Webcasts
Tsering Shakya, University of British Columbia
Tibet: Does History Matter?
Public Lecture from the "Tibetan Religion and State in the 17th and 18th Centuries:
Tibetan, Chinese, and Mongolian Perspectives" conference
Friday, May 5, 2006, 7:00 pm
In this lecture, Professor Shakya compares Tibetan histories — folk and scholarly, religious and secular, Chinese and Tibetan, local and exiled — to examine the process of selective remembering and evaluate how historical accounts reflect and construct different images of Tibet. He concludes that for people whose history is denied, history does indeed matter, because it is intrinsically tied to the formation of individual and national identities, to issues of justice, and to their precarious futures.
Tsering Shakya teaches in the Contemporary Tibetan Studies Program at the University of British Columbia. His primary research interests are the political, cultural, and literary histories of twentieth-century Tibet. His publications include Fire Under the Snow: The Testimony of a Tibetan Prisoner (1997) and The Dragon in the Land of Snows: A History of Modern Tibet Since 1947 (1999). He also co-edited the first anthology of modern Tibetan short stories and poems, Song of the Snow Lion, New Writings from Tibet (2000) and Seeing Lhasa: British Depictions of the Tibetan Capital 1936-1947 (2003).
Donald Lopez, University of Michigan
What's So Funny About the Laughing Buddha?
Plenary Address for the "Does Humor Belong in Buddhism?" conference
Friday, February 9, 2007, 4:00 pm
In this lecture, Professor Lopez points to some of the themes of a conference designed to explore the role of humor in Buddhism from the early canonical theories of humor and the unexpectedly robust comedy of the rules for monks and nuns to the outrageous behavior of tantric gurus and Zen Masters.
Donald Lopez is Arthur E. Link Distinguished University Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies at the University of Michigan. His recent books include Critical Terms for the Study of Buddhism and The Madman's Middle Way.
Padmanabh S. Jaini, UC-Berkeley (Emeritus)
Buddhism and Warfare: A Note on Mahāvaṃsa 25, 110
A special lecture to celebrate the establishment of the Padmanabh S. Jaini Graduate Student Award in Buddhist Studies
Thursday, September 27, 2007, 5:00 pm
Responses by UCLA Professors Gregory Schopen and Robert Buswell
In this lecture on the transformation of "Buddhist" nationalism in Ceylon into "ethnic" nationalism and the inspiration provided for these modern events by the epic Mahavaṃsa, Professor Jaini examines the doctrinal implications of the grounds for "absolution" granted by arahants in an act of warfare by a Buddhist king, apparently for the glory of the Dhamma.
Padmanabh S. Jaini is Professor emeritus of Buddhist Studies at UC-Berkeley and co-founder of the Group in Buddhist Studies.