Buddhist Values, Action for Sustainability andthe Earth Charter
Joan Anderson

I

N this paper I introduce the voices of members of the Soka Gakkai
International (SGI) who are engaged in environmental activism invarious fields and countries around the world. These case studies aretaken from the SGI website.
In analyzing what shapes SGI members’ activism, I quote from thesecase studies to show how their involvement has been shaped by their
Buddhist values, beliefs and practice.

The Principles of Nichiren Buddhism
Nichiren (1222–82) is a controversial figure in the history of medieval
Japanese Buddhism, who dared to challenge those who he felt misrepresented the message of Buddhism. His image is not necessarily thatof a passionate environmentalist.
To individual SGI members such as myself, repeated study of his
writings and his life reveals him as an appealing character, emotional
and passionate, erudite and thorough. His belief in the essential messageof the Lotus Sutra, that the Buddha nature exists in all life, is an optimistic one that gives people hope.
Professor Carlos Rubio of the Complutense University of Madrid,
who recently translated the writings of Nichiren into Spanish, has described him in the following way:
Nichiren, in my view, is a unique and notable figure among religious
leaders. In translating his writings into Spanish, I was deeply moved byhis humane qualities and behavior. Japanese society at that time was
feudalistic and strongly conformist, and it was common for the religious
schools and their leaders to ingratiate themselves with those wielding
power and authority. Nichiren, however, went directly against thistendency. . . . More than simply transcending the powerful cultural ethosof his time that held individuals back from speaking out against thenorms of society, Nichiren was willing to continually risk his life to

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voice the truth as he saw it. If I were to attempt to encapsulate
Nichiren’s character in a single phrase, I would characterize it as “thespirit of challenge.”1

To SGI members, this “spirit of challenge” is a key part of Nichiren’s
legacy.
While Nichiren believed that he was living at the start of the age of
the Latter Day of the Law, or Mappo, his outlook was by no means fatalistic or gloomy.
Nichiren’s focus was on this world and equipping people with thespiritual resources needed to survive and even thrive within it. To him,
Shakyamuni Buddha was not a remote figure but an exemplary humanbeing. As he said: “The purpose of the appearance in this world of
Shakyamuni Buddha, the lord of teachings, lies in his behavior as ahuman being.”2
And while human beings were his audience and his main focus, his
way of viewing the world was naturally a non-dualistic one that did notallow for any separation between life and its environment. He writes:
Life at each moment encompasses the body and mind and the self andenvironment of all sentient beings in the Ten Worlds as well as all
insentient beings in the three thousand realms, including plants, sky,earth, and even the minutest particles of dust. Life at each moment
permeates the entire realm of phenomena and is revealed in all
phenomena.3

If one believes, or even tries to believe, that all life has intrinsic value,then it is likely one will act, or try to act, in a way consistent with thisview. A lack of awareness of the interrelatedness and inseparability of
one’s own life and those of others—human or otherwise—is more likely
to be linked to justifying discriminatory attitudes and destructive
behavior toward others and the environment.
As one indication of SGI members’ perspectives on this issue, asurvey of SGI-USA members carried out in 1997 by Phillip Hammondand David Machacek found that 81% of respondents agreed with thestatement that “Nature is spiritual or sacred in itself,” against 24% in the
USA General Social Survey, adjusted for age.4
Buddhism stresses three kinds of relationships: those between
humans and nature, those between human beings, and the relationshipwith oneself. As Nichiren Buddhists, SGI members consider all these
entities to be interconnected on the deepest dimension, inextricablybuddhist values, action for sustainability

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linked and interdependent.
Nichiren wrote: “… if the minds of living beings are impure, theirland is also impure, but if their minds are pure, so is their land. There
are not two lands, pure and impure in themselves. The difference lies
solely in the good or evil of our minds.”5 Changing our “minds” thenbecomes the key challenge for us as practitioners.
To quote a young woman SGI member in Côte d’Ivoire, Africa,
currently working at the Ivorian Center for Combatting Pollution:
Buddhism teaches the concept of oneness of self and environment, theprocess whereby the mutually interrelated human life and its
environment operate together in a creative way. This made me realizethat the health of the environment depends upon a change in theawareness of each individual (Aurélie Neame Koueli, Côte d’Ivoire).6

