The 8th Annual
Czech and Slovak
Sinological Conference
2014
Proceedings
Olomouc 2015
content
Proceedings from the 8 Annual Czech and Slovak Sinological Conference 2014.
This conference was held in Olomouc on November 7–8, 2014.
th
Editors
Martin Lavička, Martina Rysová
Opponents
Dan Berounský, Táňa Dluhošová, Kamila Hladíková, Petr Janda, Martin Lavička,
Štěpán Pavlík, Zuzana Pospěchová, Martina Rysová, Martin Slobodník, Hana
Třísková, David Uher, Dušan Vávra, Oliver Weingarten, Michaela Zahradníková,
Daniela Zhang Cziráková
The patronage over the conference
Jiří Lach, Dean of Faculty of Arts, Palacký University Olomouc
Ivona Barešová, Head of Department of Asian Studies, Palacký University Olomouc
Ondřej Kučera, Chief Manager of CHINET Project
Conference organizers
Department of Asian Studies, Faculty of Arts, Palacký University Olomouc
ESF project “Forging a scientiic team and international networking in the ield
of Chinese Studies” in short “CHINET,” reg. no. CZ.1.07/2.3.00/20.0152.
Organization of the conference and publishing the Proceedings from the 8th
Annual Czech and Slovak Sinological Conference 2014 was co-funded by
the CHINET project (reg. no. CZ.1.07/2.3.00/20.0152). This project
is co-inanced from European Social Fund and State inancial resources.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated and
copied without prior written permission of the publishers.
© Palacký University Olomouc, 2015
Ed. © Martin Lavička, Martina Rysová
ISBN
Preface
7
Linguistics
9
Wei-lun Lu
Use of Translation Corpora as a New Method in Chinese
Language Research and Its Pedagogical Implications:
The Case of Viewpoint in Narratives*
11
Zuzana Pospěchová
Prosodic transcription of Standard Chinese in
sociolinguistics research
27
Hana Třísková
Teaching Mandarin Pronunciation: the Cliticoids
and Basic Types of Phonetic Chunks
43
Michaela Zahradníková
Chinese Character Learning Strategies
59
Science and Thought
77
Jiří Hudeček
Science and Cultural Conservatism in the Dongfang zazhi
(Eastern Miscellany), 1911–1927
79
Václav Laifr
Building of “New China’s Astronomy” and the Establishment
of New Historiography of Traditional Astronomy in the 1950s
and 1960s: An insight from the oral history sources
93
Martin Slobodník
“Lamaism, the living anachronism” – Depiction of Tibetan
Buddhism in Czechoslovak Travelogues from the 1950s
111
7
Society
131
Magdalena Masláková
Taiwan as the Promised Land? The Presbyterian Church
in Taiwan and Its Struggle for Inculturation
133
Chieko Nakajima
Shanghai Stank: Night Soil Business in Modern Shanghai
145
Literature
161
Pavlína Krámská
Experiencing Taiwan in Taiwanese Nature-Oriented Literature
163
Radek Pělucha
Wang Wenxing: The Poetics of Modern Taiwanese Fiction
181
Martina Rysová
Identity of Ethnic Chinese in Indonesia Relected
in the Short Stories by Veven Sp. Wardhana
195
Li-wen Wang
Asceticism, Insanity, and Affection – The Three Characteristics
of “Bizarre Monks” Portrayed in Tang Tales
215
Preface
Dear reader,
In your hand you hold a small compendium of twelve articles selected
from the 8th Annual Czech and Slovak Sinological Conference, which
took place on November 7–8, 2014 at the Palacký University Olomouc,
Czech Republic, and was organized by the Department of Asian Studies
and EU project CHINET, reg. no.: CZ.1.07/2.3.00/20.0152. As the title
of the conference suggests, every year one of the sinological centers either
in the Czech Republic or Slovakia takes over the organization of this
event. The event serves as a unique forum to share and exchange ideas,
as well as to discuss the current research in Asian studies within the Czech
and Slovak borders.
This time, we tried to do things differently and except for the Czech and
Slovak languages, we also added English as a main language of the conference. The reason was simple: we thought that Czech and Slovak sinology
should, once again, look beyond the borders of our two small countries,
not only to confront with sinology abroad, but also to bring more attention to our research centers, which to date might have been overlooked
due to a language barrier. Because of this modiication, we were able to
welcome researchers from more than ten different countries presenting
their paper at the Czech and Slovak Sinological Conference in Olomouc.
From the positive feedback, we hope the internationalization of Czech and
Slovak sinology will continue in the next years as well.
Our compendium is roughly divided into four sections: Linguistics,
Science and Thought, Society, and Literature. Each of the sections include
two or more articles written by Czech and Slovak researchers, but in this
volume, we are also happy to have Japanese and Taiwanese contributors.
The variety of articles in this compendium illustrates the lourishing re-
110
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References
Andreas Joel, 2009. Rise of the Red Engineers: The Cultural Revolution and Rise of
China’s New Class. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Chen Zungui, 1955. Zhongguo gudai tianwenxue jian shi (Short History of Ancient
Chinese Astronomy). Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chubanshe.
