The Cross-Cultural Transmission Of The Padmasambhava And His Beliefs

The cross-cultural dissemination of religious culture is an extremely important communication activity,but it is also an issue that has long been neglected in communication studies.From the perspective of cultural communication,studying the cross-cultural communication of the Padmasambhava and his beliefs in the ancient Tibet has two implications: first,to clarify the value and role of the Padmasambhava as an important subject of Buddhist communication,the media he used,and the methods he adopted for the cross-cultural communication of Buddhism in Tibet from a microscopic perspective;the second is to understand the activities of religion as a foreign culture in the early stages of cross-cultural communication from a macro perspective,and to provide implications for cross-cultural communication in the present.Following this line of thought,this paper takes the Ritual View of Communication as the main theoretical guide,combines primary and secondary historical sources,this study examines the cross-cultural transmission of the Padmasambhava and his beliefs from three levels: the context of transmission,the subject of transmission,and the important methods of transmission.This paper contains seven chapters.The first introductory chapter outlines the origins of this paper,the state of research at home and abroad,describes the main theoretical perspectives,research methods,and raises research questions.Chapter 2presents the political and cultural ecology of Tibet before the Padmasambhava entered Tibet.The third chapter elaborates on the Padmasambhava and his "Vajra Dance",describing the Padmasambhava as the transmitter,the "Vajra Dance" he created,and the goals of his transmission.Chapters 4 and 5 analyze the communication mechanism and communication effect of the Vajra dance ritual from a microscopic perspective.In previous cross-cultural communication studies,the transmission of information within space seems to be seen as the most important communication purpose.However,based on the above discussion,this paper argues that in the early period of intercultural communication,when the conflict between cultures is the most intense and the contradiction is the sharpest,the physical presence of both the transmitter and the receiver in the face-to-face oral communication environment is more conducive to "understanding the other’s culture" than the communication activities whose main purpose is to expand the message.In the context of Buddhist cultural communication,the Vajra dance and its symbolic system occupy an important position in the cross-cultural communication of the Padmasambhava and his beliefs by "making ideas perceivable".By using "symbols and rituals" as a vehicle for communication,they emphasize the participation of both the transmitter and the receiver in the communication process rather than the message conveyed;they emphasize the "sense of participation" and "sense of experience" that the rituals bring to the viewers.In the early stage of Buddhist cross-cultural communication,rituals and symbols are more capable of carrying a heavy doctrinal system and rich cultural connotation than the communication media including Buddhist scriptures.