Himalaya Calling: The Origins of China and India

405 Pages·2015·8.07 MB·English

by  Chung Tan

HIMALAYA
CALLING

The Origins of

and
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H
IMALAYA
C
ALLING

The Origins of

and
Tan Chung
Institute of Chinese Studies, India
World Century
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Published by
World Century Publishing Corporation
27 Warren Street, Suite 401-402, Hackensack, NJ 07601
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
HIMALAYA CALLING
The Origins of China and India
Copyright © 2015 by World Century Publishing Corporation
All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval
system now known or to be invented, without written permission from the publisher.
For photocopying of material in this volume, please pay a copying fee through the Copyright Clearance
Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. In this case permission to photocopy
is not required from the publisher.
ISBN 978-1-938134-59-3
In-house Editor: Sandhya Venkatesh
Typeset by Stallion Press
Email: [email protected]
Printed in Singapore
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Dedicated to Ji Xianlin (cid:4499)(cid:13777)(cid:7623) (1911–2009)
Eternal Camaraderie in Chindia
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FOREWORD
It is the historian’s constant endeavour to prevent the present from colour-
ing our view of the past, but not vice versa. In this attempt, he uses several
tools to strive for as objective an understanding of the past as possible.
Himalaya Calling is one of the more successful attempts to understand
India and China through the prisms of civilization, culture and historical
origins. By positing a Himalaya sphere as a geo-civilizational paradigm,
Dr. Tan Chung stands in a long line of those who have seen India and
China in civilizational and cultural terms — Tagore, Tan Yun-shan,
Ji Xianlin, Xu Beihong, P.C. Bagchi, Amartya Sen, among others.
But this work goes further than reflecting two great civilizational tradi-
tions, the links between them and creating understanding between them.
The basic message of the book is that India and China share origins, have
been linked through the ages, and complement each other. “Our intelli-
gence, knowledge and scholarship actually are rooted in a past that is uni-
fied and comes from one civilization”, is the central argument of this work
of deep and persuasive scholarship.
This is not an easy message when the headlines and television channels
focus on the ephemeral, on issues that count for less in the long duration
civilizational and historical terms that Dr. Tan uses. Dr. Tan addresses those
issues too, as in Chapter 4 when he discusses the India–China boundary
issue. There is a fundamental truth about borders that emerges from the
manner in which Dr. Tan approaches this issue. Throughout history,
borders have been zones of contact, diffusion, and cultural and ethnic
mingling between civilizations and cultures, as opposed to boundaries
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viii Himalaya Calling: The Origins of China and India
which are lines defining the present limits of sovereignty. As a result of this
difference, boundaries reflect the present balance of power between sover-
eignties while borders reflect the accumulated weight and experience of
history. That is why almost no international boundary line is where it was
a few centuries ago, while border zones have been relatively constant over
historical time.
So-called realists will criticize Dr. Tan’s approach of Indian and Chinese
civilisational unity. What they ignore is that there is indeed a basis among
the populace on both countries for what Dr. Tan says. In 2002 when a
Buddhist temple was being consecrated in Xuanzang’s birthplace, over six
thousand Chinese from all walks of life, including Communist Party
members, came to the event from near and far. Many had travelled consid-
erable distances, some had walked, and most brought their families to
what became a celebration of the life of a monk who passed away a mil-
lennium ago! A younger generation in both countries is more comfortable
with each other, and carry the burdens of the past lightly.
This book is probably the most detailed attempt that I have seen to
square the circle of reconciling India and China’s present preoccupations
with their past in order to build a future, or, in other words, to unify think-
ing about today’s politics and yesterday’s civilizations to permit a “golden”
future. Coming from someone who is uniquely placed to speak for both
India and China, whose life exemplifies the best in both traditions, this
book must be taken seriously for what it suggests of new ways for India
and China to approach a future that is increasingly common. It is my hope
that this book will tilt the balance in the minds of many more Chinese and
Indians to a better understanding of our glorious past that Dr. Tan speaks
of with such erudition and passion, thus doing both Dr. Tan’s homes a
great service.
Shivshankar Menon
New Delhi, June 2014
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9”x 6” b1937 Himalaya Calling: The Origins of China and India
PREFACE
THE MEMORIED LIGHT
OF COMRADESHIP
“We welcome you as a messenger of China’s great culture; you have brought
to us in India the gift of spiritual sympathy which, centuries ago, united
our ancient humanities. China and India shared the dawn of a great
Renaissance, and even in these days of political cataclysm the memoried
light of that comradeship remains”.
Rabindranath Tagore: Welcome to Xu Beihong,
February 1940, Santiniketan
The matrix in which the relationship between the two Asian giants, India
and China, rests is one of civilizational synergies, defined by the image of
indomitable souls like the ancient Chinese pilgrim to India, Xuanzang, his
tattered robes rustling in the winds of the Gobi, standing in front of the
‘great ice Mountains’1 of the Himalaya, charting a course of pilgrimage,
metaphysical and spiritual enquiry, contemplating the littleness of human
life and the greatness of the Buddha. It is in envisioning this old glory of the
proud cultures that flourished along the desert sands of Central Asia, fed by
the cross-fertilization of minds from India and China that the imagination,
1 Kenneth Saunders, Epochs in Buddhist History: The Haskell Lectures 1921, Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1924, p. 73.
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