2015-2016 Events

2015-2016 Events

Center for Buddhist Studies 2015-2016 Events

Thursday, April 28, 2016, 5 pm
Amdo Lamas at the Center of Modern Conceptions of Tibet — CANCELED
Gray Tuttle, Leila Hadley Luce Associate Professor of Modern Tibetan Studies, Columbia University
370 Dwinelle

Image for Amdo Lamas at the Center of Modern Conceptions of Tibet

This talk will cover the spread of Gelukpa monastic education to Amdo, introducing the intellectual climate in Amdo during the Qing. It will especially focus on Amdo lamas who went to Beijing and how their encounter with others (Mongolian, Chinese, Russians, etc.) reshaped their conception of Greater Tibet. Finally, it will discuss the impact of their geographic writings on conceptions of Tibet then and since.

Gray Tuttle received his AB from Princeton, his MA in regional studies (East Asian), and his PhD in Inner Asian and Altaic studies from Harvard. He joined the Columbia faculty in 2005 where he teaches courses on modern Tibetan history, the history of Chinese and Tibetan Buddhist relations, Tibetan Buddhist biographies, and Tibetan civilization.

In his Tibetan Buddhists in the Making of Modern China (Columbia University Press, 2005), Professor Tuttle examines the failure of nationalism and race-based ideology to maintain the Tibetan territory of the former Qing empire as integral to the Chinese nation-state. He discusses the critical role of pan-Asian Buddhism in Chinese efforts to hold onto Tibetan regions (one quarter of China’s current territory). His current research project, “Amdo Tibet: Middle Ground between Lhasa and Beijing,” focuses on Tibetan Buddhist institutional growth and intellectual developments from the seventeenth to the twentieth century and how the spread of Gelukpa monastic education reshaped Amdo, Amdo's relations to Central Tibet and Beijing, and conceptions of Tibet in general. He also co-edited Sources of Tibetan Tradition for the series Introduction to Asian Civilizations, The Tibetan History Reader (Columbia University Press) and Wutaishan and Qing Culture (JIATSissue 6).


Thursday, April 21, 2016, 6 pm
What Is the Value of a Life? A Tibetan Buddhist Perspective 
Khenpo Tsultrim Lodrö
Chan Shun Auditorium — 2050 Valley Life Sciences Building University of California, Berkeley

Khenpo Tsultrim Lodrö

Khenpo Tsultrim Lodrö will explore the Buddhist principle of compassion and the universal desire of all beings to live free of suffering. The talk will be given in Tibetan with English translation.

Tsultrim Lodrö (b. 1962) is one of the most important scholars and religious leaders in Tibet today. Educated in Eastern Tibet at Larung Gar Five Sciences Buddhist Institute, now the largest Buddhist center in the world, Tsultrim Lodrö is the successor to Larung Gar's founder, Jigme Phuntshok, and leader of the Larung Gar community.

Tsultrim Lodrö has led an extremely distinguished career as a scholar, teacher, and activist. Not only is he one of Tibet's most dynamic and highly regarded Buddhist thinkers, he has also founded schools and libraries that preserve and uphold Tibetan culture, emphasized the importance of teaching Buddhism to lay people, and promoted environmental awareness in Tibet. He is a staunch advocate of vegetarianism and the Buddhist practice of tsethar (animal liberation), and has personally saved the lives of millions of animals.


Thursday, April 7, 2016, 5 pm
Yogācāra and Panpsychism
Douglas Duckworth, Department of Religion, Temple University
180 Doe Memorial Library

Optical illusion - vase or face

Yogācāra, "the yogic practice school," came to be one of two main lines of interpretation of Mahāyāna Buddhism. There is a lot of internal diversity within this "school," and this paper makes some distinctions among its interpretative strands. Yogācāra has been discussed in academic works primarily in terms of idealism and more recently phenomenology. I wish to cast new light on this tradition through extending the conversation to engage the category of panpsychism, "the view that all things have mind or a mind-like quality" (Skbrina).

Panpsychism does not treat the substance of the world as a mysterious thing called "matter," nor does it posit a non-material spirit or "ghost in the machine," as in dualism. Rather, for a panpsychist, the mind inhabits the world fundamentally, and mental life is the one experiential reality that we have certainty. The meaning of "mind" in panpsychism, however, remains an open question; this is the case with Yogācāra as well. That is, interpretations of Yogācāra, like panpsychism, are open to an array of possibilities that extend a theory of mind to include relational, pluralistic, and singular (or nondual) forms. This paper will outline and discuss some of the implications of these interpretations.

Douglas Duckworth is Assistant Professor in the Department of Religion at Temple University. He is the author of Mipam on Buddha-Nature: The Ground of the Nyingma Tradition (SUNY, 2008) and Jamgön Mipam: His Life and Teachings(Shambhala, 2011). He also introduced and translated Distinguishing the Views and Philosophies: Illuminating Emptiness in a Twentieth-Century Tibetan Buddhist Classic by Bötrül (SUNY, 2011).