The transformation we are aiming for is the development of what wecall the “Greater Self,” emulating the Mahayana Buddhist ideal of thebodhisattva, continually strengthening our compassion and taking action
to alleviate the sufferings of others. In today’s world, the bodhisattva’sembrace needs to widen to be big enough to include not just otherhuman beings, but the entire planet.
A member of SGI-Korea who is engaged in an effort to clean up a
local river reflects:… as I chant every night upon returning home from a day of volunteer
work, I feel a deep sense of fulfillment, which in turn becomes a sourceof energy to continue my efforts. As Nichiren Daishonin states in his
writings, “If one lights a fire for others, one will brighten one’s own
way.”7… It is deeply rewarding to know that the small step of deciding
to do something positive, and my efforts to convey to others the spirit ofcoexisting with nature, have led to a revival of the environment and thelives of those around me (Shin Won-suk, Korea).7

SGI members describe this process of inner change as “humanrevolution.” In the words of SGI President Daisaku Ikeda, “A great
human revolution in just a single individual will help achieve a change
in the destiny of a nation and, further, will enable a change in the destinyof all humankind.”8
A young woman member of SGI-USA who works at the interface of
public health and ecology with experience in Africa and Latin America
comments:

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As challenges arose, my parents taught me about the Buddhist conceptof the oneness of life and its environment, which explains how our lives
and our environment are inextricably connected. At times when I am
struggling, it is always easier to blame external circumstances;
however, the empowering aspect of this teaching is that a profoundchange in ourselves gives rise to a change in our environment (Amy
Yomiko Vittor, USA).9

The interconnectedness of all life described in Nichiren Buddhism as“engi” or dependent origination is starkly visible in global problems
such as climate change and deforestation.
SGI members tend to bring their Buddhist perspective and values
directly into their approach to their work.
To quote another SGI member who works as a city planner in Hong
Kong:
Buddhist philosophy, based on respect and concern for all life, accords
closely with the concept of sustainable development. …It means
creating social harmony and equality, protecting the environment andensuring economic prosperity. Buddhism itself is essentially about
bringing all these elements of life into balance, whether on a personallevel or a community or global level…. What this means fundamentallyis that we cannot build happiness or prosperity upon the destruction or
disregard of other life, including the natural environment, for ultimately
we ourselves will suffer the consequences (Fung Ling, Hong Kong).10

The Ideals of SGI
The way Nichiren Buddhism is interpreted and realized within SGI isderived from the perspectives of its founding presidents. Their examples
and commentary on Nichiren’s writings and the Lotus Sutra provide an
ethical framework for SGI members.
Tsunesaburo Makiguchi (1871–1944), founder of Soka Kyoiku
Gakkai, the predecessor of Soka Gakkai and the SGI, was an educatorand an expert on geography. His book A Geography of Human Lifeelucidates in great detail the fundamental influence of the local environment on people’s lives.
The relationship between human beings and the earth is very complex,
but it is not something remote from our daily lives. Rather, the people/
earth relationship is involved in everything we do, and it affects every
aspect of our experience…11

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97

To quote Andrew Gebert and Monte Joffee in a paper titled “Value
Creation as the Aim of Education: Tsunesaburo Makiguchi and Soka
Education”:
Rather than merely examine physical geography, Makiguchi probed the
dynamic relationship between geography and the psychological aspectsof human life. … Makiguchi held that education based on an awarenessof the connections between human life and the natural and social
environment could help develop the moral character of students.12

