TANTRA

Tantra in Western nomenclature has achieved forms of signification independent from its Sanskritic use and has become a somewhat promiscuous category applied to various rituals otherwise not easily classified. In general parlance, tantra indicates the pan-Indic religious system that became emulated in Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain circles, and tantra is often understood as having an erotic component. This entry will discuss the idea of tantra in India and in Central and East Asia.

India and Nepal

The word tantra in India was much more widely applied than might be understood from the modern explanation of its derivation from ?tan—to weave. In medieval Sanskrit, the term signifies many forms of complex arrangement and may denote military deployment, a loom, certain forms of ritual, a political culture, a scriptural text emphasizing selected rituals, the pan-Indic religious aesthetic, and so on. In Buddhism, tantra is usually understood to include the use of mantras authorized by a preceptor on a disciple during a complex initiation rite that confers the disciple with the authority to engage in many different kinds of ritual associated with a specific class of buddhas, bodhisattvas, or Buddhist divinities. Included in the rituals are the construction or visualization of sacred circles (ma??ala), the use of hand gestures (mudr?), and the employment of fire sacrifice (homa), all of which may be for the purpose of specific soteriological or nonsoteriological goals. These latter are usually the four ritual actions of the pacification of obstacles, the increase of prosperity, the subjugation of difficulties, and the destruction of enemies; they may be performed for the practitioner's own ends or on behalf of a patron.

However, many of these elements had already enjoyed a lengthy precedent in Buddhist ritual long before the coalescence of mature esoteric Buddhism—to which tantra may properly be applied—in the late seventh and early eighth centuries. It is historically misleading to understand normative Mah?y?na rituals as tantric in any significant sense, despite the fact that many of them make use of several of the elements eventually included in esoteric Buddhism. Moreover, many of the buddhas, bodhisattvas, and Buddhist divinities that originated in the Mah?y?nist ritual environment eventually made the easy transition to the esoteric milieu. The primary difference between normative Mah?y?na and tantric Buddhism is that the latter appropriates an overarching political metaphor of overlordship in this very life, so that the initiation is performed in a manner derived from the coronation rituals of medieval Hinduism. Tantric Buddhism may be understood as a sacralization of the early medieval political and military fragmentation of North India, with its contentious rivalries between feudal clans. Consequently, it expresses an emphasis on secrecy, loyalty, allegiance, and unbreakable trust; on the visualization of self as a divine king (devat?r?ja) controlling complex spheres of dominion and power (ma??ala); on new arrangements of vows; and on the use of any means necessary to achieve stated goals or secret ends. All of these items are generally absent from normative Mah?y?nist rites.

Thus, replacing the self-sacrificial bodhisattva is the ideal of all-powerful siddha or mah?siddha, the perfected being to whom no standards of behavior can apply. Siddhas also employed the methods of medieval sorcerers (vidy?dhara)—such as the tantric feast (ga?acakra) involving the sacramental employment of ritualized group sex and the ingestion of illicit substances like meat and liquor—in their search for magical powers. In imitation of the behavior of ?aiva and other ascetics, some siddhas wore ornaments of human bone, carried staffs of distinctive shapes, and frequented cremation grounds or forest areas. Their interest in tribal peoples is a theme in much of the later literature, and some siddhas were known to have spent time among the forest tribes of Central or Eastern India. From them, specific divinities appear to have been appropriated, possibly including ?a?vara, Heruka, and J??guli. Siddhas were also interested in herbs and drugs, and their use of intoxicants like datura is well attested. The tendency to group siddhas into various numbering systems (84 being most common, but 20, 40, 50, 80, and other numbers are also seen) occurred rather late and reflects Indian organizational strategies.

Siddhas may have been a minority, though, since Buddhist monks are quite frequently represented as Buddhist monastic t?ntrikas. Monastic Buddhism apparently tried to displace overt siddha behavior with visualized or covert forms, and we occasionally read of monks becoming siddhas by being expelled from their cloisters for inappropriate behavior. Monks were responsible for domesticating the esoteric method by formulating it as on a continuum with monastic and Mah?y?na vows. This eighth-century hermeneutic was formalized in the triple discipline: The tantric master is expected to practice the vows of the monk (pr?timok?asa?vara), the bodhisattva (bodhisattvasa?vara), and the sorcerer (vidy?dharasa?vara). This reading emphasized that the esoteric system was a branch of the Mah?y?na—the mantra-method (mantranaya).