Monday, March 28, 2016, 5 pm
The Garbhāvakrāntisūtra: a Buddhist Sūtra on Conception, Gestation, and Birth
Robert Kritzer, Kyoto Notre Dame University
180 Doe Memorial Library

The fetus in the 12th and 13th weeks, according to Tibetan medical blockprints

The fetus in the 12th and 13th weeks,
according to Tibetan medical blockprints

Garbhāvakrāntisūtra (Sūtra on Entering the Womb) describes the process of rebirth in greater detail than any other Indian text, religious or medical, Buddhist or non-Buddhist. The sutra centers around a unique 38-week account of the development of the fetus and its thoroughly unpleasant experience in the womb. The sutra also describes conception and the factors that may interfere with it, as well as birth itself. The sutra describes the sufferings that afflict all beings from the moment of birth.

This talk will introduce some of the most unusual features of the sutra. It will also discuss the different versions and translations of the text, especially the translation in the Tibetan Mūlasarvāstivādavinaya Kṣudrakavastu, which I have critically edited and translated into English.

Robert Kritzer is a professor at Kyoto Notre Dame University. He received his Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. His research interests, mainly in Indian Buddhism, include abhidharma, early Yogācāra, and Buddhist theories of rebirth. He has published three books: Rebirth and Causation in the Yogācāra Abhidharma (Arbeitskreis fūr Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien, Universität Wien); Vasubandhu and the Yogācārabhūmi: Yogācāra Elements in the Abhidharmakośabhāṣya. (International Institute for Buddhist Studies); Garbhāvakrāntisūtra: The Sūtra on Entry into the Womb. Studia Philologica Buddhica, (International Institute for Buddhist Studies). Currently, he is studying aśubhabhāvanā,the Buddhist meditation on the impure, with special reference to Vibhāṣā and Śrāvakabhūmi.


Thursday, February 25, 2016, 5 pm
Buddhist Stairways to Heaven
Stephen Jenkins, Humboldt State University
180 Doe Memorial Library

Buddha preaching

Buddha's stairway to heaven traced a route most Buddhists aspired to follow. Pāli suttas and abhidharma offer ascent to radiant, pure, blissful lands ideal for enlightenment, through devotion, "a single mind of faith to the marrow of one's bones," and deathbed aspiration practices. Contrary to recent scholarship, "Pure land" is a term of Indian origin developed from earlier "pure abodes." The central concern of early Buddhists for heavenly rebirth set a strong Indian precedent for East Asian Pure Land. This complex of ideas and practices is crucial for understanding Mahāyāna Buddhology and the role of deities in ancient texts and modern practice.

Stephen Jenkins is Professor of Religion at Humboldt State University. He received his doctorate from Harvard in 1999. His research is focused on Buddhist concepts of compassion, their philosophical grounding, and ethical implications. His most recent publication is Waking into Compassion: the Three Ālambana of Karuṇā in Moonpaths, Cowherds, Jenkins etc., New York: Oxford University Press, 2015.


Thursday, February 11, 2016, 5 pm
2016 Khyentse Lecture
The Last Lotsawa: Gendun Chopel in India

Donald S. Lopez, University of Michigan
The Faculty Club, Heyns Room

 Asoka Pillar, painting by Gendun Chopell

Asoka Pillar, painting by Gendun Chopel
Click image to expand.

Gendun Chopel (1903-1951) was the most important Tibetan writer of the twentieth century. Born in Amdo, the son of a Nyingma lama, he was educated at Labrang and Drepung as a Geluk monk. In 1934, he traveled to India, not returning to Lhasa until 1945. During his years in South Asia, he wrote his most important works, including translations from Sanskrit and Pali. The India that he visited, however, was quite different from that of the great Tibetan lotsawas (translators) of ages past. This lecture will explore Gendun Chopel's nuanced views of India, the Land of the Noble (and, to Gendun Chopel, not so noble) Ones.

Donald Lopez is the Arthur E. Link Distinguished University Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies at the University of Michigan, where he serves as chair of the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures and chair of the Michigan Society of Fellows.


Thursday, January 28, 2016, 5 pm
A preliminary report on two Sanskrit texts of the Aṣṭamīvratakathā
Diwakar Acharya, Kyoto University, Japan
Location: 3401 Dwinelle Hall

Image for A preliminary report on two Sanskrit texts of the Aṣṭamīvratakathā

Buddhism survived in the Nepal Valley and its peripheries even after it disappeared from the other parts of the Indian Subcontinent. Survived here are many texts of Mahāyāna Buddhism, not just philosophical texts and Tantras but also songs, narratives, and devotional texts. The Aṣṭamīvratakathā is one such narrative text which contains the stories of Māndhātṛ, Ikṣvāku, Vīrakuśa and other princes and merchants. It is the main Sanskrit text associated with Dhalaṃ Danegu (Observation of Dharma), the most popular of the vows of Newar Buddhism.

