Traveling Monks: Searching for the Buddha in the late Qing

Stefania Travagnin

Suining 遂宁 is well-known for a wide-spread devotion to Guanyin 觀音信仰, and the development of local practices and stories about Princess Miaoshan 妙善. Besides collecting material on nuns from the late Qing and Republican time, I also gathered unpublished sources of key monks in the Republican period like Qingfu 清福 (1862-1940) and Changnian 長念 (1908-1990).

Qingfu, and other monks from Suining like Chengyuan 成元, could be seen as leading figures in the revival of attention towards early Indian Buddhism and the Theravāda tradition.

My study concentrates on life and practice of the monk Qingfu, and his travels to South and Southeast Asia. Qingfu brought Buddha statues, relics and sutras back to China, this is why he has been titled a “modern-day Xuanzang”. Part of my research concentrates on Qingfu’s travelogue《源因略記》, and has reconstructed his travel routes and visits via a digital map.