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Buddha In The Crown
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Book Synopsis Buddha in the Crown by : John Clifford Holt
Download or read book Buddha in the Crown written by John Clifford Holt and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1991-01-31 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Historical, anthropological, and philosophical in approach, Buddha in the Crown is a case study in religious and cultural change. It examines the various ways in which Avalokitesvara, the most well known and proliferated bodhisattva of Mahayana Buddhism throughout south, southeast, and east Asia, was assimilated into the transforming religious culture of Sri Lanka, one of the most pluralistic in Asia. Exploring the expressions of the bodhisattva's cult in Sanskrit and Sinhala literature, in iconography, epigraphy, ritual, symbol, and myth, the author develops a provocative thesis regarding the dynamics of religious change. Interdisciplinary in scope, addressing a wide variety of issues relating to Buddhist thought and practice, and providing new and original information on the rich cultural history of Sri Lanka, this book will interest students of Buddhism and South Asia.
Book Synopsis The Buddha Image by : Yuvraj Krishan
Download or read book The Buddha Image written by Yuvraj Krishan and published by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. This book was released on 1996 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Illustrations: 247 b/w illustrations Description: This book deals with crucial though controversial questions in Buddhist art: the origin of the Buddha image and the iconography of the Buddha images. The earliest Buddhist art of Sanchi and Bharhut is aniconic : The Buddha is represented in symbols only. In the later Buddhist art of Gandhara and Mathura, the Buddha is represented in human form: he is the principal subject of sculptural art. The book seeks to explore the geographical area in which the image of the Buddha first emerged and whether the Buddhist doctrines-Hinayana or Mahayana-had anything to do with this transformation. The Buddha image, as developed eventually at Sarnath, became the model for the Buddha images in whole of Asia, south-east, central and eastern Asia. The iconographic features of the Buddha image are superficially an aberration, being in apparent conflict with the doctrine. The Buddha had cut off his hair at the time of his renunciation; the rules of the order enjoin that a monk must be tonsured and must discard and eschew all riches. However, in his images, the Buddha has hair on his head; later he is also endowed with a crown and jewels. After an exhaustive examination of the views of various scholars, the book answers these questions and resolves the controversies on the basis of literary, numismatic and epigraphic sources. More importantly it makes use of the valuable evidence from the contemporaneous Jaina art : Aniconism of early Jaina art and the iconographic features of Jaina images. The implications of this study are also important : Does India owe idolatry to Buddhism? Was this of foreign inspiration? Was the Buddha image fashioned after the Vedic Brahma and whether the Buddha's usnisa and Buddhist art motifs are rooted in the Vedic tradition? The book is profusely illustrated and provides rich and stimulating fare to students of Indian art in general and of Buddhist art in particular.
Book Synopsis The Buddha in the Attic by : Julie Otsuka
Download or read book The Buddha in the Attic written by Julie Otsuka and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2011-08-23 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BESTSELLER • PEN/FAULKER AWARD WINNER • The acclaimed author of The Swimmers and When the Emperor Was Divine tells the story of a group of young women brought from Japan to San Francisco as “picture brides” a century ago in this "understated masterpiece ... that unfolds with great emotional power" (San Francisco Chronicle). In eight unforgettable sections, The Buddha in the Attic traces the extraordinary lives of these women, from their arduous journeys by boat, to their arrival in San Francisco and their tremulous first nights as new wives; from their experiences raising children who would later reject their culture and language, to the deracinating arrival of war. Julie Otsuka has written a spellbinding novel about identity and loyalty, and what it means to be an American in uncertain times.