This text is supposed to be recited and interpreted in front of the observers of the vow for their benefit, to instill Buddhist values and merits in them. But nowadays, since elaborate and enlarged translations — historical ones, of course — of the text in the local Newar language are available, the original Sanskrit text is hardly recited and narrated on devotional occasions. In recent years, a number of academic studies of Newar Buddhist rites and vows have appeared but these, too, have not used the Sanskrit version of the Aṣṭamīvratakathā. In my talk I will present a preliminary report on the quality and content of two versions of the text.

Diwakar Acharya is associate professor at the Department of Indological Studies, Kyoto University, Japan. His research covers a wide range of topics such as epigraphy, early history of Nepal, Sanskrit literature, and Indian religious and philosophical traditions. He has published Vācaspatimiśra's Tattvasamīkṣā: The Earliest Commentary on Maṇḍanamiśra's Brahmasiddhi (2006), The Little Clay Cart (2009), and Early Tantric Vaiṣṇavism: Three Newly Discovered Works of the Pañcarātra (2015), as well as a number of articles in journals and anthologies.


Thursday-Friday, January 7-8, 2016
Nirvāṇa Sūtra (MMPNS, Mahāparinirvāṇa-mahāsūtra) Workshop
Sponsored by the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Tokyo
Townsend Center for the Humanities, 220 Stephens Hall

Thursday, January 7, 2016

9:30-9:45: Mark Blum
Welcome Remarks, book proposal idea

9:45-10:00: Shimoda Masahiro
Welcome Remarks, introductory comments on the workshop; introduce Robert Grochowski

10:00-10:30: Robert Grochowski
Delivers talk of Shinsō Itō

10:30-10:45: Break

10:45-11:30: Suzuki Takayasu
"The Influence of the MMPNS in India"

11:30-12:00: Paul Harrison
Reads "The Mahāparinirvāṇa-mahāsūtra as 'Our First' Source for Tathāgatagarbha, and Implications for the Inception of the Doctrine" by Michael Radich

12:15-1:15: Lunch break

1:15-2:00: Habata Hiromi
"The Conflict with the opponent traced in the Mahāparinirvāṇa-mahāsūtra: sautrāntika and icchantika."

2:00-2:40: Chis Jones
"The Tathāgatagarbha as 'True Self' in the Mahāparinirvāṇa-mahāsūtra, and its place in the wider Mahāyāna"

2:40-3:15: Shimoda, Harrison, Sasaki, Habata
Discussion on contextualizing the MMPNS within Indian Buddhism

3:15-3:30: Break

3:30-4:15: Kanno Hiroshi
"Some Perspectives on the Mahāyana Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra in China during the Northern/Southern and Sui Dynasties: Focusing on the System of Doctrinal Classifications"

4:15-5:00: Nishimoto Teruma
"Sanjie-jiao: A Heresy Created by the Nirvana Sutra"


Friday, January 8, 2016

9:30-10:15AM: Shimoda Masahiro
"Wŏnhyo's commentary on the Nirvana-sutra (Tae yŏlban-gyŏng chong'yo)"

10:15-10:45: Paul Groner
"The Precepts and Their Interpretation in the Nirvana-sutra"

10:45-11:00: Break

11:00-11:45: Jacqueline Stone
"Curing the Incurable: Nichiren's Use of the Nirvana Sutra"

11:45-12:30: Mark Blum
"Does Tathāgatagarbha Define Other-Power? The Impact of the Nirvana Sutra upon the Formation of Pure Land Buddhism"

12:45-1:45: Lunch break

1:45-2:30: Nishimoto, Kanno, Groner, Stone, Blum, Wendi Adamek
Discussion on contextualizing the MMPNS within East Asian Buddhism

2:30-3:00: Nagasaki Kiyonori
"The SAT database and the future of digital humanities."

3:00-3:15: Break

3:15-4:00: Mark Blum, Masahiro Shimoda
Discussion of book proposal: Readings of the Nirvana Sutra


Thursday, December 3, 2015, 5 pm
Buddhist Relics in Western Eyes: The Ongoing Saga of the Piprahwa Finds 
John Strong, Bates College
180 Doe Library

Buddha at Grande Pagode, Paris

In 1897, some Buddhist relics, claimed to be bones of Śākyamuni, were unearthed by William Peppé on his estate at Piprahwa in Northern India. Along with the gems that were buried with them, they quickly became objects of controversy whose authenticity was disputed. At the same time, they were the focal point for a series of diplomatic and political maneuvers by the British Colonial government, the Siamese king (Chulalongkorn), and various Sri Lankan and Burmese monastics.