The maturation of tantric Buddhism happened surprisingly quickly. There is no concrete evidence for tantra prior to the late seventh century, and yet all the basic principles were in place a century later. It is also primarily a North and Central Indian phenomenon, with modest contributions from South India or Sri Lanka. The emphasis on pilgrimage sites predominantly found in North and Central India, like the legendary O?iy?na (Swat Valley), reflect this reality. Because tantra arose in a culture of fragmentation, there is little textual unity, and the works classified by later authors as tantric may call themselves by other titles: discourse (s?tra), meditative aid (dh?ra??), secret spell (mantra), incantation (vidy?), ritual (kalpa), as well as tantra. The textual sources gain added complexity through the tendency of later authors to read esoteric directions into earlier Buddhist scriptures and to incorporate these scriptures in their exegesis. Accordingly, the Heart S?tra is often taken as a tantric text, since it contains a mantra, even though this text predates any tantric Buddhism per se.

Classificatory systems thus had to wrestle with great differences in texts, and consequently there is no unanimity on tantric typology. Perhaps the most basic scheme is that employed by Buddhaguhya and others in the mid-eighth century: Tantras are those that emphasize external ritual activity (kriy?naya-tantra) or those that emphasize internal yogic practices (yoganaya-tantra). The fourfold classification favored by Tibetans has been often cited: Tantras are those that enjoin ritual action (kriy?), behavioral practice (cary?), meditation (yoga), or the highest yoga (anuttarayogatantra). Textual examples include the Susiddhikara (kriy?), the Vairocanabhisambodhi (cary?), the Sarvatath?gatatattvasa?graha (yoga), and the Guhyasam?ja (anuttara-yoga-tantra). The latter category was often subdivided into two, with the Guhyasam?ja being a mah?yoga-tantra and works like the Cakrasamvara classified as a yogin?-tantra. It must be emphasized, though, that there were many other typologies—some with seven or more categories. Neither was there unanimity on which texts actually belonged to which categories, irrespective of the number of categories. Some important texts, like the Mañju?r?n?masa?g?ti or the Hevajra, might be classified into two or three categories, depending on the interpretation.

Linguistically, the tantras reflect the regionalization of Indian society. They are written in regional or non-standard Sanskrit—often influenced by colloquial expressions or grammar—and some of those composed in Eastern India use vernacular-based literary languages, such as Apabhra??a, in liturgical environments. Siddhas would also compose adamantine songs (vajrag?ti) to express their understanding or to critique others, and they often provided a signature line to identify the author. Consequently, tantric Buddhism returned to the autobiographical voice and the use of non-Sanskritic languages, as had been done in the early days of Buddhist literature but had been largely abandoned under the influence of the classical Mah?y?na.

Ritually, the fundamental meditative ritual became the s?dhana, a rite wherein the meditator visualized the buddha or divinity as before him or identical to himself, prior to performing specific activities: recitation of mantras, yoga, fire sacrifice, initiation, tantric feast, and so on. The visualization sequence most often included imagining a royal palace inside a protective sphere, and visualizing a lotus on which is placed a seed syllable (b?jamantra), which transforms first into a symbol of the divinity and then into the divinity itself. Thus, the syllable om might turn into a wheel and then into the Buddha Vairocana. If the practice contained a full ma??ala of buddhas or divinities, the meditator would perform the same act (or an abbreviated version) for each figure. Because the ma??ala is generated or born, this meditative form is sometimes called the birthing or developing process (utpattikrama).

