Buddhist Sangha Research Articles

A Study on the Literacy Rate of Buddhist Sangha in the Tang Dynasty

The Buddhist sangha played a crucial role in ancient China, exerting significant influence on its society through religious identity and cultural knowledge. However, not all members of the monastic community were literate. The Tang Dynasty introduced an examination system that assessed monks’ proficiency in reciting Buddhist scriptures, determining their eligibility for ordination. Simultaneously, efforts to remove unqualified monks and nuns provided an opportunity to estimate the literacy rate within the monastic community. A statistical analysis of the literacy rate offers a novel perspective for understanding the evolution of Buddhism, the intricate relationship between religion and politics, and the role of the monastic community in local society during the Tang Dynasty.

Navigating inclusion: ‘home-making’ in the UK Shin Buddhist community

ABSTRACT This contribution focuses on narratives and experiences of belonging and exclusion among convert members of Three Wheels, a Japanese Shin Buddhist temple in London, to investigate how difference is incorporated into transnational Buddhism. Three Wheels, whose members include both diasporic Japanese and convert Buddhist Europeans, occupies a marginal position within both transnational Shin Buddhism and the UK’s Buddhist (and broader religious) landscape. By embracing individual and collective marginality, I argue, priests and members foster affective connections that allow for a shared minority space to emerge where its diverse members can feel at home. To explore the dynamics of this ‘home-making’, I focus specifically on how convert members negotiate their own space in the community and the processes of inclusion and exclusion through which they navigate the linguistic, religious, and cultural barriers they encounter as convert members of a Japanese Buddhist tradition. This discussion of home-making within Three Wheels as a shared minority space highlights the complex dynamics of minority status and marginality in transnational Buddhism. It also shows how, in this case, convert Buddhists have worked with Asian migrants to build what appears to be a successful mixed local Buddhist sangha that accommodates the diverse needs of its members.

The Early Political History of the Eastern Jin and Chancellor Wang Dao (279-339 AD)

The article is devoted to a historical study of the political career of a Shandong aristocrat from the Langye district and the first chancellor of the southern Chinese dynasty of the Eastern Jin, as well as to identify factors that contributed to his rapid rise. Particular attention was paid to the religious and ideological aspects of the historical and political processes that took place at the court and the capital of the Eastern Jin. In the course of the study, we used specific historical methods of textual, historical-biographical and historical-geographical analysis of events and personalities associated with the personality of Chancellor Wang Dao. The main source of information about Wang Dao's political career is the official dynastic history "Jin shu" ("History of the [dynasty] Jin"), namely, chapter 65 (section "Liezhuan"), dedicated to representatives of the Shandong Wang clan. As a result of the historical and biographical analysis, it was found that the decisive factors in Wang Dao's successful career were personal business qualities, a successful matrimonial strategy for the ruling house of Sima, who founded the Eastern Jin dynasty, as well as the active support of influential Chinese Buddhist hierarchs. Family and confessional ties of court supporters of the Buddhist sangha with famous dignitaries and glorious men of the Eastern Jin were reconstructed.

Bhikkhu Buddhadasy demitologizacja buddyzmu

Bhikkhu Buddhadasa’s Demythologization of Buddhism The article discuss life and activity of Thai Buddhist monk Bhikkhu Buddhadasa. It presents his views that criticized the traditional understanding of Theravada Buddhism. At the root of his perspective one can distinguish the crisis of Buddhist sangha, the development of modern science and his knowledge of books from other Buddhist and non-Buddhist traditions. Buddhadasa’s demythologization of Buddhism means a rejection of rituals and ceremonies, refutation of studies of Buddha’s written teachings, replacement of traditional scholastics with his own exegesis, rejection of hierarchy in sangha, and recognition of the equality of all religions. His approach in identifying religions, psychology and empirical science is superficial and cannot be defended.

