Tracing Buddhist Responses to the Crisis of Cosmography

Abstract

Buddhists, across different schools and regions, traditionally posited a similar world model — one that is flat and centered by giant Mount Meru. This world model is chiefly featured in Vasubandhu’s fourth century CE text, the Abhidharmakośabhāṣyam. In 1552, Christian missionary Francis Xavier introduced European spherical-world cosmography to Japan, precipitating what this thesis terms the Buddhist ‘Crisis of Cosmography’. Buddhists responded to a challenge of their cosmography non-uniformly. This thesis identifies and traces three different Buddhist responses to the Crisis of Cosmography. The three types of respondents explored in this thesis are 1) the Rejecter (who rejects emergent European science and seeks to uphold the traditional Buddhist world model), 2) the Accepter (who conversely accepts European science and seeks to discard the traditional Buddhist world model), and 3) the Upayer (who cites the traditional Buddhist world model as a pedagogical upāya). To explore these respondents, this thesis primarily examines Japanese and Tibetan sources.