Many of the later tantras also discuss an esoteric yogic physiology, sometimes called the vajra-body, in which the body contains psychic ganglia that may be represented in the form of wheels (cakra) or other arrangement. Generally, they contain the letters of the Sanskrit alphabet, the vowels (?li) and consonants (k?li), in one or another of many specified combinations. Connecting the ganglia are channels (n?di) through which flows karmic winds (karmav?yu) that are closely involved with the physiological and psychological processes. The letters and winds may also be posited as being the internal representations of external phenomena, so that the meditator's perceptions are a result of the karmic relationship between the microcosm and macrocosm. The channels include a central channel and a left and right channel, eventually branching out into seventy-two thousand subsidiary channels that reach all areas of the body. In different visualizations, often called the perfecting process (sampannakrama), the meditator may imagine a flame below the navel or various lights in the wheels or employ a female sexual partner as a physical aid to harness the psychophysical process. By manipulating the winds that control his psychic processes, the meditator seeks eventually to drive these winds into some area of the central channel, an act that is said to transform the psychophysical winds into the gnostic wind (jñ?nav?yu). As the process is accomplished, a series of visions emerges, ending in an awareness of the illusory nature of interior and exterior phenomena, with all forms finally resolving into the clear light of ultimate reality.

Central Asia and Tibet

Tantric Buddhism became quickly popular in the areas immediately contiguous to Northern India—Burma, Nepal, Tibet, Nanzhao—and spread into Central Asia and China. Tantric works were eventually translated into the Central Asian languages of Khotanese, Uighur, Tangut, and Mongolian, but Tibet became the most important area of tantric development. Three of the four major Tibetan orders—Sa skya (Sakya)-pa, Bka' brgyud (Kagyu)-pa, and Dga' ldan-pa (Gandenpa)—maintained a more or less conservative approach, following closely the later Indian tantras and other Indian scriptures translated in the astonishing efforts of the eighth through the fifteenth centuries.

The Rnying ma (Nyingma)-pa order, however, continued the Indian culture of scriptural composition rather than the simply the conservation of received Indian works. As a result, the production of tantras in Buddhist Tibet equaled or exceeded the number and volume produced in Buddhist India, and these Tibetan works were collected together with a few important Indian tantras into the Rnying ma rgyud 'bum (Old Tantric Canon), beginning in the eleventh century. Most of these texts claim translation from a non-Tibetan source: from O?iy?na, Brusha, India, or

the realm of the goddesses. Many are revealed in the process of the treasure (gterma) phenomenon in Tibet and are said to have been buried physically or spiritually on Tibetan soil by important saints of the eighth- to ninth-century royal dynastic period of Tibetan history.

While the content of many of the works is only beginning to be explored, our catalogues classify the Old Tantric Canon into the standard fourfold division accepted by most Tibetans (kriy?, etc.), with the difference that the Highest Yoga tantras are further divided into three: mah?yoga, anuyoga, and atiyoga. Generally, it is considered that the first two correspond in content to the division of Indian tantras into mah?yoga and yogin?-tantras (while the texts themselves are mostly different) but the atiyoga category is understood to be a Rnying ma category, even though the term was used in India to describe a stage of meditative ritual. In Rnying ma parlance, atiyoga is generally equated with the Great Perfection (rdzogs chen) and its literature is subdivided into three further varieties: the mental class (sems sde), the expanse class (klong sde), and the seminal drop class (snying thig sde). The first of these (mental class) appears to have evolved from the doctrines concerning the mind of awakening (bodhicitta), an important development in seventh- to eighth-century India based on an earlier Mah?yanist idea. The second and third classes, however, are Rnying ma contributions and represent in some sense the flowering of indigenous Tibetan spirituality, although they build on Indian ideas and practices. Atiyoga tantras are also qualitatively different from Indian works by their increased emphasis on doctrinal and philosophical expressions rather than performative ritual systems, so that they constitute some of the more interesting expressions of Buddhist ideology.

East Asia

The question of the existence and role of tantra in East Asia has provoked considerable disagreement. While the dissemination of South Asian texts, rituals, and ideas that may be designated as tantric was a major factor in the cultural milieus of China, Korea, and Japan from the eighth century onward, these developments were usually understood as new discursive and ritual extensions of the Mah?y?na. A survey of the Japanese Bukky? daijiten (Encyclopedia of Buddhism) and the Mikky? daijiten (Encyclopedia of the Esoteric Teachings) yields almost no references to tantra and the phrase "great teaching king" (da jiao wang) that sometimes served as a translation of mah?tantrar?ja is rare and occurs mostly in titles of a few Song dynasty (960–1279) translators. The scarcity of the designation is not merely an effect of an ideological rejection of later tantras, such as the Hevajra, by Japanese Shingon orthodoxy. Rather, the absence of a transliterated form of the term tantra in the context of assiduous transliteration of mantras and dh?ra??s into Chinese underscores the irrelevance of the term throughout most of East Asia. While tantra is missing, mantra, dh?ra??, siddhi, abhi?eka, homa, ?ve?a (induced trance), and so on are well attested both in transliterated and translated forms.