A Study on the Literacy Rate of Buddhist Monks in Dunhuang during the Late Tang, Five Dynasties, and Early Song Period

Among the Dunhuang documents, when examining some of the monk signature lists, name list of monks copying scriptures and name list of monks chanting scriptures in monasteries, we can estimate a relatively accurate literacy rate of the Buddhist sangha. Generally speaking, the literacy rate of the sangha during the Guiyi Army 歸義軍 period (851–1036) was lower than that during the Tibetan occupation period (786–851). The reason for this change is closely related to each regime’s Buddhist policy, the size and living situation of the sangha, and the Buddhist atmosphere. The decrease in the literacy rate of the sangha had great negative consequences, but when viewed under the context of the stay at home monks and the secularization of Buddhism, the number of literate monks had actually increased. They were more closely integrated with the secular society and their functions in the regional society were more pronounced. At the same time, the changes in the literacy rate of the monks in Dunhuang can also serve as an important reference for understanding the development of Buddhism in the Central China.

Digital Merit: A Case Study of a Chinese Buddhist Meditation Group on WeChat During the Early Outbreak of Covid-19 in China

ABSTRACT While most academics regard virtual religious communities to be secondary to in-person religious communities, the virtual Buddhist sangha served as a full and complete social infrastructure that provides purpose to life and spiritual consolation to its members. From the outbreak of the Covid-19 from March to May in 2020, this paper investigates how a Chinese Buddhist group based in Beijing practices Theravada meditation on the WeChat social media platforms. This paper, based on online ethnography and informal interviews, argues that digital media is a significant arena for Chinese Buddhists to conduct Buddhist rituals, transmit Buddhist ideas, generate and accumulate Buddhist merits, and build alternative cyber-Buddhist economies. This paper also highlights that Buddhist groups are continuously growing and rising as highly united and community-oriented digital sanghas within current China’s technoculture context.

Религиозные процессы на территории Монголии (по результатам социологического исследования)

The article presents the results of a sociological study conducted by the Russian-Mongolian project in 2020 on the territory of Mongolia. In the course of the study, an attempt was made to assess the religious situation on the territory of Mongolia and to identify the degree of involvement of the country's residents in religious life, as well as their perception of state confessional policy. The sample of the study is 362 people. At the same time, the number of respondents included a significant number of respondents who came to study or work from different parts of the country. 73% of respondents believe that a person needs to be a believer. However, 46% of respondents visit places of worship very rarely, and 22% do not observe any religious rites at all. This fact indicates a rather weak involvement of respondents in religious life, including the Buddhist sangha. Research has shown that Buddhism is the predominant denomination in Mongolia, which is considered as part of the national culture of the Mongolian people. The State is taking measures to support the Buddhist institute as an element of national identity. These measures lead to the popularization of Buddhism among the population of Mongolia. According to respondents, an important role in building interfaith dialogue should be played by the state, whose task is to control the activities of religious organizations. It is established that stereotypes associated with religious traditions prevail in Mongolian society. Thus, the majority of respondents associate Islam with manifestations of extremism. At the same time, it should be noted that Mongolia is a country with a fairly low level of extremist worldview. The assessment of the development of the interfaith situation in Mongolia requires further observation. A fairly large percentage of respondents noted that the interfaith situation in Mongolia cannot be considered absolutely stable. The strengthening of the Buddhist Sangha in the political and cultural life of the country requires an assessment of its role in building interfaith relations in the region.

Socially engaged Buddhism: cattle-breeding initiative of the Buryat Buddhist sangha and its ecological significance in the Baikal region, Russia

The article focuses on the environmental consequences of abandoning rural life, increasing urbanization and the problem of deforestation in the Baikal region, Russia. Specifically, it analyzes a recently proposed “Social Flock” project of the Buryat Buddhist community for the revival of nomadic cattle breeding in the districts of Buryatia, and its potential impact on the environment. We argue that taking into consideration the global value of the Lake Baikal, the “Social Flock” project can not only satisfy the practical needs of people and reduce the social aspects of environmental problems in Buryatia, but also potentially contribute to dealing with environmental problems of global importance.

Famine in the Vinayas

The vinayas allow special cases of “cooking and preserving food”, “utilizing leftover food”, and “collecting fruits” in case of famine. The famine exception does not apply when the famine is over. Even bhikkhu can work in times of famine in order to support their lives, according to the Vinayas. In the event of famine, the rules loosen. It was generally accepted in ancient India that there was a difference between normal and emergency times. It is common in the Vinayas and Dharma literature that, in the event of an emergency, bhikkhus or brahmins may take on the activities of someone with a different social status, while keeping their status as bhikkhu or brahmin, respectively. It can be said that the Buddhist sangha had the same character as the broader Indian society in that avoiding poverty is more important in an emergency than protecting the bhikkhu’s normally expected means of life.