Chen Zungui, 1957. “Beijing tianwenguan” (“Beijing Planetarium”). Kexue
dazhong (Popular Science) No. 10, 455–458.
Guo Jinhai, ed., 2011. Xi Zezong koushu zizhuan (Oral Autobiography of Xi
Zezong). Changsha: Hunan jiaoyu chubanshe.
Kulhánek Petr, et al., 2014. Astronomie a fyzika – svítání (Astronomy and Physics:
The Dawn). Praha: AGA.
Li Daguang, Chen Xi, eds., 2010. Li Yuan fangtan lu / Li Yuan koushu
(The Record of Interview with Li Yuan / Oral Narration by Li Yuan). Changsha:
Hunan jiaoyu chubanshe.
Vaněk Miroslav, Mücke Pavel, Pelikánová Hana, 2007. Naslouchat hlasům
paměti: teoretické a praktické aspekty orální historie (Listen to Voices of Memory:
Theoretical and Practical Aspects of Oral History). Praha: ÚSD – FHS UK.
Wang Shouguan et al., 1982. Zhongguo tianwenxue zai qian jin (Chinese
Astronomy on the March). Nanjing: Chinese Astronomical Society.
Xi Zezong, 1957. “Taiyang shang de heiban” (“Spots on the Sun”), Kexue
dazhong (Popular Science) No. 7, 296–297.
Xi Zezong, 1965. “Zhong, Chao, Ri san guo gudai de xinxing jilu ji qi zai
shedian tianwenxue zhong de yiyi” (“Ancient Novae and Supernovae Recorded
in the Annals of China, Korea and Japan and Their Signiicance in Radio
Astronomy”).” Tianwen xuebao (Astronomical Journal), Vol. 13, No. 1. Or
English translation in Science Vol. 154, No. 3749.
Xi Zezong, 2002. Gu xinxing xin biao yu kexue shi sousuo: Xi Zezong yuanshi
zixuanji (A New Catalogue of Ancient Novae and Explorations in the History of
Science: Self-selected Works of Academician Xi Zezong). Xi’an: Shaanxi shifan
daxue chubanshe.
Zhu Kezhen, 1955. “Canjia Sulian tianti yanhua lun di si ci huiyi de baogao”
(“Report on Participating at the Fourth Conference on Evolution of Heavenly
Bodies in the Soviet Union”). Kexue tongbao (Scientiic Journal) No. 1, 89–92.
“Lamaism, the living anachronism” –
Depiction of Tibetan Buddhism in
Czechoslovak Travelogues from
the 1950s1
Martin Slobodník
Comenius University in Bratislava
Annotation: The paper discusses the depiction of Tibetan Buddhism in a number of
travelogues written by Czech and Slovak authors (usually writers and journalists who
had no academic background in either Tibetan or religious studies) who visited China
and Mongolia as oficial guests in the 1950s. The descriptions of monasteries and
temples in these writings (authored by A. Hoffmeiser, R. Moric, L. Mňačko, P. Poucha,
K. Beba, V. Sís and J. Vaniš) relect various stereotyped images of the Marxist critical approaches towards religion as well as some Western negative prejudices about
“Lamaism”. The author argues that the praiseful assessment of the anti-religious
campaign of the communist Chinese government in 1950s in these travelogues served
also as an instrument which should have persuaded the Czechoslovak readership
that the anti-religious measures unleashed in socialist Czechoslovakia since 1950
were correct. In the concluding part, the author notes that the Czechoslovak criticism
of Tibetan Buddhism (and traditional Tibet in general) preceded even the Chinese
negative portrayals of pre-1950 Tibet.
Key words: China, Tibet, Tibetan Buddhism, Czechoslovak travelogues, 1950s,
image of Tibet
Zhu Kezhen, 2004–2007. Zhu Kezhen quan ji (The Complete Works of Coching
Chu). Shanghai: Shanghai keji jiaoyu chubanshe.
Zhu Wenxin, 1935. Tianwenxue xiao shi (The Short History of Astronomy).
Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan.
1 This work was supported by the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange, Taiwan, grant no. RG001-EU-14.
112
The aim of this article is to provide an analysis of the depiction of Tibetan
Buddhism in travelogues written by Czech and Slovak authors who visited
China (and partially also Mongolia) during the 1950s. The description of
Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and temples in these writings is sometimes
marginal, but it relects various stereotyped images of the Marxist critical approaches towards religion (religion as a relic of the past, religion as
a product of the oppressive class society, etc.). My contribution is a sequel
to the two articles written by Jana Rozehnalová and Luboš Bělka, who also
briely tackled some of the issues I will discuss.2
1 Historical and Political Background
The travelogues written by Czech and Slovak authors and published in
book form during the 1950s represent an outcome of close cooperation between socialist Czechoslovakia and socialist China, which reached its peak
precisely in the 1950s. Czechoslovakia had become a socialist country and
a satellite of the Soviet regime after the seizure of power by the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in February 1948, and the representatives of
the Communist Party of China proclaimed the establishment of the People’s
Republic of China on October 1, 1949. The ideological proximity of these
two socialist countries facilitated large-scale political, economic, and cultural cooperation. It is beyond the scope of this study to provide a detailed
analysis of the initial period of Czechoslovak-Chinese relations,3 but the political context played a crucial role because cultural cooperation (which
included the visits of Czech and Slovak writers and journalists) was conditioned by the close political partnership between the two regimes. To a certain extent, cultural exchanges were a spinoff of the contacts established
within the highest echelon of government oficials and party leaders.
