan
Buddhists and Buddhists from other parts of the world.
This meeting ground is created by pilgrimage.
Pilgrimage as a meeting ground
The importance of pilgrimage in religious practice cuts
across religious, cultural, and chronological divides. The
history of the spread of Buddhism within and beyond the
subcontinent is one of peripatetic monks and pilgrims,
and the travel and transformation of ideas and practices
over vast geographical distances. In the context of this
paper, it is important to recognize the significance and
impact of pilgrimage not only as part of Buddhist religious practice, but also as an important event in the lives
of the individuals who launched Buddhist revivalist
movements, such as Anagarika Dharmapala and
B. R. Ambedkar. All revivalist movements have connected themselves with the ancient places made sacred
through association with the Buddha. Some of these are
multi-religious sites, which have seen struggles for control between different religious communities. The best
known example is Anagarika Dharmapala’s staking claim
to Bodh Gaya, which was in the nineteenth century a
pilgrimage site for Buddhists and Hindus alike, igniting
a dispute which still lingers.45
Reflecting on the nature and potential of pilgrimage,
Victor Turner points out that pilgrimages are liminal
phenomena, in some ways similar to rites of passage. In
the course of pilgrimage, the structures of everyday
social life are altered by communitas. Communitas is
different from the sense of community which arises
from a geographical area of common living – the bonds
of communitas transcend this. Where pilgrims come from
is as important as where they go, and the nature and
intensity of the bonds created by pilgrimage also depend
on the journey itself. Furthermore, society and culture
impinge on the process, and there are limits to the communitas that is generated – inherent social divisions are
attenuated, not completely eliminated.46
For Indian Dalit Buddhists, visiting the ancient
Buddhist sites is a way in which they can connect themselves with a great heritage to which they can lay claim, a
compensation for the marginalization and low social
status they experienced over many centuries. The neoBuddhists of Maharashtra frequent Ajanta, Ellora, and
Karle, and many of the guides at the Ajanta and Ellora
caves are Dalit Buddhists.47 Festivals such as Buddha
Jayanti are often celebrated at the caves at Aurangabad,
Nasik, and Junnar. Ancient Buddhist sites provide neoBuddhists with a rich store of emblems for their buildings and their homes, and Dalit Buddhist homes are often
decorated with photographs of Sanchi, Sarnath, and Bodh
Gaya.48
Zelliot argues that the neo-Buddhist movement does
not ultimately have a physical centre located at a particular place. It is B. R. Ambedkar, considered a bodhisattva by many of his followers, who constitutes the
centre. Therefore, the site where he was cremated in
Mumbai is an important place of pilgrimage, as is the
Diksha Bhumi in Nagpur (Figure 1).49 Actually, a better
way of describing the situation is to acknowledge that for
Dalit Buddhists there are actually two kinds of
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201
1. Modern stūpa marking the site of the Diksha Bhumi, Nagpur.
pilgrimage destinations – those connected with
Ambedkar and those connected with ancient Buddhism.
But while the former are few, the latter are many, and
have the potential to increase enormously in number.
As for the Tibetan Buddhists, it should be recalled
that pilgrimage was for centuries an essential part of
Tibetan life, connected not only with Buddhism, but
rooted in an older autochthonous view of the mountains,
valleys, rivers, lakes, caves, and other features of the
physical landscape as pulsating with the presence of
spirits, demons, and deities. The Tibetan word for pilgrimage is gnas skor – literally, ‘circling around an
abode’, an allusion to the act of circumambulation that
was generally carried out at such places.50 Pilgrimage
welded together diverse and distant parts of Tibet and
contributed in a significant way towards creating cultural
unity.51 Major places in this pilgrimage network included
Lhasa and Mount Kailash, but the many available pilgrim
guide books describe a plethora of major and minor/local
pilgrimage destinations.
India was known to Tibetan monks and lay Buddhists
from ancient times as a land of many sacred places
associated with the founder of the faith. After the
Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1949, the Chinese
government clamped down on outside travel for two
decades, and pilgrimage to India became virtually impossible. Pilgrimage within Tibet itself was declared a punishable offence, on the ostensible grounds that it
represented feudal superstition.52 Chinese policy has
varied since then, but travel of Tibetans to India has
always been subject to government surveillance and regulation, especially since many of those who traveled to
the sacred sites in India ostensibly as pilgrims often
stayed on to seek political asylum.
After 1959, with the movement between Tibet and
India having become problematic, the Tibetan exiles had
to focus on the already-known pilgrimage spots within
India, notable among which were the ancient sites and
still-functioning old monasteries. Huber has perceptively
drawn attention to how the Tibetan exile elite has been
engaged in an ‘intensive and strategic ritual use of the
landscape of the Buddha in India’ and that it has been
trying actively to colonize these ancient sites in a way that
is very similar to what the Maha Bodhi Society tried to do
in the early twentieth century.53 However, what is equally
important to note is that this activity intersects with other
group interests in these sites, including those of Indian
neo-Buddhists, domestic and international tourists,
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Upinder Singh
pilgrims and pilgrim-tourists, the Indian government,
and the governments of East Asian Buddhist countries,
especially Japan.
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Pilgrimage in its modern forms
Anthropological studies have established that although
pilgrimage is an important religious activity cutting
across cultural, religious, and chronological divides, it
has several extra-religious dimensions as well. For pilgrims themselves, this culturally accepted expression of
religious piety has always been entangled to varying
degrees with other motivations – the desire to take a
break from the tedium of everyday life, ‘get away from
it all’, see new places, and seek adventure. From the
larger historical perspective, the connections between
pilgrimage, commerce, and politics are very wellknown and are illustrated by the age-old congruence of
trade and pilgrim routes. Victor Turner in fact identifies
solemnity, festivity, and trade as three foci of pilgrimage
throughout history. He talks abut the ‘field’ generated by a
pilgrimage centre and speculates about the historical role
of pilgrimage in the development of cities, markets, and
roads.54
In our own time, the terminology connected with the
flourishing tourism industry includes what is often
referred to as ‘spiritual tourism.’ The question that is
directly relevant to this paper is this: does this fall within
the category of religious activity, tourist travel, or both?
Spiritual tourism is a broad term that includes travellers
with many different backgrounds, motivations, and interests, travelling to destinations that have some sort of
religious import. What is central to the argument of this
paper is that a segment of these travellers can in fact be
described as pilgrims or pilgrim-tourists.
