A Japanese monk in Tibet

[Tiago Simões]

I find this Japanese monk quite interesting, his story shows that even between buddhist cultures there can be culture shock, works pretty well to talk about fundamentalism in modern western and non-western buddhism.

Ekai Kawaguchi (February 26, 1866 – February 24, 1945) was first recorded Japanese citizen to travel to Tibet from Japan.

From an early age Kawaguchi, whose birth name was Sadajiro, was passionate about becoming a monk. In fact, his passion was unusual in a country that was quickly modernizing; he gave serious attention to the monastic vows of vegetarianism, chastity, and temperance even as other monks were happily abandoning them. As a result, he became disgusted with the worldliness and political corruption of the Japanese Buddhist world.

Kawaguchi devoted his entire time in Tibet to Buddhist pilgrimage and study. Although he mastered the difficult terminology of the classical Tibetan language and was able to pass for a Tibetan, he was surprisingly intolerant of Tibetans' minor violations of monastic laws, and of the eating of meat in a country with very little arable farmland. As a result, he did not fit in well in monastic circles, instead finding work as a doctor of Chinese and Western medicine. His services were soon in high demand.

His travelogue, quickly published based on talks he gave, shows his shock at the lack of hygiene amongst Tibetans, the filth of Tibetan cities, and by many Tibetan customs, including sexual practices, monastic immoderation, corruption and superstitious beliefs. On the other hand, he had great admiration for many Tibetans ranging from great religious and political leaders to common people and made many friends while he was in Tibet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekai_Kawaguchi

[CedarTree]

I often think of Tibet for the rare Sutras as well

[ItsRaining]

he was surprisingly intolerant of Tibetans' minor violations of monastic laws, and of the eating of meat in a country with very little arable farmland. As a result, he did not fit in well in monastic circles, instead finding work as a doctor of Chinese and Western medicine. His services were soon in high demand.

His travelogue, quickly published based on talks he gave, shows his shock at the lack of hygiene amongst Tibetans, the filth of Tibetan cities, and by many Tibetan customs, including sexual practices, monastic immoderation, corruption and superstitious beliefs.

I think a lot of monks of East Asia hold this view towards Tibetan Buddhists, like when Master Xu Yun and others monks who went to Tibet in the republican era also criticised the Tibetans lamas for eating meat though he praised some other practices.

[Wayfarer]

Very interesting account, thank you. I should like to know more about this figure.

It reminds me of the story of Fr Ippolito Desideri, who was a lot earlier, but the first Christian missionary - a Jesuit - to reach Lhasa. The Wikipedia account is here. What is common in both accounts is the tolerance, indeed the hospitality, of the Tibetans to such visitors - Desideri was allowed to create a Christian shrine in his rooms. The other interesting fact is that both visitors were critical in some respects, and admiring in others, towards Tibetan culture. But, overall, it's a model of tolerance which I think speaks well of Buddhist cultures; it would have been interesting to see how a lama would have been received in Rome in times past.

[PeterC]

IIRC the Tibetans who hosted Kawaguchi were tracked down and punished, in some cases very severely, for assisting him. This was fairly common in that period. Peter Hopkirk's book on this is an entertaining but somewhat depressing read

[Wayfarer]

That's a shame. So much for the tolerance I referred to in my post, eh? Do you recall which Hopkirk book, he's written a few on the area.//edit//actually, now I read that Wikipedia article again, the Hopkirk account is mentioned.//

[Wayfarer]

actually there's a reasonably current edition of Kawaguchi's book on Amazon. This Amazon reader review provides an insight:

Three Years in Tibet is an important and inadvertently hilarious book. Kawaguchi was a Japanese Buddhist scholar; his fastidious and serious disposition is immediately apparent, and at complete odds with the environment in which he found himself. I've read most of the available accounts of travellers in Tibet that have been written since the mid-1800's. This book shines due to its lack of sentimentality. Kawaguchi's Tibet is plagued with filth, less than perfect monks, and customs that he finds abhorrent. He gets lost and robbed. In one, somehow incredibly amusing, passage he ends up near tears and almost freezing to death in the company of two bleating sheep. In great detail, he describes the customs and culture, as well as the details of life in the Lhasa region. He was able to pass as Chinese, and therefore was able to live freely in the city - visitors from other foreign nations were deported. The book is almost 700 pages long, but it is so interesting, informative, and engaging that I didn't want it to end. The only reason which I can think of that this book isn't more talked about is that it does not fit in with the currently popular mythologized version of Tibet as a homogenous utopia. This is unfortunate, as the portrait that Kawaguchi paints is of a very real and diverse society. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Tibet, Tibetan Buddhism, China, or travel writing. It is also chock full of information useful to historians and other scholars. Best of all, it is an easy and delightful read.

I also like that he was friends with Annie Besant. Kindle edition is a couple of bucks

[veggiepeace]

Thanks for presenting Ekai Kawaguchi and his book.

I also found it here:

https://www.booklooker.de/app/result.ph ... ext=Tibet&

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May all beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering

[crazy-man]

The earliest European reports of Tibet were from Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela who left Zaragoza, Aragon in 1160 and travelled to Baghdad before returning to Navarre in 1173. Based on his discussions with learned men, Rabbi Benjamin describes Tibet as being the land of musk and as being four days journey from Samarkand.[1]
Less than 100 years later, an emissary was sent by Louis IX to the Mangu Khan in Karakorum in 1253.[2] Friar William of Rubruck reported that the Tibetan people ‘were held an abomination among all nations’ due a ritual of drinking from the skulls of their parents. Friar William was also the first to describe a Tibetan lama’s garments in detail.[3]
The first documented European claim to have visited Tibet came from Odoric of Pordenone, a Franciscan who claimed to have traveled through Tibet in about 1325. Odoric's record was later plagiarized and popularized by John de Mandeville.[4]
By 1459 the general location of Tibet was clearly known as Thebet appears on the Fra Mauro Map in close proximity to its correct location.[5]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_o ... _centuries

more info:
Tibet A Chronicle Of Exploration by Gregor John Mac

[Tiago Simões]

Very interesting account, thank you. I should like to know more about this figure.