The irst cultural agreement between Czechoslovakia and the People’s
Republic of China was signed in spring 1952, when the Czechoslovak governmental delegation led by Václav Kopecký, Minister of Information, visited China. This agreement launched a close and vivid cooperation between
these two socialist countries: Czechoslovakia was visited by Chinese writ2 Rozehnalová 2008; Bělka 2015.
3 So far, very few scholarly works have dealt with the political and economic relations between China and Czechoslovakia in the 1950s – see Trhlík 1985; Litera 2007.
113
ers, ilmmakers, painters, actors, dance and music ensembles, a number of
modern Chinese literary works (written by leftist and communist authors)
was translated into Czech, and representatives of the Czechoslovak “cultural front” made reciprocal visits to China.4
Knowledge of China in Czechoslovakia was scarce5 and once the People’s Republic of China joined the socialist bloc in October 1949 the need
came about for bridging the gap between the citizens of Czechoslovakia
and this geographically and culturally distant country. This would build
a sense of brotherhood between these two nations which were jointly –
under the leadership of the Soviet Union – building socialism and defending peace against “imperialist aggressors”. Travelogues written by Slovak
and Czech authors, which were published either in book form or in journals and newspapers, became an important propaganda tool as they bore
witness to China’s progress, and thus contributed to overcoming the barrier of ignorance between the two “friendly nations”. Authentic reportage
and literary travelogues provided the general public with insights into
a country which, unless one was one of its prominent guests, was only
open to be visited by a very limited few. These state-sponsored trips for
Czech and Slovak pro-regime authors, who generally were not previously
very knowledgeable about China, resulted in the publishing of travelogues
commissioned by state and party authorities. These works represented
part of the mandatory “publication output” for the prominent writers, and
were to serve for the education of the masses.
Due to this political context, it is understandable that these travelogues are characterized by an idealized image of China full of enthusiasm
for the building of socialism in China while all the negative experiences
during their stays in China were consciously (through self-censorship)
excluded from their accounts,6 or were later eliminated by censors, as
4 Cultural exchanges between Czechoslovakia and China have so far been discussed only
in a preliminary manner – see Dřímalová 2009. Michaela Pejčochová provides a good overview focused only on the ine arts (Pejčochová 2008).
5 “Until recently everything about this country was enwrapped by the mystery of the enormous distance which separated us” (Čech, Jasný and Kachyňa 1954, 16). For a good overview
on the knowledge about China in the late 19th century Czech society, see Suchomel and Suchomelová 2011, 81–118.
6 A remarkable critical assessment of the positive images of China disseminated by
the Czechoslovak propaganda can be found in the so far unpublished travel diary of the ar-
114
these books were published (often in quite numerous print runs in order
to secure a large readership) in state-owned and state-controlled publishing houses.
Two visits were crucial with regard to the dissemination of information about China through travelogues. In the summer and autumn of 1952
the Vít Nejedlý Military Art Ensemble toured China. Czech members of
this delegation published the irst travelogues about PRC in book form.7
The largest Czechoslovak cultural delegation visited the PRC from 23 September until 11 December 19538, and it included a number of prominent
writers e.g. Adolf Hoffmeister, Vojtech Mihálik, Vladimír Mináč, Pavel
Kohout, Marie Majerová, Marie Pujmanová), the painter Mária Medvecká, the director of the National Gallery in Prague, Vladimír Novotný,
the theatre director and actor Andrej Bagar, and the sinologist Danuška
Šťovíčková.9
In order to comprehend the historical circumstances of these visits
we have to briely mention the political situation in China in the 1950s.
chaeologist and art historian Lumír Jisl, who visited China and Mongolia in 1957–1958. Due
to the fact that his writings were not intended for the general public, he did not restrain himself by the ideological limits of the socialist regime. Shortly before his departure from Beijing
L. Jisl confronted his experience with the perception of China in the Czech travelogues of
the period: “In the afternoon I took a walk in the living quarters of the poor people. In my whole
life I have never seen such poverty as I encountered here—not only in Beijing, but anywhere
[in China] where I went—during the last ive months. These people are just struggling to survive. And one has to say their living standards are higher than before the Liberation. (…) But
who will be the irst to write about this? The oficial guests, such as Hoffmeister, Majerová, etc.
just frequent one bacchanal banquet after another. What do they know about the real, genuine
China with its hundreds of millions of people?” (Jisl 1958, 8 February 1958 in Beijing).
7
Čech, Jasný and Kachyňa 1954; Skála 1954. During this tour the documentary ilm
Lidé jednoho srdce [People of One Heart] (1953, directors: Karel Kachyňa, Vojtěch Jasný)
was made.
