Author: Johan Elverskog
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812251830
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 192
Book Description
A corrective to the contemporary idea that Buddhism has always been an environmentally friendly religion In the current popular imagination, Buddhism is often understood to be a religion intrinsically concerned with the environment. The Dharma, the name given to Buddhist teachings by Buddhists, states that all things are interconnected. Therefore, Buddhists are perceived as extending compassion beyond people and animals to include plants and the earth itself out of a concern for the total living environment. In The Buddha's Footprint, Johan Elverskog contends that only by jettisoning this contemporary image of Buddhism as a purely ascetic and apolitical tradition of contemplation can we see the true nature of the Dharma. According to Elverskog, Buddhism is, in fact, an expansive religious and political system premised on generating wealth through the exploitation of natural resources. Elverskog surveys the expansion of Buddhism across Asia in the period between 500 BCE and 1500 CE, when Buddhist institutions were built from Iran and Azerbaijan in the west, to Kazakhstan and Siberia in the north, Japan in the east, and Sri Lanka and Indonesia in the south. He examines the prosperity theology at the heart of the Dharma that declared riches to be a sign of good karma and the means by which spritiual status could be elevated through donations bequeathed to Buddhist institutions. He demonstrates how this scriptural tradition propelled Buddhists to seek wealth and power across Asia and to exploit both the people and the environment. Elverskog shows the ways in which Buddhist expansion not only entailed the displacement of local gods and myths with those of the Dharma—as was the case with Christianity and Islam—but also involved fundamentally transforming earlier social and political structures and networks of economic exchange. The Buddha's Footprint argues that the institutionalization of the Dharma was intimately connected to agricultural expansion, resource extraction, deforestation, urbanization, and the monumentalization of Buddhism itself.
The Buddha's Footprint
Author: Johan Elverskog
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812251830
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 192
Book Description
A corrective to the contemporary idea that Buddhism has always been an environmentally friendly religion In the current popular imagination, Buddhism is often understood to be a religion intrinsically concerned with the environment. The Dharma, the name given to Buddhist teachings by Buddhists, states that all things are interconnected. Therefore, Buddhists are perceived as extending compassion beyond people and animals to include plants and the earth itself out of a concern for the total living environment. In The Buddha's Footprint, Johan Elverskog contends that only by jettisoning this contemporary image of Buddhism as a purely ascetic and apolitical tradition of contemplation can we see the true nature of the Dharma. According to Elverskog, Buddhism is, in fact, an expansive religious and political system premised on generating wealth through the exploitation of natural resources. Elverskog surveys the expansion of Buddhism across Asia in the period between 500 BCE and 1500 CE, when Buddhist institutions were built from Iran and Azerbaijan in the west, to Kazakhstan and Siberia in the north, Japan in the east, and Sri Lanka and Indonesia in the south. He examines the prosperity theology at the heart of the Dharma that declared riches to be a sign of good karma and the means by which spritiual status could be elevated through donations bequeathed to Buddhist institutions. He demonstrates how this scriptural tradition propelled Buddhists to seek wealth and power across Asia and to exploit both the people and the environment. Elverskog shows the ways in which Buddhist expansion not only entailed the displacement of local gods and myths with those of the Dharma—as was the case with Christianity and Islam—but also involved fundamentally transforming earlier social and political structures and networks of economic exchange. The Buddha's Footprint argues that the institutionalization of the Dharma was intimately connected to agricultural expansion, resource extraction, deforestation, urbanization, and the monumentalization of Buddhism itself.
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812251830
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 192
Book Description
A corrective to the contemporary idea that Buddhism has always been an environmentally friendly religion In the current popular imagination, Buddhism is often understood to be a religion intrinsically concerned with the environment. The Dharma, the name given to Buddhist teachings by Buddhists, states that all things are interconnected. Therefore, Buddhists are perceived as extending compassion beyond people and animals to include plants and the earth itself out of a concern for the total living environment. In The Buddha's Footprint, Johan Elverskog contends that only by jettisoning this contemporary image of Buddhism as a purely ascetic and apolitical tradition of contemplation can we see the true nature of the Dharma. According to Elverskog, Buddhism is, in fact, an expansive religious and political system premised on generating wealth through the exploitation of natural resources. Elverskog surveys the expansion of Buddhism across Asia in the period between 500 BCE and 1500 CE, when Buddhist institutions were built from Iran and Azerbaijan in the west, to Kazakhstan and Siberia in the north, Japan in the east, and Sri Lanka and Indonesia in the south. He examines the prosperity theology at the heart of the Dharma that declared riches to be a sign of good karma and the means by which spritiual status could be elevated through donations bequeathed to Buddhist institutions. He demonstrates how this scriptural tradition propelled Buddhists to seek wealth and power across Asia and to exploit both the people and the environment. Elverskog shows the ways in which Buddhist expansion not only entailed the displacement of local gods and myths with those of the Dharma—as was the case with Christianity and Islam—but also involved fundamentally transforming earlier social and political structures and networks of economic exchange. The Buddha's Footprint argues that the institutionalization of the Dharma was intimately connected to agricultural expansion, resource extraction, deforestation, urbanization, and the monumentalization of Buddhism itself.
