The Hua-yen
Sutra is known in Sanksrit as
Avatamsaka
sūtra, one of the most important scriptures
in Mahāyāna Buddhism and the main theoretical
classic upon which the Hua-yen School is based.
This sutra is said to have been the first expounded
by the Buddha after achieving enlightenment. It
describes the "The sublime world within a
flower garland" where the Vairocana Buddha
resides in a realm of countless buddhas that form
the notion of "multitudinous buddhas".
The version of
The Hua-yen Sutra in the
National Palace Museum collection was translated
by Siksanda, including a total of 80 chapters
and hence known as
The Hua-yen Eighty.
The original text in Sanskrit has a total of 45,000
verses, for which Empress Wu (Tze-t'ien) dispatched
an emissary to Khotan to acquire. Translation
was then begun at the Ta-pien-k'ung Temple in
Loyang in 695, and the Chinese translation was
completed in 699 at Fo-shou Temple.