Destination, intent, and self-perception define the
pilgrim, and apart from the religious associations of the
places visited, the only way of actually ascertaining the
extent to which visitors to Buddhist sites can be
described as pilgrims is through visitors’ surveys. The
magnificent site of Ellora in Maharashtra includes twelve
Buddhist, seventeen Hindu, and five Jaina caves. The
site, which was given the status of a World Heritage
Site by UNESCO in 1983, was and is still located at the
intersection of several local, regional, and subcontinental trade and pilgrimage routes. It is interesting
to note that in a recent 2009 survey of ‘off-season’visitors
to Ellora,55 51% of the Indian visitors characterized
themselves as pilgrims and were travelling on wellestablished pilgrimage routes.56 In spite of the fact that
the Archaeological Survey of India officially discourages
active worship at the site, this is not enough to deter pious
visitors (Hindus, Buddhists, Jainas, others) from expressing their religiosity in various ways, something which is
especially visible at the Kailaśanātha temple. As for
foreign visitors to Ellora, the survey showed most of
them came from Europe (46%) and North America
(26%), while Asians followed with a lower 21%.
However, these statistics do not give an accurate picture,
as a large number of travellers from Japan and South East
Asia regularly visit the Buddhist caves, but not during the
hot summer months, which was the time when the survey
was conducted. Many East Asian and Sri Lankan visitors
who were interviewed described themselves as pilgrims;
some of them tried to meditate in the Buddhist caves, in
spite of being disturbed by the noisy ambience. It is
evident that although spiritual tourism appears to be a
new phenomenon, and while the level of the overt religious/ritualistic activity conducted at the destinations
may not be on par with what is seen at popular living
shrines, some of what is included under the umbrella
term of spiritual tourism can in fact be seen as a new
form of an old practice, i.e. pilgrimage, transformed in
the context of an increasingly globalized world.
The promotion of spiritual tourism, especially in the
sites on the Buddhist circuit, is now a very self-conscious
aim of the Indian state. The tourist industry has been
growing rapidly and is recognized as an exceptionally
fast-growing sector of the Indian economy, with a very
high revenue-capital ratio and employment generation
potential. The numbers of foreign tourists arriving in
India were estimated as about 2.73 million in 2003 and
3.92 million in 2005, reflecting a growth of 43.6% over
the two-year period. Foreign exchange earnings from
tourism similarly showed an increase of 35% in 2004
and 20% in 2005 over the previous year, taking these
earnings from a total of US$ 3.5 billion in 2003 to US$ 5.7
billion in 2005.
Those involved in formulating tourism policy in India
are acutely aware of the revenue potential of tourists and
pilgrim-tourists, and the development of Buddhist tourism
circuits, along with other thrust areas such as rural tourism
and eco-tourism, are major areas of interest for the Indian
government. The fact that until recently culture (which
includes historical sites and structures) and tourism were
handled by the same ministry reflects the fact that the
Government of India has tended to see these two arenas
as closely related. (The departments of culture and tourism
were separated last year.) The Tourism Department gave
central financial assistance to the tune of approximately
Rs 935 million between the eighth to tenth five year plans
to develop Buddhist circuits. During the past few years
twenty-two Buddhist sites in the country have been
singled out for special attention, and fourteen projects
amounting to about Rs 572 million were sanctioned for
infrastructural development at twelve sites. Recent reports
of Parliamentary Standing Committees have identified
various key tourist circuits that need to be developed,
including the Buddhist circuits of Andhra Pradesh (with
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a special focus on Nagarjunakonda and Amaravati), Bihar
and Uttar Pradesh (Bodhgaya, Rajgir, Nalanda, and
Varanasi), central India (Sanchi), and Jammu and
Kashmir (Leh).57 The Parliamentary Standing
Committee’s report for the year 2007–08 was especially
strong in its emphasis on the need to promote tourism,
encourage public-private partnership, increase fund allocation for the Archaeological Survey of India, and enhance
investments in the conservation of historical monuments.58 A major campaign entitled ‘Come to India –
Walk with the Buddha’ was recently launched and was
directed especially towards the Southeast Asian and
domestic markets. Government tie-ups are being planned
for a common promotional campaign for Buddhist sites in
India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.
The various states of the Indian union are currently
vying with each other to promote their ancient Buddhist
sites as exciting tourist destinations. While Bihar is
exceptionally well-endowed with such sites, the ubiquitous presence of ancient Buddhist remains means that
other states need not feel left out. In Orissa, infrastructure
at the Buddhist circuit sites of Ratnagiri, Lalitagiri,
Udayagiri, and Langudi is being improved, and a Peace
Park is being planned at Dhauli. In February 2007 the
Ministry of Culture and Tourism tried to improve
Buddhist tourism in this state by organizing the first
Buddha Mahotsav on top of the Dhauli hills, in conjunction with the Maha Bodhi Society of India and the
Kolkata-based Nirvan Buddhist travel organization.
The festival coincided with the world-wide celebration
of the 2550th anniversary of the Buddha’s parinibbāna.
Other states, including Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh,
203
Jammu and Kashmir, and Andhra Pradesh, are similarly
trying to develop and promote Buddhist pilgrim-cumtourist sites.
The government of the state of Andhra Pradesh has
recently begun to realize that it houses an exceptionally
large number of ancient Buddhist sites. It is interesting to
note that apart from the older well-known sites of
Amaravati and Nagarjunakonda, even recently excavated
sites such as Bavikonda (excavated in 1982–87) and
Thotlakonda (excavated in 1988–93) are quickly being
developed for tourist traffic, and a Rs 500 million project
has already been drawn up for the purpose. The
Thotlakonda Tourism Project includes, among other
things, plans to develop food courts, gardens, a
Buddhist archaeological museum, a circular train, and a
sound-and-light show. In tune with the times, the State
Museum of Archaeology in Hyderabad has opened a
Holy Relics Gallery, where relics from Andhra
Buddhist sites are on display. In an interesting departure
from orthodox museum practice, visitors/devotees are
encouraged to use the room to meditate (Figure 2). The
aim is to attract visitors by linking the display with
current religious and spiritual concerns.
A recent study conducted by the Federation of Indian
Chambers of Commerce estimated that about 200,000
Buddhist tourists visit India every year and that these
numbers could increase by 400% (generating over US$ 1
billion of revenue) if the Buddhist circuits were developed properly. The Buddhist circuit attracts East Asian
tourists in particular. Japan is among India’s foremost
tourism-generating markets – Japanese tourists have
been coming to these destinations for a long time and
2. People meditating in the Holy Relics Gallery, State Museum of Archaeology, Hyderabad.
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Upinder Singh
many an intrepid tour guide has learnt to speak their
language. It is estimated that in 2005 about 102,000
Japanese tourists arrived in India, and the numbers of
visitors from other East Asian countries are also growing. The major destinations of the pilgrim-tourists on the
Buddhist circuit are Sarnath, Kusinagara, Bodhgaya,
Nalanda, Rajgir, Vaishali, Sanchi, Amaravati, and
Nagarjunakonda. The government plans to link the
major Buddhist sites by a world class rail network, beginning by connecting Bodhgaya, Rajgir, Nalanda, and
Vaishali. Dharamsala too is a destination for Indian and
international pilgrims and tourists.
