Search

This article investigates how Buddhist notions of gender were represented and reshaped in traditional Chinese theater through a close reading of an eighteenth-century play entitled Fuhutao (Stratagem of taming the tigress). The play includes three episodes of mock Dharma sermons delivered by Guanyin Bodhisattva, the shrew, and the shrew-tamer, respectively. The playwright unconventionally chose to gender his Guanyin character as male in order to establish the religious authority of masculine supremacy. He also creatively turned the concept of the "great hero," a symbol for the spiritual heroism of buddhas, into a trope for male dominance over the female. Unlike the playwright's original conception, stage adaptations of the play from the late Qing to the early twentieth century often spotlighted the shrew's sermon on subduing husbands, a scene that had both theatrical appeal and potentially subversive power. This study argues that Buddhist ideas about gender and the formalities of ritual provided writers and actors space to experiment with new ways to dramatize male-female relationships – innovations which might both consolidate as well as challenge the patriarchal social order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2016, the local government of Như Hoa multi-ethnic district of a northern province of Vietnam rebuilt a ruined temple of the Thái minority, a place associated with their long tradition of offering buffalos to their supreme God –the Po Then Luang. With the aim of meeting the spiritual needs of diverse ethnic communities in the district, the structure and altars of the temple were built with a combination of Việt Buddhist temple architecture and the iconic Thái stilt house. During the inauguration of the temple, a Buddhist ritual was celebrated by hundreds of different ethnic people including the Thái. However, in contrast to the local government's expectation, Thái villagers resisted local authorities' efforts to integrate Buddhism and the Mother Goddess religion into the rebuilt temple. Thái villagers did not mind the architecture of the rebuilt temple or the devotional practices of the Vietnamese people, but they resisted the inclusion of altars dedicated to Buddhist figures in the temple and the inclusion of Buddhist rituals in their own site of worship. Their resistance revealed the complexities of religious accommodation in contemporary Vietnam. This article examines this episode of contestation in relation to state efforts of heritagization, and situates this local resistance within the larger context of religious dialogue and revitalization in contemporary society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among the most noteworthy practices in Buddhist temples in China today are yuan or wish-vow actions. Wish-vows encompass both wish-making (xuyuan 许愿) and vow-giving (fayuan 发愿), with both modalities embraced by average temple-goers from a general population. Chinese Buddhist liturgies encourage ritual performers to adopt a bodhisattva stance, wishing/vowing for the well-being of all beings. This introduces an ethical dimension to yuan performances. This paper analyzes the continuity in practice between wish-making and vow-giving, exploring how popular and Buddhist understandings of ritual entangle and how ritual generates meaningful narratives for practitioners. The article shows how the human pursuit of ritual effects and ethical self-transformation are not contradictory but rather complementary processes. Considering this Chinese ritual situation deepens our comprehension of votive practices in syncretic religious traditions. Additionally, it offers a new direction for considering religious potentialities in late socialist societies. Furthermore, it usefully challenges the use of the term "prayer" in Chinese contexts. In this way, the article bridges anthropology, Chinese studies, and religious studies and enhances our conceptual toolkit for studying ongoing human transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sweet dew paintings, which emerged in the sixteenth century, served as altarpieces for the low ritual altars where ceremonies for the disembodied were conducted in the three-altar configuration of the Korean Buddhist liturgy. Through their complex iconography, these paintings conveyed the message that all souls suffering from the misfortune and wrongdoings of previous lives could be saved through the salvific power of the divine and thus attain a better rebirth in their next life. Although this uniquely Korean genre of Buddhist paintings flourished throughout the Chosŏn period, it appears to have received heightened interest from the late 1930s to early 1940s with the onset of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945). However, this phenomenon has yet to be contextualized within the rich history of the genre and the convoluted history of modern Korean Buddhism. This paper explores the restructuring of this genre through a close examination of works produced in late colonial Korea by Poŭng Munsŏng 普應文性 (1867–1954) and Namsan Pyŏngmun 南山秉文 (d. 1950), and Kŭmyong Ilsŏp 金蓉日燮 (1901–1975)—three monk painters who reformulated the well-established iconography of sweet dew paintings at a time when the need to deliver the deceased and provide solace to the living was most urgent. This study examines the dual role that these paintings performed amidst the wartime mobilization