May 15,2015 By Xinhua Writer Cheng Yunjie
HANGZHOU, May 15 (Xinhua )-- Classes on the ancient
Sanskrit language are being resumed for the first time in more than
a decade at the Hangzhou Buddhism Institute amid a national
campaign to rejuvenate traditional culture.
Yogis, artists, college and doctoral students,
Buddhist are among the 120 people regularly attending the two-hour
lectures, which are held twice a week and taught by Li Wei, who
holds a doctorate in Indology from the University of Mainz,
Germany.
Professor Konrad Meisig, Dean of the Institute of
Indology of the Mainz University, said he was surprised by the
number of students attending.
"Normally, my Sanskrit classes comprise of no more
than twenty students each year. I was quite astonished to learn
from Dr. Li that he has such a large response from Chinese
students," he told Xinhua.
The Hangzhou Buddhism Institute held similar classes
in 2004, but were met with little interest.
"In 2004, we also held a Sanskrit Class for the
public for free. In less than a month, students all quit. They
thought the language was too difficult. This year, we selected 120
students from 380 candidates. It is the largest Sanskrit class in
China," said Gang Xiao, a master with the Institute.
Meisig attributed the new interest in the world's
oldest written language to Chinese people' s increasing interest in
the outside world. "There is a huge amount of interest and craving
for knowledge about foreign cultures in China," he said.
STUDENTS' PASSION
Li Yimei, who travels to the classes from Shanghai
with her husband Du Fu, studied yoga in India. She said she was
eager to know more about the Indian culture because Yoga and
Indology were inseparable.
"An excellent Yogi must thoroughly understand the
way of thinking of ancient Indian philosophers," she
said.
With equal passion, Du Fu said he hoped he could
read Buddhism scriptures in Sanskrit to see how the belief system
influenced Chinese culture.
The classes also compare interpretations of Buddhism
scriptures written in both Sanskrit and ancient Chinese.
For instance, the Chinese idiom for prostration, a
submissive pose undertaken to show reverence for buddha, Wu Ti Tou
Di had long been defined in Chinese dictionaries as a salute to
Buddha requiring hands, knees and head on the ground. But a
comparison study of the original Sanskrit and Chinese scriptures
showed whenever the word appears in the Chinese version, the
corresponding Sanskrit sentence is "throwing oneself down at
Buddha' s feet like a chopped-off tree" .
Wei Xiuxiu, a graduate of the China Art Academy and
a Sanskrit student, said this disparity revealed the necessity and
appeal of understanding Sanskrit.
"Translation is like a piece of embroidery, with the
original version on the front and the translated one on the back.
Only those who can understand both languages well can recognize the
thread residues and stitches on the reverse side. Accuracy is often
sacrificed in translation" , said she.
A big fan of Swami Vivekananda, an Indian Hindu monk
born in 1863 famous for introducing the Indian philosophies of
Vedanta and Yoga to the West, Wei collected a dozen Chinese books
on Indian philosophies, all translated from the English
version.
"Why do we have to rely on English translations to
know Indian philosophies? I hope one day I can read the original
works and even do the translation," said the
24-year-old.
Wei clearly remembered the first Sanskrit sentence
she translated into Chinese when doing homework: There is no
greater sin than greed and no greater virtue than
charity.
"Although these alphabets seem so distant and are so
difficult to recognize, the moment I read it out loud, I could feel
the power of the ancient words," said she.
Lee Sum Khor, a doctoral student from Malaysia
studying linguistics at the Zhejiang University, said the Sanskrit
class was filled with a pure love of the ancient Indian
language.
"Utilitarianism plays a big part when my friends
consider what to study. In this Sanskrit class however, people
study passionately simply because they like the language. Isn't it
inspiring?" said Khor.
Qian Xinyue, a fourth-grade student with the Qinglan
Primary School of Hangzhou joined her parents to take the Sanskrit
class twice a week. She said she loved to paint the Sanskrit
alphabet "as it' s like painting a picture, but reading the words
aloud is a bit boring" .
ACADEMIC FUTURE
Unlike studying English or any other modern foreign
language, Sanskrit students cannot practice conversation or do
language exchanges with native speakers. All example sentences and
vocabulary are hand-picked from Sanskrit classical works. Hundreds
of grammar rules have to be memorized. It's not a language that one
can learn in the heat of the moment, said Dr. Li Wei.
"If Sanskrit is taken up with the aim of doing
research, there is simply no easy way to do it," said Dr. Almuth
Degener, who works at the Institute of Indology at the University
of Mainz.
In her eyes, Sanskrit fever in China has been deeply
rooted in China' s long tradition in Buddhism as Sanskrit is one of
the major Buddhist languages.
Fang Yixin, dean of the Center for Study of History
of Chinese Language at Zhejiang University, said Chinese monks
spent more than 1,000 years translating Sanskrit Buddhism
scriptures.
"A lot more domestic scholars are now recognizing
the value of these works," he said.
Abbot Guang Quan of the Lingyin Temple and president
of the Hangzhou Buddhism Institute, initiated the free Sanskrit
class in an effort to turn Hangzhou into China's Sanskrit Research
center.
"We wish to facilitate domestic Sanskrit study to
strengthen academic and Buddhism exchanges with India," said
he.
Meisig advocated international cooperation in the
study of Sanskrit works.
"My opinion is that East and West, Chinese, Indian
and Western scholars should try their best to work together. We can
learn from each other, especially in the study of Sanskrit, Chinese
and Buddhist culture," he said.