4차산업혁명 시대, 불전기록방법의 변화

This paper aims to suggest a compilation method of electronic documents for Buddhist, with the focus laid on Buddhist elements in the records, which is one of the digital methodologies for analyzing and interpreting source materials in humanities research areas. In the digital era, the concept of “digital encyves” a convergence of digital encyclopedia and digital archives and its development has a significant meaning. In Korea, the Electronic Buddhist Text & Cultural contents partly covers the role of digital archives in terms of the Buddhist elements from Buddhist historical records. Buddhist texts were memorized and handed over by a group of specialists in order to reduce errors occurred due to the individual differences in memory and to keep the original messages of the Buddha intact within the original Buddhist sangha. Electronic Buddhist texts have so far developed and digitized individually by leading institutes scattered around the world. Through cross link between databases, each electronic Buddhist text could be provided by end-users and Buddhist specialists. This could provide solution to correct errors contained in each electronic Buddhist text and to encourage specialists in the area of Buddhist studies to work together. This International Collaboration could show one of the ways to link various Buddhist texts, dictionaries and culture content operating together. Fore the future, we can expect that the revolution in scholarship brought about by the availability of primary source materials in digital format will continue as people find new ways to take advantage of the efficiencies of preservation, access, and searchability engendered by digitalization.

Buddizm v istorii Kitaya perioda Yuzhnyh i Severnyh carstv

The article is devoted to the history of Buddhism in China during the period of the Southern and Northern Kingdoms (Nanbeichao, 386-589). The features of the development of Buddhism in the North and South are shown. Three aspects were identified: 1) the attitude of emperors of kingdoms to Buddhism; 2) the relationship of the state apparatus and the Buddhist sangha; 3) the process of further development of Buddhism in China in the context of its adaptation to the Chinese mentality, formed on the basis of the traditional worldview. It was revealed that Buddhism in the context of its adaptation to the Chinese mentality, both in the North and in the South, developed with the traditions of Buddhism of the Eastern Jin period to the same extent.

Buddhism in Central Asia and Russia: History and Present Stata

The article considers the history of Buddhism in Central Asia and in Russia. It outlines the main periods of development and special features of Buddhism in the region, its influence on the local culture. It explorers the contemporary state of the Buddhist sangha in Russia and Central Asian countries.Central Asia has played an important role in the development of Buddhism as a world religion. In I-III centuries A.D. missionaries from Central Asia carried out the sermon of the Buddhist teachings. The archeological findings illustrate the massive spread of Buddhism on the wide territories of the region which were part of the Kushan Kingdom. The second period of the flourishing of Buddhist teaching falls on the V – first part of the VIII centuries, when the geography on Buddhism in the region expanded, and it peacefully co-existed with other religions.By IX century, when the territories of the contemporary Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Tadjikistan stayed under the rule of Umayyad and Abbaside Caliphate, Islam eventually ousted Buddhism from these lands.The third period of rise of Buddhism in the region started with the appearance of Dzungars who aspired to take hold of the lands of Kazahstan. From 1690 to 1760 Central Asian region had become an area of struggle for the hegemony between the Buddhist Dzungarian khanate and China. The Dzungars promoted the spread of Buddhism in the Eastern part of Kazahstan and Northern part of Eastern Turkestan. The entry of Western Turkestan into the Russian Empire put an end to external threats and internal feudal strife. It gave the start to the process of consolidation of the Central Asian nations, which recognized their belonging to Muslim Ummah. In the absence of Dzungar and Chinese factors the influence of Buddhism in the region almost stopped.By the end of the XX century with the renaissance of religiosity on the post-Soviet space the interest to Buddhism slightly raised. However, at the present moment the number of the Buddhists in the region is insignificant. Among the followers of Buddhism the main place is taken by the Korean diaspora, residing in Central Asia since 1937. There also exist some single neo-Buddhist communities in the region.Buddhism made its contribution to the development of the unique socio-cultural identity of Russia as Eurasian by it’s nature. Buryatia, Kalmykia, Tuva, as well as several parts of Altai, Irkutsk and Chita regions represent historical areas of the spread of Buddhist teaching. At the present moment the Russian Buddhist sangha contains of the major independent centers in Buryatia, Kalmykia, Tuva, Moscow and St.Petersburg.Buddhism plays and important part in socio-cultural space of Russia, gradually moving far beyond the borders of the regions of its traditional location. Popularity of the Buddhist philosophy derives from the range of grounds, among which are the closeness of some of its principles to contemporary scientific ideas, first of all to cognitive sciences, as well as openness to dialogue with other cultural and religious traditions, humanism, ethics of non-violence and ideas of common responsibility.

