The Golden Light Sutra or (; ) is a Buddhist text of the

Mahayana Mahāyāna ( ; , , ; ) is a term for a broad group of Buddhist traditions, Buddhist texts#Mahāyāna texts, texts, Buddhist philosophy, philosophies, and practices developed in ancient India ( onwards). It is considered one of the three main ex ...

branch of Buddhism. In Sanskrit, the full title is ''Suvarṇaprabhāsottamasūtrendrarājaḥ'' "The King of Sutras on the Sublime Golden Radiance"

History

The sutra was originally written in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

and was translated several times into Chinese by Dharmakṣema and others, and later translated into Tibetan and other languages. Johannes Nobel published Sanskrit and Tibetan editions of the text. The sutra is influential in East Asia. The name of the

sutra ''Sutra'' ()Monier Williams, ''Sanskrit English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, Entry fo''sutra'' page 1241 in Indian literary traditions refers to an aphorism or a collection of aphorisms in the form of a manual or, more broadly, a ...

derives from the chapter called "The Confession of the Golden Drum", where the bodhisattva Ruchiraketu dreams of a great drum that radiates a sublime golden light, symbolizing the

dharma Dharma (; , ) is a key concept in various Indian religions. The term ''dharma'' does not have a single, clear Untranslatability, translation and conveys a multifaceted idea. Etymologically, it comes from the Sanskrit ''dhr-'', meaning ''to hold ...

or teachings of Śākyamuni Buddha. The ''Golden Light Sutra'' became one of the most important

s in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

and

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

because of its fundamental message, which teaches that the

Four Heavenly Kings The Four Heavenly Kings are four Buddhism, Buddhist gods or Deva (Buddhism), ''devas'', each of whom is believed to watch over one cardinal direction of the world. The Hall of Four Heavenly Kings is a standard component of Chinese Buddhism, Ch ...

( zh, t=四大天王, p=Sì Dàtiānwáng) protect the ruler who governs his country in the proper manner. The sutra also expounds the vows of the

goddesses A goddess is a female deity. In some faiths, a sacred female figure holds a central place in religious prayer and worship. For example, Shaktism (one of the three major Hindu sects), holds that the ultimate deity, the source of all reality, is ...

Sarasvatī ( zh, t=大辨才天, p=Dà Biàncáitiān), Lakṣmī ( zh, t=大功德天, p=Dà Gōngdétiān) and

Prithvi Prithvi (Sanskrit: पृथ्वी, ', also पृथिवी, ', "the Vast One", also rendered Pṛthvī Mātā), is the Sanskrit name for the earth, as well as the name of the goddess-personification of it in Hinduism. The goddess Prit ...

to protect any bhikṣu who will uphold and teach the sutra. Taken at face value, one might take the main theme of the sutra literally, which is the importance for leaders to be good examples for the kingdom. In Chapter Twelve, the sutra speaks in verse form about the disasters that befall a kingdom when its ruler does not uphold justice, and the benefits of kings who lead an exemplary life. In the Chapter on the Guardian Kings, the Four Guardian Kings have a dialogue with the Buddha, explaining in vivid detail all the benefits a kingdom will have if its ruler enshrines the essence of the sutra and offers daily praise. The sutra contains some elements of early tantra, in that in chapter two, the sutra describes four Buddhas who dwell in the four cardinal directions. These same four comprise later Buddhist mandalas in the same positions, such as the

Womb Realm The Mandala of the Two Realms (Traditional Chinese: 両界曼荼羅; Pinyin: ''Liǎngjiè màntúluó''; Rōmaji: ''Ryōkai mandara''), also known as the Mandala of the Two Divisions (Traditional Chinese: 両部曼荼羅; Pinyin: ''Liǎngbù mà ...

. During the Sui dynasty in China, the monk

Zhiyi Zhiyi (; 538–597 CE) also called Dashi Tiantai (天台大師) and Zhizhe (智者, "Wise One"), was a Chinese Bhikkhu, Buddhist monk, Buddhist philosophy, philosopher, meditation teacher, and Exegesis, exegete. He is considered to be the foun ...

of the Tiantai tradition initiated a ritual ceremony known as "Gōngfó Zhāitiān" (供佛齋天) or just "Zhāitiān" (齋天), meaning "Puja of Offering to the Buddhas and the Devas", according to the rites prescribed in the ''Golden Light Sutra.'' During the ceremony, offerings are made to the

Buddhas In Buddhism, Buddha (, which in classic Indic languages means "awakened one") is a title for those who are spiritually awake or enlightened, and have thus attained the supreme goal of Buddhism, variously described as awakening or enlighten ...

as well as the twenty-four devas as a sign of respect. This ceremony has been carried down through tradition into modern times and is customarily performed in Chinese Buddhist temples on the 9th day of the 1st month of the Chinese calendar. The sutra also gained esteem as a sutra for protecting the country in China, Korea and Japan, and often was read publicly to ward off threats. For example, its first reading in Japan was as a court ceremony during around 660 AD, when the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...

of China and

Silla Silla (; Old Korean: wikt:徐羅伐#Old Korean, 徐羅伐, Yale romanization of Korean, Yale: Syerapel, Revised Romanization of Korean, RR: ''Seorabeol''; International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA: ) was a Korean kingdom that existed between ...