of Koreans by the Japanese colonial authorities: While Munsŏng and Pyŏngmun’s collaborative work aimed to deliver the souls of fallen Japanese soldiers, Ilsŏp’s compositions from the 1940s intended to help Koreans counter the trauma of colonial mobilization. This article both reveals the multi-faceted function of modern Korean Buddhist paintings and contributes to our understanding of the war experiences of colonial subjects through the medium of religious visual culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The protection of one's home and ensuring the safety of one's family have been deep-rooted concerns throughout time and in all cultures. Ānzhái 安宅 ("pacifying one's residence") rituals can be traced to ancient China and are still practiced in contemporary China. In this study, we will focus on the Fóshuō ānzhái shénzhòu jīng 佛說安宅神呪經 (AZSZJ; T.21, No. 1394), one of the extant Buddhist scriptures dealing with home protection. There have been (at least) two lines of transmission of ānzhái scriptures and on the basis of internal and external evidence, we project the compilation of the extant version of this text to include the late 6th century and mid 7th century and show that the scripture—in earlier catalogues labeled as "fake"—entered the Buddhist canon on the basis of a mistake or confusion by Míng Quán when he recorded it in his Dà-Zhōu kāndìng zhòngjīng mùlù大周刊定眾經目錄. The main part of the study consists of an annotated translation of AZSZJ and a preliminary analysis of the difficult terminology appearing in parts of the text. In the last part, we discuss some aspects of the text's traditional Chinese and Buddhist elements and how they were skillfully combined in order to make the overall text attractive for the medieval Chinese Buddhist community and to successfully compete with other contemporary ritual practices concerned with the safety of one's home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article develops a multidimensional concept of urban regimes that allows for explaining racialized asymmetries of access to public space among different religious minority groups. Departing from an empirical study of collective religious rituals in the streets, parks and squares of Barcelona, we compare Buddhist, Sikh and Islamic events in public space. Although all religious events are in theory subjected to the same regulatory regime, we find significant differences in the ways that these regulations are enacted. Making sense of these differences requires a multidimensional concept of urban regimes involving (a) the bureaucratic regulations, (b) the interaction order of the city and the attached emotional registers, and (c) imaginations of public space. The conjunction of all three domains allows for a deeper understanding of how conceptions of ideal public space, urban visibility and public emotional registers are configured in the governance of religious events and partly intersect with institutional racism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Buddhist rituals in Vietnam, characterized by region and religious sects and more or less influenced by Chinese Buddhism over the centuries, have relatively different characteristics among regions, especially the Northern Delta region, Hue City and Ho Chi Minh City. Directly influenced by the teachings and laws of Buddhism, Buddhist rituals in Vietnam have also contributed a unique cultural identity to the world's Buddhist community, which affirms the unity in diversity of Buddhism in Vietnam and the world. Based on specialized and interdisciplinary approaches, the article presents the key features of Buddhist rituals in Vietnam today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on anthropological fieldwork in Pursat province, Cambodia, this article explores the socio-cultural background to the recent expansion of a unique Buddhist ritual called sângkeahăh in Khmer. This ritual can be regarded as an emerging practice of community-based care in the face of the rapid modernization and development that has been unfolding in rural Cambodia since the 1990s. It is performed at the houses of ill persons in villages, and the donations collected through the ritual are given to their family; participants are motivated first by merit-making and second by the acute awareness of increasing medical treatment costs. In addition to moving care from the private to the public sphere, the ritual represents a cultural articulation of a traditional practice of care at the grassroots level of the society, a unique case of a bottom-up response to modernization that the local culture and values support. The ethnographic description and analysis of this article contribute to deepening our understanding of the nature of community in rural Cambodia, cultural transformation in rural South East Asia, and the relationship between religion and care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to uncover the correlation of ritual, space, and materiality by examining textual sources regarding Chinese and Korean Buddhist ceremonies since their transmission from India, looking at them as a space for ritual performance by focusing on the hand-held incense burner as a liturgical instrument. Hand-held censers were in use throughout the periods from the Three Kingdoms to Koryŏ, as attested to by both textual evidence and excavated artifacts. Since the early Chosŏn period, however, they were