Rather than either trying to apply a South Asian label that East Asians ignored or trying to measure Chinese and Korean religious history by the yardstick of Japanese sectarian developments, we do better asking a different set of questions, questions guided by the vocabulary that is present: Where do the ideas, discourses, pantheon, practices, and texts of South Asian tantra appear in East Asia? Who circulates them and what are the conditions of their reproduction, assimilation, and transformation?

A variety of tantras were quickly translated or summarized in Chinese. By the mid-eighth century the Susiddhikara, the Vairocan?bhisambodhi, the Sarvatath?gatatattvasamgraha, and the Sub?huparip?cch? had been translated, and we have evidence that the Guhyasam?ja was known. So too, by the mid-eighth century, rituals to evoke or propitiate deities as diverse as M?r?c?, the lords of the Great Dipper, Buddho????a, and the various vidy?r?jas had spread as far as Japan. By the end of the tenth century a version of the Mañju?r?m?lakalpa and a complete version of the Sarvatath?gatatattvasa?graha had been translated into Chinese. By the twelfth century the full range of tantra, ritual manuals, and associated paraphernalia were available.

As in South Asia, in East Asia we find certain distinctive metaphors and practices connected with the circulation and assimilation of these texts. These include the pervasive use of the ma??ala as an organizing principle and with it, its South Asian derived metaphors of sovereignty, unlimited power or siddhi (both for mundane and soteriological purposes), the notion of mantra, and rites of immolation (including those for pacification, increase of fortune, subjugation, and destruction), initiation, trance, and notions of secrecy. In the broadest sense, what we are dealing with is the afterlife of South Asian originated or inspired iconic discourses and ritual technologies for producing and manipulating the divine and the demonic in tangible form. In practice this adaptation of South Asian forms can range from the consecration of images to the induction of trance through possession, to the assumption of divine identity by the adept. The often trumpeted transgressiveness of tantra is a direct function of its core metaphors of kingship, its assertion of unlimited sovereignty, and the particular social locations of its practitioners. Thus, in East Asia the court was the natural locus of these systems. When located outside the court, "tantra" manifested in the pseudo kingship of siddhas and the occult.

China and Korea

The signature South Asian characteristic of tantra—its extensive application of the kingship metaphor deployed in ma??ala and enacted in ritual—made it at once a possible threat to the Chinese imperial establishment and then a valued form of legitimation. Thus, the Indian missionary ?ubh?karasi?ha (637–735) was initially treated with suspicion by emperor Xuanzong (r. 712–756). He was placed under house arrest, and his Sanskrit texts were impounded. But it soon became clear that the new teachings came along with considerable advances in mathematics and particularly calendrical astronomy, areas that were central to imperial ideology. The polymath monk Yixing (673–727) was assigned to spy on ?ubh?ka?asi?ha, as much as to help him in his work of translation and dissemination of the Vairocan?bhisambodhi and other mantra (Chinese, zhenyan) teachings, including the Sub?huparip?cch?. A few years later in 720 c.e. the monk Vajrabodhi (671–741) arrived in the Chinese capital Chang'an (possibly from ?r?vijaya) and soon he and his chief disciple Amoghavajra (705–774) were, if not embraced by the court, at least given permission to translate texts and to take on disciples in exchange for performing ritual duties for the imperial house. Amoghavajra proved himself a valuable ally to the imperial house during the chaos of the An Lushan rebellion (755–763) and he gave emperor Suzong (r. 756–762) abhi?eka as a cakravartin or world-ruling king. Under Suzong and then under his successor Daizong (r. 762–779), Amoghavajra and his disciples articulated an ideology of dual rulership with the cakravartin supported by his ?c?rya (religious preceptor) in a pattern remarkably similar to that found in South Asia. Amoghavajra not only produced translations of tantras and ritual manuals, but he also produced updated versions of some Mah?y?na texts, bringing their language into line with the latest esoteric or mantra discourses by adding dh?ra?? and ritual commentaries. The most prominent of these texts was the Chinese Renwang jing (Humane Kings S?tra), a scripture that melded traditional Chinese and Buddhist notions of rulership. Under Amoghavajra's tutelage the teachings associated with the Sarvatath?gatatattvasa?graha permeated much of the court, the military, and many imperial institutions. A ritual arena for homa and other practices was established in the imperial compound. Mañju?r? replaced Pi??ola in monastic refectories, large numbers of "tantric" ritual manuals were translated, and permanent altars for homa and abhi?eka were constructed. Thematically speaking, Amoghavajra's Buddhism was, to borrow the Korean phrase, "State Protection Buddhism," and its most developed ritual dimensions concerned propping up the imperial house, ensuring the health of the emperor, giving succor to its ancestors, helping to keep meterological and cosmic portents favorable, and generally esoterizing monastic establishments that were imperially funded. Although Daizong's successor Dezong (r. 779–805) initially severed lavish patronage to the mantra teachings, he later reversed his decision and supported the last of the great South Asian translators of the Tang, the monk Prajña (734–806?).