On 17 and 18 February 2004 the Ministry of Culture
and Tourism organized an International Conclave on
Buddhism and Spiritual Tourism in New Delhi. It was
inaugurated by the then President, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam.
The conclave brought together 400 devotees and dignitaries from over twenty-five nations, including
Cambodia, Singapore, and Mongolia, the Dalai Lama
delivering the keynote address. On 19 February the conclave shifted to Bodh Gaya for the official ceremony,
where the Mahabodhi temple was declared a World
Heritage Site. This event highlights the connections
between the revenue interests of the Indian state, the
desire of pious Buddhists from all over the world to travel
to sites associated with the Buddha’s life, and the significance of the presence of Tibetan Buddhists in India.
East Asian investment in the conservation of ancient
Buddhist sites in India
The expansion of Buddhist spiritual tourism can also be
seen as part of a larger range of interactions between
India and East Asia, particularly Japan, especially with
regard to the conservation and promotion of India’s
Buddhist heritage. But it is equally important to recognize that this is a more recent representation of much
older networks of Asian interactions. For instance, the
Mahabodhi temple at Bodh Gaya attracted international
Buddhist pilgrims and patrons throughout ancient and
early medieval times. Until at least the seventh century,
pilgrims from Sri Lanka, Nepal, Burma, China, Korea,
and Central Asia were visiting the shrine. The evidence
of these interactions comes from Chinese accounts as
well as Nepalese coins and Burmese, Nepalese, and
Chinese inscriptions found at the site. But from the
point of view of this paper, it is also significant that
apart from the visits of devout monks and lay people
there were also several attempts to ‘repair’ the shrine.
Two Burmese missions had effected ‘repairs’ to the temple in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Much more is
known about the nineteenth-century mission: in 1874–75
the Government of India received a request from king
Mindon’s foreign minister that they be allowed to repair
the Mahabodhi temple.59 Three ‘Burmese gentlemen’
arrived in Bodh Gaya in January 1877, obtained permission from the chief mahant of the temple, and spent about
six months in the area. During this time they cleared away
a large area around the Mahabodhi temple, and engaged
not only in repair, but also in fresh construction. When
the activities of the Burmese came to the notice of
archaeologists the Government of Bengal asked them to
leave, and took on the task of repairing the Mahabodhi
temple itself. The conservation work carried out here
became the focus of a heated debate concerning restoration and conservation among archaeologists and architectural scholars in India, but that is another story.60 What
is most significant from the point of view of the arguments being made here is that in the late nineteenth
century the status of the Mahabodhi temple was recognized by a Burmese ruler who sought to enhance his
prestige by repairing a Buddhist shrine located in the
homeland of Buddhism but well beyond the political
borders of his own domain.
In recent years the international involvement in conservation work at Buddhist sites in India has increased
significantly. The Indian government has accepted foreign aid for several projects related to conservation and
tourism, several of them connected with Buddhist sites,
and many of them involving investments by a country in
which Buddhism has a strong presence, namely Japan.
For several years now, the Japan Bank of International
Cooperation (JBIC) has been offering loans for infrastructural development at Ajanta and Ellora. The total
expenditure on the first phase of this project was Rs 1,275
million. For the second phase, Japanese loan assistance to
the tune of Rs 2,992 million (7,331 million yen) was
expected (the total projected cost of the second phase is
Rs 3,600 million).61 The project involves the conservation and protection of the sites, improvement of airport
facilities, and upgrading of tourism-related infrastructure. The implementation of the project lies with the
Ministry of Tourism of the Indian Government, with the
active involvement of the Archaeological Survey of
India. It is interesting to note that the JBIC loan covers
a micro-credit programme to help fund the training and
marketing activities of artisans living in and around
Ajanta and Ellora (apparently, not enough is being done
in this regard). The Government of India has also entered
into an agreement with the JBIC for loan assistance of
about Rs 3,956 million for infrastructure development at
Buddhist sites in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, specifically at
Sarnath, Kushinagara, Kapilavastu, Shravasti, and
Sankisa (the total project cost is Rs 6,800 million). The
JBIC, for its part, is also apparently interested in improving infrastructure at Buddhist sites in Sikkim, Ladakh,
and Madhya Pradesh.
Furthermore, the Japanese interest in Indian Buddhist
sites is part of a larger phenomenon of improving
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bilateral ties between India and Japan and the latter’s
forwarding of a series of loans through Official
Development Assistance.62 These loans have helped
finance development projects of various kinds, apart
from the conservation of India’s cultural heritage.
Currently Japan is the only country giving assistance
for the conservation of historical sites in India. The
2007 joint statement towards the Japan-India Strategic
and Global Partnership included specific mention of
Japanese assistance in developing tourism-related infrastructure in India, including the Buddhist pilgrimage
circuit.
It is also worth noting that Japan is the largest contributor to the World Heritage Fund and that the
UNESCO/Japan Trust Fund for the Preservation of
World Cultural Heritage has funded the restoration of
many important historical sites in other parts of the
world, such as those at Angkor (Cambodia), Jiaohe City
and the Hanyuan Hall of Daming Palace (China), monuments in Hue City (Vietnam), Wat Phu (Laos), and the
historic area of Bagan (Myanmar). The fund financed
conservation work at Mohenjo Daro and at various
Buddhist monuments in the Gandhara region in
Pakistan. In India this Fund was responsible for financing
the restoration of the main stūpa and some other structures at Sanchi and Satdhara in Madhya Pradesh.
The promotion of tourism along Buddhist circuits is
also part of ongoing processes of co-operation among the
larger community of South Asian and East Asian countries. For instance, the promotion of this circuit and ecotourism are the two key target areas identified by the South
Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) countries, which comprise Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal,
and Sri Lanka. SASEC’s 10–year Tourism Development
Plan, with a special focus on integrating nature and culture, is receiving Japanese funding through the Asian
Development Bank.
It should also be noted that Japanese archaeologists
have been involved in the excavations of two key
Buddhist sites in South Asia. In 1992–95 the Japanese
Buddhist Federation sent a team headed by Satoru
Uesaka to excavate Lumbini in Nepal. The Federation
also helped fund conservation work at the site, especially
the repair of the Māyādevī temple. Archaeologists from
Kansai University, Japan, working in collaboration with
the Archaeological Survey of India, were involved in
several seasons’ excavation at Shravasti in Uttar
Pradesh in 1958–59, 1986–88, and 1993–94.