Application of Traditional Rules of Purity (Qinggui) in Contemporary Taiwanese Monasteries

Vinaya rules embody the ideal of how Buddhists should regulate their daily lives, and monastics are required to observe them, despite the fact that they were compiled nearly 2,500 years ago in India: a context dramatically different not only from Chinese Buddhism's present monastic conditions, but from its historical conditions. Against this backdrop, rules of purity (qinggui) were gradually formulated by Chinese masters in medieval times to supplement and adapt vinaya rules to China's cultural ethos and to specific local Chinese contexts. This study explores how the traditional qinggui are applied by the Buddhist sangha in present-day Taiwan, and contrasts modern monastics' opinions on these rules and their relation to early Buddhist vinaya, on the one hand, against classical Chan literature (such as Chanyuan qinggui) and the Buddhist canon (such as Dharmaguptakavinaya), on the other. This comparison fills a notable gap in the existing literature.

Spiritual Capital and Religious Evolution: Buddhist Values and Transactions in Historical and Contemporary Perspective

This article analyzes the historical and contemporary relations between Buddhism, economy, and materiality. It shows how, on the one hand, the sangha has been a preconditioning catalyst for and continuous generator of economic development, while, on the other hand, economic transactions and wealth generation have been preconditioning contexts for the development and maintenance of the Buddhist sangha. This is argued for by referring to two modes of economic transactions: a “secular economy,” a byproduct of the sangha’s engagement with the secular world, and a “religious economy,” based on economic transactions related to Buddhist ideas, practices, objects, and institutions. Max Weber’s ideas of the “Protestant ethic” and Robert Bellah’s model of religious evolution are used as theoretical frameworks to analyze possible correspondences between religion, economy, and cultural evolution. It is suggested that Buddhism has also played a significant role in economic and civilizational development in (especially East) Asia.

Archaeology and Buddhism in South Asia by Himanshu Prabha Ray

Reviewed by: Archaeology and Buddhism in South Asia by Himanshu Prabha Ray Lars Fogelin Archaeology and Buddhism in South Asia. Himanshu Prabha Ray. New Delhi: Routledge India, 2018. 140 pp., 12 figures, bibliography, index. Hardback £95, US $150, ISBN 978-1-138-30489-5; eBook £36, US $49, ISBN: 978-0-203-72854-3. With Archaeology and Buddhism in South Asia, Himanshu Prabha Ray has produced the first modern introduction to the field intended for an audience of non-specialists. Coming in at a brief 140 pages, Ray has provided an excellent primer for anyone who is seeking to gain an understanding of the basic outlines of Buddhist archaeology in South Asia. To accomplish this, Ray jettisoned the traditional ways of presenting Buddhism that have dominated scholarship for the last century. Where earlier works would almost invariably begin with the biography of the Buddha, the archaeological sites he is believed to have visited, and a survey of the role of Buddhism in the development of urbanism from mid- to late first millennium b.c.e., Ray centers her book on the lived practice of Buddhists in the first millennium c.e.—the first period in which abundant archaeological remains are available to understand the growth, transformation, and eventual decline of Buddhism in South Asia. It is difficult to think of a better scholar to write this concise introduction to South Asian Buddhism. Since the publication of Monastery and Guild: Commerce under the Satavahanas (1986), Ray has been among the most important and prolific scholars working in ancient Indian history and archaeology. Through her work at Jawaharlal Nehru University and as Chair of the National Monuments Authority, she has helped shift the focus on Buddhist history and archaeology from one that concentrated on Buddhist theology and philosophy, primarily through close readings of [End Page 404] Buddhist texts, to a perspective on the daily lived practices of Buddhist monks and nuns (collectively known as the sangha) and the elite and non-elite lay people who supported them. This new perspective, one that Ray helped create, permeates the whole of Archaeology and Buddhism in South Asia. Perhaps the most important aspect of Archaeology and Buddhism in South Asia is its emphasis on the diversity of Buddhist practices, whether speaking of the sangha or the laity. More so, rather than present the sangha and the laity as wholly separate, Ray carefully demonstrates the ways that their religious practices and beliefs both diverged and overlapped over time. Ray tracks these issues in five chapters, each focusing on a different theme. In the first two chapters, she examines the spread of Buddhism throughout South Asia, primarily in terms of how specific Buddhist sects competitively expanded into new areas while simultaneously developing the core concepts of the Buddhist dhamma (a difficult term to define, but sometimes glossed as "law" or "teachings"). Rather than a unified, generic form of dhamma, Ray stresses the differences between the 16 sects of Buddhism and the importance of inscriptions for understanding the lived practices, both ritual and otherwise, of the sangha. Overall, Ray credits Buddhist sangha with the spread of Buddhism from its heartland in the Gangetic Plain of North India. In chapters 3 and 4, Ray turns her attention to Buddhist relics, icons, and associated ritual practices and pilgrimages centered on the relics and icons. In a critical move, Ray argues (p. 3), The physical manifestations of the dhamma appeared in the archaeological record as religious architecture at least 200–300 years after the Buddha had preached his dhamma across north India, and especially important are the inscriptions, stupas, images, and other objects of veneration. The key insight here is that the material expressions of Buddhism are no less expressions of the dhamma than the canonical texts that have long been the focus of research. In terms of relics, Ray argues for the centrality of relic veneration in the ritual lives of both the sangha and lay-Buddhists. More so, she sees the frequent disinterment, division, and reinterment of relics in new regions as central to the spread of Buddhism across South Asia. Within this context, the Buddha's relics were viewed as the living presence of the Buddha, and devotees...