Makiguchi encountered Nichiren Buddhism relatively late in life, but
found its values and philosophy matched perfectly his concern to savepeople from suffering and create the greatest positive value. He became
convinced that the spirituality of Nichiren's teachings was aligned withrational, scientific, universal laws; and was meant to be fully engaged
and integrated with the realities of life in society. He wrote: “Other thanfreeing people and the world from suffering, what meaning could there
be for the existence of religion in society?”13
The philosophy and practice of Nichiren Buddhism emphasize thesupreme value of life and stress the possibility of positive change andinfinite development of individual human potential. This explains its
appeal to the disempowered in post-war Japanese society, and why the
Soka Gakkai grew extremely rapidly in the two decades following 1945,
initially under the leadership of second president Josei Toda (1900–58),
who saw his mission as “eliminating misery from the world.”
Much of the focus in the organization’s early days in Japan was on
enabling “the poor and the sick” to get their lives on a more stable footing.
This focus on worldly flourishing in the Soka Gakkai and SGI has
sometimes led to accusations that materialism is being encouraged.
The perspective of Nichiren Buddhism is that the physical and spiritual dimensions of life are ultimately inseparable. Human beings are
justified in seeking living standards which provide for basic needs inorder to alleviate human suffering (consonant with the Buddhist value ofcompassion) and to open to everyone the concrete experience of dignity(the value of respect for the inherent dignity of life). Many of ourmembers around the world face enormous difficulties due to poverty andexclusion, and we believe that such issues must be tackled on an individual and societal level.

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buddhist values, action for sustainability

However, of course, untrammeled desire, or greed, cannot lead to sustainable development. We consider greed to be one of “three poisons”
which are the fundamental sources of human suffering.
Nichiren Buddhism teaches that we should not be enslaved by our
personal desires, but should direct and transform them toward more
inclusive desires, say, for the happiness of our community and theflourishing of the broader community of life. In this light, desires can bea vital stimulus for creating positive value.
Inevitably, it is what we refer to as the “inconspicuous benefits” ofour practice that are the most valuable and enduring, what Nichiren
called “the treasures of the heart.” As he writes in one of his letters,“More valuable than treasures in a storehouse are the treasures of thebody, and the treasures of the heart are the most valuable of all. From
the time you read this letter on, strive to accumulate the treasures of theheart!”14
As individuals, and as an organization, we also believe it is importantthat societies adopt a more balanced set of values, which stress thecultural, social and spiritual aspects of life alongside the economic andmaterial. This is the main reason we have supported the Earth Charter as
an expression of holistic, shared values for sustainability. It provides
common ground on which we can stand, together with other individuals,
faith groups and civil society partners.
Concerning the challenge of balancing material well-being andconcern for the planet, we particularly relate to the following phrase in
the Preamble of the Earth Charter: “We must realize that when basic
needs have been met, human development is primarily about being
more, not having more.”15
According to a survey of SGI members in the UK undertaken in 1990,
the majority of SGI members identified as “pure post-materialists”—
75%, as against 21% of the UK population adjusted for age. Only 5%
were categorized as pure or mixed materialists, against 49% of the UK
population.16 In SGI-USA, in a survey undertaken in 1997, a lower
percentage, 45% identified as pure post-materialist, against 11% in thegeneral population, yet here also only 25% of SGI-USA members werecategorized as pure or mixed materialist, against 69% of the population.17
If we examine how SGI engages in sustainability in today’s world, thewritings of SGI President Daisaku Ikeda are a key influence.
Every year since 1983, Mr. Ikeda has written peace proposals which
offer Buddhist-inspired ways of looking at current problems and concrete suggestions for ways forward in dealing with them.