Modern temples built by East Asian communities are
a common sight at Buddhist pilgrimage sites such as
Kusinagara, Bodhgaya, Rajgir, and Sarnath. Sarnath has
several modern Buddhist temples built and maintained
by monks from Tibet, China, Japan, and Myanmar. The
most important monastery-shrine complex at Sarnath is
the Mūlagandhakuți Vihāra, built by the Maha Bodhi
205
Society of India, which enshrines relics found at Taxila
and Nagarjunakonda. The walls of this temple have paintings by the Japanese artist Kosetsu Nosu, and the original
‘World Peace Bell’ of this temple (which had to be
replaced in 2005 due to damage) was donated by the
Japanese Buddhist community.
The transformation of ancient Buddhist sites due to
increasing international involvement and investment and
the demands of the tourist industry is visible in many
places, but has not been adequately documented, in part
no doubt because this kind of investigation is not considered a serious scholarly endeavour. There are, however, a
few exceptions. For instance, David Geary’s study of the
Mahabodhi temple directs attention to the ways in which
the site has been transformed due to commercial factors
linked directly to the booming tourism industry.63 The
international presence at the site increased steadily from
1956 onwards, and today the environs of the temple are
dotted with many temples, vihāras, and guest-houses built
by groups from several countries including Sri Lanka,
Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Thailand, Japan, Vietnam, and
Mongolia. Geary discusses the ways in which the local
community living in and around this relatively poor part
of the state of Bihar have participated and benefited economically from the increased tourist traffic, for instance
through the making and selling of Buddhist souvenirs, and
how the increasing stakes have simultaneously led to friction and conflict among local shop-keepers and hoteliers.
The international flavour of Bodh Gaya is reflected in its
international temples, the occasional marriages between
Japanese women and Indian tour guides (who speak fluent
Japanese), and the wide range of cuisines on offer in
restaurants. The government of Bihar is well aware of
the great revenue generation potential of the Mahabodhi
temple and has been busy trying to improve infrastructure,
for instance through a plan to make an eighteen-hole golf
course. The completion of the Gaya international airport in
2002 made the site much more accessible to visitors. This
was also the year in which Bodh Gaya was declared a
World Heritage Site by UNESCO, making it the first
‘living’ Buddhist site to be given this coveted status.
Bodh Gaya is an ancient Buddhist site which continued
to see varying volumes of pilgrim traffic over the centuries, and is today a flourishing pilgrim and tourist destination. But thanks to tourists, pilgrims, and pilgrim-tourists,
many a ‘dead’ Buddhist site is also coming to life again.
The reinvention of extinct Buddhist sites
One of the most interesting features of the contemporary
Buddhist revival in India is the resurrection, or rather
reinvention, of several extinct ancient Buddhist sites as a
result of a conjunction of the factors outlined in earlier
sections. One of the important recent developments in this
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context is the concerted appropriation of ancient Buddhist
sites by Tibetan Buddhists through large-scale ceremonials which have religious and political import, and which
bring together and unite the scattered Tibetan diaspora and
its sympathizers.64 The most important of these ceremonials is the Dukhor Wangchen or Kālacakra initiation. This
initiation into the practice of Kālacakra tantra is an important part of Tibetan Buddhism, and the fourteenth Dalai
Lama has conducted more Kālacakra initiations than any
of his predecessors. The first two conducted by him were
held in Lhasa in Tibet (in 1954 and 1956). Thereafter, they
have been held in various parts of the world, including in
Los Angeles (1989), New York (1991), Barcelona (1994),
Ulan Bator (1995), Sydney (1996), and Toronto (2004).
Within India, the initiations have been held in various
places, including Dharamsala (1970), Bylakuppe (in
Karnataka, 1971), Bodh Gaya (1974, 1985, 2003), Leh
(in Ladakh, 1976), Tabo (1983, 1996), Kyi (in Spiti,
2000), and Sarnath (1990).
In 2006 the thirtieth Kālacakra was held at Amaravati
in the Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh. Until then this
place was, at a popular level, known more for its Śaiva
Amareśvara temple than for the ruins of a Buddhist
complex that date from the third century BCE to the
thirteenth century CE. The mahācaitya at Amaravati
was gradually destroyed and dismantled after the thirteenth century, irrevocably so during the nineteenth century (Figure 3).65 But between 5 and 16 January 2006 the
Kālacakra brought it to life again (Figure 4). The idea of
3. The Amaravati mahācaitya today; courtesy of Sonali Dhingra.
organizing the event at this place was apparently that of
one of its sponsors – the Busshokai Centre of Kanazawa,
a small group in Japan devoted to the study of Tibetan
Buddhism. The result was that the winter of 2006 saw
thousands of devout Buddhists from all over the world
converge at Amaravati.
The main organizer of this event was the Norbulingka
Institute based in Dharamsala, and substantial funds and
resources were provided by the Government of India, the
state government, and the Central Tibetan Administration.
The Andhra Pradesh government spent some Rs 500 million on infrastructure including road improvement, sanitation, electrification, medical facilities, drinking water, and
a helipad for VIPs. Houses, schools, and colleges were
converted into hotels, and hundreds of tents were set up
to house visitors. The valedictory function was conducted
by the Dalai Lama, and several state ministers and highranking officials attended. The audience included as many
as 80,000 to 100,000 people from different parts of the
world including India, China, Mongolia, Tibet, the
Netherlands, Australia, Ireland, Japan, Iceland, Southeast
Asia, and South America. The presence of American film
actor Richard Gere contributed the important glamour
quotient. The Andhra Pradesh government clearly saw
this event as an opportunity to place Amaravati firmly on
the world spiritual tourism map.
Becker has described in detail how the landscape of
Amaravati was dramatically altered by the Kālacakra. The
Archaeological Survey of India raised the level of the
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4. Kālacakra celebrations at Amaravati, January 2006; courtesy of Tenzing Sonam.
drum of the ruined stūpa mound, propped up sculpted
limestone slabs against it, and added a new metal railing.
Devotees added prayer flags, garlands, and ceremonial
paraphernalia. A colossal 125 foot image of the seated
Buddha (funded by devotees and government agencies)
was installed, together with a much smaller gilded image
of ācārya Nāgārjuna, right across the street from the
already-standing statue of Ambedkar. Becker states that
on the occasion of the Kālacakra, the remains of the
ancient Amaravati stūpa were infused with ‘a new sacred
authority. . . a relic-like quality’, the result of a combination of re-used ancient elements and much new imagery.66
A few days before performing the ceremonials at
Amaravati, the Dalai Lama inaugurated the Holy Relics
Gallery in the Andhra Pradesh Museum in Hyderabad,
where, as mentioned earlier, ancient remains mix with
current spiritual interests within the precincts of a
museum. He also visited the site of Nagarjunakonda, no
doubt because of the strong visibility of the third- to
fourth-century Buddhist remains of the ancient Ikṣvāku
capital of Vijayapurī, which was once located in this
place.
