Buddhist Material Research Articles

Cloned Buddhas: mapping out the DNA of Buddhist heritage preservation

ABSTRACT This article considers how technological innovation transforms the value of religious materiality in Buddhist heritage reproduction projects in Japan. To illustrate the religiously and politically charged landscape of heritage care, I focus on the reproduction technologies developed by the Tokyo University of Arts researchers to create highly precise replicas of Buddhist heritage. One such ‘super clone’ replica of Japan’s National Treasure homed at Hōryūji temple in Nara – a 1400-year-old ‘Shaka Triad’ sculpture of Shakyamuni, the historical Buddha – was put on display at the Nagano Prefectural Art Museum in Japan in April 2021. The ‘cloned’ statue is a highly precise copy that goes beyond the practices of exact duplication. With the use of 3D measurement, digital modelling technologies, and advanced casting techniques, this cloned religious heritage object transports the viewer back in time to the aesthetic moment of creation and allows them to experience anew the object’s affective presence as crafted centuries ago. In drawing on this example and its potential to intervene in other religious heritage reproduction projects globally, I argue that technology transforms religious heritage to generate alternative socio-economic afterlives of Buddhist objects. By analysing the scientific narratives and processes of heritage care, I show how the religious heritage reproduction is where the aesthetic, political, and economic dimensions of Buddhist material futures are imagined and realized. It is also a space of contestation between devotion, science, and memory-oriented practices of care in transnational heritage preservation.

Funerary Practices at Pyu Sites in Myanmar and the Appearance of Buddhist Artifacts from the Fifth to Sixth Century CE Period

Abstract: An ongoing research question in Myanmar (Burma) is to what extent, and in what specific part of the first millennium CE, traces of Buddhism from India can be observed in the early urban “Pyu” culture. Burial urns feature significantly in the archaeological record, but they do not have any specifically Buddhist features. Some funerary shrines feature a brick plinth at one end. If these were bases for stūpas or Buddha images, then Indian influence could be attributed as early as the second–third century CE period. No evidence has yet been found of what these plinths carried. A later burial complex, dated by radiocarbon to the sixth–seventh century period, included Buddhist “votive tablets.” In another architectural form, the reliquary stūpa, we find a Buddhist practice directly comparable to Indian practices of the early-to-mid first millennium CE. On the evidence of paleography and art history, the Pyu Buddhist stūpas may have been operational in the fifth–sixth century CE period. The earliest radiocarbon date range for a building containing Buddhist material is also the fifth–sixth century.

Methodological basis for studying the ethical component of the Buddhist creed

The subject of the study is a methodological toolkit for a comprehensive study of ethical ideas contained in the creed of traditional Russian Buddhists — Kalmyks, Buryats, Tuvans, Altaians. The purpose of this study is to substantiate philosophical understanding of the ethical component of the text “Refuge”, recited by traditional Buddhists of Russia. The choice of methodological approaches, principles and methods is determined by the philosophical orientalist paradigm, when Buddhist materials are considered in their integrity, in their inextricable connection with human and culture. Important addition is taking into account ideas of Buddhologist O. O. Rosenberg, who advocated the study of the “living” tradition of Buddhism. The novelty of the study lies in substantiation that a holistic understanding of the ethical component of the Russian Buddhists' creed can be obtained by combining three approaches: philosophy of culture, philosophy of religion, and philosophical anthropology. Philosophical cultural dimension will allow focusing on categories of Buddhist ethics set out in the text “Refuge” and taking into account comments of Buddhist authors in accordance with the principle of “cognitive modesty” of intercultural philosophy. The philosophical religious approach allows to consider the ethical component of the text “Refuge” in a soteriological context and show its place in the Buddhist religious complex. Philosophical anthropology will make it possible to identify the probable subjective meaning of the ethical component of the text “Refuge” for Buddhists. Such a comprehensive philosophical analysis of Russian Buddhists' creed will lead to the discovery of the foundations of their spiritual and moral values.

