Reflections | From social media to soft power, the benefits of cultural and intellectual exchange
- The internet has made it easier than ever to find a platform for intellectual exchange
- More than a millennium ago, China and Japan understood the importance of learning from other cultures
Malaysians made up the majority, but there were also students from Indonesia, Thailand, even mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan. While strong bonds were formed when we were students, it was a time before email and social media. Very soon, distance and “real life” took over, and friendships were filed away as memories. That is, until I received an out-of-the-blue friend request on Facebook.
While Buddhism might have arrived in Japan as early as the late fifth century, it remained an academic pursuit that was the preserve of erudite priests and the ruling elite. By the Heian period (794-1185), however, two Buddhist sects, the Tendai and Shingon, imported from China in the early ninth century had come to dominate religion in Japan.
Saicho (767-822) was a Buddhist monk whose intelligence found favour with Emperor Kammu, who sent him to study in China. Arriving in 804, he spent the next two years in Guoqing Temple, on Mount Tiantai, the headquarters of the Tiantai sect of Buddhism, which was one of the first schools of Buddhism to break from the original Indian religion to form an indigenous Chinese tradition.