Book Synopsis The Making of a Savior Bodhisattva by : Shi Zhiru
Download or read book The Making of a Savior Bodhisattva written by Shi Zhiru and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2007-08-14 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In modern Chinese Buddhism, Dizang is especially popular as the sovereign of the underworld. Often represented as a monk wearing a royal crown, Dizang helps the deceased faithful navigate the complex underworld bureaucracy, avert the punitive terrors of hell, and arrive at the happy realm of rebirth. The author is concerned with the formative period of this important Buddhist deity, before his underworldly aspect eclipses his connections to other religious expressions and at a time when the art, mythology, practices, and texts of his cult were still replete with possibilities. She begins by problematizing the reigning model of Dizang, one that proposes an evolution of gradual sinicization and increasing vulgarization of a relatively unknown Indian bodhisattva, Ksitigarbha, into a Chinese deity of the underworld. Such a model, the author argues, obscures the many-faceted personality and iconography of Dizang. Rejecting it, she deploys a broad array of materials (art, epigraphy, ritual texts, scripture, and narrative literature) to recomplexify Dizang and restore (as much as possible from the fragmented historical sources) what this figure meant to Chinese Buddhists from the sixth to tenth centuries. Rather than privilege any one genre of evidence, the author treats both material artifacts and literary works, canonical and noncanonical sources. Adopting an archaeological approach, she excavates motifs from and finds resonances across disparate genres to paint a vibrant, detailed picture of the medieval Dizang cult. Through her analysis, the cult, far from being an isolated phenomenon, is revealed as integrally woven into the entire fabric of Chinese Buddhism, functioning as a kaleidoscopic lens encompassing a multivalent religio-cultural assimilation that resists the usual bifurcation of doctrine and practice or "elite" and "popular" religion. The Making of a Savior Bodhisattva presents a fascinating wealth of material on the personality, iconography, and lore associated with the medieval Dizang. It elucidates the complex cultural, religious, and social forces shaping the florescence of this savior cult in Tang China while simultaneously addressing several broader theoretical issues that have preoccupied the field. Zhiru not only questions the use of sinicization as a lens through which to view Chinese Buddhist history, she also brings both canonical and noncanonical literature into dialogue with a body of archaeological remains that has been ignored in the study of East Asian Buddhism.
Book Synopsis The Gods of Northern Buddhism by : Alice Getty
Download or read book The Gods of Northern Buddhism written by Alice Getty and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 1988-01-01 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Invaluable reference covers names, attributes, symbolism, representations of deities in Mahayana pantheon of China, Japan, Tibet, etc. 185 illus.
Download or read book Teachings of the Buddha written by Rulu and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2012-01-20 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The sixteen sutras in this book are English translations of texts selected from the Chinese Buddhist Canon. Thirteen of them have never before been published in book form. The translators introduction to Buddhist doctrine provides an organized background for readers at all levels to better understand and appreciate the teachings in these sutras, which cover a wide range of interesting topics. For example, in Sutra 1, the Buddha teaches karmic requitals and how one can avoid or mitigate unfortunate requitals. In Sutra 6, He predicts that long after His Dharma has perished, the next Buddha, Maitreya, will bring the Dharma back to this world. In Sutra 13, the Buddha reveals the mystery of consciousness, giving a detailed description of ones rebirth according to karmic force. In Sutra 14, He declares the eternity of nirvana and ones Buddha nature. In Sutra 16, He affirms that ones great compassion for all sentient beings will quickly lead one to Buddhahood. These English translations are easy to read, and Buddhist terms are explained in the glossary. One can read this book for pleasure, or study it for spiritual development. One can also recite the sutras, prayers, and mantras as a spiritual practice. Students in Buddhist Studies certainly can use this book to support and enhance their learning.
Book Synopsis The History of the Buddha's Relic Shrine by : Stephen C. Berkwitz
Download or read book The History of the Buddha's Relic Shrine written by Stephen C. Berkwitz and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2006-12-14 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Buddhist chronicles have long been had a central place in the study of Buddhism. Scholars, however, have relied almost exclusively on Pali works that were composed by elites for learned audiences, to the neglect of a large number of Buddhist histories written in local languages for popular consumption. The Sinhala Thūpavamsa, composed by Parakama Pandita in thirteenth-century Sri Lanka, is an important example of a Buddhist chronicle written in the vernacular Sinhala language. Furthermore, it is among those works that inform public discussion and debate over the place of Buddhism in the Sri Lankan nation state and the role of Buddhist monks in contemporary politics. In this book Stephen Berkwitz offers the first complete English translation of the Sinhala Thūpavamsa. Composed in a literary dialect of Sinhala, it contains a richly descriptive account of how Buddhism spread outside of India, replete with poetic embellishments and interpolations not found in other accounts of those events. Aside from being an important literary work, the Sinhala Thūpavamsa. is a text of considerable historical and religious significance. It comprises several narrative strands that relate the life story of the Buddha and the manner in which Buddhist teachings and institutions were established on the island of Sri Lanka in ancient times. The central focus of this work concerns the variety of relics associated with the historical Buddha, particularly how the relics were acquired and the presumed benefits of venerating them. The text also relates the mythological history of the Buddha's previous lives as a bodhisattva and concludes with a prediction about the future Buddha Maitreya. Reflection on Buddhist ethics and instruction on the Dharma, or the Buddha's teaching, are found throughout the work, indicating that this historical narrative was meant both to recall the past and give rise to religious practice among contemporary readers and listeners. This new translation makes a significant work more widely accessible in the West and adds to our knowledge of how local Buddhist communities imagined and represented their religious and cultural heritages in written works.