Buddhapāda
Author: Jacques de Guerny
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789745241633
Category : Buddhas in art
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
The Buddhapada is one of the most enigmatic artistic developments that has derived from the Buddhist faith. Literally 'foot (or feet) of the Buddha', its most common manifestation is that of a footprint, rendered in three dimensions in stone or metal, or less commonly on cloth or paper. The author traces the evolution of this pinnacle of early Buddhist art from its origins in north India over two millennia ago, through its long migration in time and space, to its present prominence throughout Buddhist Asia. This is the first survey of the Buddhapada.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789745241633
Category : Buddhas in art
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
The Buddhapada is one of the most enigmatic artistic developments that has derived from the Buddhist faith. Literally 'foot (or feet) of the Buddha', its most common manifestation is that of a footprint, rendered in three dimensions in stone or metal, or less commonly on cloth or paper. The author traces the evolution of this pinnacle of early Buddhist art from its origins in north India over two millennia ago, through its long migration in time and space, to its present prominence throughout Buddhist Asia. This is the first survey of the Buddhapada.
Indian Journals
Author: Allen Ginsberg
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
ISBN: 0802196888
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 276
Book Description
Allan Ginsberg was the leading poet and conscience of the Beat generation. Indian Journals collects Ginsberg’s writings from his trip to India in 1962–63.
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
ISBN: 0802196888
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 276
Book Description
Allan Ginsberg was the leading poet and conscience of the Beat generation. Indian Journals collects Ginsberg’s writings from his trip to India in 1962–63.
Buddhism Illuminated
Author: San San May
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780295743783
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
The British Library has one of the richest collections of Southeast Asian Buddhist manuscripts, principally from Thailand and Burma.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780295743783
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
The British Library has one of the richest collections of Southeast Asian Buddhist manuscripts, principally from Thailand and Burma.
Buddhism and Islam on the Silk Road
Author: Johan Elverskog
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812205316
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 353
Book Description
In the contemporary world the meeting of Buddhism and Islam is most often imagined as one of violent confrontation. Indeed, the Taliban's destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas in 2001 seemed not only to reenact the infamous Muslim destruction of Nalanda monastery in the thirteenth century but also to reaffirm the stereotypes of Buddhism as a peaceful, rational philosophy and Islam as an inherently violent and irrational religion. But if Buddhist-Muslim history was simply repeated instances of Muslim militants attacking representations of the Buddha, how had the Bamiyan Buddha statues survived thirteen hundred years of Muslim rule? Buddhism and Islam on the Silk Road demonstrates that the history of Buddhist-Muslim interaction is much richer and more complex than many assume. This groundbreaking book covers Inner Asia from the eighth century through the Mongol empire and to the end of the Qing dynasty in the late nineteenth century. By exploring the meetings between Buddhists and Muslims along the Silk Road from Iran to China over more than a millennium, Johan Elverskog reveals that this long encounter was actually one of profound cross-cultural exchange in which two religious traditions were not only enriched but transformed in many ways.
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812205316
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 353
Book Description
In the contemporary world the meeting of Buddhism and Islam is most often imagined as one of violent confrontation. Indeed, the Taliban's destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas in 2001 seemed not only to reenact the infamous Muslim destruction of Nalanda monastery in the thirteenth century but also to reaffirm the stereotypes of Buddhism as a peaceful, rational philosophy and Islam as an inherently violent and irrational religion. But if Buddhist-Muslim history was simply repeated instances of Muslim militants attacking representations of the Buddha, how had the Bamiyan Buddha statues survived thirteen hundred years of Muslim rule? Buddhism and Islam on the Silk Road demonstrates that the history of Buddhist-Muslim interaction is much richer and more complex than many assume. This groundbreaking book covers Inner Asia from the eighth century through the Mongol empire and to the end of the Qing dynasty in the late nineteenth century. By exploring the meetings between Buddhists and Muslims along the Silk Road from Iran to China over more than a millennium, Johan Elverskog reveals that this long encounter was actually one of profound cross-cultural exchange in which two religious traditions were not only enriched but transformed in many ways.
