Zangwen xueyuan 藏文學院

Buddhist Tibetan Language College: Fójiào Zàngwén xuéyuàn 藏文學院

A short-lived mixed lay and monastic school, founded to prepare students to study Buddhism in Tibet.

• October 11, 1924 - Fall 1925
• Location(s): Cíyīn Temple 慈因寺, Běijīng 北京

This Buddhist Seminary 佛學院 was founded by Dàyǒng 大勇 with help from Tàixū 太虛. Its mission was to prepare students to study Tibetan Buddhism in Tibet. Welch reports that two-thirds of the school's fifty students were monks, while the remainder were laypeople. The primary teacher was Dàyǒng, who had studied Japanese Esoteric Buddhism 東密 in Japan. Other teachers included Dorje Sripa Gegen, Tàixū, and (occasionally) the Panchen Lama 班禪.^[1]

Ten of the first (and only) graduating class formed the Residing-in-Tibet Dharma Studies Group 留藏學法團 and, led by Dàyǒng, they embarked for Tibet in the fall of 1925. The school closed at that time.

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Notable Students:

• 超一
• 大綱
• 法尊
• 法舫
• 觀空
• 嚴定

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Notes:

1. ↑ Welch.

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References:

• Shì Dōngchū 釋東初. Zhōngguó Fójiào jìndài shǐ 中國佛教近代史 (A History of Early Contemporary Chinese Buddhism), in Dōngchū lǎorén quánjí 東初老人全集 (Complete Collection of Old Man Dongchu), vols. 1-2. Taipei: Dongchu, 1974 Pp. 1.208.
• Welch, Holmes. The Buddhist Revival in China. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968. Pp. 197-199.