Buddhism
Buddhism is said to be founded in India in the 6th century BC by Siddhatha Gautams, the son of a nobleman and member of the Kshatriya caste near the present borders of India and Nepal.
He is also known by the titles Sakyamuni (The sage of the Sakya family) and Tathagata (the follower of truth). It is said that at age 29 he was confronted with the sights of an old man, a sick man, corpse, and a wondering ascetic. With eyes opened aspects of life newly revealed to him, he broke form the material world and became an ascetic. Six years later, he gave up mystic concentration that at last brought him enlightenment under a bo tree. He then founded an order of mendicants and spent his next 45 years preaching his ideas until his death.
The Fourth Noble Truths preached by Gautama Buddha are:
First, that sorrow is the universal experience of mankind, and everyone is subjected to the trauma of birth, of sickness, decrepitude, and death.
Second, that the cause of sorrow is desire, especially the desire of the body for personal fulfillments, and the cycle of birth is perpetuated by the desire for existence.
Third, that the removal of sorrow can only come from the removal of desire, that is to say, that happiness can only be achieved if these desires are overcome.
Fourth, that desire can be systematically abandoned if one follows the Noble Eight-Fold Path.
The Noble Eight-Fold Path includes the following eight tenets:
First, the “Right Knowledge” is to believe that all life is suffering, that suffering is caused by desire for personal gratification, that suffering can be overcome, and that way to overcome it is to follow the Eight-Fold Path.
Second, the “Right Aspiration” is to become passionately involved with the knowledge of what life’s problems basically are.
Third, the “Right Speech” is to avoid lies, idle talk, abuse, slander, and deceit because these things remove a person from the prospect of attaining happiness.
Fourth, the “Right Behavior” is to show kindness and to avoid self-seeking and personal fulfillments in all actions. It also includes five rules: “Do not kill”; “Do not steal”; “Do not lie”; “Do not unchaste”; and “Do not drink intoxicants”.
Fifth, the “Right livelihood” is to engage in a suitable activity to earn a living. Buddha considered spiritual progress impossible if one’s occupation, such as slave-dealing, prostitution, pulled in the opposite direction.
Sixth, the “Right Effort” is the will to develop virtues and to curb passions.
Seventh, the “Right Mindfulness” is to practice self-examination and to cultivate knowledge of oneself, to overcome the state of semi-alertness, and to become aware of what is happening to oneself.
Eighth, the “Right Absorption” is the way to god through psychological exercises, the mental exercises to penetrate deep into the psyche where the real problems and answers lie and to achieve a personal experience of what lies hidden within.
By following the Noble Eight-Fold Path the Buddhist aims to attain “nirvana”, a condition beyond the limits of the mind, thoughts, feelings, desire, the will, and a state of bliss and ecstasy.
Types of Buddhism
There are two types of Buddhism in China, Mahayana (Big Raft) Buddhism and Hinayana (Little Raft) Buddhism.
Mahayana Buddhism
Mahayana Buddhism was introduced into regions inhibited by the Han people, the largest ethnic group in China, about the first century. The earliest Buddhist temple, the Baima Temple (White Horse Temple), was built in Louyang during the reign of Emperor Ming di of the Eastern Han Dynasty in 68 AD with the help of two India monks. Mahayana Buddhism reached its peak of popularity during the Sui and Tang (581-907) dynasties.
Mahayana Buddhism emphasizes the existence of many Buddhas. It focuses attention on Buddhas in heaven and on people who will become Buddhas in the future. It believes that these present and future Buddhas can save people through compassion and grace.
Today there are eight main sects of Mahayana Buddhism. These are the Sanlun (Three Treaties) Sect; the Faxiang (Dharma Characteristic) Sect also known as the Yoga Sect. The Tiantai Sect; the Huayan (Flowery Splendor) Sect; the Jingtu (Pure Land) Sect; the Chan (Zen) Sect; the Ritsugaku Sect; and the Esoteric Sect.