Book Synopsis The Buddha and the Sahibs by : Charles Allen
Download or read book The Buddha and the Sahibs written by Charles Allen and published by John Murray. This book was released on 2018-06-05 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today there are many Buddhists in the West, but for 2000 years the Buddha's teachings were unknown outside Asia. It was not until the late 18th century, when Sir William Oriental Jones, a British judge in India, broke through the Brahmin's prohibition on learning their sacred language. Sanskrit, that clues about the origins of a religion quite distinct from Hinduism began to be deciphered from inscriptions on pillars and rocks. This study tells the story of the search that followed, as evidence mounted that countries as diverse as Ceylon, Japan and Tibet shared a religion which had its origins in India yet was unknown there. British rule brought to India, Burma and Ceylon a whole band of enthusiastic Orientalist amateurs - soldiers, administrators and adventurers - intent on investigating the subcontinent's lost past. Unwittingly, these men helped lay the foundations for the revival of Buddhism in Asia during the 19th century and its spread to the West in the 20th. Charles Allen's book is a mixture of detective work and story-telling, as this acknowledged master of British Indian history pieces together early Buddhist history to bring a handful of extraordinary characters to life.
Book Synopsis The Buddha's Tooth by : John S. Strong
Download or read book The Buddha's Tooth written by John S. Strong and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2021-10-22 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Part One: The Portuguese and the Tooth Relic -- Chapter One: The Tale of the Portuguese Tooth and Its Sources -- Chapter Two: Where the Tooth Was Found: Traditions about the Location of the Relic in Sri -- Lanka -- Chapter Three: Whose Tooth Was It? Traditions about the Identity of the Relic -- Chapter Four: The Trial of the Tooth -- Chapter Five: The Destruction of the Tooth -- Conspectus of Part One: The Storical Evolution of the Tales of the Portuguese Tooth -- Part Two: The British and the Tooth Relic -- Chapter Six: The Cosmopolitan Tooth: The Relic in Kandy before the British Became Aware of -- It -- Chapter Seven: The British Takeover of 1815 and the Kandyan Convention -- Chapter Eight: The Relic Returns: The Tooth and Its Properties Restored to the Temple -- Chapter Nine: The Relic Lost and Recaptured: The Tooth and the Rebellion of 1817- -- Chapter Ten: The Relic Disestablished: Missionary Oppositions to the Tooth -- Chapter Eleven: Showings of the Tooth: The Story of the King of Siam's Visit (1897) -- Chapter Twelve: Showings of the Tooth: The Story of Queen Elizabeth's Shoes (1954).
