Youth and early career Jinarakkhita was born in
Bogor, West Java on 23 January 1923 Eventually, Tizheng received dharma transmission from Benqing. After the Communists took over power in China in 1949, Buddhist monasteries were closed in China, and Indonesia tried to diminish Chinese influences in Indonesia. For these reasons, further Ch'an-training in China was problematic, and Benqing sent Tizheng to Burma in 1953, where he practiced
Satipatthana Meditation under
Mahasi Sayadaw. In 1960 Jinarakkhita established the Sangha Suci Indonesia, as a monastic organisation. In 1963 the name was changed to Maha Sangha of Indonesia, and in 1974 the name was changed into Sangha Agung Indonesia. It is a community of monastics from the Theravada, Mahayana and Tantrayana traditions. In 1965, after a
coup-attempt, Buddhist organisations had to comply with the first principle of the Indonesian state ideology,
Pancasila, the belief in one supreme God. All organisations that doubted or denied the existence of God were outlawed. this posed a problem for Indonesian Buddhism, which was solved by Jinarakkhita by presenting
nibbana as the Theravada "God", and Adi-Buddha, the primaeval Buddha of the region's previous Mantrayana Buddhism, as the Mahayana "God". According to Jinarakkhita, the concept of
Adi Buddha was found in the tenth-century Javanese Buddhist text
Sang Hyang Kamhayanikan. Another important factor in the Buddhist Revival was the use of a new category of lay Buddhist teachers. Those were older Buddhists without a formal
dharma transmission or authorisation, but with a lot of life-experience. Those elder teachers were sanctioned by Jinarakkhita, and instituted new meditation-centers, and organised meetings and lectures.
Death Jinarakkhita died on Thursday 18 April 2002 in Pluit Hospital,
North Jakarta. His ashes and relics were brought back to Sakyavanaram Temple at Cipendawa Cliff, Pacet,
Cianjur (between Jakarta and Bandung),
West Java, where Jinarakkhita lived. ==Teachings==