The Dalai Lama’s footprints are as visible in the western Himalayas as in South India. Reference was made
earlier to the two Kālacakras held at Tabo. In August
2007 the Dalai Lama delivered teachings on ‘The
Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva’ and
Kamalaś īla’s ‘Middle Stages of Meditation’ at Nako, a
small, picturesque village in the Spiti Valley in Himachal
Pradesh. On this occasion he also conducted an
Avalokiteśvara initiation and a Dechok initiation. When
I visited Nako in the summer of 2007 it was humming
with development activity and anticipation of the forthcoming event. It is interesting to note that this major
ceremonial event also coincided with the holding of an
academic one – an international seminar on the culture of
the north-western Himalayas.
The iconography of convergence: Nagarjunakonda
The reinvention of Buddhism in India and India’s increasing stature as Buddhism’s original homeland are perhaps
not surprising when seen as part of the long-term history
of Buddhism in the subcontinent. This paper has emphasized that the convergence of various processes that have
contributed to this resurgence can be seen especially
clearly at Buddhist pilgrimage sites which attract Dalit
Buddhists as well as East Asian and other international
pilgrim-tourists. This convergence is vividly represented
in the varied iconography that marks the landscape of
these sites. While Becker has described some aspects of
this at Amaravati, it can be seen even more graphically at
Nagarjunakonda.
Situated on the banks of the river Krishna and surrounded on three sides by offshoots of the Nallamalai
hills, Nagarjunakonda (in Guntur District, Andhra
Pradesh) was once a 15 square kilometre valley, rich in
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remains from the prehistoric to medieval periods.
Tragically, most of these remains were permanently
drowned in the waters of the Krishna River when a
major multi-purpose dam project was initiated at this
place in 1955. In the heady optimism of postIndependence socialism, big dams represented the new
India’s hopes for a prosperous future, and if it was necessary to sacrifice an ancient site in the interests of development and modernization, that would have to be done.
The explorations and excavations at Nagarjunakonda
have a very long history. Discovered in 1926 by
A. R. Saraswati, the site was excavated in that very year
by A. H. Longhurst. Longhurst’s report (published in
1938) represents the first stage in the interpretation of
the site, one in which it was seen essentially as a Buddhist
site (Figure 5).67 The report on the second series of
excavations by T. N. Ramachandran (published in 1953)
drew attention to the many Hindu temples in the early
historic city.68 During the 1950s, as plans for building the
dam across the Krishna were drawn up, Nagarjunakonda’s
impending submergence led the Archaeological Survey
of India to undertake a massive project of exploration,
excavation, and documentation. About 136 new structures and structural complexes were unearthed, and
before the valley was turned into a gigantic lake, nine of
the most important structures were transplanted and rebuilt on top of the Nagarjunakonda hill, which became an
island in the midst of the lake created by the dam.
Smaller-scale replicas of fourteen other structures were
5. Ruins of the early historical mahācaitya, Nagarjunakonda.
fabricated and set up on the banks of the reservoir. The
first part of the report of the 1954–60 excavations (published in 1975), by R. Subrahmanyam and others,
focused on the site’s prehistoric and megalithic remains,
while the second part, edited by K. V. Soundararajan
(published as recently as 2006), offers a consolidated
view of the early historic remains, artifacts, and
inscriptions.69
In spite of the abundant evidence of its varied, changing, and multi-religious character, there has always been
a strong tendency for both scholars and the Indian government to privilege one particular aspect of Nagarjunakonda
– its early historic Buddhist remains. The reasons for this
privileging include the Buddhist bias of early archaeologists in colonial India. There is also the strong resilience of
a tradition of uncertain historicity which connects this
place with the renowned Buddhist scholar-monk
Nāgārjuna. To this can be added the Indian government’s
deliberate privileging of the Buddhist connections of the
site to promote its own perspective and its revenue interests, and it is these connections which are advertised
abundantly in and around the place.
Today the most imposing edifice at Nagarjunakonda
is a modern construction – the gigantic Nagarjunasagar
dam, the largest masonry dam in the world, the centrepiece of a massive project which took place between the
1950s and the 1970s (Figure 6). While laying its foundation stone on 12 December 1955 Prime Minister
Jawaharlal Nehru declared that he was founding one of
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209
6. The Nagarjunasagar dam.
7. Nāgārjuna portrait in the dam gallery.
the many new temples of humanity that were being built
all over India. This excerpt from his speech is displayed
prominently on the outer walls of the lift tower of the
dam, both in English and in Telugu translation. However,
the ancient Buddhist links of Nagarjunakonda can be
seen everywhere, even at the dam site. A modern artist’s
painted portraits of Nāgārjuna hang in the dam gallery
(Figure 7), while a gilded concrete image of the monk
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8. Gilded Nāgārjuna image near dam gallery exit.
9. Railing of the Nagarjunasagar dam.
stands prominently at the gallery exit (Figure 8). Even the
dam railing is a crude modern copy of a typical ancient
Buddhist railing (Figure 9).
On Nagarjunakonda island, where some of the
ancient structures were rebuilt, is the guest house where
Nehru stayed in the winter of 1955 when he came to lay
the dam’s foundation stone. There is also a museum
where a selection of the archaeological material discovered in the course of excavations over the years is displayed. In a play on the name ‘Nagarjunakonda’, a serpent
motif is woven continuously into the small stone screens
that are interspersed along the outer walls of the museum
building. Inside, to some extent because the Buddhist
reliefs and images outnumber the stone sculptural
remains associated with Hindu temples, the display has
an overpoweringly strong Buddhist emphasis.
Domestic tourists, pilgrims, and pilgrim-tourists, and
those from other countries including Japan, Tibet, and
Sri Lanka, visit the site. There is no flood of Buddhist
pilgrims – yet. But that the process is underway is evident
from clues strewn amidst the kikar trees and landscaped
gardens crossed by oleander-lined paths on
Nagarjunakonda island. Many of these clues date from
the time when the Kālacakra was held at nearby
Amaravati. Heaps of piled-up stones are reminiscent of
the votive offerings seen all over the barren mountainous
terrain of the western Himalayas. Colourful prayer flags
flutter incongruously over a megalithic burial site
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10. Prayer flags fluttering over reconstructed megalithic burial.
reconstructed by the Archaeological Survey of India
(Figure 10). Small sign-boards identify the pipal saplings
planted by the Dalai Lama during his brief visit
(Figure 11).