Curating Buddhism, Fostering Diplomacy: The “Secrets of the Fallen Pagoda” Exhibition in Singapore

In 2014, Singapore’s Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM), in collaboration with the Shaanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau and Shaanxi Cultural Heritage Promotion Center, organized the “Secrets of the Fallen Pagoda” exhibition in Singapore. The exhibition featured artefacts excavated from the Famen Temple, as well as objects excavated from other sites in Shaanxi province. This article draws on the case of ACM’s “Secrets of the Fallen Pagoda” exhibition to explore the use of Buddhist artefacts in the diplomacy between China and Singapore. It argues that the exhibition demonstrates the intersection between cultural and Buddhist diplomacy, highlighting how Buddhist cultural heritage was used as a platform to foster diplomatic ties between two secular countries with predominantly Buddhist and ethnic Chinese populations. While Buddhist material culture and history might have been used to highlight the shared cultural ties between China and Singapore, differing perceptions over the exhibition’s presentation provides ground for contemplating the varied meanings behind the use of religious objects in cultural diplomacy.

Preserving Offerings, Prolonging Merit: Efficacy, Skillful Means, and Re-purposing in Plastic Buddhist Material Culture in Contemporary Sikkim

Despite official bans, public criticism and concern over pollution, plastics are widely used in Buddhist material culture in the Indian Himalayan state of Sikkim. Using the framework of the seven bowls of water offerings, undertaken every morning to the Buddhas and deities in domestic shrine rooms, and ethnographic observations, as a way to frame discussions of changing material culture, I will interrogate how plastics are used and waste is re-purposed in Sikkimese interdimensional engagements in offerings to the deities and spirits. I will argue that plastics continue to be seen as efficacious and generative for Buddhist communities due to their ability to be re-purposed and recycled, acting as exemplars of skillful means that allow for Buddhist communities to exercise their own agency in determining the efficacy of material culture and the making of new futures. This paper engages with scholarship from anthropologists and Buddhist studies scholars on Buddhist materiality, plastic, and waste studies to consider the malleability of plastics, even when they are not malleable, and demonstrate how this malleability generates positive and creative engagements across dimensions that allow for nuanced and complex responses to the anxieties people have about plastic waste in the Himalayas.

Restoring Lumbinī: Theravāda Buddhism and Heritage on the Nepal Frontier

ABSTRACT The construction of the modern Buddhist ‘Holy Land’, in present-day India and Nepal, was part and parcel of the formation of Buddhism as a world religion in the early twentieth century and continues to represent a potent expression of Buddhist materiality in the contemporary moment. This article explores the location of the Buddha’s birthplace at Lumbinī within the discourse of modern Theravāda missionisation, reform and preservation. I assert that the project of locating and restoring Lumbinī was essential to Buddhism’s modern revival in Nepal and the domestication of Theravāda. The Maha Bodhi Society and Nepal’s Dharmodaya Sabha were formative in the construction of Lumbinī as a monument of Buddhist heritage and operated as the leading voices in efforts to repatriate the site to Buddhist custodianship. Exploring the material dimensions of early modern Theravāda reform signals a shift from domestic encounters with colonialism and Christian missionisation in locales of Buddhist majority to the transnational flow of persons, practices and knowledges that have come to shape the contours of modern Buddhism. 1

A Golden Treasure from Korea: The Gilt-Bronze Bodhisattva Statue of Silla

A gilt-bronze statue of a standing bodhisattva was discovered at the Sŏllimwŏn Temple site. The statue is notable as its halo and pedestal were found intact at the time of discovery, and the bodhisattva figure itself is almost perfectly preserved. There are only a few instances of gilt-bronze statues from the Unified Silla kingdom that can be definitively linked to the site of their original placement. Sŏllimwŏn was physically distant from the royal palace, but its status as a central temple of the Sŏn School 禪宗 and the activities of pre-eminent monks in the ninth century made it important enough to become the site for a splendid gilt-bronze bodhisattva statue. Based on physical, stylistic, and scientific evidence, the statue dates to the latter half of the ninth century and has ties to the Buddhist monk Master Honggak 弘覺禪師. A unique example of a gilt-bronze sculpture, the Sŏllimwŏn bodhisattva is a valuable part of Buddhist material culture in Korea.

The Buddha’s Busted Finger: Craft, Touch, and Cosmology in Theravada Buddhism

AbstractThis article is about the bodily connection between Theravada Buddhist craftspeople, monks, and laypeople to the objects they create and touch. Textual and contemporary accounts of Buddhist material production emphasize the importance of physical touch in the formal aspects, embodied efficacy, and social salience of Buddhist objects, including Buddha images, brick stupas, and shrines. Here, I explore how the hands of skilled and unskilled Buddhist craftspeople manipulate, form, and connect divine, material, and social expressions of Theravada Buddhism. The handiwork of Buddhists gestures towards the ethical possibilities and cosmological significance of religious crafting, installation, and construction. Drawing on a variety of Theravada Buddhist sources, this article introduces “religious building” as a usable analytic category that can reveal why religion itself is often organized around, and generated through, acts of material and spatial production.