replaced by incense bowls or stationary censers. The absence of hand-held censers in Buddhist ritual scenes coincided with the transformation of the architectural structure and floor style of Buddhist halls. Prior to the Chosŏn period, hand-held censers were used for circumambulation, performed in the monastic courtyard or inside the sanctum during such rituals as dharma assemblies, purification ceremonies, or devotional practices. Yet the consolidation of different monastic orders, which the Chosŏn royal court implemented to suppress the Buddhist religion, precipitated changes in the ritual system of Korean Buddhism. The change of ritual practice naturally led to the change of ritual space. The altar was pushed to the rear of the hall; and wooden panels, instead of tiles, were laid. Such spatial rearrangement further allowed for placing the main icon at the center of the hall. These changes transpired as Buddhist ritual practice came to center on obeisance and invocation that called for a wide-open space in front of the main icon. This refocusing of Buddhist devotional practice from circumambulation to obeisance, I argue, served as the impetus for discontinuing the production of hand-held censers. In other words, the portability of hand-held censers was no longer necessary, and the sensuousness of scent and smoke could be achieved by stationary incense burners. This paper concludes that the changes in these three respects, that is, the architectural structure of the Buddhist sanctum, Buddhist ritual practice, and liturgical instruments— represented by the hand-held censer—were organically interlocked. [End Page 79] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines two manuscript ritual manuals titled Hwaŏm yemun (華嚴禮文) from the late Chosŏn period preserved in the Old Books Collection of the Dongguk University Library. The first is dated to 1767 with the name Pak Chinhae 朴震海 on the cover, and the second was assembled by an unknown hand in 1891. The differences between the texts suggest the evolution and amplification of Hwaŏm-oriented liturgy in late premodern Korea. By examining the structures of and the ritual procedures delineated in these two documents, scholars gain a clearer picture of how the Avataṃ saka-sūtra was worshipped in Korean Buddhism as the capstone or culmination of the monastic curriculum for Sŏn monks. In addition, these texts further our understanding of how ritual functioned as a means of articulating doctrinal and devotional classifications, as a procedure for reinforcing mainstream Mahāyāna doctrines and aspirations, and as a malleable framework for making of vows and invocations, performing penance, and chanting efficacious spells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Buddhist rituals that simulate offering the cosmos are often characterized in terms of what they represent rather than their physical actions, material ephemera, or visual depictions. Newar and Tibetan versions of the cosmic offering, however, arise from closely related cosmological texts, but exhibit differences in performance and product. Further, depictions of these rituals in painting create new visions of the cosmos that affect conceptions of the world even outside their original context. Ritual performances and artworks thus become sources for cosmological thinking beyond their authoritative texts. A detailed comparison of Newar and Tibetan rituals and artworks creates nuance in notions of a shared Himalayan Buddhist world-view and highlights complex relationships between texts, practices, depictions, and traditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Art History / Sanat Tarihi Dergisi is the property of Ege University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Mantra of Light (kōmyō shingon) practices have been among the most popular esoteric Buddhist rituals in Japan since the thirteenth century. Chinese scriptures recorded that reciting the mantra and distributing sand empowered by it could erase transgressions and ensure rebirth in the Pure Land. Subsequently, teachings on the significance of the sand empowered by the mantra received a strong boost from lectures and commentaries by Myōe (1173-1232), which many scholars have emphasized in assessing the mantra's spread. This article argues, however, that focus on the sand and such commentarial literature obscures another key to the mantra's popularization in medieval Japan: the annual Mantra of Light assemblies implemented by Eison (1201-1290) at Saidaiji in 1264. In particular, based on both premodern sources and ethnographic observations, the article investigates the Saidaiji order's use of contributor rosters for fundraising, recitation, and iconographic adornment to help illuminate the intertwined social, ritual, and material culture of the assemblies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the socioreligious roles that musical toys and miniatures have performed in the modern development of the Miho cult. Miho Shrine in Shimane Prefecture developed a distinctive practice of accepting donations of musical instruments to the deities enshrined there, which was supported by a local tradition that the deities are extremely fond of music. Along with sophisticated instruments, miniatures and simple musical toys also began to be brought into the shrine from the Meiji period onward. This article takes a comprehensive look at sociohistorical, ethnographical, sound-cultural, and other aspects to identify new networks formed through the toys' circulation. These networks helped to create modern conceptions of the ritual power imparted to small musical objects, giving new explanations to secular music, new ritual roles to miniature and toy musical instruments, and even new features to the Miho deities. In particular, the essential features of the toys--small musical objects that are physically manipulated--were a basis for the modern evolution of the cult. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Buddhist Burma, a variety of ritual has been found pertaining to quite differentiated aspects of religion. This rich ritual landscape remains under-examined due partly to the Buddhist-studies bias of most of the scholars looking at religion in Burma. In this paper, I develop comparative analysis of a class of ritual, namely that of initiation, in three components of Burmese religion: Buddhist monasticism, Buddhist esotericism, and spirit worship. At least from the present analytic perspective, the three components considered could be taken as encompassing the entire Buddhist religious sphere in Burma. Looking at initiation rituals in these three 'paths' is a means of understanding how they frame contrasting kinds of differently valued religious practice, and of showing that, although not often discussed, rituals do matter in Burma because they help to distinguish categories of action according to their relative religiosity. By doing so, I aim to give a sense of the real diversity of the Burmese ritual landscape, which until recently was rarely taken into account, and to contribute to the on-going debate in the field of Buddhist studies on what could be encapsulated as the question of Buddhism and spirit cults in Southeast Asian Theravada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to examine Seon monk Hyujeongs interest in Buddhist ritual, focusing on his Unsudan gasa (Verses on the Altar of Cloud and Water), which was the historical product of an anti-Buddhist Confucian society and which stressed the recitation o/dharanis and the Buddhas name as salvific methods. Although a Seon (Zen) monk, Hyujeongs concern with Buddhist ritual was unlike the role of Zen monks as described by conventional scholarship, which has been heavily influenced by post-19th century Japanese Zen studies. Therefore, this study suggests the need fo r a reinvestigation of the thought of Hyujeong as a Seon monk as well as of the conventional scholarship of Zen studies. The role of Hyujeong as a pro-ritual Seon monk resonates with recent scholarship positing that East Asian traditions never rejected ritual. Hyujeongs concern with Buddhist ritual with esoteric elements makes him distinct from Chinese Chan monks, who had no interest in esoteric Buddhism. In addition, Hyujeongs legacy, which laid emphasis on esoteric Buddhist elements and dependence on others, still carries influence in the monastic circles of contemporary Korea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the new system of lay Buddhist education revolutionizing the Chogye Order of Korean Buddhism in the twenty-first century. Already involving over a half a million Buddhist laypeople and five hundred monasteries throughout the country, this system is now the hallmark of the Chogye Order's propagation agenda, and it has transformed lay Buddhist activities in contemporary Korea. It is grounded upon a novel lay registration network which requires attending a basic Buddhism course at a designated temple in order to receive an official Lay ID. It now involves a lay ranking structure based on educational achievements, and culminates in the yearly Lay Propagator Exam. Besides delineating the historical construction of this system, this paper will investigate lay attitudes and motivations for joining the programs, analyze official textbook agendas, and provide ethnographic snippets from classroom rituals, in an overall attempt to paint a picture of the new Korean Buddhist lay orthodoxy the Chogye Order is currently in the process of creating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the functions of English versus other languages in Sri Lankan Buddhist rituals. The framework for this paper is based on a previous work on the language of Hindu rituals by Pandharipande (2012). This study aims to examine the following research questions: what languages are used for practicing Buddhism? Is English used in Buddhist rituals? What mechanisms are used to sanction change? and (4) Will English replace Sinhala and Pali in the UK? In order to answer these research questions, I collected data by attending Sri Lankan Buddhist festivals and event in the UK and recording sermons and speeches used during these festivals to gather information regarding language use and language change. The study proved to be a worthy investigation, as unlike in Sri Lanka where only either Sinhala or Pali is sanctioned in Buddhist practice, in the UK, Sinhala is undergoing language shift and is being replaced by English during Buddhist sermons and other activities. Although prayers and ritual chantings are still in Pali, most of these are explained to the congregation using English. In addition, the use of English is also sanctioned by the Buddhist clergy, through the use of the internet and other media for purposes of promoting Buddhism and reaching young Sri Lankans born in the UK.