This talk reexamines this epic story and brings it up to date: In 2006, some of the Piprahwa gems resurfaced in a cardboard box at the British Buddhist Society in London, while members of the Peppé family went public with their possession of other gems they had inherited from their ancestor William. Then in 2009, some of the Piprahwa relics were translated from the “Golden Mount” in Bangkok to the “Grande Pagode” in Paris where a kind of Buddhist ecumenicity is being fostered. Both of these events serve to illustrate some of the changing attitudes of Westerners towards Buddhist relics.

John Strong is Charles A. Dana Professor of Religious Studies at Bates College in Maine. He is the author of several books on Buddhism including Relics of the Buddha (Princeton, 2004) and, most recently, Buddhisms: An Introduction(OneWorld, 2015).


Tuesday, November 17, 2015, 5 pm
Buddhism and Indian Lexicography
Lata Deokar, Department of Pali, Savitribai Phule Pune University, India
341 Dwinelle Hall

The Amara Kosha of Amara Simha

The Sanskrit lexicographical tradition started with the compilation of Nighaṇṭus 'word-lists'. Their focus was on the 'rare, unexplained, vague, or otherwise difficult terms' that occurred in the sacred Vedic literature. Beginning with Amarasiṃha's Amarakośa (circa 6th century CE) we have an unbroken tradition of Sanskrit lexica mostly compiled by lexicographers belonging to the three major religious faiths in India. The influence of the Amarakośa, the first complete lexicon of the Sanskrit language, is felt throughout India and in the neighbouring countries such as Sri Lanka and Tibet. This in turn resulted in the creation of Pali and (Sanskrit-) Tibetan lexica.

In a paper entitled “Some Observations on Buddhism and Lexicography” (2012), I had made an attempt to find how Buddhist vocabulary has been presented in prominent Sanskrit lexicons, and the impact of the decline of Buddhism on the inclusion and explanation of Buddhist data. I had also tried to find the impact of religious affiliations of lexicographers on the selection of lexical entries, quantity of synonyms and accuracy in their explanation.

Against this background, in the present talk I would try to explore the role played by Buddhism in shaping the Sanskrit, Pali, and Indo-Tibetan lexicographical tradition. I will deal with this topic from the following view-points:

Mahavyutpatti

  1. The motives and application of the lexicographical activity in India, Sri Lanka, and Tibet
  2. The mutual relationship of lexica and literature
  3. Buddhist literature and lexica
  4. The role of religious affiliations of lexicographers in these compilations

For the Sanskrit part, I have selected a few prominent Sanskrit lexicographers belonging to the three important Indian religious traditions. For the Tibetan part, I have mainly dealt with the Mahāvyutpatti and the Tshig gi gter. For Pali, I have consulted the only Pali lexicon Abhidhānappadīpikā with its commentary Abhidhānappadīpikāṭīkā.


Thursday, November 12, 2015, 5 pm
Biographies of the Buddha: a Socially Engaged Approach
Mahesh A. Deokar, Department of Pali, Savitribai Phule Pune University, India
3335 Dwinelle Hall

Dharmananda Kosambi

The life story of the Buddha has been a constant source of inspiration for many over the centuries. Right from the canonical literature up to the modern period there have been several attempts to depict the Buddha’s life in different languages of the world. In the canonical literature of Pali and Sanskrit, the Buddha’s life story has been narrated in the form of autobiographies. These autobiographical portions form a part of some larger discourses given by the Buddha where he is shown to share his life experiences with the disciples. There are of course some portions in the canon where the life story of the Buddha is narrated in the biographical manner, for instance, in the Pabbajjāsutta and the Nāḷakasutta of the Suttanipāta.

Dr. B.R. Ambedkar

After the first century CE, the biography of the Buddha has inspired the great poet and Buddhist master Aśvaghoṣa, who composed two mahākāvyas, namely, the Buddhacarita and the Saundarānanda. The sole purpose of his kāvya is liberation and not amusement. In the preface to his aṭṭhakathās of the Vinayapiṭaka, the Dhammasaṅgaṇī and the Jātaka, Buddhaghosa has narrated the Buddha’s birth-story basically in order to explain the origin of these texts. The later Pali works such as the Jinacarita, the Jinālaṅkāra etc. depict the Buddha’s life in order to earn merit and to generate faith about the Buddha and his teaching in the minds of the listeners.

In the modern time when the western scholars began to study Buddhism, they started writing biographies of the Buddha based on different traditional sources. The main purpose of these writings was to introduce the life and the mission of the Buddha to the western world in an authentic manner.