The Order of the dharma and the Order of Rulership

Discusses the relation between the Buddhist sangha and rulership from the time of Asoka to the early Chinese and Japanese period.

Buddhist Nuns and Gendered Practice: In Search of the Female Renouncer by Nirmala S. Salgado, and: Women in Pali Buddhism: Walking the Spiritual Paths in Mutual Dependence by Pascale Engelmajer, and: Women in Early Indian Buddhism: Comparative Textual Studies ed. by Alice Collett (review)

Reviewed by: Buddhist Nuns and Gendered Practice: In Search of the Female Renouncer by Nirmala S. Salgado, and: Women in Pali Buddhism: Walking the Spiritual Paths in Mutual Dependence by Pascale Engelmajer, and: Women in Early Indian Buddhism: Comparative Textual Studies ed. by Alice Collett Rita M. Gross BUDDHIST NUNS AND GENDERED PRACTICE: IN SEARCH OF THE FEMALE RENOUNCER. By Nirmala S. Salgado. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. 319 pp. WOMEN IN PALI BUDDHISM: WALKING THE SPIRITUAL PATHS IN MUTUAL DEPENDENCE. By Pascale Engelmajer. London: Routledge, 2015. 137 pp. WOMEN IN EARLY INDIAN BUDDHISM: COMPARATIVE TEXTUAL STUDIES. Edited by Alice Collett. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. 274 pp. Recently, three books on gender and Buddhism, one on contemporary conditions and the other two mainly on classical Buddhists texts, have been released. They are being reviewed in order, from the least useful of the three to the most useful. Salgado’s book is by far the most difficult of the three to evaluate. Mainly, I find [End Page 226] it disappointing, but I wonder what I am missing. The book is about a topic in Buddhist studies and gender studies in religion that is definitely not reported and studied sufficiently—the lives and attitudes of Sri Lankan nuns, sometimes called dasa sila matas or ten precept “nuns,” who do not have and often do not want “higher ordination.” The same comment can be made about “nuns” in other forms of Buddhism that similarly lack “higher ordination” who, nevertheless, practice a lifestyle of monasticlike renunciation. The book is also very critical of the ways these women have been represented in scholarly literature. Thus, it should and could add significantly to our knowledge about Buddhist women. So what engenders the disappointment? First of all, this book is not elegantly or clearly written. Salgudo frequently criticizes other authors for using “globalatinized” speech, but her own book is replete with postcolonial and social scientific jargon to the point of being difficult to decipher in places. The book’s organization also presents difficulties. It is something of a patchwork of pieces that seem to have been written separately and not fully integrated into a through-composed book. The book is stridently ideological, especially when dealing with “secular, liberal feminists,” as she invariably characterizes Buddhist-feminist scholar-practitioners who write about Buddhist women or Buddhism and gender. If this book has a thesis or central theme, it is that much writing about Buddhist nuns does not accurately represent contemporary Asian nuns who lack “higher ordination,” their motivations for being nuns, or what matters to them about being nuns. It is claimed that this happens because those who write about Buddhist nuns are liberal feminists grounded in secular ideologies who have a colonialist agenda, regarding Asian nuns as in need of rescue by Western solutions. The first sentence of this paragraph may well be accurate for scholarly writings in English, but the second sentence paraphrases the ideology that mars this book. “Feminism” has become almost a swear word in some discourses. Because it is left undefined, the reader has no idea what Salgado means by the term. Let us analyze separately these two aspects of her book. Salgudo is correct that Western writers about Buddhist nuns tend to regard full ordination, the so-called higher ordination, very favorably, not because they are Westerners but because the “fourfold sangha,” consisting of fully ordained monks, fully ordained nuns, laymen, and laywomen, is the normative Buddhist sangha. This is not a controversial or a contested claim, despite the fact that “higher ordination” for women is either no longer available or available only with difficulty in two of three schools of Vinaya (monastic rules) in practice today. It is also correct that Western women who write about Buddhist nuns tend to wish Asian women were more favorably disposed to “higher ordination” than they currently are. They think that Buddhist nuns would be better off if full ordination were available to them, often noting that East Asian nuns, who have “higher ordination,” seem to be better educated and better supported economically than Theravada or Tibetan nuns, who do not have “higher ordination.” It is also the case that English language authors tend to...

