Tendai
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Tendai-shū (天台宗) is a Japanese school of Buddhism, a descendant of the Chinese Tiantai or Lotus Sutra school.
History
The Tiantai teaching was first brought to Japan by the Chinese monk Jianshen (鑑眞 Jp: Gishin) in the middle of the 8th century, but it was not widely accepted. In 805, the Japanese monk Saichō (最澄; also called Dengyō Daishi 伝教大師) returned from China with new Tiantai texts and made the temple that he had built on Mt. Hiei (比叡山), Enryakuji (延暦寺), a center for the study and practice of what became Japanese Tendai.
However, what Saichō transmitted from China was not exclusively Tiantai, but also included Zen (禅, trad. 禪), esoteric Mikkyō (密教), and Vinaya School (戒律) elements. The tendency to include a range of teachings became more marked in the doctrines of Saichō's successors, such as Ennin (圓仁) and Enchin (圓珍).
The Tendai sect flourished under the patronage of the imperial family and nobility in Japan; in 784, the Imperial capital was moved from Nara to nearby Kyoto. In 1571 Enryakuji was razed by Oda Nobunaga; it was later rebuilt and continues to serve as the head temple of the Tendai school today.
External links
- Digital Dictionary of Buddhism (http://www.acmuller.net/ddb/search-ddb3.html) (log in with userID "guest")
- Tendai Lotus Teachings (http://www.tendai-lotus.org/) (English)
- Tendai Sangha of America (http://www.tendai.org/)ja:天台宗