Analysis
NANJING – The 21st Conference of the United Nations Day of Vesak opened yesterday in the city of Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, marking the first time China has hosted this global Buddhist gathering.
Observed by Buddhists worldwide, Vesak commemorates the birth, enlightenment and passing of the Buddha. The World Fellowship of Buddhists formally endorsed the celebration in 1950, while the United Nations General Assembly granted it international recognition in 1999.
Organized by the International Council for the Day of Vesak, this year’s conference has gathered around 1,000 Buddhist leaders, scholars and delegates from 67 countries and regions under the theme of “Buddhist Wisdom in Promoting Global Sustainable Development and Building a Shared Future for Humanity.”
More than two millennia after Buddhism first entered China, the religion has given rise to the Han, Tibetan and Theravada traditions that together form the country’s uniquely diverse Buddhist landscape.
The organizers said that China’s hosting of the event reflects deepening exchanges between Chinese Buddhism and the global Buddhist community, while also underscoring the country’s efforts to draw upon Buddhist wisdom in support of sustainable development and world peace.
Among Chinese provinces, Jiangsu occupies a particularly revered place in this history. Long celebrated for its cultural refinement and intellectual vitality, the region became one of the earliest gateways for Buddhism’s arrival, localization and flourishing in China.
In 247 A.D., Sun Quan, ruler of the Eastern Wu Kingdom during the Three Kingdoms period (220-280), ordered the construction of Jianchu Temple, which is regarded as the first Buddhist temple in the Wu cultural region and a milestone in Buddhism’s spread south of the Yangtze River.
From the Eastern Wu through the Southern Dynasties (420-589), Jiangsu’s Nanjing emerged as one of the spiritual and scholarly centers of Buddhism in China. Generations of eminent monks translated both Mahayana and Theravada scriptures there, transforming the city into one of the ancient world’s major hubs for Buddhist translation and doctrinal studies.
During the Sui (581-618) and Tang (618-907) dynasties and the subsequent Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (907-979) era, several influential Buddhist schools, including the Sanlun, Niutou and Fayan traditions, were founded within Jiangsu. The province also nurtured many towering figures in Chinese Buddhist history in both ancient and modern times.
Jiangsu’s Buddhist ties have long extended across Asia and beyond.
The world’s only known sacred cranial relic of the Buddha is enshrined at Nanjing’s Niushou Mountain, where it has become a focal point of international pilgrimage. The relic was transported to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Macao Special Administrative Region for public veneration in 2012.
During the Tang Dynasty, eminent monk Jianzhen departed from Daming Temple in the city of Yangzhou on his famed voyages to Japan, eventually succeeding on his sixth attempt and profoundly shaping the spread of Buddhism there.
Centuries later, Buddhist exchanges continued in new forms. In the early 20th century, Japanese monks helped raise funds to cast a bronze bell for Hanshan Temple in the city of Suzhou, a symbol of enduring Sino-Japanese Buddhist connections.
Another prominent figure, Master Hsing Yun, born and ordained in Jiangsu before later founding the globally influential Buddha’s Light International Association, helped pioneer modern approaches to Buddhist outreach and cultural engagement.
Against this backdrop, Wuxi stands out as both an ancient Buddhist stronghold and a modern center for religious tourism and international cultural exchange, where centuries-old Zen traditions coexist with contemporary vitality.
On the Wuxi shores of Taihu Lake lies the expansive Lingshan Scenic Area. Having twice hosted the World Buddhist Forum, the site has evolved into one of the world’s foremost gathering places for Buddhist dialogue, equipped with both the institutional experience and modern infrastructure needed to stage the Day of Vesak conference.
– Xinhua