8 Pejčochová 2008, 31.
9 Later in the 1950s several other Czech and Slovak journalists and writers visited China
and published travel accounts. Their stays in China were also organized by the Chinese
government and they were dispatched to China on oficial visits by Czechoslovak unions of
journalists or writers. Below I will refer to the writings of Slovak authors Rudo Moric (who
visited China in autumn 1956 on his way to Vietnam) and Ladislav Mňačko (he went to China
and Mongolia in autumn 1956). The topic of Czech and Slovak travelogues about China was
briely tackled by Anton Lauček (Lauček 2009) and Tiziana D’Amico (D’Amico 2009). For
a recent analysis of the image of China in these travelogues see Slobodník 2015.
115
The Communist Party of China seized power in October 1949 and after
the initial stabilization of the situation and the establishment of the new
regime’s authority in all parts of China (with the exception of Taiwan),
the Beijing government started to implement socialist reforms in the economy (land reforms, coniscation of large industries, etc.) and citizens were
exposed to vigorous Marxist propaganda, which accelerated the class
struggle against the class of “exploiters” (landowners, bourgeois owners
of big businesses, high oficials of the expelled Kuomintang 国民党
regime). Later, the political struggle also focused on internal enemies,
such as communist oficials displaying too little loyalty and too much critical reasoning, and representatives of the laboring population of peasants
and workers whose adherence to the new regime was questioned. Despite
the fact that the Chinese economy – after the prolonged war against Japan
in 1937–45 and the subsequent civil war in 1945–49 – was to a certain
degree consolidated, the Czechoslovak visitors in the 1950s reported on
a poor and backward country. Yet the Chinese authorities were able to
swiftly establish a totalitarian state which was persecuting millions of its
inhabitants.10
The approach of socialist China towards religions relected the Marxist dogmas about the gradual extinction of religion after the establishment
of a classless socialist society. Despite the fact that the Common Program
(gongtong gangling 共同纲领), formulated in September 1949, as well as
the Chinese Constitution, approved in 1954, formally guaranteed the freedom of religious beliefs, starting from 1950 a large-scale anti-religious
campaign unfolded: the land reform law approved in June 1950 openly
declared the goal to coniscate the land holdings of religious institutions
(monasteries and temples) as the possession of this property was labelled
as “religious feudal privileges”. These measures had a very negative impact
on the existence of religious communities as they were depraved of the economic basis necessary for their survival. The land was redistributed among
peasants, and the monks and nuns were also forced to participate in productive labor. In cities and towns the buildings of monasteries and temples
were often turned into factories, schools or canteens. Due to this policy
of the new Chinese government the number of religious professionals
10 For a detailed analysis of the tragic process of the establishment of communist power in
China in the 1950s see Dikkötter 2013.
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dramatically reduced during the 1950s and by 1959 only 10% prevailed.
However, the situation of Tibetan Buddhist communities in China was different, due to the special status of Tibet which was stipulated in the socalled 17-Point Agreement about the “peaceful liberation” of Tibet signed
by the representatives of Beijing and Lhasa in May 1951, Tibetan Buddhism enjoyed a high degree of autonomy and the harsh religious policy
was implemented only as late as the summer of 1958.11 Thus the Czech and
Slovak authors during their stay in China visited on one hand the Chinese
religious institutions which were already decimated by the coercive state
policy, and on the other hand Tibetan religious institutions which in China
surprisingly still continued their existence even under the rule of an atheist
socialist regime.
2 Tibetan Buddhism in the Eyes of Czechoslovak
Authors
In comparison with the depiction of Chinese religions,12 Slovak and Czech
writers described Tibetan Buddhism in a more negative way. Most of
the authors never visited areas inhabited by Tibetans on the Tibetan Plateau and they encountered Tibetan Buddhism only briely: either in Beijing at the so-called Lama Temple (Yonghegong 雍和宫) which became
an obligatory stop of these state-organized visits, or during their short stay
in the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar,13 where most of the oficial delegations spent a couple of days, as the light from Moscow to Beijing had to
make a stopover there. The depiction of Tibetan Buddhism in the Czechoslovak travelogues from the 1950s represents a remarkable mixture of
the Marxist critic of religion and the negative stereotypes about Tibetan
Buddhism which originated in Western Europe in the late 19th and early
20th centuries.
11 For an analysis of the religious policy in China in the 1950s with special focus on Tibetan
Buddhism see Slobodník 2009. The article includes a list of relevant academic publications
about this issue.
12 I will deal with the depiction of Chinese religions in these travelogues in a separate article.
13 The liquidation of Tibetan Buddhism in the Mongolian People’s Republic in the early
1930s followed the Soviet pattern but some religious sites (monasteries, temples; especially
in the Mongolian capital) were preserved as an example of the tolerant religious policy or they
were turned into museums. For details see Grollová and Zikmundová 2001, 176–179.