The modern town, which consists of two parts –
Vijayapuri North and Vijayapuri South – has a large
number of gilded statues, most of them installed in
2005, during the dam’s Golden Jubilee celebrations.
There are statues of a former Prime Minister, Indira
Gandhi; a former president, Neelam Sanjiva Reddy; a
former Minister for Irrigation, K. L. Rao; a former
chief minister, Brahmananda Reddy; the first chief engineer of the dam, Mir Jaffer Ali; and also the more recent
chairman of a local cement factory. Strongly reminiscent
of the stones raised in the early historical city of
Vijayapurī (the ancient name of Nagarjunakonda) in
memory of heroes who died in battle many centuries
ago, there is a modern ‘Martyrs’ Memorial’ which
names the engineers and workers who lost their lives
during the dam’s construction (Figure 12). As at the
dam site, here too, mingling with the images and ideas
of modern times, are iconic representations of more
ancient, imagined, connections. In front of the recreation
club in Vijayapuri South is a statue of the Buddha
(Figure 13). A Nāgārjuna image stands at the entrance
to the right earth dam, the entrance to the power station is
ornamented with a gigantic plaster stūpa façade
(Figure 14), and there is a large image of Nāgārjuna
over the side entrance. The ancient Buddhist connections
11. Pipal sapling planted by the Dalai Lama on Nagarjunakonda
island.
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13. Buddha bust outside Recreation Club.
12. The ‘Martyrs’ Memorial’.
of Nagarjunakonda were evidently in the forefront of the
consciousness of those who designed the landscape of the
modern dam-city, and these connections were deliberately and repeatedly emphasized by them.
The Dalit connection is also represented iconically at
Nagarjunakonda. In the main fenced-in chowk of
Vijayapuri South is a large concrete canopy supported
on four pillars which bear quadruple lions (part of the
emblem of the ancient Maurya emperor Aśoka as well as
of the modern Indian nation state), a cakra (wheel), and
an elephant (Figure 15). One of the many connotations of
the elephant is its symbolic association with the Bahujan
Samaj Party, a political party which ostensibly represents
the interests of India’s Dalits). Under the canopy, high on a
three-tier pedestal, stands B. R. Ambedkar, in his familiar
dress and pose – bespectacled, blue-suited, his right arm
raised up, the index finger of his hand pointing in a firm,
didactic gesture. The iconography of Ambedkar (which
usually also includes a fountain pen and a book, representing the Constitution of India, in the drafting of which
he played a leading role) deliberately emphasizes a westernized, educated man.70 On top of the canopy is a
smaller seated gilded figure of the Buddha, seated in
the vitarka mudrā of giving instruction. In this chowk,
what we have is a remarkable ensemble of images that
graphically illustrates many of the processes that have
been discussed in this paper. The East Asian connection
is likely to strengthen as Nagarjunakonda becomes more
firmly placed on the Buddhist pilgrim-tourist circuit.
The images of the Buddha and Nāgārjuna, commemorations of the Dalai Lama’s visit, the statue of Ambedkar
at the cross-roads, and the visits of Indian and international
tourists and pilgrim-tourists – all these aspects converge
and blend into the landscape of Nagarjunakonda. As is the
case at other Buddhist sites, these are not the symbols of
the revival of an old religion, once dominant, and subsequently relegated to the cultural margins. Although
anchored in ancient Buddhism and its sacred places, in
reality they represent an entirely new conjunction of factors and forces, internal as well as international, religious
as well as utterly mundane.
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Conclusions
14. Façade of Nagarjunasagar Power Station.
15. Chowk of Vijaypuri South.
Asian Buddhism’s interest in and interaction with ancient
sites in India goes back to very early times. From the midtwentieth century onwards, this interest and interaction
became more intense due to the factors outlined in this
paper. In fact, new Buddhist sects and organizations are
currently actively marking their presence on Indian soil
in many ways, including through the construction of new
kinds of stūpas.71 Unlike popular religious sites which
are bustling centres of active worship, extinct sites offer a
large number of wide open spaces with great potential for
appropriation by Buddhist groups who are seeking to
expand their presence and visibility. These places have
the additional advantage that there is little competition
from entrenched rival religious groups, although the history of Bodh Gaya shows that there will always be latent
potential for future competition, contestation, and conflict at those sites that have a multi-denominational profile and history. This would, in fact, apply to a large
number of sites, since most ancient Indian ‘Buddhist’
sites have connections with the Hindu and Jaina traditions as well.
The reinvention and increased visibility of ancient
Buddhist sites in India can be traced to a variety of
sources, including the neo-Buddhist and Tibetan
Buddhist movements, state recognition of the enormous
tourist potential of these sites, and the increasing East
Asian and indeed international interest in them. It has
been argued in this paper that a significant segment of the
people who travel to the sites on the spiritual tourism
circuits can be described as pilgrims or pilgrim-tourists.
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Some of these sites may seem rather out of the way and
difficult to access. This is the case with Nagarjunakonda,
for instance, which is not only difficult to reach but is also
located in an area where Naxalite (left-wing extremists)
are very active. On 30 April 2006 a tourist boat headed
for the island was blown up by Naxalites, thankfully after
its occupants had been made to disembark. But for the
intrepid and adventurous pilgrim-tourist, the arduousness and dangers of the journey can be a challenge rather
than discouragement.
We are currently witnessing the steady expansion of
the circuits of spiritual tourism, and given the large
number of ancient Buddhist sites, the possibilities are
virtually endless. It remains to be seen whether and to
what extent these sites can actually foster a sense of
communitas among those who visit them, specifically
among the Dalit Buddhists, Tibetan Buddhists (and
their non-Tibetan adherents and supporters), and East
Asian Buddhists. Given the enormous differences
between the cultural matrices in which all these
Buddhisms are embedded, the potential for this seems
fairly limited at present.
The reinvention of Buddhism and Buddhist sites in
modern India can be seen as a new phase in the history of
Buddhism in India, one which is fueled by many processes operating in an increasingly globalized world. The
long-term prospects of this reinvention can only be a
matter of speculation. The vitality and survival of
Buddhist monasteries and communities have always
been dependant on their relationship and level of integration with their hinterland. It should be noted that due to
globalization the hinterland of Buddhist communities has
expanded enormously and that it is, more than ever
before, not governed by spatial proximity.
Finally, it should be mentioned that the increased
activity at ancient Buddhist sites presents opportunities
for many but also dangers to the sites themselves. As
these sites become more visible, as they are appropriated
by religious groups, and as the money flows in to swiftly
develop them as heritage sites and destinations for spiritual tourism, crucial decisions have to be made. The
reinforcement of the drum of the Amaravati stūpa represents a modest modification of an ancient structure. But
there are instances of stūpas having been reconstructed in
their entirety, sometimes not very tastefully, as at
Satdhara in central India. The reinvention of Buddhism
and Buddhist sites therefore brings to the fore many
important and complex policy issues related to the conservation and restoration of ancient monuments.