Precious Items Piling up Like Mountains: Buddhist Art Production via Fundraising Campaigns in Late Koryŏ Korea (918–1392)

Considering visual culture alongside written source material, this article uncovers the socioeconomic aspect of Korean Buddhist monastic life, which has been a marginalized field of research. Arguing against the idea of an “other-worldly” Buddhism, the article specifically discusses the ways in which Buddhist monasteries conducted fundraising activities in late Koryŏ period (918–1392 CE) Korea. Via fundraising strategies, which targeted wealthy aristocrats as well as the commoner population, Buddhist monks managed the production and maintenance of Buddhist material culture, such as the construction of shrines, the casting of precious sculptures, and the carving of thousands of woodblocks used for the printing of sacred Buddhist scriptures. While the scholarship on Koryŏ Buddhism has traditionally focused on meditation, doctrine, state sponsored rituals, and temples’ relationships with the royal court, this study expands the field by showing that economic activities were salient features of Koryŏ Buddhism “on the ground.” By initiating and overseeing fundraising activities, Buddhist manager-monks not only gained merit, but also maintained the presence and physical appearance of Buddhist temples, which constitute the framework of Buddhist ritual and practice.

Koleksi Raffles Dari Jawa: Bukti Dari Eropa Tentang Sebuah Peradaban

Stamford Raffles was promoted to Lieutenant Governor of Java when the island was taken from the Dutch by the British East India Company in 1811 as part of the Napoleonic warsin Europe. During Raffles’ years on Java, he collected substantial cultural materials,among others are; theatrical objects, musical instruments, coins and amulets, metal sculpture, and drawings of Hindu- Buddhist buildings and sculpture. European interest inantiquities explains the ancient Hindu- Buddhist material in Raffles’s collection, but thetheatrical objects were less understood easily. This essay explored Raffles’ s collecting practices, addressing the key questions of what he collected and why, as well as what were the shape of the collection can tell us about him, his ideas and beliefs, his contemporaries, and Java, including interactions between colonizers and locals. I compared the types of objects in the collections with Raffles’ writings, as well as the writings of his contemporaries on Java and Sumatra in the British Library and the Royal Asiatic Society. Raffles was one of the first people to apply the enlightenment notion of systematic collecting to cultural material, but his collections were not systematized by Javanese standards, indicating his incomplete understanding of the local culture. Instead, the objects demonstrated that Raffles chose items considered indicative of civilization according to European ideas, assembling objects to support his argument in favor of Java as a remaining of a British colony, as well as to promote his own image as a scholar- official.

The Origins of Good and Evil and the Challenge of Theodicy in the Buddhist Tradition

The origins of good and evil and the problem of theodicy present a special set of challenges in Buddhism, which is relatively less concerned with consideration of first causes than are monotheistic religions. Buddhism focuses less on the issue of why evil and its incumbent suffering are present in the world and more on the question of how to respond to that evil. This emphasis on soteriology over metaphysics is seen in the characteristic invocation of pragmatic criteria for the evaluation of doctrines and practices; the recurrent motif of the Buddha as therapist rather than theorist; and the pervasive influence of the meta-theory of upāya (expedients or stratagems). This article will examine the soteriological dimension of the broader Buddhist response to evil and explore some of the explicit examinations of the problem of a Buddhist “theodicy” in later Mahāyāna monistic ontologies, which are explored in Korean Buddhist materials: viz., if the mind is innately enlightened or inherently pure, whence do ignorance or defilements arise?

'The Aura of Buddhist Material Objects in the Age of Mass-Production'

The article discusses material religion in a commercial setting and sets off this discussion with Walter Benjamin’s The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1936). Benjamin argues that mechanical reproduction emancipated works of art from religious rituals and evaporated the aura of art. This has resonance among some Tibetan Buddhists in the context of mass-produced Buddhist material objects. Are such objects fit to be given as gifts, implemented in rituals, and worshipped on altars? Based upon ethnographic work at a Tibetan Buddhist market in urban China, the article argues that although objects manufactured in factories for profit are not made or handled according to Buddhist tradition, the aura can be produced in different ways and at different points of an object’s life.