Early Buddhist Architecture in Context: The Great Stupa at Amaravati (ca. 300 BCE–300 CE) by Akira Shimada (review)

Reviewed by: Early Buddhist Architecture in Context: The Great Stupa at Amaravati (ca. 300 BCE–300 CE) by Akira Shimada Peter Johansen Early Buddhist Architecture in Context: The Great Stupa at Amaravati (ca. 300 bce–300 ce). Akira Shimada. Leiden: Brill, 2012. 265pp. ISBN 978-9-004-23283-9. Akira Shimada’s book is a welcome and timely addition to the nearly two centuries of research on the Amaravati Mahastupa (great stupa), and a more recent but expanding literature on the archaeology of early historic South Indian Buddhism. The study of this remarkable Buddhist monument presents a rather unique case for archaeologists, epigraphers, and social, religious, and art historians. Once a massive and beautifully adorned stupa, built and maintained by generations of early South Indian Buddhists, it was abandoned sometime during the fourteenth century a.d. By at least the late eighteenth century, it was willfully pillaged, first for building materials and then, over the course of a series of disastrous salvage projects, pillaged again for “objets d’art” bound for museum collections. Indeed, so complete was the destruction of the site that Upinder Singh closes her 2004 essay, “The Dismembering of the Amaravati Stupa,” by saying that: “the result of a century-and-three-quarters’ exploration and excavation at Amaravati is that, today, the site of what James Fergusson described as the most elaborate and magnificent piece of architecture found in any part of the world, is marked by a nondescript mound ringed by a few forlorn stones.” Today the surviving architectural assemblage of the Amaravati stupa is scattered across a number of museum collections. The details of their provenience are documented by an even more scattered body of incomplete or inadequate field notes and reports, presenting a formidable challenge to those wishing to study the site and its wider social contexts. Shimada’s research, presented in this volume, has risen to that challenge, considerably advancing our knowledge of the social and material history of Amaravati itself and the wider social history of Buddhist practice in early historic period Andradesa (ancient Andhra Pradesh). Shimada takes on the material and social history of Amaravati, first, by squarely tackling the elusive issue of chronology, carefully reconstructing the Mahastupa’s building history before moving on to explore a range of issues involving the developing role of the Buddhist sangha (order of monks and nuns) within a socially diverse South Indian society. The former, no small feat, has been attempted several times over the past century, with less than satisfying results. Shimada’s approach to the problem differs in that it provides a remarkably synthetic and systematic overview of the evidence, exploring the stupa’s epigraphic, sculptural, and archaeological records together as a cohesive body of complementary evidence, building on important correspondences in the data and interrogating the discrepancies. This stands in opposition to many past studies that focused on one or two of these elements, often in atomistic ways bereft of both an understanding of architectural coherence and a wider sense of construction as a social process. His work is thorough, comprehensive, and transparent, digging deep into a diverse set of East India Company, British Colonial Office, and private [End Page 368] records, as well as providing a fresh look at the architectural evidence housed in several museums. Shimada then moves on to consider a number of broader social themes including patronage, ritual practice, urbanism, trade, and exchange, activities that articulated the Buddhist sangha at Amaravati and elsewhere with a wide range of communities. The book begins with an account of the problems that have befuddled chronological reconstruction and interpretation of the stupa and the wider archaeological site. These include the state of the site upon discovery by British colonial officials, the nature of their subsequent salvage operations, and the efforts of Indian, colonial, and other foreign scholars to approach chronological reconstruction through studies of palaeography and sculptural style that were reliant on unrefined regional dynastic histories. Critical to this end, Shimada reviews how tropes of decay, popular with colonial Indologists, led at times to very specific theories of causation for the construction of the stupa (e.g., dynastic patronage, Greek and Roman influences on sculptural style), theories with very little real...