Imperial patronage henceforth was spotty. During the early Song dynasty the last group of great South Asian translators, Dharmap?la (963–1058), D?nap?la (fl. tenth century), and Fatian (d. 1001) produced more complete versions of the Sarvatath?gatatattvasa?graha, a version of the Guhyasam?ja, and a translation of the ?r?vajrama??al?mkaramah?tantrar?ja. Patronage was, however, sporadic until the Mongols (Yuan dynasty, 1234–1368) and even later Ming (1368–1644) and Qing dynasty (1644–1911) patronage of Tibetan Vajray?na. Severed from the court and bereft of its natural metaphoric locale at the actual center of power, various elements of the system merged back into the stream of late Mah?y?na while others were simply rolled into Vajray?na from Tibet. Indeed, the ritual technology associated with these teachings, especially that promising various forms of siddhi and connected with homa and ?ve?a, had an impact not only on the Mah?y?na in China, but also on Daoism and on local religious traditions. Perhaps more than all the divinities and complex ritual, Chinese traditions—Buddhist and non-Buddhist alike—found the ideology of hiddenness and the aura of the esoteric power of mantra most appealing. The idea of mantra had already been circulating from the second century onward and served as a model for the Brahm?-language of Daoist scripture. An exclusive focus on the short-lived presence of a sectarian tantric or esoteric "school" misses the point entirely. By the twelfth century there were esoteric Chan school transmissions, rites deriving directly from the tantras in use in Pure Land school circles and more generally for the salvation of the dead (the shishi or "distribution" of food to ghosts and the elaborate shuilu or Land and Water Masses). Popular accounts of the ?c?ryas celebrated their wielding of siddhi in a manner not unlike tales of siddhas found in South Asia and Tibet.

While a polity inspired by and enacted according to the Sarvatath?gatatattvasa?graha was made an actuality for some twenty-five years in China, we have no solid evidence that the teaching garnered full institutional support in Korea either under the Silla (668–935) or Kory? (918–1392) periods. Although the Samgukyusa (Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms) mentions two esoteric "sects" under the Kory? (Ch'ongji or Dh?ra?? school and the Sinin or Mudra school) the reliability of this source is questionable and there is no independent evidence of sectarian "schools." We know of a number of prominent Korean monks who studied with famous Chinese ?c?ryas—Pulgasa?i (d.u.) with ?ubh?karasi?ha, Hyech'o (fl. eighth century) with Amoghavajra, Hyeil (d.u.) and Ojin (d.u.) with Amoghavajra's disciple Huiguo (?–805)—and it appears that they brought full range of mantra teachings and ritual technology to the peninsula. The first edition of the Korean Tripi?aka (produced 1029–1089 c.e.) contains the works of the Tang ?c?ryas as well as those of the Song ?c?ryas, and we have to assume that there was a ready market for these works among the Korean aristocracy. Apparently the mantra teachings were incorporated into Kory? Buddhism much as they had been into Tang and Song Buddhism, as new mantric ritual extensions of the Mah?y?na with new pantheons. While a full sectarian identity for the mantra teachings in the Silla and Kory? periods is suspect, we do have ample evidence of the spread of rituals in court circles. These included rites to M?r?c?, Mah?m?y?r? Vidy?r?jñ?, Buddho????a, Yam?ntaka, and rites originating in the Tang and Song dynasties, including Land and Water Masses and rituals for protection of the state connected with the Humane Kings S?tra and the Suvar?aprabh?sottama-s?tra. As was the case in China, the rise of the Mongols and their influence over the Korean peninsula brought Tibetan lamas and the performance of Vajray?na rituals to the court in the late thirteenth century. This presence, however, was fleeting.