Book Synopsis Buddha's Not Smiling by : Erik D. Curren
Download or read book Buddha's Not Smiling written by Erik D. Curren and published by Motilal Banarsidass Publishe. This book was released on 2008 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book shows a complete picture of the controversy on that aspect of religion, and challenges the reader to judge for themselves.Interest in Buddhism has exploded in the last couple of decades, and millions of people around the world view Tibetan Buddhism as the religion's most pure and authentic form. Yet, a political conflict among Tibetan lamas themselves is now poised to tear the Tibetan Buddhist world apart and threaten the ntegrity of its thousand-year old teachings. On August 2, 1993, Rumtek monastery was attacked. Its monks were expelled and the cloister was turned over to supporters of a boy-lamas appointed by the Chinese government. But Rumtek was not in China, and its attackers were not Communist troops. Rumtek was in India, the refuge for most exiled Tibetans. And it was Tibetan lamas and monks themselves who led the siege. Yet, evidence shows that Chinese agents directly supported Tibetan lamas and monks who attacked Rumtek monastery. While a complete picture of this controversy has been blurred by the media's focus on international Buddhist celebrities, Buddha's Not Smiling challengers Readers to Judge for themselves the health of Tibetan Buddhism today
Book Synopsis From Stone to Flesh by : Donald S. Lopez
Download or read book From Stone to Flesh written by Donald S. Lopez and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2013-04-12 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We have come to admire Buddhism for being profound but accessible, as much a lifestyle as a religion. The credit for creating Buddhism goes to the Buddha, a figure widely respected across the Western world for his philosophical insight, his teachings of nonviolence, and his practice of meditation. But who was this Buddha, and how did he become the Buddha we know and love today? Leading historian of Buddhism Donald S. Lopez Jr. tells the story of how various idols carved in stone—variously named Beddou, Codam, Xaca, and Fo—became the man of flesh and blood that we know simply as the Buddha. He reveals that the positive view of the Buddha in Europe and America is rather recent, originating a little more than a hundred and fifty years ago. For centuries, the Buddha was condemned by Western writers as the most dangerous idol of the Orient. He was a demon, the murderer of his mother, a purveyor of idolatry. Lopez provides an engaging history of depictions of the Buddha from classical accounts and medieval stories to the testimonies of European travelers, diplomats, soldiers, and missionaries. He shows that centuries of hostility toward the Buddha changed dramatically in the nineteenth century, when the teachings of the Buddha, having disappeared from India by the fourteenth century, were read by European scholars newly proficient in Asian languages. At the same time, the traditional view of the Buddha persisted in Asia, where he was revered as much for his supernatural powers as for his philosophical insights. From Stone to Flesh follows the twists and turns of these Eastern and Western notions of the Buddha, leading finally to his triumph as the founder of a world religion.
Book Synopsis The Indian Buddhist Iconography Mainly Based on the Sādhanamālā and Other Cognate Tāntric Texts of Rituals by : Benoytosh Bhattacharyya
Download or read book The Indian Buddhist Iconography Mainly Based on the Sādhanamālā and Other Cognate Tāntric Texts of Rituals written by Benoytosh Bhattacharyya and published by . This book was released on 1924 with total page 426 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Becoming Guanyin written by Yuhang Li and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2020-02-18 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner, 2024 Geiss-Hsu Book Prize for Best First Book, Society for Ming Studies The goddess Guanyin began in India as the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, originally a male deity. He gradually became indigenized as a female deity in China over the span of nearly a millennium. By the Ming (1358–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) periods, Guanyin had become the most popular female deity in China. In Becoming Guanyin, Yuhang Li examines how lay Buddhist women in late imperial China forged a connection with the subject of their devotion, arguing that women used their own bodies to echo that of Guanyin. Li focuses on the power of material things to enable women to access religious experience and transcendence. In particular, she examines how secular Buddhist women expressed mimetic devotion and pursued religious salvation through creative depictions of Guanyin in different media such as painting and embroidery and through bodily portrayals of the deity using jewelry and dance. These material displays expressed a worldview that differed from yet fit within the Confucian patriarchal system. Attending to the fabrication and use of “women’s things” by secular women, Li offers new insight into the relationships between worshipped and worshipper in Buddhist practice. Combining empirical research with theoretical insights from both art history and Buddhist studies, Becoming Guanyin is a field-changing analysis that reveals the interplay between material culture, religion, and their gendered transformations.
Book Synopsis Connected Histories of India and Southeast Asia by : Dhar, Parul Pandya
Download or read book Connected Histories of India and Southeast Asia written by Dhar, Parul Pandya and published by SAGE Publishing India. This book was released on 2022-11-29 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Connected Histories of India and Southeast Asia unravels the fascinating history of cultural interactions, of outstanding and universal significance, between India and Southeast Asia, with special emphasis on artistic expressions. India's connections with Southeast Asian countries, namely, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam are seen not only in trade and commerce but also in cultural and religious exchanges. Such histories are well-documented in their monuments, icons, narratives, inscribed artefacts, texts, and ritual paraphernalia. The first part of the book offers an overview of the nature of cultural and artistic interactions and the trade routes that facilitated an exchange of ideas, objects, people, and knowledge systems since ancient times. The second part addresses issues relating to architectural forms, motifs, and mobility across long distances and time periods. The final segment includes essays that discuss narratives and iconographies arising from cross-cultural artistic exchanges. With contributions by eminent scholars and over 170 colour photographs, maps, and illustrations, this book is an invaluable resource for understanding connected histories, which play a key role in revitalizing cultural connectivity and people-to-people contacts between India and Southeast Asia.