In the second half of the 19th century, India witnessed resurgence of Buddhism through scholarship, active participation in Buddhism, popularization, and revival among Buddhist remnants. The popular biographies of the Buddha written by authors like K. A. Keluskar etc. sensitized Indian society about the persona and principles of the Buddha. The end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century marked the period of transition in the Indian society. Particularly in the state of Maharashtra it was the period of intellectual renaissance. With the advent of progressive leadership in the form of Mahatma Jotiba Phule, Vitthal Ramji Shinde and king Shahu of the princely state of Kolhapur there emerged a non-Brahmanic movement, which challenged the Brahmanic leadership and ideology. During the course of this movement, its members were easily attracted towards the Buddha as a non-Brahmin, unorthodox and a progressive leader. Many writers belonging to the first half of the 20th century started presenting Buddha’s teaching as the higher form of Hinduism.

During the same period, there appeared two very important and influential social movements, namely, the socialist movement and the movement of the downtrodden or of untouchables. This was also the time of Indian freedom struggle on nonviolent principles under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi. On this background, the social, ethical and non-violent teaching of the Buddha not only became very much relevant but also proved to be a guiding principle for these movements.

The present talk will demonstrate how not only the Buddha’s teachings but also his life story has been used to bring out the social message. It will focus on two important works in this regard, namely, Bhagavān Buddha (1940) by Acharya Dharmananda Kosambi and The Buddha and His Dhamma (1957) by Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar.


Friday-Saturday, November 6-7, 2015
Buddhist Ritual Music
Symposium/Performances
Alumni House — Zellerbach Playhouse

This symposium is focused on traditional Buddhist ritual music to consider its importance for studying the evolution of Buddhist culture as well as the interaction between Buddhist music and traditional musical culture outside the monastery in Japan, Nepal, Tibet, Cambodia, Laos, Sri Lanka, Korea and China.

It will include presentations by scholars in the field of ethnomusicology, Buddhist studies and/or religious studies and performances by Buddhist monastics, renowned in their home countries for their musicality in ritual chanting.

REGISTRATION FOR PERFORMANCES RECOMMENDED at http://buddhistritualmusic.weebly.com/

Program

Friday, November 6, 2015

12:30 pm – 5:00 pm
Symposium, Alumni House


12:30 pm – 12:45 pm
Welcoming Remarks
Mark Blum, UC Berkeley

12:45 pm – 1:25 pm
Reciting, Chanting, and Singing: Codifying Music in Buddhist Canon Law
Cuilan Liu, McGill University

1:25 pm – 2:05 pm
The Sound of Vultures' Wings: Tibetan Buddhist Ritual as Performing Art
Jeffrey Cupchik, St. John Fisher College

2:10 pm – 2:50 pm
Use of Dance as a Ritual Tool in the Tantric Tradition of Nepalese Buddhism
Alexander von Rospatt, UC Berkeley

2:50 pm – 3:05 pm
Break

3:05 pm – 3:45 pm
Chanting with the Dragon's Voice: Music and Musical Notation in Japanese Sōtō Zen
Michaela Mross, Postdoctoral Fellow, UC Berkeley

3:45 pm – 4:25 pm
Music and Liturgy in Japanese Esoteric Buddhism: The Rishu Zanmai Rite
Steven Nelson, Hosei University, Japan

4:25 pm – 4:30 pm
Break

4:30 pm – 5:00 pm
Group Discussion

7:00 pm – 10:30 pm
Performances, Zellerbach Playhouse


7:00 pm – 7:55 pm
Rishu Zanmai, Japanese Esoteric Buddhist Chant (Japan)
Performance by Karyōbinga Shōmyō Kenkyūkai Ensemble: Arai Kōjun, Kawashiro, Kōdō, Numajiri Kenshō, Tanaka Kōkan, Tobe Kenkai

8:15 pm – 9:10 pm
Charya Nritya — Nepalese Sacred Art (Dance Mandal, Portland, Oregon)
Performers: Prajwal Vajracharya, Uppa Sakya, Corinne Nakamura-Rybak

9:30 pm – 10:25 pm
Tibetan Ritual Music and Dance (Drikung Kagyu Nuns, Dehradun, India)
Performers: Konchok Gamtso, Konchok Tsechik, Meena Kumari, Sonam
Choenzin, Tandup Angmo, and Tsewang Dolma Sherpa (Samtenling Nunnery)

Saturday, November 7, 2015

9:30 am – 11:00 am
Symposium, Alumni House


9:30 am – 10:10 am
The Dhamma as Sonic Praxis: Perspectives on Chant in Burmese and Khmer Buddhism
Paul Greene, Penn State Brandywine

10:20 am – 11:00 am
Taxonomies of Chant in Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand
Trent Walker, UC Berkeley

12:15 pm – 2:40 pm
Performances, Zellerbach Playhouse


12:15 pm – 1:00 pm
Khmer 'Smot' Melodic Chant (Phnom Penh, Cambodia)
Performer: Pheoun Sreypov

1:05 pm – 1:45 pm
Lao 'Doen Sieng' and 'Lae' Sermon Chant (Santa Rosa, California)
Performer: Ven. Phetsamone Keomixay

