Digitalization of Buddhism in full swing

As technology experts endeavor to develop a "Digital China", more efforts to digitalize Buddhist scriptures and antique books have been made, which has significantly helped better preserve and promote the religion and related culture in modern times, Chinese scholars and senior Buddhist monks said.

Venerable Master Shi Yongxin, abbot of Shaolin Temple in Henan province and vice-president of the Buddhist Association of China, said on Thursday that digital technologies have been widely used to preserve Buddhist scriptures, architecture, statues and paintings, making Buddhist culture more accessible to the public.

In October 2021, Shaolin temple — the cradle of Chinese martial arts — launched a big data platform to preserve and showcase the temple's unique Buddhist cultural resources with digital technologies. The platform marked the temple's entry into the digital age, Shi said at a sub-forum themed Digitalization of Buddhist Scriptures during the 6th World Buddhist Forum in Ningbo, Zhejiang province.

"Besides digitalizing more than 246 stone tomb pagodas, more than 5,480 scrolls of Buddhist scriptures and many inscriptions on stone tablets, we have also been using digital technologies to preserve Shaolin martial arts," Shi said, adding that such efforts have been stepped up since the country introduced the plan to build a "Digital China" in January last year.

The creation of a "Digital Shaolin", has made it easier for the public to use the internet to learn about Shaolin culture and how it has evolved over time. So far, more than 30,000 documents have been digitalized, he added.

Lhashamgyal, director and researcher of the Institute of Religious Studies at the China Tibetology Research Center, said the digitalization of Tibetan Buddhist scriptures has also seen great progress in recent years.

In 2018, restorers began making efforts to preserve antique documents at the Potala Palace — an icon of Tibetan Buddhism — in Lhasa, the regional capital of the Xizang autonomous region. The project, undertaken by the Chinese Academy of Cultural Heritage, is expected to be a 10-year process of protection, repair, digitalization and exhibition. The digital files are expected to be accessible to researchers and the general public in the future, Lhashamgyal said.

"During the project, new technologies have been developed to digitalize scriptures in Tibetan and Sanskrit languages without damaging them," he said.

Furthermore, the center is currently developing a database for archives and antique books in Tibetan. So far, more than 2,000 antique books, including Buddhist scriptures and biographies of senior monks, have been digitalized and can be accessed online and via mobile applications, he added.

"More Buddhist scriptures and antique books in China will be digitalized in the future, which can make it easier for people to explore their values in modern society," Lhashamgyal said.

cuijia@chinadaily.com.cn