Book Synopsis Hyecho's Journey by : Donald S. Lopez
Download or read book Hyecho's Journey written by Donald S. Lopez and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2017-12-21 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the year 721, a young Buddhist monk named Hyecho set out from the kingdom of Silla, on the Korean peninsula, on what would become one of the most extraordinary journeys in history. Sailing first to China, Hyecho continued to what is today Vietnam, Indonesia, Myanmar, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran, before taking the Silk Road and heading back east, where he ended his days on the sacred mountain of Wutaishan in China. With Hyecho’s Journey, eminent scholar of Buddhism Donald S. Lopez Jr. re-creates Hyecho’s trek. Using the surviving fragments of Hyecho’s travel memoir, along with numerous other textual and visual sources, Lopez imagines the thriving Buddhist world the monk explored. Along the way, Lopez introduces key elements of Buddhism, including its basic doctrines, monastic institutions, works of art, and the many stories that have inspired Buddhist pilgrimage. Through the eyes of one remarkable Korean monk, we discover a vibrant tradition flourishing across a vast stretch of Asia. Hyecho’s Journey is simultaneously a rediscovery of a forgotten pilgrim, an accessible primer on Buddhist history and doctrine, and a gripping, beautifully illustrated account of travel in a world long lost.
Download or read book Buddha’S Tooth written by U. C. Fate and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2015-05-06 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: U. C. Fate has only one little thing to do before he dies. That is, to kill God. The novel opens on the very day Fate has scheduled for this public execution. We are in Sri Lanka, at the Buddhist Temple of the Tooth during Esala Perahera (the sacred procession of the Tooth Relic.) But a not-so-simple twist of fate interrupts U. C. Fates plans. God easily escapes, while Fate himself is killed (and by a pious mob of monks, no less.) Yet, instead of experiencing death, our protoplasmic protagonist is rescued by an unasked-for Resurrection. U. C. Fate instantly Awakens; both with God Consciousness and a far better sense of humor. From here, all the way to the hereafter, U. C. Fate goes on a Magical Mythos Tour. He revisits thousands of years of religious history, each of his steps on this Inter and Intra-Religious journey are taken while wearing satiric slippers. Culture, chronology, and traditional time simply lose their fixed frames as Ancient Greeks, modern Rock n Rollers, Catholic Conquistas of Spain, and present day Mormons, argue with tribal American Indians over whose Truth is True. The Incarnated God Quetzalcatl is also here to fulfill Meso-American prophecy (i.e. The Second Coming only salsa style.) After this cosmic Love connection we come to the long awaited meeting with The Buddha. Buddhas Paradiso bridge is only open for Open-Ended-BeginningsThis means U. C. Fate must return Buddhas Tooth! He does so, thereby restoring every religion to their Rightful Rites.
Book Synopsis "Ravanisation": The Revitalisation of Ravana among Sinhalese Buddhists in Post-War Sri Lanka by : Deborah de Koning
Download or read book "Ravanisation": The Revitalisation of Ravana among Sinhalese Buddhists in Post-War Sri Lanka written by Deborah de Koning and published by LIT Verlag Münster. This book was released on with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book discusses Ravanisation: the revitalisation of Ravana among Sinhalese Buddhists in post-war (after 2009) Sri Lanka. The Hindu Ramayana generally portrays Ravana as a cruel king. How and why, then, has Ravana gained the interest of Sinhalese Buddhists? This study takes an ethnographic perspective to answer these questions. The book discusses multiple Ravana representations that have emerged at an urban Buddhist site (the Sri Devram Maha Viharaya) and a rural site (Lakegala), and discloses how Ravanisation relates to Sinhalese Buddhist ethno-nationalism. In addition, the material, ritual, and spatial perspectives offer unique insights in the personal and local relevance of Ravana.