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99

Environmental themes have been a recurrent theme, starting with aproposal he authored in 1978. In a paper on “The Environmental Problem and Buddhism” published by the Institute of Oriental Philosophy in
1990, he states: “External desertification of the planet corresponds
precisely with spiritual desertification of the force of life. Human relations with nature are intimately bound up in interpersonal relations andwith the relationship of the self and its inner life. The egoism of humanbeings whose internal environments are polluted and desolate invariably
manifests itself in domination, deprivation and destruction in theexternal environment.”18
Ikeda consistently stresses the importance of education and, inparticular, education aimed at empowerment. In a proposal authored at
the time of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, hecalled for the establishment of a UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, and commented:… in the case of environmental issues, which can be so vast andcomplex … information and knowledge alone can leave people
wondering what this all means to them, and without a clear sense ofwhat concrete steps they can take. To counter such feelings ofpowerlessness and disconnection, education should encourage
understanding of the ways that environmental problems intimately
connect to our daily lives. Education must also inspire the faith thateach of us has both the power and the responsibility to effect positivechange on a global scale.19

While in some more extreme approaches to ecology, human beings areperceived as unwelcome parasites causing nothing but damage to the
Earth and other forms of life, SGI’s outlook is that responsible andawakened human beings committed to creating positive value are themost promising protagonists of change.
This positive perspective was reiterated in the proposal Mr. Ikeda
authored last year on the occasion of the Rio Plus 20 Summit.
Although physical resources are finite, human potential is infinite, as is
our capacity to create value. The real significance of sustainability is …
as a dynamic concept in which there is a striving or competition to
generate positive value and share it with the world and with the future.20

A German SGI member working in Namibia in the field of fisheries
management echoes this perspective in her comments on how becoming

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a Buddhist has directly influenced her approach to her work:
Western thought tends to regard human beings and nature as separate—
to the extent that some believe that human beings are bad for nature. In
contrast, Buddhism regards life and its environment as deeply interconnected. . . . For me, the Buddhist concept of the oneness of self andthe environment and the notion that nothing can exist in isolation
provide the philosophical basis for my research toward a holistic
approach to fisheries management that can help bring human society
back into harmony with nature (Barbara Paterson, Namibia).21

Education for Sustainable Development
As well as its activities based on promoting better understanding of thehistorical and theoretical background of Buddhism, SGI has consistently
carried out public education and awareness-raising activities often
centered around exhibitions.
These have often originated in support of UN initiatives. At the timeof the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992, SGI Brazil hosted an exhibition
titled “The Amazon—Its Environment and Development” which was
eventually seen by 700,000 people across Latin America.
In 2001, based on a proposal from SGI President Ikeda and in
partnership with other NGOs, Soka Gakkai representatives put forward
the idea for a Decade of Education for Sustainable Development to a
Japanese NGO forum meeting prior to the World Summit on Sustainable
Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2002.
In 2002, for the WSSD, SGI also created a film called “A Quiet
Revolution” and an exhibition “Seeds of Change: The Earth Charter andHuman Potential” in partnership with the Earth Charter. The key
approach taken in our educational tools is to make the issue real and yet
not overwhelming. We use the formula “Learn, Reflect, Empower” andensure that the last section of any exhibition shares examples of socalled ordinary individuals who have succeeded in taking action forchange, in line with our core belief that one individual can definitely
make a difference.
In our latest exhibition, “Seeds of Hope: Visions of sustainability,
steps toward change,” created jointly with the Earth Charter
International, out of 24 panels, 8 spotlight individuals who have taken
action to initiate change. Some of these are individuals who are alreadywell-known, such as Wangari Maathai or Hazel Henderson, and others
are closer to home examples.
SGI is active at several different levels in terms of contributing tobuddhist values, action for sustainability

101sustainability. We have UN liaison offices where our representatives
contribute to global discussions and debates on, for example, the newsustainable development goals that may be part of the Post-2015
Agenda.
We also have national level initiatives in many countries, from tree
planting to training of teachers. In an initiative that grew out of the first
Earth Charter events held there in 2000, SGI Malaysia has recycling
activities, clean-ups, and a whole month of local activities aimed atraising awareness of environmental issues and the need for personal
responsibility in April every year. In Brazil, we have very extensive
activities related to sustainability.
Most visible of these is the Amazon Ecological Conservation Centernear Manaus which was opened in 1993. The Center has restored
degraded areas of forest, with the emphasis on planting methods thatenable the human population and the forest to coexist, and it runs
extensive programs of environmental education. It also works with local
indigenous communities to help them develop their own livelihoods insustainable ways.
Brazil-SGI (BSGI) also promotes school garden projects andrecycling activities with public school teachers and students' parents aspart of the Makiguchi Education Action program created by its Education Department. This has reached approximately 300 schools in several
Brazilian cities.
At the local level in many countries we are often engaged in tree
planting, cleaning up parks in towns, villages and so on.