Alerting the Masses

This article traces the history of Buddhist temple bells during the Song dynasty, through bell inscriptions and records that have been preserved despite the disappearance of the majority of the bells themselves. These texts bear witness to the amounts of time, money, and effort that were spent to realise the production of a bell, making it one of the most prominent and precious objects in the context of Buddhist material culture. Moreover, they demonstrate that bells not only functioned as important means to regulate the lives of Buddhist monks and nuns inside the temple, but were also sonic guides for the wider local community, and in particular Buddhist lay devotees. As such, bells afford a fascinating glimpse into the ways in which temples communicated with the outside world.

The Remains from Ancient Times: Newly Formed Connections with Buddhist Culture Designated as “Art” or “Cultural Assets”

Imperial Japanese scholars investigated Buddhist art in Korea prior to their country’s annexation of Korea, and shortly after that annexation they commenced their restoration work on those investigated cultural artifacts. This paper aims to review the changes in the context of restored Korean Buddhist art through an examination of period photographs. Japanese publishers made frequent use of photographs of Korean cultural properties taken before and after their restoration. Through these modern Japanese publishing and education efforts, Koreans came to perceive their Buddhist cultural properties as objects belonging to the past to be preserved and protected. Korea’s Buddhist cultural properties, which had once been pivots of ardent prayers, changed into objects of aesthetic and intellectual appreciation. As a result, Koreans of the period came to consider the objects of Korea’s Buddhist material heritage as the subjects of “sightseeing” or questions of “educational refinement” rather than of religious faith.

Turfan Uygurs’ Contributions to Mahāyāna Buddhist Material Culture and Art Renaissance

Turks contributed highly in development of Buddhist religion, philosophy and culture in Turkestan and China starting from the dynasties they established in North China. Many of the first Buddhist sūtras were translated from Indian languages to Chinese and the first Buddhist cave temples were built under the patronage of these Turks’ sovereign. Buddhist Uygurs made great contributions, especially to Mahāyāna Buddhism in Turfan and Dunhuang. The renaissance of Mahāyāna Buddhist Art which flourished in Northern India by Kushans happened in Turfan 10th century onwards. This artistic revival in the ancient Buddhist center stressed especially Buddhahood and paradise themes. Pranidhi scenes gained their gigantic dimensions with Uygurs. The emphasized artistic themes and their new representations have strong links with old Turkic culture and religion. In this paper, we tried to analyze the emergence of some important Mahāyāna Buddhist material culture themes and symbols used by Turfan Uygurs and their contribution to Mahāyāna Buddhist Art Renaissance. As we tried to interpret this Buddhist culture links to the past, we expect to shed light on cultural history of Turfan Uygurs, which continued some of their old beliefs and religious ideas after adopted Buddhism and merged them into Buddhist material culture.

Examining Buddhism in Unitarian Universalist Hymnals, 1894-2015

Religious pluralism is a central value of contemporary Unitarian Universalism. This is enshrined in the current hymnal, Singing the Living Tradition, which among its many sources includes several selections from Buddhist material. This article considers the use of Buddhist material in Unitarian hymnals from the late 19th century to the present day. A slow growth in the amount and diversity of such material can be discerned. However, the sources used are quite limited, and the selections have the effect of creating a new Unitarian “Buddhism” rather than accurately representing Buddhism as it is. The reality of pluralism may be somewhat muted, therefore, but nonetheless bringing Buddhist material into their hymnals allows Unitarian Universalists to perceive themselves as tolerant and multicultural.