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Adolf Hoffmeister perceived the role of Tibetan Buddhism in Mongolian history in a very negative way, as according to him, in the past “the Lamaist Church had grown as mould in the land (…) Every family was leashed
by its member – monk to the Church and to the monastery. The Church had
an agitator in every family. Thus half of the laboring force dropped out – and
the economy perished.”14 Religion represented the main obstacle of socioeconomic progress in Mongolia also for Ladislav Mňačko, who during his
stay in Ulaanbaatar mused about the history of the country: “…the vitality
of this ancient country was undermined by the Lamaist beliefs” which resulted in the complete paciication of the Mongols.15 The negative perception towards Tibetan Buddhism can be illustrated also by the short description of Rudo Moric about his visit in the Yonghegong temple: “A group of
monks has been already seated on low benches. Their clean-shaven skulls
are glittering, their yellow and red robes are dark from dirt. Reportedly these
monks do not wash themselves for the whole of life. In the past I have heard
the roar of grumbling bees. A similar sound was produced by the monks (…)
We could not withstand to stay until the end. The time is passing extremely
slowly when one listens to the monotonous sound.”16
A. Hoffmeister and L. Mňačko while describing Mongolia in the 1950s
praise the triumph of atheism over religion, which in their understanding
relects the victory of socialist reforms over tradition: “The country which
lies so close to the sky has become a country without the god.”17 And this
motif concludes also the chapter on Mongolia in the travelogues written by
L. Mňačko: “It is better to be a human being than a reincarnated god. Mongolian people have understood it regardless of the fact whether the golden
Buddha in the center of the Lamaist temple is smiling or is knitting his
brows. His time will never again return.”18
The negative Western approach towards Tibetan Buddhism which
preceded the Marxist criticism of religion can be found in the following
quotations. A. Hoffmeister summarized his impressions from Mongolian
Buddhist monasteries and temples in this way: “In the temples the cruel,
14
15
16
17
18
Hoffmeister 1956, 42.
Mňačko 1958, 280–281.
Moric 1958, 34.
Hoffmeister 1956, 46.
Mňačko 1958, 285.
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Picture 1: “Now the monasteries are empty. Witnesses of the past…”19
menacing, revengeful and bloody religion of Tibet riots (…) The sculptures stand handcuffed and the golden goddesses lasciviously copulate on
altars.”20 L. Mňačko described the 8th Jibzundampa Khutugtu, who was
until his death in 1924 the highest religious authority in Mongolia,21 with
19 Original description of the photography by the author of the travelogue who noted
the annihilation of the religion in Mongolia with a certain satisfaction. Ladislav Mňačko took
this photograph in Ulaanbaatar on his way back to Czechoslovakia (Mňačko 1958, appendix
with black and white photos).
20 Hoffmeister 1956, 48.
21 For more on him see Atwood 2004, 269–271.
119
following words: “Undigniied, syphilitic old crock, master of foolish tricks
and various ilthy magic.”22 These direct references to magic and cruelty,
as well as sexual interpretations of Tibetan Buddhist art relected the distorted image of Tibetan Buddhism in the West, which can be traced back
to the negative presentation of the Tibetan religion in the monograph by
the British explorer, army surgeon and Tibetologist L. A. Waddell titled
The Buddhism of Tibet or Lamaism published in 1895, where Tibetan Buddhism is presented as primitive “Lamaism” – a corrupt form of Indian
Buddhism which he associated with devil worship and the overall degeneration of religious practice.23 According to this understanding, Tibetan
Buddhism (i.e. “Lamaism”) represented the exact opposite of the earlier
“pure” scholastic Buddhism of the early Theravada and Mahayana Indian
Buddhist texts. Thus A. Hoffmeister and L. Mňačko – consciously or unconsciously – continued this tradition of Western critical approach towards Tibetan Buddhism.
A distinctive depiction of Tibetan Buddhism can be found in the travelogue written by Pavel Poucha, who was a scholar in the ield of Mongolian, Tibetan and Indian studies. Pavel Poucha was the only Czechoslovak
visitor of China (and Mongolia) in the 1950s who published travelogue
with a sound background in Asian studies. He did not speak Chinese,
but his knowledge about the history of East Asia and Buddhism was
wide.24 He went to China in 1957 (on invitation by the Chinese Academy
of Sciences) and he was able to visit also two important monasteries in
the northeastern part of the Tibetan Plateau: Kumbum (sku ’bum) and
Labrang (bla brang). His background in Asian studies is obvious also
from the fact, that while describing these two monasteries, P. Poucha
regularly referred to the published works of the German explorer Wilhelm Filchner, German traveler Albert Tafel and the travelogue written
by the Russian traveler Grigoriy N. Potanin – these authors visited north-
22 Mňačko 1958, 282
23 For a compelling discussion on this negative perception of Tibetan Buddhism in the late
19th century, see Lopez 1998, 35–39.
24 Although it is outside of the scope of this article, it is worth mentioning that P. Poucha –
as the only Czechoslovak visitor in China in the 1950s – mentioned the presence of Islam on
Chinese territory. P. Poucha visited Xinjiang 新疆 and also briely described the existence of
the Hui community in Beijing (Poucha 1962, 127, 160, 256).
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eastern Tibet in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.25 Due to this Poucha
provided the reader mainly with solid descriptive information and it was
not his intention to evaluate Tibetan Buddhism either in a positive or
negative way.
