Buddhist Material Research Articles

From the Tea to the Coffee Ceremony: Modernizing Buddhist Material Culture in Contemporary Korea

Tea has been associated with East Asian Buddhism at least since the eighth-century. Buddhist monks were involved in cultivating, selling, and transporting tea from its birthplace in southern China to Korea and Japan. In addition to using it as an offering and as an aid for wakefulness in meditation, they developed a Buddhist tea lore which has been mirrored in their poetry, myths and monastic rituals. Tea has become such a central symbol of the contemplative life in East Asia that it is rather surprising to discover that in some of the major monasteries in Korea today over half of the meditation monks are said to have switched to coffee. In fact, numerous Korean temples today possess top-of-the-line hand-drip (filter) coffee machines, some offer Buddhist coffee workshops and barista certificates for monks and laypeople, and others replace their old tea shops with new modern cafés. In this paper I will present what I think are fascinating ethnographic examples of the recent Korean Buddhist coffee trend, and discuss the debates regarding the appropriateness of coffee to Buddhist practice. I will illustrate how some Korean Buddhists attempt to remain relevant in contemporary coffee-crazed Korean society by re-branding the taste of Buddhism and creatively associating coffee with propagation, meditation and insight.

Wŏnhyo: Buddhist Commentator Par Excellence

Wŏnhyo (617–686) is best known within the Korean tradition as pilgrim, philosopher, mystic, thaumaturge, proselytist, and even touchstone of Korean unification ideology. But all these roles pale next to his importance as a commentator. In this proclivity, Wŏnhyo emulates intellectuals active within most traditional civilizations, where much of spiritual and religious understanding was conveyed through commentarial writing. Wŏnhyo's range of scholarly endeavor covered the whole gamut of East Asian Buddhist materials and the hundred or so works attributed to this prolific writer, over twenty of which are extant, find no rivals among his fellow Korean exegetes. The vast majority of Wŏnhyo's works are explicitly commentaries, and even those writings which are not are still strongly exegetical in character. The East Asian Buddhist tradition itself also treats Wŏnhyo principally as a commentator, as seen, for example, in the Song Gaoseng zhuan 's (Song biography of eminent monks) inclusion of Wŏnhyo's biography in the section on doctrinal exegetes ( yijie ), together with a number of other Korean scholiasts who played important roles in the development of the learned schools of Sinitic Buddhism. In his virtuosity at manipulating the commentarial form, Wŏnhyo may be viewed not simply as a paragon of Korean scholarly achievement but as someone who was emblematic of the highest achievements of the Sinographic Buddhist tradition as a whole. This paper will explore the characteristics of Korean Buddhist commentary and examine the question of why Wŏnhyo used scriptural exegesis as the main vehicle for conveying his philosophical and spiritual insights.

Materiality, Labor, and Signification of Sacred Objects in Japanese Buddhism

Recent studies on Buddhist materiality tend to focus on specific objects and their ritual uses, without dedicating much attention to processes of production of those objects and their actual makers. This article begins to redress this situation by outlining a general theoretical framework for the study of Buddhist objects and material culture in general through their continuous transformations—a framework that takes into account not only the ontological status and phenomenological features of individual objects, but also their signification and the various types of labor involved in their production and fruition. After proposing a general typology of objects, in order to gain a better sense of the ontological extension of Buddhism, the article also discusses the types of labor and practical activities involved in the production and use of Buddhist objects. Next, it deals with different aspects that determine the value of Buddhist sacred objects, and addresses modes of transformation affecting Buddhist objects through time and space, envisioned here as instances of broader processes of semiotic transformation (semiomorphosis). While this paper mostly examines objects within the Japanese Buddhist tradition, it hopes to offer a contribution to the study of practical materiality and labor in other Buddhist traditions as well.

Maneuvering Difficult Emotional Terrain in Psychotherapy: A Buddhist-Informed Conceptual Framework

Clients often enter psychotherapy with struggles and concerns related to their direct experience of emotion. Though most of the major psychotherapy theories in the West address the general issue of emotion, very few have developed a framework or theory for supporting clients in their direct encounters with difficult feeling states. Since Buddhism is highly experiential and Buddhist philosophy is mainly concerned with the issue of human suffering, its relevance to maneuvering difficult emotions in a clinical context is profound. While the use of Buddhist concepts and practices in mental health treatment in the West has proliferated in recent years, the clinical use of Buddhist material has often bypassed the larger philosophical framework of Buddhism. This decontextualized use of Buddhist material has limited the potential value of Buddhist philosophy in mental health treatment. This article offers a conceptual framework for approaching difficult emotions that is grounded in the wisdom of Buddhism. The framework consists of four themes that serve as guides for clients and clinicians as they maneuver emotional experiences in psychotherapy: Sitting With, Middle Path, Healthy Interdependency, and Compassion. Common threads between Buddhist concepts and Western psychotherapy approaches are explored. A case vignette will demonstrate the clinical utility of the framework.