SGI and the Earth Charter
SGI works with various partners at different local, national and international levels. One partnership that has now been ongoing for nearly 15
years is one with the Earth Charter movement. The Earth Charter provides a universal expression of ethical principles to foster sustainable
development, and its values are entirely consonant with our own.
This partnership has been a very beneficial one, in that it has brought
us new encounters with like-minded individuals and groups. Importantly, it has also enabled us to communicate what values we adhere to inlanguage that is universal and not specifically Buddhist.
The SGI-affiliated Boston Research Center (subsequently renamed
the Ikeda Center for Peace, Learning, and Dialogue) held a series ofconsultations on the draft text and SGI-USA also held such consultations.

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As the Earth Charter text was being finalized through dialogue in thelate 1990s, there was a concern that it was not attracting much attention
in Asia, and Earth Charter Commissioner Mikhail Gorbachev requested
SGI to become involved in raising awareness of the Charter through ourlarge existing grassroots network in Asia.
There is considerable resonance between the Earth Charter’s message
and the basic outlook or philosophy of SGI as expressed in the SGICharter. Its poetic and deeply spiritual expression of human responsibility and agency, interconnectedness and global outlook fits exactlywith our own approach.
Mr. Ikeda has consistently promoted the Earth Charter in his annual
peace proposals, for instance in 2002, stating:
The Earth Charter is not limited in its concerns to environmental issues
but contains important language related to social and economic justice,democracy, nonviolence and peace. In this sense, it is a comprehensive
statement of the norms and values required for effective global
governance. It may be considered a guideline for humanity in thetwenty-first century.22

Some individual SGI members have been so inspired by the message of
the Earth Charter that they became deeply engaged, initiating their own
projects and even their own civil society organizations or NGOs inspiredby its message.
Overall, however, where I believe we are contributing most to sustainability is through our individual members and their contributions in theircommunities and their workplaces. This is where the philosophy of SGI
becomes a reality.
Here I would like to try to summarize the process of change that someindividuals undergo as a result of applying their daily practice and thevalues of Buddhism as taught within SGI.
I feel that the individual efforts of our members directly exemplify“human revolution” in action—the never-ending process of growth anddevelopment of the Greater Self on which SGI members ideally embark
through their practice.
An SGI-UK member now working to prevent illegal logging describes this process:I knew that change had to start from me. I began to develop the attitude
that my life isn’t just about surviving or solving problems that arise, it’s
about taking a proactive approach to life, where I set out to dobuddhist values, action for sustainability

103

something and continue come what may, focusing all the time on mylong-term aims, seeing setbacks in their longer-term context (Julie
Bygraves, UK).23

This is described in the book Chanting in the Hillsides: The Buddhismof Nichiren Daishonin in Wales and the Borders by Jeaneane and Merv
Fowler as follows: “Enlightenment in Nichiren Daishonin Buddhism is
not the suspension of desires, but involvement in the world, engaged
living—in the true spirit of the bodhisattvas of Mahayana Buddhism. It
is those who can experience their greater selves who can effectuate
greater global peace and harmony….”24

Case Studies of Individual Members
I analyzed the 15 accounts we have on the SGI website under the “members’ stories” section in the category of sustainability at http://www.sgi.
org/about-us/members-stories.html?category=Sustainability, some ofwhich have been quoted above.

Tackling obstacles,
reinforced by
Buddhist
practice/study/
encouragement.

Searching for
purpose anddirection/Wish to
deepen or enlarge
size of goal orcontribution.

Wish/goal to benefit
others and broader
community of life aswell as self. Humanrevolution leading to
devt. of Greater Self.