2:00 pm – 2:40 pm
Sri Lankan 'Paritta/Pirit' Protective Chant (Rosemead, California)
Performer: Ven. Sumitta Thero

3:00 pm – 4:45 pm
Symposium, Alumni House


3:00 pm – 3:40 pm
History and Practice of 'Wuhui Nianfo'
Beth Szczepanski, Lewis and Clark College

3:40 pm – 4:20 pm
Elasticity of Korean Buddhist Rituals: Socioeconomic Conformance of the 'Pomp'ae' Chant Performances
Byong Won Lee, University of Hawai'i, Manoa

4:20 pm – 4:30 pm
Break

4:30 pm – 4:45 pm
Group Discussion

6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Performances, Zellerbach Playhouse


6:00 pm – 6:55 pm
Yongsanje Buddhist Ritual (Seoul, Korea)
Performers: Ven. Pophyon, Han Sungyul, Kim Beop Ki, Kwaon Rihwan, Lee Chang Won

7:05 pm – 8:00 pm
Ven. Shi Guangquan (Hangzhou, China)
Performers: Monks from the Lingyin Temple and the Buddhist Academy of Hangzhou


Friday, October 30, 2015, 2-6:30 pm
2015 Toshihide Numata Book Award Presentation and Symposium 
Toll Room, Alumni House

Detail of Wofoyuan cave 29, wall f.

Detail of Wofoyuan cave 29, wall f.

The Toshihide Numata Book Award in Buddhism is awarded on an annual basis to an outstanding book or books in the area of Buddhist studies. The selection is made by an annually appointed outside committee. This symposium is organized in celebration of the book Buddhist Stone Sutras in China, Sichuan Province 1,edited by Lothar Ledderose and Sun Hua (Harrassowitz Verlag, 2014).

2:00-2:30 pm
Introductory Remarks and Award Presentation

Robert Sharf, UC Berkeley
Rev. Brian Nagata, Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai

2:30 - 4:00 pm
Keynotes by 2015 award recipients

Writing on Mountains to Save the World
Lothar Ledderose, Heidelberg University
The Ascending Spiral Evolvement of Carriers of Buddhist Sutras - from Stone to Paper
Sun Hua, Peking University

4:15-6:30
Symposium

Chair, Alexander von Rospatt, UC Berkeley

4:15-5:30 pm
Short Presentations on the Stone Sutra Research Project at Heidelberg University


“The Two Million Character Cache”
Lothar Ledderose

“Go West the Easy Way”
Claudia Wenzel

“The Flying Stone Banner”
Martin Bemmann

“Every Book Needs Scaffolding”
Manuel Sassmann

“Framing the Sutras”
Jessica Rawson

5:30-6:00 pm
On the Matter of Material in Chinese Buddhist Philology: the 'Consecration Scriptures' in Paper, Wood, and Stone

Ryan Overbey, Wesleyan University

6:00-6:30 pm
Xuanzang (ca. 602–64) and His Image-making Activities: Mass Reproduction and Materiality in Buddhism

Dorothy C. Wong, University of Virginia


Thursday, October 29, 2015, 5 pm
Southern Asian Buddhist Kingship in Trans-Regional Perspective, 1200–1500
Anne Blackburn, Cornell University
370 Dwinelle Hall

Between 1200 and 1500, Buddhist-oriented kingdoms in Southern Asia (including those in what is now Sri Lanka, Burma, and Thailand) participated in a Buddhist world of intensifying density and trans-regional connection. A Buddhist political theory forged earlier in Lanka articulated a vision of state formation linked to the localization of Buddhist monastics and institutions. This Lankan vision shaped the rapidly shifting political landscape in several regional locations linked by Indian Ocean connections, and informed the trans-regional careers of Buddhist monks. Bringing the study of Buddhist texts and inscriptions into conversation with recent scholarship on religious specialists and kingship in Hindu-theist and Islamic Southern Asian locations, this paper explores Buddhist kingship and institution-building in an era characterized by proliferating kingdoms and increasing Buddhist monastic mobility.

Anne M. Blackburn is Professor of South Asia Studies and Buddhist Studies in the Department of Asian Studies at Cornell University, and Director of the Cornell University South Asia Program. She taught at the University of South Carolina before joining Cornell's faculty. She received her BA from Swarthmore College, and MA and PhD degrees from the University of Chicago. Blackburn studies Buddhism in South and Southeast Asia, with a special interest in Buddhist monastic culture and Buddhist participation in networks linking Sri Lanka and mainland Southeast Asia before and during colonial presence in the region. Her publications include Buddhist Learning and Textual Practice in Eighteenth-Century Lankan Monastic Culture(Princeton, 2001), Approaching the Dhamma: Buddhist Texts and Practices in South and Southeast Asia, co-edited with A/Prof Jeffrey Samuels (BPS Pariyatti Editions, 2003), and Locations of Buddhism: Colonialism and Modernity in Sri Lanka(Chicago, 2010). She is working on a new project, "Making Buddhist Kingdoms Across the Indian Ocean, 1200-1500," supported in part by an ACLS Fellowship. For a complete list of publications and additional information, see http://lrc.cornell.edu/asian/faculty/bios/blackburn.


