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BULLETIN 148, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Dhyani-Buddha is Amitabha — endless light — the celestial counter- 

 part of Sakya Muni, and president of the Sukhavati heaven, the 

 Paradise of the West, and therefore plays a great part in the belief 

 and ritual of Tibet, China, and Japan as funeral divinity. His 

 Dhyani-Bodhisattva is Avalokitesvara or Padmapani, ruler of the 

 present period and protector and patron of Tibet. In China and 

 Japan he was transformed into, or identified with, Kuan-yin and 

 Kuannon, respectively, the goddess of compassion and mercy. ^^ 



The opinion of the Mahayana adherents that every leader in their 

 religious circles, every teacher distinguished for sanctity of life, was a 

 Bodhisattva, besides introducing a crowd of deities from Hinduism 

 and a multitude of attendant spirits and demons, opened the door to 

 a flood of superstitious fancies, to a whole pantheon of gods, angels, 

 saints, which appealed more strongly to the half-civilized races 

 among which the Mahayana doctrine was propagated. 



HISTORY OF THE SPREAD OF BUDDHISM 



Already at the death of Buddha the number of Buddhists seems 

 to have been considerable. About the middle of the third century 

 B. C, King Asoka, also called Piyadasi, grandson of Chandragupta, 

 the Sandrokottos of the Greek historians, adopted Buddhism, and 

 from the third century B. C. to the fourth century A. D. it was the 

 dominant religion of India. But then its decline set in, and toward 

 the end of the eleventh century A. D. it was entirely suppressed in 

 India itself, the land of its origin. But meanwhile it spread, through 

 the zeal of its missionaries, south and north. It was adopted by the 

 kings of Ceylon in the third century B. C, a son of Asoka being the 

 first missionary, and it is here that Buddhism is found almost in its 

 pristine purity. From thence it was carried in the fifth century 

 A. D. to Burma and in the seventh to Siam. 



The first authentic record that a knowledge of Buddhism reached 

 China comes from the reign of Wu-Ti of the Han dynasty (140-87 

 B. C). The official introduction of Buddhism into China dates, 

 however, from the reign of Ming-ti (58-86 A. D.). In 67 A. D., it 

 is related, an embassy was sent from China to India and returned 



»3 Following is a synopsis of the five human or Manushi Buddhas of the present period of the world's 

 existence (katpa) and their corresponding mystic or celestial counterparts {Dhyani-Buddhas), and their 

 mystic successors (Dhyani-Bodhisattvas). 