Many studies on Lao rituals focus on symbolic legitimation o f the authority of the king and are written from the perspective of royalty and state leaders. This focus emphasizes the changes and reinvention of traditions in socialist Laos, with the absence of the king. By contrast, this paper, drawing on the ritual life of Luang Prabang in popular culture, or non-official context, examines Nang Kwang Hi, the legendary queen who became the great tutelary spirit of Luang Prabang, whose popularity and significance has not yet been investigated by scholarly work on Lao rituals and spirit cults. The paper argues that only by including female spirits in our analytical framework can we understand how Lao spirits are gendered, and how female gendering is significant in the study of Lao tutelary spirits. The paper also demonstrates how the traditional political and social structure of “Muang Luang Prabang”, as embodied in the female tutelary spirit cults, has persisted in contemporary Laos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of "ritual syntax" is developed by relating it to cognitive studies of ritual, providing a fuller theoretical basis. Developing theoretical grounding requires differentiating between the members of five pairs of concepts: production is not the same as analysis, syntax is not the same as semantics, ritual is not the same as the mental, cognition is not the same as the mental, and syntax is not the same as language. These distinctions help avoid overly strong interpretations of the analogy between ritual and language. A discussion of "ritual" suggests that it is best conceptualized in terms of multiple scalar characteristics with degrees of ritualization. Two Buddhist practices, insight meditation and homa, are introduced as instances for the cognitive study of ritual. Syntax involves not simply ordering of elements, but also hierarchical organization of those elements. While syntax allows sentential elements to move within a sentence, ritual tends toward invariance. Invariance seems to contradict the claim that ritual is syntactically organized. However, rituals are often modeled on ordinary activities, producing a kind of "semantic" motivation for invariance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to Slavoj Zizek, ‘Real’ is the world before it is carved up by the Symbolic. The Symbolic is the big Other that distorts/represses the Real. Fantasy is the mask that covers up this distortion and makes people of necessity live with repressed or sublimated forms of pleasure in different versions of the Symbolic. The discontent that issues from this inhibition constitutes psychic trauma and manifests in clash of denominational and racist fantasies. In this article, I attempt a Lacanaian-Zizekian analysis of the traumatic that inflects the subject positions in violent Buddhist state politics of Sri Lanka and seek to trace its continuity in the (anti)-ethics of Sinhala Buddhist folk rituals practised in the southern (low) part of the country. The psychodynamics of violence that engender the political engagement of the state, the JVP and the LTTE in the 1980s are not dissimilar from that of the sacrificial violence of Buddhist exorcism rituals in vogue in parts of Sri Lanka today. This is a fresh attempt to understand why violence becomes ‘unavoidable’ even in denominational identities that otherwise preach ahimsa (non-violence), and in statecraft that professes to be governed by such principles. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the question of claims to intellectual property of texts and terminologies as they were raised in debates between Buddhists and Daoists in the 7th century CE. In some apologetic texts, Buddhists accuse Daoists of "stealing" their words and scriptures. Can we interpret this as a concept of intellectual property? What could possibly constitute a theft of words and texts in a culture where literati had a large common stock of reference to use? Where unmarked citations in all kinds of writings abound? Where terminology of Daoist texts translated Buddhist texts? And where Buddhist authors often drew on the classics to elucidate their teachings? Using a methodological approach of the philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814) on intellectual property, this essay presents different conceptions of property of texts and ideas in early medieval Buddhism and Daoism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One-sixth of the known works of the kōshiki genre belong to the category of jingi kōshiki, which make non-Buddhist divinities their central objects of worship and thereby integrate them into Buddhist doctrine and practice. Appearing 210 years after the first works of the genre were composed, this subgenre is not one of the oldest, but it is the category that contains the greatest number of works, a fact that makes this group extremely important for an understanding of the genre of kōshiki as a