Tekst, teknologi og trope. Det tibetanske bedehjul

Trine Brox: Text, technology, trope
 Tibetan Buddhist practices include the engagement with Buddhist script in the form of tightly packed scrolls of paper that are placed in drums and spun in order to accumulate merit. On the scrolls are written or printed mantras (sacred or magic sounds in the form of a series of syllables) or dhāraṇīs (formula condensing lengthy texts or teachings). The receptacles containing such scrolls are the iconic prayer wheels, whose materiality enables and restricts particular modes of textual engagement. What kind of texts are these scrolls? How does one read texts that come in the form of tightly packed scrolls? They cannot be read by immersing oneself in the content of the text because its materiality restricts access to it. Instead it fits perfectly with the prayer wheel technology that allows circumambulatory recitation, the article argues.
 The prayer wheel is not only an important object in recitation practices for Tibetan Buddhists, but has also become a key marker of Tibetan identity. Yet its history, culture and practice have received very little scholarly attention. This article attempts to eradicate this blind spot. It endeavors to show how the prayer wheel has earned itself its iconic status by explaining how the prayer wheel is a receptacle of sacred script and a device for reciting sacred script. The article zooms in on (i) the cult of the book in the Tibetan culture sphere, (ii) the technology of prayer wheels; and (iii) the recurring tropes of the wheel, circumambulation, and rotation in Buddhism, as well as the merit connected with them. In view of this particular constellation of book cult, technology, and dominant trope, it makes sense that, first of all, Tibetan Buddhists have adopted and further developed a technology that optimizes interaction with sacred script; secondly, that rotation is considered an adequate way to interact with Buddha’s doctrine; and third, that this device has become an icon for the Tibetan civilization. It is especially the sacred text within the wheel, the article argues, that endows the prayer wheel with high status in a hierarchy of Buddhist material objects. Finally, this raises questions about modernized prayer wheels – when technological progress has enabled further development of devices that can contain and spin Buddhist script such as optic discs, prayer wheel apps, and automated praying machines. How does their materiality impact textual engagement?
 The article is based upon data produced through (i) ethnographic inquiry, such as interacting with the stakeholders who deal with Buddhist material culture for different reasons, e.g. producers, marketers, ritual specialists, practitioners, and consumers, and (ii) textual sources that includes Tibetan and English-language scholarship, catalogues, user’s guides, and marketing material. This multi-modal method has produced knowledge about the prayer wheel as practice, i.e. what we can call popular religion, and as theory, i.e. according to how the prayer wheel is idealized in the writings of Buddhist masters.

조선후기 불교문헌의 가치와 선과 교의 이중주 -『선가귀감』과 『기신론소필삭기회편』을 중심으로-

조선후기 불교문헌의 가치와 선과 교의 이중주 -『선가귀감』과 『기신론소필삭기회편』을 중심으로-

Buddhism, Medicine, and the Affairs of the Heart: Āyurvedic Potency Therapy (Vājīkarana) and the Reappraisal of Aphrodisiacs and Love Philters in Medieval Chinese Sources

This article examines how discursive frames modify forms of knowledge and practice. More precisely, it considers the problem of categories in early and medieval Chinese sources through the lens of recipes designed to facilitate intercourse. In pre-Buddhist Chinese sources, such prescriptions traditionally fell either under the rubric of ‘nourishing life’ (yangsheng 養生) longevity practices or spellbinding (zhuzu 祝詛). While recipes that appear in the former bracket—referred to in this study as ‘aphrodisiacs’—were couched in a discourse of healing and classified as a medical undertaking, those associated with spellbinding—referred to as ‘love philters’—were filed under the heading of mantic arts and divination in bibliographic treatises. With the arrival of Āyurvedic medicine in China via Buddhist sources, this partition grew increasingly blurred. Āyurvedic medical taxonomy in general, and its discipline of potency therapy (vājīkarana) in particular, did not distinguish between aphrodisiacs and love philters since both ultimately facilitate intercourse, albeit through different means. The imprint of Āyurvedic categories in China can be ascertained in Buddhist manuscript sources from Dunhuang, but also, more surprisingly, in widely circulated medieval non-Buddhist medical treatises. However, in contrast to the emblematic medical treatises of the middle period and surveyed manuscript Buddhist materials, canonical Buddhist texts appear to have shied away from the topic of aphrodisiacs and upheld the indigenous Chinese understanding of love philters as spellbinding and mantic art.

Medicine in the Chinese Buddhist Canon

Abstract The excerpts below were selected to introduce a number of disparate genres and types of discourses about healing, illness, and cure that are embedded within the Chinese Buddhist canon. They include an excerpt from a monastic disciplinary code concerning the storage of medicines, a scripture with a story of an encounter between a bodhisattva and a famous physician, a liturgy dedicated to a major healing deity, an author’s advice to doctors from a Buddhist perspective, and a devotional verse that plays on medical metaphors. Taken together, they indicate some of the diversity of perspectives and approaches of Buddhist materials and suggest the potential importance of often-overlooked Buddhist materials for the study of Asian medicine.