JOHN CLIFFORD HOLT. Spirits of the Place: Buddhism and Lao Religious Culture. Honolulu: University of Hawai`i Press, 2009, 368p.

Spirits of Place: Buddhism and Lao Religious Culture JOHN CLIFFORD HOLT Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2009, 368p.Current studies on religious culture of Lao ethnic groups began with S. J. Tambiah's structural-functionalistic analysis (1970) and have progressed mainly through Tiyavanich's biographical study on traditions of forest monks (1997) and Hayashi's historio-sociological ethnography of practical Buddhism (2003). While these studies were conducted on right bank of Mekong River in part of northeastern Thailand, generally known as Isan, Lao religious studies on other side of Mekong river, in present Lao PDR, have been very limited until recently. In fact, Spirits of Place: Buddhism and Lao Religious Culture is first book to focus on Lao religion by bringing together a wide range of previous studies concerning Lao history, politics, and cultures.Spirits of Place primarily provides a thorough analysis of phi (spirit) veneration and its relation to Buddhism in Laos. The author, John Holt, has studied Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka for a long time, and a notable feature of this book is its comparative use of Sinhalese Buddhism in order to understand Buddhism and spirit cults in Laos.Before embarking on an inquiry regarding circumstances in Lao, title words of place are explained through introduction of Paul Mus's term territorial sacred power. Mus, a French scholar of Southeast Asian studies, points out that religions of monsoon Asia are characterized by belief in spiritual power associated with a given locality, such as paddy field, family compound, or village. The practice of such beliefs requires that there be a social group which worships their ancestors, and focuses on of place in order to clarify linkages between both spiritual and human realms, past and present. By setting it as a key concept, Holt explores basic social unit of Lao, ban (village), and its relation to headman, human authority, and supernatural phi ban (village deity), or to muang, a cluster of ban, which includes chao muang (a muang chieftain) and phi muang. Holt finds here double hierarchical orders both in real politic and in supernatural, and he explains that spirit veneration is related not only to religious realm but also to social order as bedrock of Lao religious culture.On basis of this concept of the spirits of place, first three chapters of book develop relationship between Buddhism and spirit cults and provide a diachronic description of Lao history. The first chapter illuminates era of Lan Xang kingdom (fourteenth- nineteenth centuries). The Kingdom did not support Buddhism in early times, but when it started to sponsor Buddhist sangha from fifteenth century, worship of spirit cults still continued in many areas despite attempts by state to suppress them. For instance, veneration of stupas and Phraban (a Buddha statue as axis mundi) had Buddhist-like forms but symbolized power of past.The period prior to revolution in 1975 is described in chapter 2. With intervention by Siam, France, and United States in succession, national identification with Buddhism has undergone ceaseless changes. Under French colonial rule, religion was excluded from Laotian national identity, and since 1950s, aid from United States has exacerbated economic gap between urban elite and rural poor, an act that has been strongly criticized by sangha, support of which derives from rural regions. Under these circumstances, sangha has identified itself as a protector of Lao traditions and has sympathized with communist Pathet Lao's humanitarian agenda.Chapter 3 depicts revolutionary era when Marxist policy began to criticize Buddhism as otherworldly, and tried to change Buddhism as a means to sustain socialism and eradicate spirit veneration. …