whole. Nevertheless, the study of jingi kōshiki has remained the most neglected field of research among those related to kōshiki. This article examines specific problems faced when attempting to grasp the character of jingi kōshiki, while maintaining a steady focus on the development of the genre as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Newar form of Buddhism that is practised in the Kathmandu Valley constitutes an intricate pluralistic religious system. If we consider the situation today, it combines old forms of Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna Buddhism which rely on Sanskrit texts and recently adopted Theravāda beliefs and practices based on Pali texts. The first of these two schools of Buddhism has been strongly influenced by the caste system over the course of time, whereas Theravāda lays emphasis on renunciation. The paper sets out to show the centrality of the gift in all religious contexts and its role in establishing lasting social ties between the laity and religious specialists. Two different gift-giving ceremonies are discussed: (1) the Mahāyāna/Vajrayāna Pañca Dāna, a regular annual ritual event and (2) the Theravāda Kathina Dāna, which is more of an occasional event. In both cases, donations of rice, money, etc.-more specifically a monastic robe at Kathina Dāna-are offered with much pomp and circumstance to religious specialists and/or the monastic community. During Pañca Dāna, this abundance of gifts goes to the traditional Newar samgha, i.e. Vajrayāna married priests (Vajrāchārya) and the heirs of a formerly monastic tradition (Shākya). During Kathina Dāna, they are offered to Theravāda monks. In both cases, the emphasis is on generosity; the gifts/offerings go to recipients of high socio-religious status and express the superiority of transcendental values over secular values. However, there is one notable difference. Contrary to Kathina, which has a more individualistic optional orientation, Pañca Dāna is shaped more by caste social rules. My findings, which are drawn from a South Asian society, are a far cry from Marcel Mauss's definition of the gift as reciprocal, as discussed in his notorious essay. In the Newar community, Buddhists offer gifts with no guarantee of their being reciprocated and do not expect to receive a counter-gift. The gifts analysed here do contribute to the cohesion of society, however, by reproducing hierarchical links and maintaining the identity of the religious specialists on the one hand, and of the laity on the other. By and large, they reinforce the bonds between people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This introduction draws attention to recent, renewed engagements with comparison in anthropology. This special issue-the first published collective endeavour to contribute to a comparative anthropology of Buddhism-constitutes an attempt to examine collectively the comparative potential of a major anthropological theme, the gift, in Buddhist contexts. One of the distinctive features of this set of papers is to consider the 'gift' within a somewhat larger spectrum of 'transfers' (following in particular Testart's terminology), including in particular practices of remuneration for religious services. These papers also exemplify a diverse range of modalities in comparative approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this essay is threefold. I would like first to propose a more refined choice of analytical vocabulary for the study of Buddhist giving and related practices, by taking into consideration recent contributions by Testart and F. Weber, who have forcefully argued that the Maussian category of 'the gift' is in need of conceptual clarification: we need a typology of forms of 'transfers', to use Testart's term. I will argue for the analytical importance of the distinction between 'gifts' strictly speaking and patterns of transfers that are more akin to an exchange or transaction, such as the provision of ritual services and their remuneration. Second, I address the question of the extent to which we can we speak of 'reciprocity' in the case of actual Buddhist gifts (e.g. alms or donations made outside of contexts in which monks are asked for religious services). The scholarly literature displays here a remarkable lack of consensus and, to some extent, of clarity; I will offer an attempt at clarification. The third aim is to reconsider critically the common assumption that the gift is a central if not an outright essential and defining component in Buddhist laity- sangha relations. I will draw here on data from a Tibetan society in which Buddhist gift-giving is only of minor importance and transactions centred on ritual services are much more central to laity- sangha relations, and contrast this with the data from mainstream Thai(-Lao) and Burmese Theravada contexts. This may serve as a useful corrective to scholarly accounts that echo perhaps too closely emic emphases on the gift, or might