Le Bouddhisme au Champa

Abstract

Čampā is a Far East country, whose Māhāyana Buddhism is known from 7th to 14th century. In fact, Sanskrit and Cam Inscriptions mostly attested Tantric practices, belonging to the Vajrāyana Buddhism, mixing Śaiva and Buddhist believes. More precisely, side by side Śiva and the three Buddha’ emanations, Śākyamuni, Amitābha and Vairocana, are honoured in Čampā, alone with the Goddess Prajñāpāramitā, the true substance of the Doctrine, and, secondary, with Vajrapāni, Lokeśvara and Vajrasattva. The confrontation of the epigraphic testimonies with the archaeological remains is very useful to understand the Buddhism of Čampā, crossroads of trade roads between India and China. Therefore, epigraphic and artistic evidences are used to propose a chronological presentation, with a special development on the revival of the 10th century, and especially, the esoteric way.