Japan

Although we tend to equate the arrival of the tantras in Japan with K?kai (774–835) and Shingon, this is not wholly accurate. Indeed, Kukai himself read the Vairocan?bhisambodhi before he traveled to China and there is considerable evidence that teachings, texts, and ritual technology originating in South Asia had spread to Japan by the mid-eighth century and were known and in use in both monastic and hijiri (mountain ascetic) circles. The standard story of the foundation of the Shingon school by K?kai on his return from the Tang court in 805 and the parallel esoterizing of the Tendai sect by Saich? (767–822) that resulted in what later exegetes would dub T?mitsu and Taimitsu, respectively, have recently come under scrutiny and have been shown to be, especially in the case of K?kai and Shingon, a pious and anachronistic simplification. As was the case for Amoghavajra, K?kai saw himself as introducing a distinctive inner teaching and a method of discourse and interpretation that extended and completed the Mah?y?na, and much of his work was aimed at and eventually embraced by the established Nara schools. It now appears that the synthesis of a system framed by two mandalas drawn respectively from the Vairocan?bhisambodhi and the Sarvatath?gatatattvasa?graha was in large part K?kai's articulation of possibilities present but not expressed in the work of his Chinese teachers. Basing their system on these two texts Shingon apologists distinguish their Esoteric Buddhism (Mikky?) from the corpus of texts described in the Vajray?na as anuttarayoga-tantra. Accordingly they see their "pure" esoterism as untainted by influences originating in ?aivite Hinduism. One of K?kai's most interesting innovations was his insistence that the esoteric teachings were preached directly by the Dharmak?ya Buddha (the transcendent body of the Buddha).

But the sectarian history of Shingon and Tendai esoteric Buddhism does not fully capture the effect of the mantra teachings on Japanese culture. Scholars speak of the esoterizing of medieval Japanese culture and some of the most important effects of the tantras in Japan occurred in spite of Shingon's existence as a religious institution. For instance, Kakuban (1095–1143) explored the relationship between Shingon and Shint?, between Mah?vairocana, the great Sun Buddha, Amit?bha, and Amaterasu, the solar goddess progenitor of the imperial clan. Others explicated Pure Land and Zen in terms of the esoteric teachings. Mantras and dh?ra??s spread through the culture and language, as did deities (Acala vidy?r?ja, for instance), and practices (homa). Antinomian tendencies surfaced in the so-called Tachikawa heresy with its promise of various siddhi and its employment of sexual techniques and skull rituals reminiscent of the Kapalikas, and in the Pure Land/esoteric fusion of the "Secret Nenbutsu" (himitsu nenbutsu), which equated sexual action to the intake of breath and the chanting of the Buddha's name. The emergence of Ry?bu Shint?, a tradition that synthesized esoteric and indigenous traditions, is further evidence of the impact of the mantra teachings on medieval Japan. Perhaps the most important influence of the mantra teachings cannot be documented in a cause/effect fashion. It is nonetheless clear that the idea of mantra, of the b?ja syllables (they adorn cemeteries and can be found on homa sticks in modern temples), were likely the inspiration for the hiragana syllabary.

See also:Mijiao (Esoteric) School; Shingon Buddhism, Japan; Tiantai School

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Ronald M. Davidson

Charles D. Orzech