What is a ‘Buddhist Film?’

Films such as Kundun and Little Buddha are obvious choices to fit the category “Buddhist films,” but critical studies and Buddhist film festivals have in the last decade widened the discussion to include films like The Matrix (1999) and Donnie Darko (2001), raising the question, “What is a Buddhist film?” One way to answer this question is to consider the criteria for selecting films for international Buddhist film festivals. These events include films that directly represent Buddhist characters, rites, beliefs, and material objects, but in addition to overtly Buddhist representations there are regular inclusions of “covertly” Buddhist films. In addition to overt and less direct thematic treatments, the category "Buddhist film" has come to include “draftees”—films that were never intended to express a Buddhist theme but are felt by event organizers to have Buddhist implications even when there is no evidence of Buddhist intention. The practice of interpreting a non-Buddhist film in a Buddhist manner makes Buddhism appear less strange to Western audiences. Buddhist film festivals are thus part of a larger process through which Buddhism adapts and indigenizes itself i"n countries outside of Asia.

Looting the Pantheon: On the Daoist Appropriation of Buddhist Divinities and Saints

Scholars working on different Christian cults in medieval Europe are wont to deal with the rather commonplace, although highly interesting, cases of relic thefts and the associated co-option of particular saints and their cults. Such cases reinforce our perception of the period as a dynamic and creative one in regard to the transfer and proliferation of Christian cultic practices to new areas and social contexts beyond their original locales. However, in the cases I shall discuss in the following, you will not be treated to cases of intra-religious take-overs or the simple borrowing or copying of relics within a single religious tradition, but you will be presented with cases in which one religion appropriated entire cults, divinities and saints from another religion. What we shall see here concerns gods and saints in what we may term ``inter-religious transit" and their ultimate adoption and inclusion into different—and as I hope to demonstrate—entirely new spiritual contexts. This paper will deal with a major aspect of the religious exchange between Buddhism and Daoism in medieval China, namely that of Daoist appropriation of Buddhist divinities and saints. The related and highly important issue concerning the typological copying of deities for similar, functional purposes that we see in both the Buddhist and Daoist material will not be dealt with here for practical reasons. Although it is of equal importance for our understanding of the inter-religious appropriations that took place in the meeting and co-existence in the same cultural space of the two religions, that issue is so extensive that it would require a separate discussion in its own right.

日本における仏教考古学の研究現状と課題

This study examines the historiography of Buddhist archaeology, with particular emphasis on understanding the current state of research and challenges associated with Buddhist archaeology in Japan. Among the various publications on Buddhist archaeology, Shinpan bukkyō kōkogaku kōza, a comprehensive study of Buddhist archaeology in Japan authored by Ishida Mosaku, and Hakkutsu chōsa no tebiki: kakushu iseki chōsa hen, recently published by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, differ markedly in subject matter. One point of departure: the latter publication predominantly focuses on materials excavated during formal surveys of Buddhist temple sites, consisting of architectural remains and objects. The current state of research in the field of Buddhist archaeology in Japan is believed to reflect scholarly achievements enabled by excavations conducted during the postwar period of reconstruction and land development. Such advances have allowed scholars to reconstruct historical developments through the interpretation of archaeological results, especially in the fields of cultural, social, economic, and political histories. However, in terms of elucidating the history of Buddhist doctrine, it appears that research in this field has been unexpectedly limited. As indicated by Ishida Mosaku, Buddhist archaeology is “archaeology that focuses on Buddhist architectural remains and relics,” and to realize the essential goal of “understanding Buddhism of the past,” it is not sufficient to consider only the material evidence unearthed from Buddhist temple sites. Instead of investigating just the excavated remains, it is especially critical today that Buddhist materials stored aboveground in temple collections are also examined as part of a multidisciplinary approach towards expanding our knowledge of Buddhist doctrinal history.