During the description of Labrang, P. Poucha mentioned: “Reportedly
altogether there are about three thousand lamas residing here. Here the Lamaist Buddhist monkhood still lourishes. One cannot see any deviation from
it. One has really to wonder, how it is still possible in contemporary world.”26
However, in some parts of his travels through northeastern Tibet, we can
see some critical approaches towards Tibetan Buddhism which probably
resulted more from the rational scientiic perspective of the author than
his compliance with Marxist criticism of religion. Poucha stressed the alleged mechanical ritual praxis of Tibetan Buddhism27 and after he returned
from the Tibetan areas around Labrang to the part of the Gansu Province
inhabited by Han-Chinese, he stated: “All of us were happy, when we returned from the dangerous trip to a different world, to the world of mountainous solitude and differently thinking people, to the relatively safe and
comfortable Hezheng [和政], we returned to modern times which were putting down the roots even in this part of China.”28 During the visit of the Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region,
P. Poucha noted the laicization of sangha: “After the liberation [in 1949]
due to the inluence of the unrestrained thinking many monks left the monasteries, they got married and live a civil life. Therefore only 17 Buddhist
monasteries remained here and some 500 lamas live in them.”29 Poucha’s
neutral and scientiic description of Tibetan Buddhism shifted during his
visit in the Yonghegong temple, which was obviously a disappointment for
him: “Lamaism is in a state of complete degeneration even though a lot of
money was spent on the renovation of temples. Lamaistic Buddhism is alien
to Chinese thought, the lucid intellect of the Chinese people revolted even
against the non-Lamaistic forms of Buddhism.”30
25
26
27
28
29
30
Poucha 1962, 76–79, 179–190.
Poucha 1962, 187.
Poucha 1962, 186.
Poucha 1962, 189.
Poucha 1962, 208.
Poucha 1962, 259.
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A very peculiar and detailed depiction of Tibetan Buddhism can be
found in the travelogues of those Czech authors, who in the mid-1950s had
the rare opportunity to visit Central Tibet. These trips organized by the Chinese government enabled them to provide to the Czechoslovak readership
extensive evidence about the state of Tibetan culture and religion during
that period. In distinction with the above mentioned authors, in these travelogues Tibetan Buddhism represents one of the central themes, as it was
the basis of Tibetan ethno-religious identity and Tibetan material and spiritual culture. During the 1st half of the 1950s, Tibetan society had not yet
underwent various socialist socio-economic reforms and the traditional
character of Tibetan society prevailed.
The Czech journalist Karel Beba visited Lhasa together with other
journalists from socialist countries and China correspondents of Western
communist newspapers in the summer of 1955. Similarly as P. Poucha,
K. Beba also stressed the allegedly mechanical ritual praxis in Tibet: “Lamaism, this living anachronism, is probably the most mechanical religion in
the world. Nobody requests from the Lamaist believer during the prayer any
religious fervor, meditation, deep thinking or similar things. What matters
is quantity: the more the better.”31 The very existence of religion in Tibet embodied for K. Beba the medieval dark ages and according to him Tibetans
lived “more or less in the period of Ottokar I of Bohemia [king of Bohemia,
he ruled in the late 12th and early 13th centuries].”32 The visit to the Sera (se
ra) monastery near Lhasa was a kind of journey through time: “We enter –
and it is like we would turn clock hands some six hundred years back. We
are in Middle Ages.”33 Beba’s description of Tibetan ritual praxis relected
the cultural gap (and to a certain degree also sarcasm) between the communist journalist and local pious inhabitants – this is how he described
to the reader a pilgrim who was doing typical prostrations: “Man – like
a worm, completely alone, abandoned and lost between sky and earth, measured with his own body the journey to the Holy town. They told us, that such
a pilgrimage lasts about three years. Afterwards in Lhasa the honorary title
of lama is bestowed on the pilgrim. Just imagine: lama honoris causa!!”34
31
32
33
34
Beba 1958, 37.
Beba 1958, 34, 42.
Beba 1958, 165.
Beba 1958, 63.
122
According to K. Beba, Tibetan Buddhism is the source of the “most fanatic
prejudices” and the only solution in order to “cure” Tibetans is science:
“The scientiic truth is a huge magic wand, which may awaken Tibet from
a century-long incantation; the world of an average Tibetan is controlled by
nightmares, demons, monsters, ghosts and devil. There are so many of them
as the feverish fantasy of a sick child who was left alone in a dark room is
able to produce.”35
As stated in the introductory part of the travelogue, from the perspective of K. Beba “Tibet lives in the stage of early feudalism, a peculiar form
of it. (…) Due to the strange caprices of history, in Tibet a curious form of
ecclesiastical feudal dictatorship developed. (…) To a certain degree even
some remains of the slavery were preserved here.”36 The preservation of
traditional religious institutions and an exploitative class society in a socialist country ruled by a communist party obviously posed an ideological
problem for K. Beba which was necessary to explain to the Czechoslovak
readers in order to disperse their potential doubts: “What kind of nonsense
is this? To cuddle with monks and feudal lords? Or do you want a socialist Tibet governed by an ecclesiastical and aristocratic coalition? (…) When
examining the situation in contemporary Tibet we certainly will not manage
only with those viewpoints which we are accustomed to use at home. We have
to look for such standpoints which relect the speciic situation in Tibet. (…)
Even Chinese Marxists when solving the Tibetan issue were not able to apply
those solutions, which were otherwise so successful in Chinese revolution.”37
Despite the fact that the socialist revolution had not yet succeeded in Tibet,
the future was bright: “We would certainly agree that it will better, if in
the future the turbines of power stations rotate in Tibet instead of prayer
wheels, and if from the Tibetan mountains up to the sky not the prayers will
ly up on the wings of smoke, but solid interplanetary ships for which the Tibetan Plateau is an optimal launching site.”38
35 Beba 1958, 13. K. Beba contrasted the superstitions represented by Tibetan traditional
culture (and especially by religion) and modern science also when describing traditional Tibetan medicine and modern Western medicine practiced in Lhasa by Chinese doctors (Beba
1958, 136–137, 142).
