ABSTRACT

Buddhist secret site and sign is one outstanding part of Buddhist culture. As Buddhist adherents perform the religious practice, they find in Buddhism certain cultural environment that contains Buddhist secret site and sign. And this environment has exerted a special centripetal force in their life. The phenomenon of Buddhist secret site and sign worship appeared early at the primitive Buddhism. As far as its nature and function were concerned, the role of primitive Buddhist secret site and sign worship was similar to that at the time of Sectarian Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism, even though it was not so well developed in the primitive period with limited forms and scale.

From Sectarian Buddhism to Mahayana Buddhism, Buddhist secret site and sign got encouraged and developed. Mahayana Buddhist doctrines and its prosperity furnished the development of Buddhist secret site and sign culture in this period. At the time when the Mahayana Buddhism was prosperous (about 4-5AC), Buddhist secret site and sign began to get matured in its forms and content. By analyzing Indian Buddhist secret site and sign phenomenon at this period of time, we can classify the Buddhist secret site and sign into different sorts. Here what need to be specially emphasized is that Indian Buddhist secret site and sign culture (at the time of Mahayana Buddhism), which profoundly influenced Buddhist secret site and sign of Tibetan area, covered both the layers of Mahayana and Tantrism.

Buddhist secret site and sign culture took shape as it had incorporated in society such cultural elements as Buddhist secret site and sign forms, content and supply method. With Buddhist doctrines at the core, these elements recognized Buddhist adherents' way of life and behavior as well as customs, and found general acceptance among its adherents. Tibetan Buddhist secret site and sign culture is one important component part of Buddhist secret site and sign culture. When we study the Tibetan Buddhist secret site and sign, we ought to put it under the Mahayana Buddhism's view of Buddhist secret site and sign.

Tibetan Buddhist secret site and sign culture is not created originally in Tibetan area. Actually its basic forms are primarily developed from Mahayana Buddhism. These basic forms include bodhimandala secret site and sign and empowerment halidom secret site and sign. The bodhimandala secret site and sign can be classified into two sorts —— temples and sacred spaces. Bodhimandala secret site and sign itself is secret site and sign. Furthermore, it can also act as the carrier of other forms of secret site and sign. The trager of body, speech and mind is fundamental of empowerment halidom, and there are some special kinds of empowerment halidoms and remains too. The various forms and rich content of secret site and sign combing with supply methods and supply actions constructed the living model of Tibetan secret site and sign in the social culture.

Based on its essence —— delivering all beings from torment, Tibetan Buddhist secret site and sign blended itself into the life of monks and lay Buddhists. Besides, Tibetan Buddhist secret site and sign has deeply influenced the Tibetans' life style and views and mixed itself with the Tibetan culture. It also becomes a unique layer of Tibetan culture which is called Tibetan Buddhist secret site and sign culture. Taking the doctrines of Tibetan Buddhist as its foundation and the history and lineage as its thread, Tibetan Buddhist secret site and sign is gradually becoming a sort of Tibetan Buddhist secret site and sign culture which is various in form and rich in content. Tibetan Buddhist secret site and sign culture produced a cultural environment for the Tibetan Buddhism to deliver all beings from torment and under this cultural environment dream world is able to be connected with the earth life.

In the process of studying early Tibetan Buddhist secret site and sign culture, we find that there was no strict standard used to differ the secret site and sign phenomenon at the time of Buddhism from that at the time of pre-Buddhism. Before Buddhism was introduced to Tibet, secret site and sign which formed from the character of idea, history stories and articles remains, had gone through a process deciphered and involved by Buddhism. Ultimately, the secret site and sign was profound influenced by Buddhist culture inevitably. The culture integration which was started by the introduction of Buddhism was logical, although there are different doctrine between religions. Tibetan Buddhist secret site and sign culture developed on these couture conditions and social background.