The doctrines of the various Mahayana sects played an important part in the development of philosophical ideas in China. Mahayana Buddhist influence is seen in the thousands of Chinese classics. Many of these are of high literary value. The Vimalakirti, Saddharma-pundarika-sutra (Lotus Sutra) and Surangama-samadhi-sutra have always been special favorites of scholars.
Buddhism brought to Chinese literature new conceptions, literary style, and techniques of wording and phrasing. The first Chinese woodblock printing was a series of pictures based on the Tripitaka in Chinese. Buddhist paintings and sculptures have left a rich material for the study of Chinese art and history. Whether it is the murals of the Dunhuang caves or the stone carvings of the Long men, Yungang, and Dazu grottoes, the works highlight a brilliant chapter in China’s cultural history. China’s pagoda architecture and statue art are mostly the work of Mahayana Buddhist designer.
China’s music, astronomy, medicine, and gymnastics also reveal Mahayana Buddhist influences. As early as the 2nd century, Buddhist songs were being sung by the Chinese. Yi Xing (673-727), a monk of the Tang Dynasty, was the first to compute the length of the meridian. He complied a number of books on astronomy and mathematics. In medicine, there were more than ten prescription texts from India that Buddhists translated into Chinese and they were used in China during the Tang Dynasty. Finally, in gymnastics, the monks of the Shaolin Temple developed various exercise methods imported from India into special form of wushu through the incorporatiom of Chinese martial arts techniques.
Four mountains in China are particularly sacred to Mahayana Buddhists. These are Wutai in Shanxi province, Putuo in Zhejiang Province, Emei in Sichuan Province, and Jiuhua in An hui province.
Hinayana Buddhism
Hinayana (also called Pali) Buddhism was introduced from Burma, about the 9th century A.D., into regions inhabited by the Dai, Bulang, Achang, De’ang ethnic minorities in Yunnan province. Today its followers are mainly people from these ethnic minorities, as well as part of the Bai, Jing (Ginzu), and Lahu people. In China it is called Pali Buddhism because Pali is the language that was spoken in the temples in ancient India.
Hinayana Buddhism emphasizes the importance of Buddha as a historical figure, the virtues of monastic life, and the authority of the Tripitaka.
Lamaism
Lamaism is a form of Buddhism intermingled with indigenous Tibetan religion known as Bon. Tibetan Buddhism slowly adopted some of the Bon rites, while Bon eventually took on Buddhist teachings and disappeared. Lamaism is mainly Buddhist knowledge from Han Mahayana Buddhist sources.
Of the various sects that eventually developed within Lamaist Buddhism, the main ones are Nyingma, Sakya, Kagyu, Bon, and Gelug.
The Nyingma Sect was founded by Padmasambhava, or “the Lotus-born one”, an India master of Esoteric Buddhism who was invited to Tibet to preach Buddhism during the latter half of the 8th century. This sect is also called the “Red Sect” because the monks of this school wear red hats.
The Sakya Sect is also known as the “Striped Sect” because of the three stripes of red, white, and black that are painted on the walls of all its monasteries.
The Kagyu Sect is also called the “White Sect” because its monks wore white robes in the past. The Bon Sect is also known as the “Black Sect”. It grew directly as an overlay of Buddhism on top of Bon tradition.
By far the most powerful of the Lamaism sects is the Gelug, or the “Yellow Sect”, so called because the monks wear yellow hats. It was founded in 1392 by Tsongkapa, an advocate of religious reform, and it grew rapidly into a sect with the largest following. Part of the reason for this is the political support the Yellow Sect received from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) government, which appointed their leader, the Fifth Dalai Lama, to “unify the tribes” in Tibet. Ganden, Sera, Drepung, Tashilhunpo, Ta’er and Labrang are the principal monasteries of this sect.
The Living Buddha
In taking on some of the tradition of Bon, Lamaism created its own system of leadership, that of rule by persons designated as Living Buddhas. Such person are believed to be the reincarnations of deceased Living Buddha. Thus, in Lamaism, special persons are literally born into Buddhahood, whereas in Han Buddhism, followers move towards Nirvana only through good work and in Pali Buddhism they can attain the same condition through devotion.