36 Beba 1958, 39.
37 Beba 1958, 266.
38 Beba 1958, 265.
123
The Czech ilm director Vladimír Sís together with the cameraman
and photographer Josef Vaniš (both were employed by the state-owned
company Czechoslovak Military Film) visited Lhasa in 1954, but the travelogue Země zastaveného času [The Country where Time Stopped] cowritten by them was published as late as in 1959.39 The goal of their visit
was to prepare – in cooperation with Chinese ilmmakers – a documentary ilm about the laborious construction of the road connecting Lhasa
with Sichuan.40 When describing Tibetan Buddhism, V. Sís and J. Vaniš
restrained from any ideological criticism. In comparison with the second
travelogue from Tibet available to the Czechoslovak readership (the above
mentioned book by K. Beba), Sís and Vaniš provided a more unbiased description and they endeavored to understand the unfamiliar culture and
people which they were able to observe. Despite the Czech title of their
travelogue – The Country where Time Stopped – mostly they managed to
avoid the traditional topoi which described Tibet as a society “hibernated”
in the Middle Ages. Starting from the description of the irst Tibetan Buddhist temple which they visited in Eastern Tibet (Kham) they attempted to
sketch a more poetic image of Tibet and they stressed the mysterious character of Tibetan monasteries and its Buddhist art.41 The depiction of their
meeting with the 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso (bstan ’dzin rgya mtsho),
whom they met on his way to Beijing where he participated in the irst session of Chinese parliament in autumn 1954, relects their respect towards
this high Buddhist dignitary.42 Their travelogue is much more intimate and
it illustrates the personal interest of both authors who – despite the language barrier and only limited knowledge about Tibet – strived to comprehend Tibetan culture and religion. Sís and Vaniš devoted special chapters
to detailed descriptions of their visits to the two most important Tibetan
Buddhist sites in Lhasa, namely the Potala palace and the Jokhang temple.
39 They already published in 1958 the book Tibet, a volume with pictures taken during their
trip to Lhasa (Sís and Vaniš 1958). The travelogue published in 1959 was translated into
Slovak in 1960 under the changed title Tajomný Tibet [Mysterious Tibet]. Due to the scarcity
of information about the situation in Tibet, their book was later (in 1970) even translated into
English under the title On the Road through Tibet (Sís and Vaniš 1970).
40 The documentary movie was inished in 1954 under the title Cesta vede to Tibetu
[The Road Leads to Tibet] (director: Vladimír Sís).
41 Sís and Vaniš 1959, 56–57.
42 Sís and Vaniš 1959, 99–104.
124
They describe these holy places with admiration and they praise the traditional Buddhist art preserved in them.43 The travelogue is concluded by
the poem “Vyznanie” [Confession] in which both authors express their
love to Tibet (especially to its nature and common people) and in the last
verse they voiced their wish to visit Tibet again, which, however, never
materialized.44 Though, even in the travelogue of V. Sís and J. Vaniš there
are some instances where the negative attitude towards religions prevalent during this period, can be traced. The Buddhist ritual is characterized as a “barbarous spectacle”45 and in the same way as other authors they
contrasted the old tradition with the approaching reforms of the socialist
state: “But the days, when the preserved darkness of religious fanaticism will
give ground to the light of knowledge, are unstoppably approaching.”46 The
closing paragraphs of the travelogue described street-scenes from Lhasa,
where such attributes of modernity (a direct result of the incorporation
of Tibet into China in 1951) as lorries or cinemas symbolized the coming
changes: “The pendulum of the stopped time started to swing.”47
3 conclusion
The above mentioned remarks about Tibetan Buddhism illustrate that
for the majority of the pro-regime communist authors religion embodied
the heritage of the past which was deinitely doomed for annihilation. The
authors in their travelogues often use the dichotomy of the gloomy past
(i.e. China before the so-called “liberation” by the Chinese Communist
Party in 1949) and the bright socialist present time (and especially future).
Religions in general are in this context perceived as residues of history and
according to the authors the gradual extinction of religions proved the progress of socialist reforms. However, according to my opinion the Marxist
criticism of religion in China served another propagandistic goal – it should
43 Sís and Vaniš 1959, 121–139. On the contrary, K. Beba when writing about the Potala
palace, the traditional seat of the Dalai Lamas, stressed the gloominess of the rooms and halls he
visited and in general negative impressions prevail in his depiction of Potala (Beba 1958, 148).