According to the different stages of Buddhism's development, we can find the followings: at the period of Stong-btsan-sgam-po, the basic structure of Buddhist secret site and sign including the carriers of secret site and sign, such as temples, the tragers of Body, Speech and Mind, and the empowerment halidom got their early forms; at the time of Khri-srong-lde-btsan, the system of Buddhist secret site and sign became matured and completed Later, Padmasambhava enriched and set the secret site and sign culture system of Tibetan Buddhism. And during the time of Padmasambhava the matured systems can be found in different aspects, such as in construction of temples and scared spaces for meditation training, creation of Terma and remaining of the empowerment halidom secret site and sign. The content of secret site and sign also got enriched at this time. After the time of Padmasambhava, at the period of Khri-gtsug-lde-btsan, Tibetan Buddhist culture got further development in the supply method and the content of secret site and sign. For this reason, during the period of the first dissemination of Tibetan Buddhism, the secret site and sign as bodhimandala, the tragers of Body, Speech and Mind, kinds of empowerment halidom have witnessed the process of establishment, systematization and development, increased the quantity of the content of secret site and sign, and the supply methods of secret site and sign have been witnessed the process of becoming more widespread gradually.

In the Tibetan Buddhism there are various Buddhism supply methods and supply rituals which have a close relationship with the action of Tibetan Buddhist secret site and sign supply. The supply of Buddhism secret site and sign means a certain kind of supply actions, treating secret site and sign as the centre and acting for the secret site and sign's empowerment. Some of supply methods for Buddhism secret site and sign formed during the first dissemination period, others formed during the second dissemination period. the forming procession completed before 13 AC.

A study on the carriers of Nyingma secret site and sign during the second dissemination of Buddhism tells the three aspects covered in Tibetan Buddhism secret site and sign activity, that is, sacred spaces, temples, and lineage masters. The first two put special emphasis on divinity and empowerment of space, while the last one focuses on religion lineage. Nyingma secret site and sign cultural has taken on three main features since the second dissemination of Buddhism:

Firstly, it spreads religion with lineage masters as the main conductors to do missionary work.

Secondly, it puts special emphasis on practicing Buddhism in sacred spaces.

Thirdly, it is constructed in a mode that temples integrate with scared spaces.

The three main features mentioned above form the basic environment for the subsequent development of Nyingma secret site and sign culture in the second dissemination of Buddhism. In view of this situation, the development of Nyingma secret site and sign culture can be learned through an analysis of its three representative ways of lineage: Zur-gsum、Longchen-snying-thig and Ka-thog. At present, Ka-thog plays a main role on the development of Nyingma secret site and sign culture.

The features of Kulapati Buddhism of Nyingma and the gradual reinforcement of temples' position have threaded the development of Nyingma secret site and sign culture for thousands of years, which also forebodes a shift of positions among the secret site and sign culture carriers: as secret site and sign culture is easily lost with lineage masters as its main carrier. Buddhist rites have established a clear superiority. For quite some time in the second dissemination of Tibetan Buddhism as well as the first dissemination, Nyingma temples were originally built more as places for worship in form, while sacred spaces, including monasteries, were the main sites to practice Buddhism. It was not until Nyingma developed to its middle period that temples began to enhance their functions in preaching and practicing Buddhism, and temples also made a breakthrough in their scale as well as steady development. This lead to a shift of carriers' positions between sacred spaces and temples, with that of temples taking on the superiority.

As time passes by, Nyingma secret site and sign culture has enjoyed long years of steady development. In this process of steady development, there is little conflict between Nyingma and other branches. The various branches affect one another in developing secret site and sign culture. The ownership of sacred spaces and temples which originally belong to Nyingma may also be transferred to other branches.

Tibetan Buddhist culture is the essence and core to Tibetan culture. The two maintain flesh-and-blood ties with each other due to their intergrowth. Consequently, the present Tibetan culture can never separate itself from Buddhist culture. the culture of Tibetan Buddhist secret site and sign is a component part of Tibetan Buddhist culture. Through thousands of years' refinement in society, the culture of Tibetan Buddhist secret site and sign has evolved from a mere religious belief into a way of life for Tibetan people. With respect to its lineage, empowerment as well as merit, Tibetan Buddhist secret site and sign culture has played an important role in maintaining Tibetan culture.