It reminds me of the story of Fr Ippolito Desideri, who was a lot earlier, but the first Christian missionary - a Jesuit - to reach Lhasa. The Wikipedia account is here. What is common in both accounts is the tolerance, indeed the hospitality, of the Tibetans to such visitors - Desideri was allowed to create a Christian shrine in his rooms. The other interesting fact is that both visitors were critical in some respects, and admiring in others, towards Tibetan culture. But, overall, it's a model of tolerance which I think speaks well of Buddhist cultures; it would have been interesting to see how a lama would have been received in Rome in times past.

Between 1718 and 1721 he composed five works in literary Tibetan, in which he taught Christian doctrines and attempted to refute the Buddhist concepts of rebirth (which he referred to as "metempsychosis") and 'Emptiness' (Wylie: stong pa nyid; Sanskrit: śunyatā).

I wonder how it worked out ...

[dzogchungpa]

Very interesting account, thank you. I should like to know more about this figure.

It reminds me of the story of Fr Ippolito Desideri, who was a lot earlier, but the first Christian missionary - a Jesuit - to reach Lhasa. The Wikipedia account is here. What is common in both accounts is the tolerance, indeed the hospitality, of the Tibetans to such visitors - Desideri was allowed to create a Christian shrine in his rooms. The other interesting fact is that both visitors were critical in some respects, and admiring in others, towards Tibetan culture. But, overall, it's a model of tolerance which I think speaks well of Buddhist cultures; it would have been interesting to see how a lama would have been received in Rome in times past.

Between 1718 and 1721 he composed five works in literary Tibetan, in which he taught Christian doctrines and attempted to refute the Buddhist concepts of rebirth (which he referred to as "metempsychosis") and 'Emptiness' (Wylie: stong pa nyid; Sanskrit: śunyatā).

I wonder how it worked out ...

There's a book about it.

[Tiago Simões]

I wonder how it worked out ...

There's a book about it.

More like, I would love to see how the book was received, since we don't hear about it too much, my guess is, not well ...

[dzogchungpa]

I wonder how it worked out ...

There's a book about it.

More like, I would love to see how the book was received, since we don't hear about it too much, my guess is, not well ...

It was never finished, and he eventually had to leave Tibet. I'll have a look at the book later and see if what he did write on the topic was ever read by Tibetan scholars of the time.

[Tiago Simões]

There's a book about it.

More like, I would love to see how the book was received, since we don't hear about it too much, my guess is, not well ...

It was never finished, and he eventually had to leave Tibet. I'll have a look at the book later and see if what he did write on the topic was ever read by Tibetan scholars of the time.

I also can't find anything on google about his thesis.

[Wayfarer]

I would love to see how the book was received

The book Dzogchungpa refers to was only published in April 2017, and I imagine it has only a small audience, as it's a very academic topic.

Nevertheless I think Father Ippolito deserves respect for getting to Lhasa in the17th Century and for learning Tibetan. It must have been unimaginably remote in those days, before any communications or transport technology. The Tibetans who received him also deserve respect for providing him the opportunity to teach and debate with the lamas.

[Queequeg]

His travelogue, quickly published based on talks he gave, shows his shock at the lack of hygiene amongst Tibetans, the filth of Tibetan cities... On the other hand, he had great admiration for many Tibetans ranging from great religious and political leaders to common people and made many friends while he was in Tibet.

Sounds very Japanese.

FWIW, many Japanese think all foreigners are filthy - and its not a racist or nationalist attitude, really. Japanese on a whole are obsessed with cleanliness and purity, material as well as spiritual hygiene. Central to kami veneration is ritual purity - Exhibit A - Ise Shrine, the holiest in Japan, is torn down and rebuilt on alternating sites every 20 years at the cost of millions of dollars because its believed that the structures and even the ground its built on, become accreted with impurity over a generation. The land is left fallow for 20 years to be naturally purified. If you go to a Japanese home, there is nothing more offensive you could do than wear your shoes into the house. The look of horror on their faces if you cross the threshold with your shoes!

On the other hand, Japanese are some intrepid and curious travelers - their centuries of isolation have left them basically without anything more than the most basic preconceived notions about people outside of Japan, and it makes them remarkably interested and open to others on their own terms. I'm often impressed with the guile-less naivety of Japanese in foreign countries. Kind of related, back when Harlem was filled with burned out buildings and empty lots - the vanguard gentrifiers were Japanese living in NY. I'd say to them, "You live WHERE?!" and they'd blankly say, "One Handoreddo sati ninsu storeeto ando Sainto Nikolasu Abenu." Now, I see them moving up to the Bronx. (Follow the young hip Japanese to real estate riches!)

[Tiago Simões]

His travelogue, quickly published based on talks he gave, shows his shock at the lack of hygiene amongst Tibetans, the filth of Tibetan cities... On the other hand, he had great admiration for many Tibetans ranging from great religious and political leaders to common people and made many friends while he was in Tibet.

Sounds very Japanese.

Yee thats what I thought too