Thursday, October 1, 2015, 5 pm
Contribution of Professor Michael Hahn to the study of Buddhist Narrative Literature
Shrikant Bahulkar, Department of Pali, Savitribai Phule Pune University, India
3335 Dwinelle Hall


Wednesday, September 30, 2015, 5 pm
Interrogating 'Dvaravati Civilization' — What, when, where (and why)? Overview of, and questions about, the culture of Central Siam, CE 500–1000
Peter Skilling, École Française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO), Bangkok
3335 Dwinelle Hall


Tuesday, September 29, 2015, 5 pm
The Kalyāṇī Inscriptions: Examining King Dhammacetī's Sīmā Case
Jason Carbine, Whittier College
IEAS Conference Room, 180 Doe

 Examining King Dhammacetī's Sīmā Case

In the 15th century, the Buddhist king Dhammacetī sponsored a sīmā (ritual boundaries for official acts of the monastic community) reform that was to become the most famous of its kind in mainland Southeast Asia. Having studied the meanings and ramifications of monastic law concerning sīmās, Dhammacetī sent monks from his kingdom centered in what is now lower Myanmar to Sri Lanka in order to return with a pure ordination line. Upon their return, he then oversaw the implanting of the line in his land, initially via a new Kalyāṇī Sīmā established under his direction, and then via a wide range of sīmās all over the kingdom presided over by monks ordained in the Kalyāṇī Sīmā. In a most significant historical decision, Dhammacetī had an account of these reforms inscribed on ten large stone slabs, which became known as the Kalyāṇī Inscriptions. Copied and preserved in many palm leaf manuscripts, and absorbed into a number of later historical developments, these inscriptions are at their heart a sīmā text, that is, a text about the regulation of ritual boundaries and religious land. This paper examines how Dhammacetī handled his sīmā case and the legal manner in which doing so was linked with various historical, textual, political, and existential agendas.

Jason A. Carbine is the C. Milo Connick Chair of Religious Studies at Whittier College. His research and teaching about religion and society combines historical and ethnographic approaches, and draws from an interdisciplinary body of research pertaining to the history of religions, textual studies, anthropology, and comparative religious ethics. His publications include Sons of the Buddha: Continuities and Ruptures in a Burmese Monastic Tradition (2011) and the co-edited volume How Theravāda is Theravāda? Exploring Buddhist Identities (2012).


Saturday, September 26, 2015, 9 am – 5 pm
Archaeology of Knowledge: New Archival and Material Discoveries in Mongolia
Conference
145 Dwinelle Hall
Free and open to the public

Note: Registration required at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/archaeology-of-knowledge-new-archival-and-ma...

Co-sponsored by the Institute of East Asian Studies, Center for Buddhist Studies, Townsend Center for Humanities, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, and the Mongolia Foundation, this conference is a celebration of the revival of Mongolian Studies at UC Berkeley.

Mongol spaces have always been heavily trafficked intersections, sites of mediation, and global circuits of people and exchange in the heart of Asia. Recent archaeological discoveries are shedding new light on Mongolia's complex history. Experts from Mongolia who have been working with these new discoveries join Berkeley and other scholars in analyzing these new finds and their implications for our understanding of Mongolia's past.

Program:

9:00 – 10:30 AM — Welcome and Introductory Remarks

Kevin O’Brien, Director, Institute of East Asian Studies
Uranchimeg Tsultem, Mongolia Foundation
D. Bayarkhuu, Acting Consul General of Mongolia in San Francisco
D. Zayabaatar, National Committee for Mongolian Studies, with Welcoming Remarks from the Prime Minister of Mongolia

Keynote Address
M. Batchimeg, Member of Parliament
The Significance of Mongolian Studies

10:40 AM -12:30 PM — Discoveries in Early Archeology
Chair: Patricia Berger, History of Art, UC Berkeley

D. Erdenebaatar, Ulaanbaatar City College
Discoveries of Early Periods (3rd c. BCE-10th c. CE)

U. Erdenebat, National University of Mongolia
Imperial Period Discoveries

Naran B. Faulkner, Archeology, Independent Scholar
A Study of Tori Palatines and Tori Mandibular in Ancient Mongolian Nomads

Jargalan Burentogtokh, Ph.D. Candidate, Yale University
Subsistence and Interaction of Mongolian Bronze Age: The Tarvagatai Valley Project