The system for designating Living Buddha was formulated by the Kagyu Sect more than one hunderds years before the Yellow Sect came into existence . It relies on a committee of monks who search for a soul boy (one into whom the soul of a previous Living Buddha has settled). The monks start this research one year after the death of the previous Living Buddha. They travel in different directions from their temple to find all male children born at the time the former Living Buddha died.
When such soul boys are found (there may be several), each is presented with a group of utensils, some of which were possessions of the previous Living Buddha. If the child takes an interest in one of the utensils owned by the previous Living Buddha, the boy is assumed to be the possible reincarnation. A second test is then administered to make sure. This involves the ritual of asking advice from a protecting spirit. If two or more potential soul boys pass these two tests, lots are drawn from a gold urn to determine the correct identity.
The progress of selection and control remains in the hands of a select group of monks – the search committee. One of their members acts as regent until the boy reaches an age when he can be elevated in a grand ceremony to the position of living Buddha, usually between the age 12 and 18. The members of the search committee act as the Living Buddha’s assistants until he is old enough to replace them. Should the new Living Buddha die young, the same group of monks become the committee to select the next Living Buddha.
Daoism (Taoism)
Daoism is the only major religion that is exclusively from Chinese roots and grew to maturity in Chinese soil. It originated at the end of Eastern Han Dynasty during the reign of Emperor Shun Di (125-144 AD) and is based on ancient witchcraft and formulas of immorality. Taoists, however, regards Lao Zi (Lao Tzu) as the founder and supreme god of Daoism, and Dao de Jing, a profound book of only five thousand Chinese characters by Laozi as the believer’s canon.
In this book, Lao Zi says that the basic principle is: first, benevolent; second, be pure, and third, do not act in advance of other people. Being benevolent means assuming as amiable attitude toward everything in the universe and maintaining universal harmony. Being pure means getting rid of extravagant hopes and being plain in mind and body. Not daring to act in advance of other people means being modest and holding the self in check instead of assuming as attitude of strength and dominance.
The word “Dao” (Tao), translates as “the way”. In its broadest sense, Dao is the way the universe functions, the path taken by all natural events. Dao is nature’s way, expressed in effortless action. Daoists often use the image of water to illustrate such effortless action. Water always settles to the lowest level and yet can wear away even the hardest of substances.
According to Daoism, the cosmos is a magnitude of harmony and order. It is active, not static. It’s state is one of change and variation, perpetually becoming and fading away, contracting and expanding. The Dao guides its function as an ordering principle. Within the Dao, the two elementary powers, Yin and Yang, function by reciprocal action.
Yin and Yang are the two polar opposites into which all things can be classified. Thus dark and light, life and death, male and female, good and evil, strong and weak are all manifestations of Yin and Yang.
In China, various sects of Daoism appeared in different periods. During the reign of Emperor Shun Did, Zhang Ling establish the Heavenly Teacher Sect, also known as the Five Picules of Rice Sect. Toward the end of the eastern Han Dynasty, Zhang jiao, a peasant rebel leader, set up another Daoist sect named Tai Ping Tao. By the Western and Eastern Jin dynasties, the Five Picules of Rice Sect had become a major religion.
During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the ruling class tried to reform Daoism so that it would help them in controlling the peasants. In the north, the Northern Heavenly Teacher Sect was established and in the south, the Southern Heavenly Teacher Sect. During the Yuan Dynasty the northern and southern merged into a new sect known as the True Unity Sect. From then on, this sect and the Complete Unity Sect which was founded during the Jin Dynasty, in 1167, were the two major sects of Daoism.
The True Unity Sect believed in “driving out devils by calling in the gods” and “averting disasters by prayer.” Its priests could marry and have meat and wine except during the special fasting periods; the Complete Unity Sect emphasizes self-cultivation and immortality, and its priests had to renounce home life, practice vegetarianism. and remain unmarried.
After 1949, however, the Complete Unity Sect and the True Unity Sect, and other different Doaist sects gradually merged into one, especially after Chinese Daoist Association was founded in 1956.