have been misled by ill-fitting theoretical models. The overall aim is to contribute, through the angle of the gift and its variants, to an emerging comparative anthropology of Buddhism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the diversity of costumes of Buddhist ritual dance in Mongolian and Korean Buddhism. Both the Mongolian Tsam dance and the Korean Nabi dance have developed to reflect the regional characteristics of costumes and symbolic systems and are closely related as far as the ideas of rebirth and afterlife are concerned. Both the Mongolian and the Korean dance, performed by monks, display common features that symbolise the spiritual role of the monks in guiding people on their way from birth to death. The symbolism of the ritual dance costume is related to the traditional culture, in both Mongolia and Korea, but Mongolian Tsam uses more shamanistic and decorative elements based on the ceremony of shamanism, while Korean Nabi dance shows an exceptional beauty in its self-restraint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Acta Linguistica Asiatica is the property of Acta Linguistica Asiatica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Early Buddhist thought and practice were shaped in several important respects by the rejection of the sacrificial rituals that were so central to Brahmanical tradition. For instance, as scholars have recognized, the bodhisattva path inverts the logic of substitution that informs animal sacrifice: the bodhisattva perfects himself not through sacrificing another in his place, but by sacrificing himself for the sake of others. This article argues that some Mahāyāna sūtras (specifically, the Suvarṇa-(pra)bhāsottama, the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka, and the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa) invert this inversion by portraying themselves as aesthetic, dramatic forms of sacrifice, rituals of recitation that obviate the violence not only of animal sacrifice, but also of the bodhisattva's self-sacrifice. These sūtras substitute themselves for both the fire and the food of sacrificial ritual, offering audiences a performative technology for transformation and a bloodless path to buddhahood. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Much productive scholarship across Asia has considered the links between religious resurgence and authoritarian governance. However, limitations persist in conceptualizations of state authority, which I examine in the literature on Southeast Asia. Noteworthy are the assumptions that central institutions are definitive of authoritarian states, and divides between study of the sacred and secular. I propose the notion of “ritual governance” to address these conceptual issues and illustrate this with an ethnographic case study from a major development project in Laos, the Nam Theun 2 hydropower scheme. I show how Lao government officials working with ethnic minority villagers used a baci ritual and village meeting to combine a persuasive sense of unity with coercive use of hierarchy. Significantly, the baci and other Buddhist rituals were suppressed by the early socialist state, but regained prominence with ideological shifts from socialism to modern developmentalism. This case study demonstrates the contemporary significance of state-sponsored ritual for development in Laos as well as the need for more nuanced conceptions of the state in discussions of religiosity and authoritarianism across Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

With over forty thousand attendees every year, the Shinnyo-en Hawaii Lantern Floating--an adapted version of the traditional Japanese Buddhist obon ritual, tōrō nagashi- is among the largest annually held Buddhist rituals undertaken outside of Asia. One way to approach understanding of this rite is as an example of a 'glocal' Buddhist ritual. Drawing from Roland Robertson's framework of glocalization, this study examines the steps Shinnyo-en took to adapt its global message to a new local culture. While other examples of the tōrō nagashi are found in Hawaii, none have developed on the rite to the extent that Shinnyo-en has. Some innovations include: moving the date of the rite to Memorial Day, the inclusion of local cultural elements and other religious groups, and allowing the public to personalize the individual lanterns. Through examples of the ritual's various Hawaiian and global elements, I explain why the Shinnyo-en version of the lantern floating rite, over other versions of the same rite, came to reach its status as the Hawaiian Lantern Floating Ceremony. Finally this study argues for the important, often overlooked role of both ritual and new religious movements in globalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented which discusses articles within the issue on the theme of visual Esoteric Buddhist culture with topics, including Buddhist art and rituals and the historical spread of Buddhism.

