A brief look at violence in the history of Buddhism
I've seen people throw around on these forums about Buddhism being a peaceful religion that never started any wars or conflicts. Being a Buddhist myself, and a passionate student of the history of my religion, I'd just like to point out that this is not true. While the religion itself (as a whole, despite some conflicting messages from a few sutras) condemns violence and espouses inner and outer peace, its practitioners have certainly waged our own share of bloody conflicts.
So, without further ado, here's a brief look at some violent conflicts waged on behalf of Buddhism.
The first and perhaps the most prominent Buddhist conflict occured in 1193, when Muslim invaders from Asia Minor (the specific faction of these invaders are not noted; and were simply recorded as "Muslim warriors from the North West", in "Accounts of the Magadha Pilgrimage" as recorded by Buddhist historians in the Yuan dynasty), looking to expand their borders, attacked and conquered Magadha, which, at the time, served as the capitol of Buddhism in India, being home to the Valabhi and Nalanda. Prior to the invasion, according to primary sources, the Buddhists there were split on deciding how to react. The majority wanted to stay and defend their religious homeland while a significant opposition wanted to flee north to China, where Buddhism was flourishing. A vote was taken and a compromise was reached. A portion of the Buddhist population would take all the sacred texts and artifacts to China while the remainder would stay and fight alongside the local militia.
Those who remained fought a fierce and desperate guerilla war against the invaders, but at the end, they lost. The Muslims were so bloodied by the war, however, that afterwards, they called for the destruction of every single Buddhist monastery and university in the area. For all practical purposes, that tolled the death of Buddhism in that area, and as a result, for all practical purposes, that single event shifted the Buddhist capitol from India to China.
This was the first record of a major conflict waged by Buddhists.
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Next up, Tibet.
Tibet, ever since the Tang dynasty, has embraced Buddhism as their primary religion. The first sutras delivered to the Tibetians by a combination of Tang missionaries and western pilgrims arriving from the Silk Road were not welcomed by the natives as it was very close to Jainism - prohibiting certain practices such as eating meat (which the Tibetians found absolutely unacceptable as in the harsh mountainous regions of Tibet, they cound not afford to be vegetarians). Therefore, they adopted their own version of Buddhism - Red Buddhism as they themselves called it - which served better the needs of the Tibetian people. Due to this, those Tibetians who embraced Buddhism quickly became cultural and spiritual allies of the very much Buddhist Tang empire, and engaged in trade and immigration, which gave them a step above the non-Buddhist Tibetians.
This caused great resentment among the various Tibetian tribes who were not Buddhist, and who saw the Buddhist expansion as a threat to their very survival. Thus, the tribes often participated in frequent raids and skirmishes against Buddhist villages and cities. Most of these raids were repeled by private militias (whom the Tibetian Buddhist leadership strictly emphasized were NOT sponsored by the abbots), mercenaries, and Chinese imperial troops, whenver they happened to get rotated to the Tibetian frontier.
The regional conflict simmered for a good 300 years, periodically interrupted by disasters like the Mongol invasion (which triggered a Tibetian rebellion, which, though it was heavily motivated by religion, I won't count as a "religious war") until in 1490, when it began to boil. For the first time in history, the non-Buddhist tribes of Tibet made a military alliance and began to wage a determined and persistent military campaign against the Tibetian Buddhists. Unfortunately for these tribes, the Ming empire's imperial garrison in eastern Tibet happened to be lead by the very competent general Zhu Long Ti, a Ming prince sent to the frontier (like a lot of Chinese princes do) to train his mettle.
For lack of a better motive, General Zhu (a devout athiest himself) simply got tired of the Tibetian tribes' crap and decided to counter their offensive with one of his own. Half way through his counter offensive, the general was recalled by the Ming court for recklessly starting a campaign without consulting the military brass above him (namely, the Emperor himself). The deed was already done, however, and by the time the general was recalled, the Tribes were tattered and ravaged, but that they were in no way defeated. They continued the offensive with a renewed vigor, overconfident that though they stood no chance against the Imperial army, a few Buddhists were no problem.