of Korea defeated the state of

Baekje Baekje or Paekche (; ) was a Korean kingdom located in southwestern Korea from 18 BCE to 660 CE. It was one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, together with Goguryeo and Silla. While the three kingdoms were in separate existence, Baekje had the h ...

of Korea and were threatening Japan. In 741

Emperor Shōmu was the 45th Emperor of Japan, emperor of Japan,Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 聖武天皇 (45)/ref> according to the traditional List of Emperors of Japan, order of succession. Shōmu's reign spanned the years 724 through 749, duri ...

of Japan founded provincial monasteries for monks (国分寺) and nuns (国分尼寺) in each province. The official name of the monasteries was the ''Temple for Protection of the State by the Four Heavenly Kings Golden Light Sutra'' (). The 20 monks who lived there recited the ''Sovereign Kings Golden Light Sutra'' on a fixed schedule to protect the country. As Buddhism evolved in Japan, the practice gradually fell out of use, and is no longer continued today.

Translations

The Golden Light Sutra has been translated into Chinese,

Saka The Saka, Old Chinese, old , Pinyin, mod. , ), Shaka (Sanskrit (Brāhmī): , , ; Sanskrit (Devanāgarī): , ), or Sacae (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: were a group of nomadic Iranian peoples, Eastern Iranian peoples who lived in the Eurasian ...

("Khotanese"),

Old Uyghur Old Uyghur () was a Turkic language spoken in Qocho from the 9th–14th centuries as well as in Gansu. History Old Uyghur evolved from Old Turkic, a Siberian Turkic language, after the Uyghur Khaganate broke up and remnants of it migrated ...

by Shingqo Sheli Tutung, Tangut,

Classical Tibetan Classical Tibetan refers to the language of any text written in Tibetic after the Old Tibetan period. Though it extends from the 7th century until the modern day (along with Arabic, Ge'ez, and New Persian, it is one of the handful of 'living' ...

, Mongolian,

Manchu The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic peoples, Tungusic East Asian people, East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized Ethnic minorities in China, ethnic minority in China and the people from wh ...

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...

and

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

Chinese

Three canonical Chinese translations have survived: * Jin guangming jin T663 translated by Dharmakṣema (385–433) * the synoptic Hebu jin guangming T664, by Baogui, written in 597 * Jin guangming zuisheng wang jin T665, by Yijing (635–713) An extracanonical version, ascribed to Paramārtha, (499–569) is extant in a Japanese manuscript.

Japanese

One of the earliest Japanese annotations was an 8th-century kunten translation of the Yijing Chinese translation housed in Saidaiji Temple. In 1933, Izumi published the first complete Japanese translation directly from Sanskrit, followed by another translation by Ama a year later.

Old Turkic

An almost complete translation of the Golden Light Sutra into

in the 11th century was carried out by the scribe Shingqo Sheli Tutung. This particular translation would be revised two times by Uyghur and Yugur monks, in 1361 and 1687 respectively.

Western languages

In 1958, Nobel published a German translation, based on Yijing's Chinese text. In 1970, R. E. Emmerick produced an English translation of the short, condensed Sanskrit version of the Sutra of Golden Light into English. In Tibetan, there are three versions of the Sutra: the 21, 29, and 31 chapter versions. The 29 Chapter Version was probably the most popular in Tibet and Tibetan Buddhist regions. In 2007, the

Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition The Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT) was founded in 1975 by Gelugpa Lamas Thubten Yeshe and Thubten Zopa Rinpoche, who began teaching Tibetan Buddhism to Western students in Nepal. The FPMT has grown to encompass ...

, Lama Zopa Rinpoche's Buddhist organization, produced a translation of the 21 chapter version of the Sutra, the most abbreviated and condensed version. In 2023, 84000.co published a translation of the 21 chapter version, followed in 2024 by the first English translations of the 29 and 31 chapter versions.

References

Bibliography

* Bagchi, S. ed. (1967)
Suvarṇaprabhāsasūtram
Darbhanga: The Mithila Institute. Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon. (NB: in Unicode) * Gummer, Natalie D. (2012)
Listening to the Dharmabhāṇaka: The Buddhist Preacher in and of the Sūtra of Utmost Golden Radiance
Journal of the American Academy of Religion 80 (1), 137-160. * Lee, Sumi (2017)
Kingship as "Dharma-Protector": A Comparative Study of Wŏnhyo and Huizhao's Views on the "Golden Light Sutra"
Journal of Korean Religions 8 (1), 93-129 * Skjaervo, Prods O. (2004 ). This Most Excellent Shine of Gold, King of Kings of Sutras: The Khotanese Suvarnabhãsottamasutra. 2 vols. Cambridge,MA: Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University * Suzuki, T. (2003)
Stupa Worship and Dharma Evaluation in the Suvarnaprabhasa
Journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies 51 (2), 996-1001 * Tyomkin E. (1995)
Unique Sanskrit Fragments of the "Sutra of Golden Light" in the manuscript collection of St Petersburg Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences
Manuscripta Orientalia. Vol. 1, (1), 29-38.

External links

The Sutra of Golden Light: The 21 Chapter Version, published by the FPMT

Roman transliteration of Sanskrit (Bagchi), chapter-wise, DSBC Project

{{Buddhism topics Mahayana sutras Vaipulya sutras Four Heavenly Kings