Buddhist practiceincreases
optimism,
determinationand courage.

Buddhist study
reinforces
theoretical basis.
Buddhist discussion
meetings/community/
friends/SGI President
Ikeda’s guidance
provide encouragement.

Journey of typical SGI member engaged in sustainable development

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Reading through them, I was struck by some common elements,
which I have tried to list in the table here. This exercise sheds some lighton how, within SGI, individual practitioners tend to become increasingly
involved in contribution as their practice goes on.
The common threads of the stories are as follows:• Initial lack of clarity over direction• Lack of belief in oneself and the possibility of being able to make adifference• Start of application of Buddhist practice and study• Challenging own circumstances• Broadening compassion and feeling of connection with or
responsibility for the environment• Beginning of hope/dream involving something to do with protecting environment and contributing to community• Realization that change has to start from within oneself• Gradually overcoming sense of own powerlessness• Study/training• Starting local/with challenge in front of one• Inspiration from Buddhist words and practice• Encountering obstacles on the way• Drawing on encouragement from other SGI members, Buddhist
principles and SGI President Ikeda’s guidance• Deepening one’s determination to contribute• Increasing size of one’s dream/goal• Continuing this process of increasing the size of one’s contribution
indefinitely, inspired by Buddhist practice, study and guidance/
support from other SGI members
These are all individual journeys from poverty and disempowerment toempowerment, contribution and concern. They illustrate determination
to take responsibility and refusal to give up hope, in spite of setbacks
and circumstances which can be very daunting. All exemplify the “spiritof challenge.”
This is where the real legacy of Nichiren and the founding presidents
of Soka Gakkai and SGI is to be found.

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105

NOTES
Carlos Rubio, “A Spirit of Challenge,” SGI Quarterly (Jan 2014), p. 4.
2
The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin (WND),Vol. 1 (Tokyo: Soka Gakkai, 1999), p.
852.
3
Ibid., p. 3.
4
Philip Hammond and David Machacek, Soka Gakkai in America: Accommodation
and Conversion (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 130.
5
WND, Vol.1, p. 4.
6
http://www.sgi.org/about-us/members-stories/change-begins-within-myself.html
7
http://www.sgi.org/about-us/members-stories/my-small-step.html		
8
The Human Revolution :Book One volumes 1–6 (Santa Monica, California: World
Tribune Press, 2004),viii.
9
http://www.sgi.org/about-us/members-stories/an-inextricable-connection.html		
10
http://www.sgi.org/about-us/members-stories/planning-for-a-city-a-buddhistperspective.html
11
Tsunesaburo Makiguchi, A Geography of Human Life, ed. Dayle M. Bethel (SanFrancisco: Caddo Gap Press, 2002), p. 11.
12
Andrew Gebert and Monte Joffee, “Value Creation as the Aim of Education:
Tsunesaburo Makiguchi and Soka Education” in Ethical Visions of Education:
Philosophies in Practice (New York and London: Teachers College Press, 2007), p. 68.
13
Makiguchi Tsunesaburo Zenshu [The Complete Works of Tsunesaburo Makiguchi].
Vol. 5 (Tokyo: Daisan Bunmeisha, 1981–96), p. 356.
14
WND, Vol.1, p. 851.
15
“Earth Charter,” http://www.earthcharterinaction.org/content/pages/Read-theCharter.html
16
Bryan Wilson and Karel Dobbelaere, A Time to Chant: The Soka Gakkai Buddhists
in Britain (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), p. 143.
17
P. Hammond and D. Machacek, op. cit., p. 116.
18
Daisaku Ikeda, “The Environmental Problem and Buddhism,” The Journal of
Oriental Studies 3 (1990), p.8.
19“The Challenge of Global Empowerment: Education for a Sustainable Future,” http://www.sgi.org/sgi-president/proposals/environmental-proposal.html
20“For a Sustainable Global Society: Learning for Empowerment and Leadership,”
http://www.sgi.org/assets/pdf/environmentproposal2012.pdf
21
http://www.sgi.org/about-us/members-stories/conserving-the-benguelas-abundance.
html
22“The Humanism of the Middle Way: Dawn of a Global Civilization,” http://www.
sgi.org/assets/pdf/peace2002.pdf
23
http://www.sgi.org/about-us/members-stories/top-20/a-piece-of-ourselves.html
24
Jeaneane Fowler and Merv Fowler, Chanting in the Hillsides: The Buddhism of
Nichiren Daishonin in Wales and the Borders (Eastbourne and Portland: Sussex
Academic Press, 2009), p. 81.
1