44 Sís and Vaniš 1959, 149.
45 Sís and Vaniš 1959, 67.
46 Sís and Vaniš 1959, 136.
47 Sís and Vaniš 1959, 147.
125
have conveyed to the Czechoslovak readership that the anti-religious and
atheistic campaigns carried on in Czechoslovakia also in the 1950s were
correct and inevitable as they formed a part of a global solution of the “religious question” in socialist countries as illustrated by the Chinese example.48 The positive description of the annihilation of religion in China
should have solicited support from the Slovak and Czech readers for
the active participation in anti-religious campaign in Czechoslovakia.
According to the Czechoslovak authors the “religious question” in
China represented a less serious issue than it was the case in Czechoslovakia. Ladislav Mňačko described Buddhism as a “lesser evil”: “Buddhism
has not been so dangerous for the state as the political and ecclesiastical
system of Vatican for European countries.”49 Karel Beba – despite his harsh
criticism of “Lamaism” – used Tibetan Buddhism as a positive example
in comparison with the Roman Catholic Church: “It is absolutely impossible to compare the system of Lamaist monasteries, which are at the same
time universities of Lamaism, with the system of Roman Catholic monasteries, where there is a strict monitoring of any thoughts in the heads of monks
and nuns and where everything which contradicts the dogmas is mercilessly
suppressed.”50
The communist Minister of Information Václav Kopecký documented
in his book a remarkable Chinese relection of Czechoslovak propaganda:
“Chinese friends remonstrated against this ilm, because it depicted religious rituals of Buddhist lamas which took place in Tibet in the way as it
would take place in Chinese environs and as if the Chinese people would be
addicted to a kind of religious insanity.”51 It is a short but interesting comment which opens some new research questions. First of all it is apparent
that the Czechoslovak propaganda on China (in this case in the form of
a documentary movie) was monitored by the Chinese government which
aired its disappointment about its content. The above mentioned comment was made about the documentary ilm Čína v boji [China in Struggle]
directed by Emanuel Kaněra. It was the irst Czechoslovak documentary
48 On the coercive religious policy in Czechoslovakia in the 1950s see Pešek and Barnovský,
1997; Pešek and Barnovský, 1999.
49 Mňačko 1958, 183.
50 Beba 1958, 79.
51 Kopecký 1953, 40.
126
about communist China and it was released as soon as in March 1950 (i.e.
only ive months after the foundation of the PRC). It provided the viewers with a brief introduction to the Chinese past with a special focus on
the construction of socialism since 1 October 1949. The Czech director E. Kaněra acknowledged the collaboration with Chinese cameramen
who supplied him with some material they shot in China. The sequence
from Lhasa is short (ca. 2 minutes) but it is strange that it was included
in a documentary dedicated to China in the period when Central Tibet was
by far not under the authority of the new communist government in Beijing (although the goal to “liberate” Tibet was declared already in January
1950) and Lhasa was inaccessible for the Chinese cameramen. Therefore
it is a bizarre twist of history that the scenes from Lhasa in the Czechoslovak communist propaganda about socialist China in the documentary
Čína v boji [China in Struggle] were taken (without any reference) from
the German documentary Geheimnis Tibet [The Secret of Tibet] released in
1943 and co-directed by Ernst Schäfer and Hans-Albert Lettow who made
use of the ilm material shot during the ill-famed Nazi expedition led by
E. Schäfer in 1938–1939.52
However, not only the visual aspect of the Tibetan sequence of the documentary Čína v boji [China in Struggle] is interesting, but also the commentary of the narrator – Tibet is described in a very negative way as
a place where the palaces and monasteries “were built for priests and lamas
who elevated themselves to the rank of deities in order to beneit from the ignorance of the poor people” while “for the poor people often only club and
heavy shackles remained”. In Czechoslovak (see also the above mentioned
quotations from Beba’s travelogue) propaganda the negative image of
Tibet preceded Chinese one-sided harsh criticism of the pre-1950 Tibet by
several years. Whereas the Czechoslovak authors criticized the traditional
Tibetan socio-economic system (including the political and economic
privileges of the monasteries) which was preserved even after the “peaceful liberation” in 1951,53 the Chinese government opted for cooperation
52 I am indebted for this noteworthy information to my colleague Dr. Luboš Bělka (Department for the Study of Religions, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic) who compared
these two documentaries and came to this conclusion.
53 Soviet authors (their booklets were translated also into Czech) also voiced sharp criticism on the role of religion in Tibetan society – see Alexandrov 1950, 14; Jusov 1954, 43. Both
127
with the traditional political and Buddhist elites until the late 1950s. Only
after the failed anti-Chinese uprisings which started in the summer of 1958
in the periphery of the Tibetan Plateau and ended in Lhasa in March 1959
with the escape of the 14th Dalai Lama to India, did the Chinese government revoke the guarantees of the 17-Point Agreement54 and launched
a radical socialist reform of Tibetan society during which traditional Tibet
was oficially labelled “hell on earth”.55
Soviet authors stressed the idolatry of “Lamaism” which is according to B. Jusov the reason
for the backwardness of Tibetans as it helped to petrify the exploitative character of Tibetan
society.
54 For the text see e.g. China.org.cn 2005.
55 On Chinese propaganda about traditional Tibet see Heberer 2001; Slobodník 2006,
88–103.
128
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