Die apologetischen Schriften des buddhistischen Tang-Mönchs Falin, with an English Summary by Thomas Jülch (review)

Book Reviews 109 from Zhanguo Confucianism directly to the Neo-Confucians without saying a word about the Han does look a little awkward to the specialist, although this may have been due to the constraints of the limited space that 168 pages offer. This problem is, however, the only one that I can find in this booklet, which I have read with profit and which I do think will serve as an excellent introduction to the ideas of early Chinese Confucianism for a general readership. HANS VAN ESS, LMU University of Munich Die apologetischen Schriften des buddhistischen Tang-Mönchs Falin, with an English Summary THOMAS JÜLCH. München: Herbert Utz Verlag, 2011. xiv, 690 pages. ISBN 978-3-8316-4026-3. €98.00 hardcover. We are indebted to the seventh-century historians of the Tang dynasty (618-907) for much of our knowledge of the previous centuries of Division. This is as true for political and social history as it is for the central aspects of religious history. Thomas Jülch has now published his doctoral thesis on the main texts by the Buddhist monk, Falin 法琳 (572-640), which, together with the more numerous compilations by Daoxuan 道宣 (596-667), goes a long way to help reconstruct the intellectual environment of the sixth and early seventh centuries. It was during this time that the Buddhist sangha engaged in long drawn-out and occasionally acrimonious debates over the place of Buddhist thought and institutions in the current social and political environment. This voluminous book offers a complete translation of Falin’s Poxie lun 破邪論 (“Treatise Refuting the False [Views and Accusations]”; T. 2109), in which he refutes Fu Yi’s 傅奕 (544-639) famous attack on Buddhism submitted to the throne in 622, the Eleven Statements On the Reduction of [Buddhist] Monasteries and Pagodas, of [Buddhist] Monks and Nuns to Benefit the State and Serve the People 減省寺塔僧尼益國利民事十一條. Of the twelve sections (distributed over eight chapters) that comprise Falin’s Bianzheng lun 辯正論 (“Treatise Discussing the Correct”; T. 2110) of 633, Jülch translates six sections (i.e., Chapters 1, 2, 5 and 6). In this, his magnum opus, Falin engaged with the continuing debates on the respective status of the three religions—Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism—in the early Tang state. This resulted, as Timothy Barrett puts it, in “the most complete surviving 110 Journal of Chinese Religions statement of the issues between Buddhism and Daoism until the renewed debates of the Mongol period.”2 The translations amount to a staggering 520 pages. They are preceded in the first 120 pages by an introduction in which the author briefly places Falin’s texts in their contemporary historical context. In his research, he is mainly interested, however, in placing the Poxie lun and Bianzheng lun within the tradition of Buddhist apologetic writing. Jülch explores this by answering two questions. First, to what extent did the author draw on previous debate literature? Second, what were the intertextual relationships among Falin’s two texts and the subsequent Chinese Buddhist historiography? To answer the first question, Jülch divides the debate literature in general into layers. He defines the predominant layer of this genre of texts, in which he sees Falin’s contributions firmly embedded, as an ongoing attempt to position Buddhism politically and ideologically in such ways as to obtain imperial favors for its institutions. Characteristically, the argumentative strategy elaborated in this type of Buddhist apologetic writing employs a threefold structure: first, arguments demonstrating that Buddhism stands in line with Confucian values; second, arguments demonstrating the superiority of Buddhism to Confucianism in achieving these values; and third, arguments demonstrating the superiority of Buddhism to Daoism. Much of the introduction is dedicated to establishing a catalogue of the elements that constitute the argumentation of both the Poxie and Bianzheng lun, and to showing the extent to which Falin drew upon well-established topics from the previous centuries. As to the second question regarding Falin’s influence upon later Buddhist historiography, Jülch documents the borrowings that authors like Daoxuan have made from Falin’s two treatises. This purely textual approach fails to recognize that these seventh-century texts could be more than mere bibliographic repositories of...