BIBLIOGRAPHY—. Daisaku Ikeda, The Human Revolution: Book One volumes 1–6 (Santa Monica,
California: World Tribune Press, 2004)—. Makiguchi Tsunesaburo Zenshu [The Complete Works of Tsunesaburo Makiguchi].
Vols. 1–10 (Tokyo: Daisan Bunmeisha, 1981–96)

From Sanskrit Lotus Sutra Manuscripts from the Institute ofOriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences,Facsimile Edition

In September 2013, the Institute of Oriental Philosophy (IOP) publishedthe Sanskrit Lotus Sutra Manuscripts from the Institute of Oriental
Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SI P/5, etc.),
Facsimile Edition as Lotus Sutra Manuscript Series 13. Included herein
are reprinted forewords, acknowledgements, and introductory articles
from the facsimile edition.
Commissioned by the Soka Gakkai, IOP
has promoted a project for the studies andediting of the Lotus Sutra texts so as to
publish the Lotus Sutra Manuscript Series
since 1997. One of the purposes of this projectis to produce clear color facsimile editions andromanized texts of the precious Lotus Sutra
texts that are preserved in several places of theworld, thereby making them more accessible
to researchers and experts and contributing to
the studies of early Mahayana Buddhism
centering on the Lotus Sutra. To date, the
Nikolai Petrovsky
project has completed 16 items of publication.
In March 2014, the Sanskrit Lotus Sutra Manuscript from the Asiatic
Society, Kolkata (No. 4079), Romanized Text was published as Lotus
Sutra Manuscript Series 14. (Series 2 consists of three items: one
facsimile edition [series 2-1] and two romanized texts [series 2-2 and2-3] so that the series number and the number of the published item are
not concordant.)
The manuscript SI P/5 (presently called SI 1925/1927) is often
referred to as the Petrovsky Manuscript or Kashgar Manuscript because
it was obtained in Kashgar in 1893 by Nikolai Fedorovich Petrovsky(1837–1908), then the Russian consul-general there. (Some recommendthat the manuscript should be called the “Khotan Manuscript” since it106

from sanskrit lotus sutra manuscripts

107

appears to have been copiedin Khotan.)* The Lotus Sutra
manuscripts can be divided
into the three lineages,n a m e l y, t h e N e p a l e s emanuscripts, the Gilgit manuscripts, and the Central Asian
manuscripts (or the two
branches, the Gilgit-Nepalese and the Central Asian
manuscripts), and thePetrovsky Manuscript is a
representative of the Central
Asian manuscripts. It isestimated to have been
Sanskrit Lotus Sutra Manuscripts from theInstitute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian copied from the 9th to the
Academy of Sciences, Facsimile Edition (2013)
10th centuries and is anextremely valuable document
for the Lotus Sutra studies. The manuscript is regarded as one of thetreasures of the world’s largest collection of manuscripts and Easternbooks stored at the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian
Academy of Sciences (IOM RAS) which includes over 115,000 items.
The publication of the new color facsimile edition is receiving
attention as an epoch-making contribution to the studies of the Lotus
Sutra. Together with the manuscript SI P/5, this edition also includes
IOM RAS’s numerous manuscript fragments of the Sanskrit Lotus Sutra
found in Central Asia.
* See p. 134 hereof, “A Saddharmapuˆ∂ar¥kasËtra Manuscript from Khotan: The Gift of a
Pious Khotanese Family” by Oskar von Hinüber.