Deqing and Daoism: A View of Dialogue and Translation from Late Ming China

Any dialogue conducted via mutually unintelligible languages constitutes no more than a dialogue of the deaf. Yet intelligibility in dialogue at the most basic linguistic level seems to have provoked little extended discussion in China, even though in practice getting one’s ideas across was plainly a major concern, in the late Ming period (1368-1644). Whilst Buddhists of the period had ceased in any real sense to act as translators of fresh Buddhist materials into Chinese from other languages, we do find an essayist with things to say about translation. This was Hanshan Deqing (1546–1623), a major Buddhist monk of the age. Yet his essays are not readily to be found in his Buddhist writings, but in the preface to his annotations to the Daoist classic Daode jing. It is therefore within the context of dialogue with another rival tradition that his remarks were made, and so they have a particular relevance for those with an interest in the conduct of inter-religious dialogue in the Chinese tradition.

A Pure Mind in a Clean Body: Bodily Care in the Buddhist Monasteries of Ancient India and China by Ann Heirman, Mathieu Torck (review)

Hugong Dadi 胡公大帝. While the first two cases constitute separate chapters (7 and 10), the latter one is embedded in chapter 8 on ‘‘the religious dimension.’’ From my point of view as an ethnographer, these case studies are the highlights of the book. The vast amount of data on local cultural knowledge presented therein is well summarized from Chinese sources and is certainly useful as general information and as guidelines for future research. The discovery of the resacralization process reveals an important aspect of modern Chinese religious life. Possibly because of the dominance of Communist ideology in contemporary China, the revival of public religious practices such as temple fairs and sacrificial rituals often begins under the cover of diverse secular events serving cultural, commercial, or touristic ambitions of local governments. In some cases people attempt to establish an authentic atmosphere by adding or tolerating religious symbols and activities. In a concluding chapter Cooper repeats his obligation to the Maussian concept for his regional study; however, this does not reach beyond the simple fact that religion is traditionally embedded in culture and society, and plays an important role in rural Chinese economy and social life. In two appendices he summarizes the content of five Daoqing 道情 performances and nine Wuju operas. A comprehensive bibliography and a general index help the reader to find items of interest easily, since many names of authors and concepts are given in Chinese characters beside their English or Pinyin equivalents. Throughout the book eight maps and eight statistical tables, mainly created from official sources of local authorities, as well as thirty-seven photographs taken by the author, are presented. This book is unique insofar as it makes regional specific sources in modern temple fairs studies accessible, which can be used for regional comparison and general studies. Furthermore, it provides a good introduction to the rural economy, popular culture, and religion of the Jinhua region for students and scholars who are interested in Southeastern China. XIAOBING WANG-RIESE Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou ANN HEIRMAN and MATHIEU TORCK, A Pure Mind in a Clean Body: Bodily Care in the Buddhist Monasteries of Ancient India and China. Gent: Academia Press, 2012. 194 pp. J27 (pb). ISBN 978-90-382-2014-7 Heirman and Torck’s new monograph A Pure Mind in a Clean Body is a welcome addition to the growing body of scholarship that spotlights Buddhist material culture, specifically the development of Buddhist monks’ everyday bodily care and related utensils, and the changing values associated with them that were transmitted from India to China. The primary sources are Chinese translations of the Dharmaguptakavinaya, M ulasarv astiv adavinaya, and other monastic texts, such as the Chinese commentaries, the ‘‘rules of purity’’ or qinggui 清規, and travelogues by Chinese monks such as Yijing 義淨 (635–713), who visited Southeast Asia and India. Chinese historical, literary, medical, Daoist, and visual BOOK REVIEWS 151 sources are used to examine various bodily practices and attitudes that existed before and after Buddhism’s introduction to China. These are all Chinese sources. In other words, the monograph is not a simple comparative study of how Indian practices impacted China. Rather, it focuses on the complex process of Chinese reception and accommodation of Indian monastic ideals. It reveals Chinese cultural values and attitudes towards objects that both produce and are the products of the ideal Buddhist body. For the past two decades or so, a new wave of Buddhist scholarship has shifted Buddhology away from attention restricted to doctrinal issues, prescriptive claims, and systems of belief. Now many scholars use interdisciplinary, anthropological approaches to study Buddhism, and they use visual, archeological, and certain textual sources to excavate its material dimensions. This monograph on bodily care in monastic sources lies firmly in this new body of scholarship. The monograph is clearly divided into four main areas: bathing facilities, toilet facilities, cleaning the mouth and teeth, and shaving hair and trimming nails. Each area consists of a chapter, bracketed by an introduction and a conclusion. Each chapter begins with an analysis of Indian vinaya literature as preserved in the Chinese. This is followed by an analysis of Chinese vinaya commentaries beginning in the fifth century onwards as well as other monastic...