Thus began a bitter conflict between between two sides of the same culture. This time, the Buddhist leadership could not maintain neutrality. The monks began drafting Buddhists by the hundreds into a self-proclaimed "golden righteous army", who proclaimed to fight to defend their home and religion. The bitter war lasted for two whole years, until in the summer of 1492, General Zhu came back, and this time with his father's permission, decimated the tribes and forced their surrender. The Ming Emperor, facing an overstretched empire as is, wisely gave the lands of the conquered tribes to the Tibetian Buddhists to govern (together, the lands form the modern Tibet proper). The Tibetian Buddhists, faced with an unprecedenced problem of governing almost six times the population they had, devised a political-religious theocracy of what we call Dalaism. And at the head of that theocracy is the Dalai Lama, a religious and political figure whose lineage lasts until today.
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The most famous monastery in the world (not really due to religious or spiritual significance, and mostly thanks to action flicks from Hollywood) is the Shao Lin Temple, famous for its martial tradition and warrior monks. During the early Qing dynasty, it was also the base of a major anti-government inssurection group.
It must be said that the Yellow Buddhists (the vast majority of Chinese Buddhists) made it a strong point to separate and distance themselves from politics. It also must be said that the head abbot of Shao Lin never even suspected the people he harbored were Ming inssurectionists looking to overthrow the Qing dynasty, or at least, if he did, he didn't care. Shao Lin has always accepted the poor and hungry to take shelter inside the monastery confined (or, if you were a woman, in the nuns quarters outside the monastery proper). It just so happened that many of the people the monastery sheltered happened to be Ming inssurectionlists.
The Qing government, upon finding out (and being outsiders, tragically underestimated the position of the Shao Lin temple in Buddhist culture), mercilessly burned the monastery to the ground as a demonstration of force. Bad move. The Shao Lin monastery was erected in 447 AD and can easily make the claim to being the Buddhist headquarter of ancient China.
Hollywood has made a few movies about the event, where several Shao Lin monks who escaped the destruction went around teaching martial arts everywhere and thus spreading the Shao Lin martial culture all over China and the rest of the world, kicking ass along the way. In reality, what really happened was far more dramatic.
The scouring of Shao Lin caused such an uproar among the Buddhist community that there was a huge armed uprising all over the Qing Empire. In China proper, entire cities went on strike and protests (not the peaceful kind) were raised everywhere. Imperial officials were killed on the spot. History records such events as Yellow Buddhist monks flooding local offices with their ceremonial staffs and forming a human wall along the entrance so no one could get in or get out.
The Dalai Lama (Red Buddhism already languishing under the yoke of Qing autocrats) at the time decreed a "Unity Among Buddhists" and pledged the support of Red Buddhists to the uprising. The meager Qing garrison in Tibet was quickly slaughtered, triggering a decade long bloody war for Tibetian independence.
The uprising in China proper, on the other hand, could not be put down militarily. The Qing Empire recognized the very real possibility of being overthrown, and decided to heavily revise their imperial decree, including making a public apology for the scouring of Shao Lin and adopting Buddhism as the state religion. As a peace offering, the Qing government issued a public execution of those officials responsible for calling for the destruction of Shao Lin on charges of mass murder and derelection of duty, a massive tax relief for Buddhist monasteries, and doling out religious subsidies for Buddhist construction projects. These pro-Buddhism policies remained in Qing legislature until its very end.
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Anyway, the point of this thread is that every religion has had violent episodes, and no matter how peaceful the religious doctrines are, there will always be people who use them as justification for war. Sometimes, it's morally justified. Other times, it's not.
Religious justification for violence is often a result of human nature rather than spiritual righteousness.
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Originally Posted by Chlodwig I.
