. vajrabodhi (–) 347
thaumaturgical prowess, particularly in regard to rainmaking rituals.
He died in 741 in Luoyang and was later interred in a stūpa at the
Longmen grotto. It is likely that he and Amoghavajra had set out
for Luoyang on their way out of the country, in response to an impe-
rial edict (740) expelling all foreign monks. Zanning’s account includes
a story that quotes Vajrabodhi saying that as an “Indian monk,” (fan
seng ), the order concerning “barbarian monks,” ( hu seng ),
did not apply to him; the account continues with the emperor mak-
ing special provision to retain him (Chou 1945, 278, 320). After his
master’s funeral, Amoghavajra continued on to South Asia where
he sought out further teachings connected with Yoga tantra. In later
years, at Amoghavajra’s prompting, Vajrabodhi was awarded the post-
humous honor of “Master of the State,” (guoshi ), under Daizong,
and his stūpa became the focus for rituals to conjure up rain. Vajra-
bodhi entered popular legend as a thaumaturge, and the Song ency-
clopedia Taiping guang ji includes tales of his prowess as a
magician.^7
Teachings and Translations
Vajrabodhi was the first major teacher to propagate the STTS in China.
In 720, the STTS was cutting-edge Buddhism. The text of the STTS
seems to have come together in the last quarter of the seventh cen-
tury (Weinberger 2003, 28–35). In contrast to the three-buddha sys-
tem of the Mahāvairocanābhisaṃbodhi sūtra, the STTS is structured
by a five-buddha system, and with its highly articulated practice, by
which the adept generates himself as the Buddha, it can arguably be
designated as the first fully “tantric” work.^8 Though Vajrabodhi taught
a range of materials, it is clear that the “Yoga” portion of the STTS
was considered the pinnacle, and he first rendered extracts it in 723
(T. 866).^9 His rendition outlines the key elements of the “yoga,”
(^7) Vajrabodhi’s magical prowess became the stuff of legend. See the Taiping guang
ji account of Vajrabodhi’s contest with Daoist magicians at TPGJ 22. See also the
translation in Orlando 1981, Appendix A, 172–74.
(^8) Tsuda Shin’ichi 1978 has argued precisely this point, arguing for a divide between
the Mahāyāna and tantra, separating the Mahāvairocanābhisaṃbodhi sūtra and the
STTS 9.
Vajrabodhi’s rendition appears to be an extract largely from section one of the
STTS. Amoghavajra also produced a partial rendering, the Jin’gangding yiqie rulai
zhenshi she dacheng xianzheng dajiaowang jing (
T. 865), but a full translation was not made until *Dānapāla produced the