The agency between images: the relationships among ghosts, corpses, monks, and deities at a buddhist monastery in thailand

ABSTRACTThe ghost, Mae Nak, is well-known in Thai Buddhism as a protector of soldiers, pregnant mothers, and young lovers. Her shrine at Wat Mahabut (a monastery in Bangkok) is an important center of worship, astrology, and ritual protection. However, her statue is not alone. It is part of the pantheon of famous monks, “Hindu” deities, and Buddhas at Wat Mahabut. They draw power from each other. The relationship between these images, and what they can teach us about the study of Buddhist material and visual culture, is the subject of this study. The sacredness of a Thai Buddhist image often lies not in its origin and style, but in the relationships it creates and allows. Observing the complexity of Buddhist images and the ritual life surrounding them at this monastery helps expand and question Alfred Gell's theory of the agency of images and the “art nexus,” as well as Michael Taussig's theory of “distraction.”

Buddhist Materiality: A Cultural History of Objects in Japanese Buddhism (review)

Buddhist Materiality: A Cultural History of Objects in Japanese Buddhism (review)

Family Space: Buddhist Materiality and Ancestral Fashioning in Mogao Cave 231

The diverse integration of family references into the visual program of ninth-century Buddhist caves at Mogao, Dunhuang, marks a turning point in the construction of religious space in medieval China. The examination of Mogao Cave 231 demonstrates the intersection of figural, epigraphic, and decorative references to family patronage, including ancestor portraits, commemorative inscriptions, and depictions of domestic furniture, found throughout the caves. These open multiple perspectives onto the function of cave temples as a hybrid space that bridges the representation of image, object, and architecture as well as the relation between ancestral commemoration and Buddhist devotion.

東北大学所蔵河口慧海コレクションのネワール仏教資料について

東北大学所蔵河口慧海コレクションのネワール仏教資料について

Buddhist Materiality: A Cultural History of Objects in Japanese Buddhism (review)

Buddhist Materiality: A Cultural History of Objects in Japanese Buddhism (review)

Fabio Rambelli, . Buddhist Materiality: A Cultural History of Objects in Japanese Buddhism. Asian Religions and Cultures. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2007. xiv+394 pp. $65.00 (cloth).

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewFabio Rambelli, . Buddhist Materiality: A Cultural History of Objects in Japanese Buddhism. Asian Religions and Cultures. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2007. xiv+394 pp. $65.00 (cloth).Lori Meeks, Lori MeeksUniversity of Southern California. Search for more articles by this author , University of Southern California.PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of Religion Volume 89, Number 2April 2009 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/598598 Views: 53Total views on this site © 2009 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. For permission to reuse, please contact [email protected]PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Buddhist Materiality: A Cultural History of Objects in Japanese Buddhism (review)