Islam
The name of Islam is derived from the word “salam” with the connotation of “peace which comes by surrendering to God”. Islam was founded by the Arab prophet, Mohammed. For people of Islamic faith, there is only one God, Allah. The name derives from joining “al”, which means “the”, with “lllah”, which means “God”.
Islam was officially introduced into China in 651 AD by Arabian envoys to Emperor Gao Zong of the Tang Dynasty. Throughout the Tang (818-907) Dynasties, many Arab and Persian merchants of Islamic faith came over land to northern China by way of the “Silk Road” and by sea to Quanzhou and other ports in cultural exchanges between China and Arabic countries. Some mosques were built in China by these merchants.
Moslems pray five times daily: at dawn, at noon, in the afternoon, in the evening, and at nightfall. A crier or muezzin, announces the prayer time. The worshipers ceremonially wash their faces, hands, and feet in the bath area immediately before the prayer. The prayer generally consists of reciting passages from the Koran and other phrases of praise to God.
The Islamic festivals observed in China are mainly those of Lesser Bairam, Korban Bairam, and Mohanmmed’s Birthday.
Lesser Bairam, held on the first day of the tenth month of the Moslem calendar immediately after the month of fasting, is a highly festive day with sumptuous meals because no Islamite is allowed to eat between dawn and sunset during the previous month of fasting called Ramadam.
Korban Bairam has its origins in ancient Arabic mythology as a day of sacrifice. The Prophet Abraham was told by Allah on the tenth day of the twelfth month of the Islamic calendar to kill his son Ishmael. He was going to execute this order when he was told by Allah to kill a sheep instead. Thus, every year on this day Moslems offer a sacrifice of sheep.
Mohammed’s Birthday is also the anniversary of hid death, for he is believed to have died on the twelfth day of the third month in the Islamic calendar.
Chinese Moslems live mostly in the areas of the Xin jiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Ning xia Hui Autonomous Region and four autonomous prefectures and thirteen autonomous counties in other parts of China.
Christianity
Christianity is a religion centered on Jesus Christ as the supreme revelation of God and as Lord of His followers, and based upon His teaching. Christianity comprises three principal divisions: The Roman Catholic Church, the various protestant churches organized as a result of the Reformation, and the Holy Orthodox Apostolic Eastern Church, which includes the various organizations adhering to the Byzantine rites.
Although these different Christian churches together embrace a wide diversity of beliefs and practices, they embody in some way the elements pertaining to Jesus: a story, a doctrine, and a life. The story, known as the Gospel, comprises the events associated with Jesus’ life and ministry. The doctrine is that Jesus is in some sense a unique person, the Son of God, through whom man can live in the right relation to God. The life is that which the the Christian pursues in imitation of Jesus’ life, that is in accordance with Christ’s teachings and dominated by love for God and one’s fellow man.
Among the major organizational division of Christianity, the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church agree in most points of doctrine and worship, but the various communions of the former do not accept the supremacy of the Church of Rome and its bishop, the pope. Although those communions accept many of the doctrines enunciated by the Roman Catholic Church since their separation from it in 1054 AD, They do not consider such doctrines essential to Christianity.
Roman Catholic and Protestantism differ most basically on the issue of the authority that must determine doctrine and life. Catholics consider the church as the final authority under Christ and teaches that the authority of Scripture is derived from that of the Church. In direct opposition to this, Protestantism has maintained historically that Scripture is the final authority under Christ and that the authority of the Church is secondary.
The Roman Catholic view of ecclesiastical authority is the basis not only for the doctrine of the primacy of the Church of Rome and the infallibility of the pope in his official pronouncements, but also for such distinctively Catholic teaching as the perpetual virginity and sinlessness of Mary, the mediation of Mary and the saints in prayer, and the transformation of the sacramental bread and wine into the literal body and blood of Christ.
The Protestant doctrine of the supreme authority of Scripture, on the other hand, has permitted the development of divergent and even contradictory interpretations of Scripture, each claiming to be the true interpretations of Scripture. The major Protestant denominational divisions are Lutheranism, Presbyterianism, the Reformed churches, Congregationalism, Methodism, and the Baptist churches.