October 2007. I would like to acknowledge the help given
by Tenzing Sonam, Ritu Sarin, Arjun Mahey, and
Yaaminey Mubayi in the course of my research for this
paper. I would also like to acknowledge the valuable
comments and suggestions made by the anonymous
referee of an earlier version of the paper. Thanks are also
due to India International Centre library and to Prof.
K. T. S. Sarao and Neha Sarao for locating crucial readings.
NOTES
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This is a revised version of a paper I presented at a conference organized by Ryukoku University, Kyoto, and the
Indian Council for Cultural Relations in Kyoto, Japan on 5
For instance, Leoshko has underlined such a lack of
investigation of ‘later material’ from the site of Bodh
Gaya. J. Leoshko, Sacred Traces: British Explorations
of Buddhism in South Asia (Aldershot: Ashgate,
2003), pp. 3–4.
Nālandā is located in the Nalanda district of Bihar;
Odantapura is near Nalanda; Vikramaśilā is identified with Antichak in Bhagalpur District, Bihar;
Somapurī is identified with Paharpur in Rajshahi
District, Bangladesh.
T. Ling, Buddhist Revival in India: Aspects of the
Sociology of Buddhism (London and Basingstoke:
Macmillan, 1980), pp. 11–46.
B. G. Ray, Religious Movements in Modern Bengal
(Santiniketan: Visva-Bharati, 1965).
N. N. Basu, ‘Modern Buddhism and Its Followers in
Orissa’, Archaeological Survey of Mayurbhanj, 1
(1982), 12. Founded by Mahima Gosavi, this movement combined social protest with bhakti and had
certain Buddhist elements in its ideas and organization. For details, see also G. Omvedt, Buddhism in
India: Challenging Brahmanism and Caste (New
Delhi: Sage Publications, 2003), pp. 225–27.
Several Buddhist groups claim that these figures
were deliberately understated, and that many
Buddhists, especially new converts, were counted
as Hindus during the census.
Ling, pp. 132–34.
This is something for which B. R. Ambedkar apparently took credit, but was evidently supported by
other leaders as well.
P. C. Almond, The British Discovery of Buddhism
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988).
Ling (p. 134) describes it as a quickening of interest
with potential for further growth rather than a revival.
T. Huber, The Holy Land Reborn: Pilgrimage and the
Tibetan Reinvention of Buddhist India (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 2008).
C. Becker, ‘Remembering the Amaravati Stūpa:
The Revival of a Ruin’, in Buddhist Stupas in
South Asia: Recent Archaeological, Art-Historical,
and Historical Perspectives, ed. by J. Hawkes and
A. Shimada (New Delhi: Oxford University Press,
2009), pp. 268–87.
South Asian Studies
13.
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14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
A. Fiske, ‘Scheduled Caste Buddhist Organization’,
in The Untouchables in Contemporary India, ed. by
J. M. Mahar (Tucson: University of Arizona Press,
1972), pp. 113–18.
Ray, pp. 165–68.
Omvedt, pp. 236–40.
The conversion of lower castes to Buddhism (as
also to Islam and Christianity) was known in earlier
periods in Indian history. But there were many
important differences between these earlier events
and what happened at the Diksha Bhumi in Nagpur
in 1959. In this case, the conversion was that of a
large section of an entire caste (the Mahar caste of
Maharashtra, to which Ambedkar belonged); the
converts built their own religious organization
and held on to many aspects of their social customs,
leadership, and caste loyalties; and the conversion
was that of a group of people who were already
connected to a political party that represented their
interests. See E. Zelliot, From Untouchable to Dalit:
Essays on the Ambedkar Movement (New Delhi:
Manohar 1992), pp. 126–27, 191–92. Ambedkar
had founded the Independent Labour Party in
1936. The name of this party changed to the
Scheduled Castes Federation in 1942 and to the
Republican Party in 1957.
According to Omvedt, the members of the Maha
Bodhi Society were actually alarmed by
Ambedkar’s plan. Note the telegram sent to him by
the secretary of the Maha Bodhi Society in Calcutta:
‘Shocked very much to read your decision to
renounce Hindu religion . . . Please reconsider your
decision.’ (Cited in Omvedt, pp. 258–59). Later the
Society argued that if the Dalits must convert, it
should be to Buddhism. Omvedt argues that the
reason was obvious: in India the Maha Bodhi
Society was dominated by Bengali Brahmins and
they were not particularly happy about a Dalit influx
into the Buddhist fold.
D. Keer, Dr. Ambedkar: Life and Mission (Bombay:
Popular Prakashan, 1954; repr. 1962), pp. 494, 489.
After the standard declaration of taking refuge in
the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the saṅgha was
made, Ambedkar himself administered to his followers twenty-two additional vows, which
included an emphatic repudiation of the worship
of the Hindu gods and also a rejection of the idea
that the Buddha was an avatāra (incarnation) of
Viṣṇu.
See Ambedkar in V. Rodrigues (ed.), The Essential
Writings of B. R. Ambedkar (New Delhi: Oxford
University Press, 2002), pp. 172–89.
B. R. Ambedkar, The Buddha and his Dhamma
(Bombay: Siddharth College, 1957), pp. x, xi,
301–09, 316–36, 350–51, 511–12.
215
22. Cited in Ling, p. 91.
23. Posted in The Tribune, 28 October 2002. The function was organized to condole the killing of five
Dalits in Dulina village in Jhajjar District on 28
October. It is reported that at least twelve Dalits
took the vows of Buddhist monks, twelve among
those present declared themselves as converts to
Islam, and one married couple converted to
Christianity. Apart from Udit Raj, chairman of the
All-India Confederation of Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes Organizations, the well-known
film director Mahesh Bhatt was also present. The
first convert to Islam was converted by the
President of the All-India Muslim Morcha, and
leaders of the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind were also present. The couple was converted to Christianity by
the President of the All-India Christian Council.
24. Posted in The Hindustan Times, 4 November 2004.
25. ‘Thousands of Dalits Embrace Buddhism’,
<http://www.internationalreporter.com/News-2143/
thousands-of-dalits-embrace-buddhism.html>
[accessed 27 July 2010].
26. Fiske, pp. 113–42.
27. D. S. Lopez, Jr (ed.), Religions of Tibet in Practice
(New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1998), p. 24.
28. D. S. Lopez, Jr, ‘Foreigner at the Lama’s Feet’, in
Curators of the Buddha: The Study of Buddhism
Under Colonialism, ed. by D. S. Lopez, Jr
(Chicago and London: University of Chicago
Press, 1995), pp. 251–95.
