Yòurào fótǎ gōngdé jīng 右繞佛塔功德經
Sūtra on the Merit of Circumambulating the Buddha-Stūpa to the Right (Pradakṣiṇa-stūpa-dharmaparyāya) translated by 實叉難陀 (Śikṣānanda, 譯)
About the work
T700 in one fascicle is the principal Chinese Buddhist scriptural authority for the practice of yòurào 右繞 — clockwise circumambulation of stūpas and Buddha-images, the canonical Indian Buddhist devotional gesture. Translated by 實叉難陀 / Śikṣānanda (652–710), the Khotanese translator best known for his second translation of the Avataṃsaka-sūtra (T279). The Taishō witness opens “大周于闐國三藏沙門實叉難陀等奉制譯” (“translated by imperial decree of the Great Zhōu by the Tripiṭaka Śikṣānanda of Khotan and his collaborators”) — placing the text within the 武則天 Wǔ Zétiān-period Cháng’ān translation programme (695 onwards, after 實叉難陀’s arrival in China; before his return to Khotan in 710 / 705 by some accounts).
Abstract
The text, preached at Jetavana to the assembled monks, is a brief but doctrinally substantial sūtra that lists and quantifies the merit of circumambulating stūpas. The merit is enumerated under several rubrics: rebirth in noble families, in deva-realms, with bodily perfection, with the seven ratna-treasures, with retentive memory and clear understanding, etc. The text closes with a recommendation that the practice be combined with reflection on impermanence and on the Buddha’s qualities, lest it remain merely formal.
The text supplies the canonical scriptural ground for the East-Asian Buddhist devotional practice of yòurào circumambulation — three or seven times around the stūpa or Buddha-image — that became standard in Tang and Sòng monastic liturgy and that survives in modern East-Asian Buddhist practice. The pairing with [[KR6i0389|Zàotǎ gōngdé jīng 造塔功德經]] (T699) is doctrinally complementary: T699 supplies the merits of constructing the stūpa; T700 supplies the merits of worshipping at the stūpa.
實叉難陀’s active period at the Wǔzhōu translation programme runs from 695 (his arrival at Cháng’ān to head the Avataṃsaka re-translation effort) through about 705. Composition window for this short translation: 695–705.
Related canonical text: companion KR6i0389 (T699); related image-cult cluster KR6i0382–KR6i0388.
Translations and research
- Strong, John S. Relics of the Buddha. Princeton, 2004.
- Schopen, Gregory. Bones, Stones, and Buddhist Monks. Honolulu, 1997.
- Trainor, Kevin. Relics, Ritual, and Representation in Buddhism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
No standalone English translation located.