Discussant: Chris Atwood, Indiana University Q&A and Discussion

12:30-2:00 Lunch Break

2:00 – 5:00 PM — Buddhist Discoveries and Later Sources
Chair: Jacob Dalton, South and Southeast Asian Studies and East Asian Languages and Cultures, UC Berkeley

Pat Berger, History of Art, UC Berkeley
Mongolian Studies at UC Berkeley

Brian Baumann, UC Berkeley
A Tartarus for Tartars: The Advent of Buddhist Hell Among the Mongols

Vesna Wallace, UC Santa Barbara
A Mongolian Illustrated Manuscript of the Molon Toyin Sudar

Matthew King, UC Riverside
Ways of Knowing Geser Khaan Between Qing Monastery and Socialist Academy

Orna Tsultem, Mongolia Foundation
New Archeological Discoveries of Zanabazar’s (1635-1723) Monastery of 1680

O. Batsaikhan, Mongolian Academy of Sciences
Notes by General Consul of Russian Empire about Last Monarch of Mongolia VIII Bogdo Jebtsundampa khutuktu in Foreign Policy Archives of the Russian Empire

Q&A and Discussion Closing Remarks


Thursday, September 24, 2015, 5 pm
2015-2016 Numata Lecture
Gender and Awakening: Sexual Transformation in Mahāyāna Sūtras

Jan Nattier, Numata Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies
IEAS conference room, 180 Doe

It is commonly held that the rise of the Mahāyāna opened new spiritual horizons for Buddhist women. Many modern writers, especially those inspired by feminist theory, have seen the non-dualistic language that abounds in many Mahāyāna scriptures as evidence that dualities of any sort—including dualities based on gender—were not important in Mahāyāna circles, thus creating a more egalitarian atmosphere for female practitioners. Just as a previous generation of scholars, inspired above all by the work of Akira Hirakawa, saw the Mahāyāna as having increased the status of lay people, so in more recent times the Mahāyāna has often been portrayed as eradicating previously existing barriers to the spiritual attainments of women.

A close look at the Mahāyāna scriptures that have come down to us, however, paints a significantly different picture. In this paper I will examine one subset of narratives featuring female characters: those recounting sexual transformation, in which women either suddenly (within a single lifetime) or gradually (at some point during the course of rebirth) turn into men. In contrast to the view that gender differences were not important in Mahāyāna circles, I will argue that these tales encode a decidedly non-egalitarian vision of what women can (and cannot) achieve.

Jan Nattier is Numata Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of California, Berkeley (fall 2015). She did her undergraduate work in comparative religion (specializing in Buddhism) at Indiana University, where she also began graduate training in the Department of Uralic and Altaic Studies. She completed her Ph.D. at Harvard University under the Committee on Inner Asian and Altaic Studies (specializing in classical Mongolian and Tibetan). She has taught at Macalester College, the University of Hawaii, Stanford University, Indiana University, and the University of Tokyo, in addition to serving as a member of the International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology (Soka University). Her monographs include Once Upon a Future Time: Studies in a Buddhist Philosophy of Decline (Asian Humanities Press, 1991), A Few Good Men: The Bodhisattva Path according to the Inquiry of Ugra (Ugraparipṛcchāsūtra) (University of Hawai'i Press, 2003), and A Guide to the Earliest Chinese Buddhist Translations (Soka University, 2008).


March 9 – August 31, 2015 (extended through September 4, 2015)
Exhibit
Revealing the Treasures of Buddhist Studies at Berkeley
Doe Library, Bernice Layne Brown Gallery
Sponsor: Library

Revealing the Treasures of Buddhist Studies at Berkeley

This exhibit celebrates the intellectual contributions, as well as the global impact and legacy, of UC Berkeley's unique program in Buddhist studies. It features publications of alumni and faculty, as well as Berkeley's manuscript collections that made this research possible. While the scholarship presented here reflects the broad interdisciplinary orientation of the Berkeley program, it is grounded in the philological expertise — the ability to work with often arcane Buddhist canonical materials that survive in languages such as Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese — that is the hallmark of the Berkeley program.

This exhibit recognizes the scholars who founded the Group in Buddhist Studies, their precursors, and those who continue to lead the program today. It features samples of East Asian Buddhist canons, Mongolian and Tibetan texts, Dunhuang manuscript canons, sacred texts of Nepalese Buddhism, Southeast Asian palm-leaf manuscripts, The Tipiṭaka, an edition of the Pali given by King Chulalongkorn of Siam, as well as European publications of Buddhist studies. The exhibit highlights the evolution, breadth, and remarkable success of Buddhist studies scholarship at Berkeley through materials housed at The Bancroft Library, C.V. Starr East Asian Library, Doe Library, South/Southeast Asia Library, and Northern Regional Library Facility.

Download the exhibition guide here.

Event Contact: 510‑643‑0850