Tianzhu (天竺), situated in Buddhist cosmology at the "Western Heaven", has traditionally been regarded by Buddhists as an idealized holy land where their faith originated from, and subsequently served as a pilgrimage site for many who sought to receive Buddhist scriptures, as romanticized in the classical Chinese tale of Journey to the West.
Tenjiku (天竺) is the Japanese word, which derives from Chinese word Tianzhu(天竺) commonly used in reference to pre-modern India.
In the story told by Hokusai, formed in the Edo period, the nine-tail fox which possessed Daji was not killed, but instead fled to Magadha of Tianzhu (ancient India).
:"The Emperor, to discover the true doctrine, sent an envoy to Tianzhu (Northwestern India) to inquire about the Buddha's doctrine, after which paintings and statues of the Buddha appeared in the Middle Kingdom." (Hou Hanshu, trans. John Hill)
Tianzhu |
The Chinese surname Zhu 竺, which originally meant "a kind of bamboo" and was later used for "India (abbreviating Tianzhu 天竺)" and "Buddhism", was adopted by many early Buddhist monks, such as the polyglot translator Zhu Fahu 竺法護 or Dharmarakṣa (c. 230-316).