This article is a short textual study of a previously unidentified Tangut text from the IOM RAS collection, a small manuscript fragment not contained in existing catalogues. Because of its type of binding and legible handwriting it became an eyecatching source to focus on during the recent cataloguing work. Following analysis, it became clear that this was a funerary text fragment, and probably a translation from the Tibetan from the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries. Though it is only a small fragment, the text contains the specific traits of the ancient Tibetan funeral ritual, which enables us to compare it with similar religious and cultural traditions in Central Asia. As a comprehensible text in Tangut language, it provides valuable aspects and data from everyday life in the Xixia period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports on South Asian studies including the rites of the Newar people, the Buddhist tradition, and the Kumari Chen, a building designed for the Living Goddess located in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Continuing further on the path laid out by Michael Allen's pioneering work on rituals that centre on Newar Buddhist girl children in Nepal, this study analyses liturgies pertaining to a religious practice called ‘bārhā pikāyagu’ that ends a period of seclusion undergone by Newar girls before menarche. The article looks at three ritual manuals currently used by Buddhist priests in Lalitpur, Kathmandu and Bhaktapur, respectively. In its aim to supply a textual background to Allen's ethnography of this ritual, the study tries to place these manuals at the conjunction of other ritual textual genres, such as prescriptions for domestic rituals for women that include cosmological, demonological and pregnancy-related aspects, and attempts to explore their composition, their intention and their place within the larger ritual literature of Buddhism among the Newars. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Danubius is the property of Danubius and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article discusses several writings which focus on Tibetan tradition, such as the works of Buddhist masters Karma Lingpa and Patrul Rinpoche. Topics discussed include the principle of Pure Land Buddhism which relies mostly upon faith, the art of dying in Ars Moriendi, and the symbolic interpretations of lamas, Pure Land of Sukhavati, and the Phowa rituals in Patrul Rinpoche's "Words of My Perfect Teacher."

"Changing Conceptions of 'Maņḍala' in Tang China: Ritual and the Role of Images" is concerned with the intersection of visionary experience with visual forms. The focus of the study is a Buddhist incantation, or dhāranī, titled the Revered and Victorious Dhāranī of the Buddha's Uṣṇ īṣa. This particular dhāranī was widely circulated in China during the Tang dynasty (618-907); for this reason, it may be approached as an important case study for studying the conceptualization of mņḍalas in China prior to their transmission to Japan in the early ninth century. Through a detailed examination of successive translations and ritual manuals associated with the Revered and Victorious Dhāranī of the Buddha's Uṣṇ, different conceptions of mņḍalas and the roles that were played by images may be observed. This, in turn, responds to larger questions in East Asian Buddhism and studies of Buddhist art regarding the functions of painted man.d.alas during Buddhist rituals. Lastly, this article seeks to shed light on lesser-known aspects of esoteric Buddhist art in Asia, as the scholarship to date on Buddhist mņḍalas has primarily focused upon studies of Japanese and Himalayan works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cult of the sacred scriptures in early Buddhism had an impact on Chinese Buddhism, which manifested itself by the rise of the scriptural platform in the medieval period. The rise of the scriptural platform shows that in medieval China the very places associated with particular Buddhist texts and figures have become the objects of worship and pilgrimage, and they constantly appeared in Buddhist writings as the commemorative sites for particular scriptures and their commentaries. Various forms of the scriptural platforms also illustrated the rich practice of Buddhist texts in medieval China, such as translating, commenting, copying and reciting, as well as worshipping. Occasionally the scriptural platforms also appeared as the sacred places for housing sacred scriptures, which later would be replaced by the Buddhist monastic library. Practice of the Buddhist texts remained, yet the scriptural platform disappeared due to the rise of Chan Buddhist literature. This study suggests that the material culture, the rituals and the texts can barely be separated from each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes that many Tibetan rituals are shaped by a language of creating, giving, and eating food. Drawing on a range of premodern texts and observation of a week-long Accomplishing Medicine (sman sgrub) ritual based on those texts, we explore ritualized food interactions from a narrative perspective. Through the creation, offering, and consumption of food, ritual participants, including Buddhas, deities, and other unseen beings, create and maintain variant identities and relationships with each other. Using a ritual tradition that crosses religious and medical domains in Tibet, we examine how food and eating honors, constructs, and maintains an appropriate and spatiotemporally situated community order with a gastronomic contract familiar to all participants. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the cow veneration practice of Sinhala Buddhists in Sri Lanka. It explores the significance of cow protectionism in Sinhala Buddhist culture differ from Indian and Hindu-Tamil cow protectionism of India and Sri Lanka. The author argues the nationalist factors in creating regulations for the protection of cow. It also suggests several methods used by Sinhala Buddhist in religious and historical cultural contexts.