Christianity appeared very early in China. Small groups of “Nestorian” Christians, who spread about Europe, the Near East, and Asia, arrived in Western China before the seventh century, established small communities, and moved into Eastern China. However, they were largely absorbed into the Chinese society.
The Christian faith planted itself more firmly in China in the late sixteenth century, when the Ming Emperor allowed Jesuit priests, led by Matteo Ricci, to build churches and to locate in Beijing and other cities. Catholicism began to develop after the Opium War in 1840, and by 1949 there were about 3 million Catholics in China.
Protestantism was first brought to China in 1807 by the British Baptist Robert Morrison, though it initially had very little influence. Missionaries poured into China in the 1840s and particularly after the Opium War. In 1949, there were about 700,000 Chinese protestants.
In July 1954, a national Protestant congress was held at which the Chinese National Christian Three-self Patriotic Movement Committee was founded (The Principles of Three-self refer to self-government, self-support, and self-propagation). In July 1957, the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association was founded to manage the church independent of the Vatican.
There are now more than 3.6 million Catholics in China. Over 1,000 Catholic Churches have been newly established or restored since the end of the “Cultural Revolution” in 1976. A magazine called the Catholic Church in China came out in 1981 with a circulation of more than 400,000 copies. There are now 5,500,000 Protestants in China, an eight-fold increase over the 1949 figure of 700,000.
In the past four decades, Chinese Christians have established friendly relations with many Christian organizations and personages abroad and have attended several world conferences on Christianity.
Geography of Xinjiang
Xinjiang is located in the northwestern part of China. It covers about 1.6 million square kilometers, and Xinjiang is the largest administrative division.
Xinjiang borders on Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kirgizstan, Tajikistan, Russia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, with total boundaries running to 5400 kilometers.
There are several huge mountain ranges running east and west across Xinjiang. On its northern border loom the Altay Mountains. The mammoth Tian Shan mountains divide Xinjiang into North and South. Two enormous basins, the Junggar Basin in the north and the Tarim Basin in the south, each spread out from the Tian Shan foothills.
Xinjiang has the world second highest mountain peak, Qiaogeli Peak, at 8,611 metres elevation and the second lowest place, Turpan, at about 154.43 metres below sea level.
Transportation
The main transportation are buses, trains and airplanes. However, in some small and remote farming areas, the donkey bus is very popular, especially in Turpan.
Currency
Here we all use Chinese money (RMB), but the visitor may go to the bank to change their travellers checks or cash and the bank is just in the center of the Urumqi city.
Special Local Food
Xinjiang is a wonderful place to eat special ethnic food and fruit and watermelon, Hamimelon, etc…..Visitors can eat Home-made Shish-kebab, thin-wrapper dumplings and baked dumplings and hand-made noodles and pilaf on the Bazzar. Sometimes one can enjoy Barbecued whole lamb when the Uygur festival begins. The food is very cheap and delicious.
Accommodation
There are many hotels in Urumqi of differing standard and price. The most popular hotels for travellers are the Xinjiang Hotel, Hongshan Hotel and Holiday Inn.
Standard rooms in Hongshan Hotel are 150 RMB per night (approx US$18) and dorms are US$3-4 for foreigners. However, Holiday Inn is about US$100 per night.
Hongshan and Xinjiang Hotels have good position about transportation and the Holiday Inn is just opposite the Hongshan Hotel.
Internet
I have a small internet cafe in my home. Open 24 hours, with Jazz music. Also, check out
The Author
My Chinese name is He liang and my English name is Jim. I am 26 years old and I am single. I like travelling very much and I know my city inside and out.
I also like music and Chinese chess. I am studying Jazz and I play Guitar and E-Keyboard.
I like to talk about everything under the sun to practice my English with foreigners and I will surely make your trip on the silk road a success. I enjoy both the Chinese and Western cultures and I would like to meet and guide travellers in my area.
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