29. If all this sounds cold and unsympathetic towards
the Tibetan cause, Lopez is quick to add that ‘to
allow Tibet to circulate in a system of fantastic
opposites . . . is to deny Tibet its history, to exclude
it from a real world of which it has always been a
part, and to deny Tibetans their agency in the creation of a contested quotidian reality. During the past
three decades fantasies of Tibet garnered much
support for the cause of Tibetan independence.
But those fantasies are ultimately a threat to the
realization of that goal.’ D. S. Lopez, Jr, Prisoners
of Shangri-La: Tibetan Buddhism and the West
(Chicago and London: University of Chicago
Press, 1999), p. 11.
30. L. S. Thakur, Buddhism in the Western Himalayas: A
Study of the Tabo Monastery (New Delhi: Oxford
University Press, 2001), p. 35.
31. Ibid., p. 5.
32. T. Sonam, ‘The Geshe of Tabo’, Tibetan Bulletin
(1990).
33. See <http://www.tabomonastery.org/> [accessed 27
July 2010].
34. Alchi: The Living Heritage of Ladakh: 1000 Years of
Buddhist Art (Leh: Central Institute of Buddhist
Studies, 2009).
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216
Upinder Singh
35. J. Rizvi, Ladakh: Crossroads of High Asia (New
Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1983; repr. 1998),
pp. 208, 220.
36. I must add that the ‘revitalization’ of these monasteries also has its limits. The remote monasteries of
Ladakh, Lahaul, and Spiti are desperately in need of
funding and attention from the Indian government
to help preserve their unique historical and artistic
heritage.
37. ‘I am always expressing, telling and sharing with new
Buddhists, particularly those who come from the socalled lower castes, that taking to Buddhism should
not result in resentment among other religions or caste
systems. . .’. ‘If some people from this country [India]
follow the dharma, it is good. After all, I describe
Buddhism and Hinduism as twin brothers and sisters.’
The Times of India, 10 April 2001. The Dalai Lama
here seems to have been trying to downplay the element of conflict associated with Dalit conversions.
38. I am grateful to Tenzin Geyche Tethong, the personal secretary of the Dalai Lama, for bringing this to
my attention.
39. This emerges graphically in The Sun Behind the
Clouds: Tibet’s Struggle for Freedom, a recent film
by Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam (White Crane
Films, 2009).
40. Zelliot, pp. 235–36.
41. Fiske, pp. 135–36.
42. Huber, p. 346.
43. Ibid., pp. 348, 350–58.
44. Zelliot, pp. 235–36.
45. A. Trevithick, ‘British Archaeologists, Hindu
Abbots, and Burmese Buddhists: The Mahabodhi
Temple at Bodh Gaya, 1811–1877’, Modern Asian
Studies, 33.3 (1999), 635–56.
46. V. Turner, Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors: Symbolic
Action in Human Society (Ithica and London:
Cornell University Press, 1974). Turner takes the
term communitas from Paul Goodman but gives it a
new meaning.
47. Zelliot, pp. 230–33.
48. G. M. Tartakov, ‘Art and Identity: The Rise of a New
Buddhist Imagery’, Art Journal, 49.4 (1990), 410.
49. Zelliot, p. 245.
50. Huber, p. 121.
51. M. Kapstein, ‘The Guide to the Crystal Peak’,
Religions of Tibet in Practice, ed. by D. S. Lopez,
Jr. (New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1998), pp.
103–04.
52. Huber, pp. 338–46.
53. Huber, pp. 338, 372. Huber provides an excellent
discussion of the interactions between Tibet and
India across the centuries.
54. Turner, pp. 221, 226.
55. Yaaminey Mubayi, personal communication.
56.
57.
58.
59.
60.
61.
62.
63.
64.
65.
66.
67.
68.
69.
70.
These people additionally described their interest in
Ellora as fueled by awareness of its historical importance and the beauty of its sculpture, something they
had come to learn of from their school text-books
(Yaaminey Mubayi, personal communication).
See the Report of the Department-Related
Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport,
Tourism, and Culture, 79th report on demands for
grants (2004–05, demand no. 93) of the Ministry of
Tourism (Parliament of India, Rajya Sabha, available
online).
See the Report of the Department-Related
Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport,
Tourism, and Culture’s 120th report on demands
for grants (2007–08) (Parliament of India, Rajya
Sabha, available online).
Trevithick, pp. 648–51; U. Singh, The Discovery of
Ancient India: Early Archaeologists and the
Beginnings of Archaeology (Delhi: Permanent
Black, 2004), pp. 218–21.
Singh, pp. 218–30.
The balance is supposed to be obtained from various
government agencies such as the Archaeological
Survey of India, the Airport Authority of India, and
five State Government agencies.
Many of these details are from the data provided on
the Internet by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of
Japan. New Japanese loans were frozen following
the nuclear test conducted by India in May 1998;
the freeze was lifted on 26 October 2001.
D. Geary, ‘Destination Enlightenment: Branding
Buddhism and Spiritual Tourism in Bodhgaya,
Bihar’, Anthropology Today, 24(3) (2008), 10–14.
Huber, pp. 358–73.
Singh, pp. 249–90.
Becker, p. 268.
A.H. Longhurst, The Buddhist Antiquities of
Nagarjunakonda, Madras Presidency, Memoirs of the
Archaeological Survey of India, no. 54 (New Delhi:
Archaeological Survey of India, 1938; repr. 1999).
T. N. Ramachandran, Nagarjunakonda 1938,
Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India,
no. 71 (New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of
India, 1953; repr. 1999).
R. Subrahmanyam and others, Nagarjunakonda
(1954–60): Volume I, Memoirs of the
Archaeological Survey of India, no. 75 (New
Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India, 1975);
K. V. Soundararajan (ed.), Nagarjunakonda (1954–
60): Volume II (The Historical Period), Memoirs of
the Archaeological Survey of India, no. 75 (New
Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India, 2006).
‘The personality which Ambedkar presented with
that elitist image was arrogant, caustic, aggressive,
never violent but rarely polite. To realize the impact
South Asian Studies
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of this figure, one must place it alongside the stereotype of the Mahar (the “Untouchable” caste that
Ambedkar belonged to)’. Zelliot, p. 59. Tartakov
argues that such images express the history and
aspirations of neo-Buddhists, and that the portraits
and statues of Ambedkar are genuine revolutionary
71.
217
art, art as an instrument for social change (Tartakov,
p. 411–16).
J. Kim, ‘What makes a Stūpa? Quotations,
Fragments, and the Reinvention of Buddhist
Stūpas in Contemporary India’, in Hawkes and
Shimada, pp. 289–309.