Buddhapada and the Bodhisattva Path
Author: Analayo
Publisher:
ISBN: 9783897334151
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 180
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN: 9783897334151
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 180
Book Description
Language in the Digital Era. Challenges and Perspectives
Author: Daniel Dejica
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110472058
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 270
Book Description
This collected volume brings together the contributions of several humanities scholars who focus on the evolution of language in the digital era. The first part of the volume explores general aspects of humanities and linguistics in the digital environment. The second part focuses on language and translation and includes topics that discuss the digital translation policy, new technologies and specialised translation, online resources for terminology management, translation of online advertising, or subtitling. The last part of the book focuses on language teaching and learning and addresses the changes, challenges and perspectives of didactics in the age of technology. Each contribution is divided into several sections that present the state of the art and the methodology used, and discuss the results and perspectives of the authors. The book is recommended to scholars, professionals, students and anyone interested in the changes within the humanities in conjunction with technological innovation or in the ways language is adapting to the challenges of today’s digitized world.
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110472058
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 270
Book Description
This collected volume brings together the contributions of several humanities scholars who focus on the evolution of language in the digital era. The first part of the volume explores general aspects of humanities and linguistics in the digital environment. The second part focuses on language and translation and includes topics that discuss the digital translation policy, new technologies and specialised translation, online resources for terminology management, translation of online advertising, or subtitling. The last part of the book focuses on language teaching and learning and addresses the changes, challenges and perspectives of didactics in the age of technology. Each contribution is divided into several sections that present the state of the art and the methodology used, and discuss the results and perspectives of the authors. The book is recommended to scholars, professionals, students and anyone interested in the changes within the humanities in conjunction with technological innovation or in the ways language is adapting to the challenges of today’s digitized world.
Poems from the Buddha's Footprint
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780933439122
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
About ninety miles north of Bangkok lies Wat Phra Phut-thabaht or Temple of the Buddha's Footprint. In February 1807, four days before the Magha Puja holy day, and in a tradition stretching back almost two centuries to the Temple's founding, members of Bangkok's royal courts set out on pilgrimage to the Footprint. These are poems of longing, worry, hope, in the form of a nirat, a Thai form in which Sunthorn Phu was a master.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780933439122
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
About ninety miles north of Bangkok lies Wat Phra Phut-thabaht or Temple of the Buddha's Footprint. In February 1807, four days before the Magha Puja holy day, and in a tradition stretching back almost two centuries to the Temple's founding, members of Bangkok's royal courts set out on pilgrimage to the Footprint. These are poems of longing, worry, hope, in the form of a nirat, a Thai form in which Sunthorn Phu was a master.
Relics of the Buddha
Author: John S. Strong
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691188114
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 316
Book Description
Buddhism is popularly seen as a religion stressing the truth of impermanence. How, then, to account for the long-standing veneration, in Asian Buddhist communities, of bone fragments, hair, teeth, and other bodily bits said to come from the historic Buddha? Early European and American scholars of religion, influenced by a characteristic Protestant bias against relic worship, declared such practices to be superstitious and fraudulent, and far from the true essence of Buddhism. John Strong's book, by contrast, argues that relic veneration has played a serious and integral role in Buddhist traditions in South and Southeast Asia-and that it is in no way foreign to Buddhism. The book is structured around the life story of the Buddha, starting with traditions about relics of previous buddhas and relics from the past lives of the Buddha Sakyamuni. It then considers the death of the Buddha, the collection of his bodily relics after his cremation, and stories of their spread to different parts of Asia. The book ends with a consideration of the legend of the future parinirvana (extinction) of the relics prior to the advent of the next Buddha, Maitreya. Throughout, the author does not hesitate to explore the many versions of these legends and to relate them to their ritual, doctrinal, artistic, and social contexts.
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691188114
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 316
Book Description
Buddhism is popularly seen as a religion stressing the truth of impermanence. How, then, to account for the long-standing veneration, in Asian Buddhist communities, of bone fragments, hair, teeth, and other bodily bits said to come from the historic Buddha? Early European and American scholars of religion, influenced by a characteristic Protestant bias against relic worship, declared such practices to be superstitious and fraudulent, and far from the true essence of Buddhism. John Strong's book, by contrast, argues that relic veneration has played a serious and integral role in Buddhist traditions in South and Southeast Asia-and that it is in no way foreign to Buddhism. The book is structured around the life story of the Buddha, starting with traditions about relics of previous buddhas and relics from the past lives of the Buddha Sakyamuni. It then considers the death of the Buddha, the collection of his bodily relics after his cremation, and stories of their spread to different parts of Asia. The book ends with a consideration of the legend of the future parinirvana (extinction) of the relics prior to the advent of the next Buddha, Maitreya. Throughout, the author does not hesitate to explore the many versions of these legends and to relate them to their ritual, doctrinal, artistic, and social contexts.
From Stone to Flesh
Author: Donald S. Lopez
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226493210
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 300
Book Description
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.
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226493210
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 300
Book Description
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.