Reviewed by: Buddhist Materiality: A Cultural History of Objects in Japanese Buddhism Hank Glassman Buddhist Materiality: A Cultural History of Objects in Japanese Buddhism. By Fabio Rambelli. Stanford University Press, 2007. 394 pages. Hardcover $65.00. One commonly held assumption among undergraduates and others (not all of them neophytes) is that Buddhism is “antimaterialistic”: deeply suspicious of and antagonistic to the world of things. While this characterization may in some respects contain a kernel of truth, it is fundamentally flawed and needs to be challenged. This new study does just that. Fabio Rambelli gives his book Buddhist Materiality the subtitle “a cultural history of objects in Japanese Buddhism,” thus promising a wide-ranging and comprehensive exploration of the place of the physical in Buddhist practice and doctrine. Indeed, one of the great strengths of this groundbreaking work is the boldness of its scope. It is an important book and should be read by any scholar of Japanese religions. A novel and provocative inquiry into the cultural and intellectual history of Japan, it also deserves attention from other students of Japanese society as well. Some of the prominent themes in Rambelli’s book are: (1) the logic of the pervasive immanence of enlightenment in the phenomenal world, a product of Tendai doctrinal constructions insisting upon the “original enlightenment” (hongaku) of all beings and Shingon-based teachings on the perfected nature of physical reality as “Dharma-realm,” dharmadhâtu or hōkai; (2) Buddhist strategies of negotiation with other religious traditions and social systems, including the expansion of the combinatory honji-suijaku (“original ground–manifest trace”) model beyond the realm of one-to-one correspondences between Buddhist deities and the kami to the apotheosis of physical objects; (3) the construction of the myth of a unique Japanese love of nature attributable to “Shinto” and the unacknowledged role of Buddhism in shaping Japanese attitudes toward the natural world; (4) the place of objects sacred and mundane in the Buddhist transformation of Japan; that is, the integration of Buddhism into the everyday lives of the Japanese people and the eventual hegemony of Buddhist models over Japan’s ritual, doctrinal, and hermeneutical landscape. This deeply interdisciplinary inquiry challenges much of the conventional wisdom about the nature of Japanese religion. Rambelli’s book offers us new lenses to see what had been hidden in plain sight. As the author tells us, “The history of Buddhist materiality and the related attitudes toward objects form a condensed cultural history of Japanese religion, beginning with the process of diffusion of Buddhism, its multiple interactions with local cults, and proceeding with the development of new forms of religiosity” (p. 273). Rambelli follows Jean Baudrillard in taking the cultural system of objects to be a “reflection of a total order” (p. 61). He asserts that Buddhist ideologies simultaneously shaped and mirrored Japanese cultural sensibilities. For those wishing to unlock the code of the Japanese imaginaire, it is essential to trace the key role of the physical, both products of human invention and naturally occurring raw materials, in the creation of religious meaning. In pursuit of this goal, Rambelli proceeds through a threefold investigation over seven chapters. The first three chapters focus on establishing an understanding of Japanese Buddhist (and, at times, more generally Buddhist) philosophical or doctrinal [End Page 405] approaches to materiality. In these opening chapters, we begin to understand the complexity of the task Rambelli has set for himself. Entitled “The Buddhist Philosophy of Objects,” the first chapter establishes, through reference to a broad range of doctrinal positions and their contestation in Japanese and East Asian clerical disputes (and modern scholarly circles), a discourse that will be essential to the entire narrative of the book. This is the trope of sōmoku jōbutsu, “the enlightenment of grass and trees,” a shorthand for the notion that even beings and objects usually held to be insentient, such as plants and minerals, in fact possess Buddha nature and are thus able to become Buddhas or reach salvation. In India, such ideas had not really even existed; in China, they acted as a sort of slogan or tag-line. In Japan, however, the notion of the enlightenment of objects became the subject...

Buddhist materiality: a cultural history of objects in Japanese Buddhism

Contents Acknowledgments Abbreviations and Conventions Introduction 1 The Buddhist Philosophy of Objects: The Status of Inanimate Entities 2 The Buddhist System of Objects 3 Materiality and Performativity of Sacred Texts 4 The Cultural Imagination of Trees and the Environment 5 Tools and Labor as Mediators Between the Sacred and the Profane 6 Objects, Rituals, Tradition: Memorial Services (Kuy_) for Inanimate Objects 7 Buddhist Sacred Commodities and the General Economy Notes Bibliography Index

Translating Buddhism for the West: High Textual Scholarship on Korean Buddhism

Although scholars in the field are few, the prospects have never been greater for the translation into English of materials relating to Korean Buddhism. During the second half of the twentieth century, full translations of several principal texts appeared sporadically in a variety of intellectual contexts, but during the 1990s the Sourcebook of Korean Civilization and the Sources of Korean Tradition collections made well translated excerpts from seminal Korean Buddhist texts widely accessible to students and non-specialists for the first time. The recently published Religions of Korea in Practice will allow Korean Buddhist materials to reach an even greater audience. In the spring of 2007 the long awaited first volume of the Collected Works of Wŏnhyo will be published and two more volumes are scheduled to appear in 2008. Renowned scholars of Sinitic Buddhism are in the process of translating the Sajip, the basic curriculum of four texts studied in Korean Sŏn monasteries. Although Western scholars of Buddhism are making significant headway, because considerable difficulties remain, there is much room for interaction with Korean scholars of Buddhism and many kinds of Korean translations we would like to see.

Buddhist material culture, “indianism,” and the construction of pan-asian buddhism in prewar japan

ABSTRACTLate nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Japanese Buddhism was marked by a wide-ranging fascination with Buddhist origins in India. This Indian turn in Japanese Buddhist circles manifested not only in elite academic scholarship, but also in Buddhist art and architecture. In this article I consider how the early twentieth-century artistic and architectural production of Itō Chūta and Ōtani Kōzui deployed Indian and Southeast Asian Buddhist motifs as part of the effort to create a universalized Japanese Buddhism.

Buddhist Material Culture, "Indianism," and the Construction of Pan-Asian Buddhism in Prewar Japan

Buddhist Material Culture, "Indianism," and the Construction of Pan-Asian Buddhism in Prewar Japan