Center for Buddhist Studies 2005-2006 Events
Friday–Sunday, May 5–7, 2006
Conference
Tibetan Religion and State in the 17th and 18th Centuries: Tibetan, Chinese, and Mongolian Perspectives
Lipman Room, Barrows Hall, UC Berkeley
The 17th and 18th centuries were watershed periods in the history of Tibetan religious and political life. It was during this pivotal era that Tibet witnessed the rise to power of the incarnate Dalai Lamas and the establishment of a centralized government in the capital city of Lhasa under the leadership of the Fifth Dalai Lama (1617-1682). In the century following the political ascent of the Fifth Dalai Lama, far-reaching changes unfolded in almost every sphere of Tibetan cultural life and social organization. The central government's efforts to innovate and exert control were felt in areas ranging from administration to commerce, from monastic curriculum to public festival life, from ritual performance to medical and legal practice. At the same time, response and resistance to these changes fostered a vibrant flourishing among groups at the social and geographic margins of Tibet. These changes in the Tibetan polity also involved complex negotiations of Tibet's relations with Mongolian, Manchu, and Chinese neighbors.
In recent years, the increasing availability of Tibetan language documents, the growth of the academic study of Tibet, and productive collaborations with scholars in China and Tibet have inspired vital new research on the specific events of the period and the broad social and political currents that connect them. This conference will highlight original research by many scholars working on diverse topics within the history of 17th and 18th century Tibet and will seek to redefine our understanding of the period through discussion of the connections between them. Confirmed participants include Patricia Berger (UC Berkeley), Benjamin Bogin (UC Berkeley), Timothy Brook (University of British Columbia), Bryan J. Cuevas (UC Berkeley), Jacob Dalton (Yale University), Johan Elverskog (Southern Methodist University), Janet Gyatso (Harvard University), Leonard van der Kuijp (Harvard University), Matthew Kapstein (Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris/University of Chicago), Nancy Lin (UC Berkeley), Derek Maher (East Carolina University), Kurtis R. Schaeffer (University of Virginia), Tsering Shakya (University of British Columbia), E. Gene Smith (New York) and Gray Tuttle (Columbia University).
Detailed program information available at http://ieas.berkeley.edu/events/tibetanreligionandstate
Thursday, May 4, 2006, 5:00 pm
William Bodiford, Professor, Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, UCLA
The Birth of Japanese Buddhism: Books, Publishing, and the Awakening of Sectarian Consciousness in Tokugawa-Period Japan
IEAS Conference Room, 2223 Fulton Street, 6th Floor
What was the role of print culture in the creation of the religious teachings that today are universally recognized as being Japanese Buddhism? What can an examination of this topic reveal about Buddhism in Japan?
William Bodiford is a Professor in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at UCLA. His research focuses on medieval and modern religions, especially Buddhism, in Japan and East Asia. He is the associate editor of the Encyclopedia of Buddhism (2004), editor of Going Forth: Visions of Buddhist Vinaya (2005), and author of Soto Zen in Medieval Japan (1989).
Monday, April 10, 2006, 5:00 pm
Oliver Freiberger, Assistant Professor, Department of Asian Studies, University of Texas
Berkeley-Stanford Buddhist Studies Colloquium
What Makes Holy Scriptures Holy? Rethinking the Idea of a Buddhist Canon
Stanford University, room to be announced
Saturday, March 18, 2006, 9:30 am-6:00 pm
Workshop
Buddhism at Dunhuang
Toll Room, Alumni House, UC Berkeley
In the hundred years since the discovery of the hidden library at the Mogao cave complex near the oasis town of Dunhuang (Gansu Province, PRC), scholars have made significant strides towards preserving, cataloging, and interpreting the large number of manuscripts and material objects recovered from the site. In addition, they have greatly advanced our knowledge of both the layout and iconography of the caves themselves. Despite such advances, a number of questions regarding the actual practice of Buddhism at Dunhuang remain unanswered, including those related to the on-site production and circulation of Buddhist manuscripts, the development and cross-fertilization of local Buddhist traditions, as well as the function of the individual cave temples within the larger context of Buddhist ritual culture along the ancient Silk Road. Detailed program information available at http://ieas.berkeley.edu/events/dunhuang.
Thursday, March 16, 2006, 5:00 pm
Mudagamuwe Maithrimurthi, Visiting Lecturer of Buddhist Studies, Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, University of Michigan
Benevolence, Compassion, Joyousness and Equanimity: Cultivation of Mind, Ethics and Soteriology in Buddhism
IEAS Conference Room, 2223 Fulton Street, 6th Floor
Mudagamuwe Maithrimurthi will discuss aspects of the so-called four Brahmic States (brahmavihâra) or Immeasurables (apramâna). The analysis will also contain an investigation of the pre-Buddhist background of these concepts, their historical development within the frame of early Buddhist thought and their Mahâyâna reinterpretation and re-evaluation.
Mudagamuwe Maithrimurthi currently teaches Buddhist Studies in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan. He previously taught at the University of Leipzig, Germany. A native of Sri Lanka, he holds a Ph.D. in Classical Indology from the University of Hamburg, Germany.
Wednesday, March 15, 2006, 4:15-5:30 pm
Maithrimurthi Mudagamuwe, Visiting Lecturer of Buddhist Studies, Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, University of Michigan
Berkeley-Stanford Buddhist Studies Colloquium
Consciousness, Self and Intermediate State: Some Problems in Theravada Buddhism
Building 60, Room 61G (Main Quad, next to Memorial Church), Stanford University
Friday, March 10, 2006, 7:00-8:00 pm
Bryan Cuevas, Professor, Assistant Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies, Florida State University.
Berkeley-Stanford Buddhist Studies Colloquium
Family Matters: Kinship Bonds and Buddhist History in Tibet
Building 200 (History Corner), Room 030 (Lower Level), Stanford University
Thursday, March 2, 2006, 5:00 pm
Per Sörensen, Professor, Institute of Central Asian Studies, University of Leipzig, Germany
Buddhism and the Environment: The Birth of Flood Control Politics and Disaster Management in the Battle for Lhasa's Jo-khang Temple
341 Dwinelle Hall
Per Sörensen will discuss the importance of environmental protection, particularly water conservation, in a Buddhist society. He will focus on the protection of one of the holiest sanctuaries in Central Asia: Jo-khang Temple in the heart of the Tibetan capital Lhasa. He will demonstrate how the struggle for pre-eminence in safeguarding and maintaining this holy site became an important component of hegemonic and political supremacy in Tibet.
Per Sörensen teaches at the University of Leipzig. He is a specialist in Tibetan and Bhutanese history and literature. The author of numerous books, his most recent publication is Thundering Falcon - An Inquiry into the History and Cult of Khra-'brug, Tibet's first Buddhist Temple.
Thursday, February 16, 2006, 5:00 pm
Paul Hackett, Visiting Scholar, Center for Buddhist Studies, UC Berkeley
Theos Bernard and 1930s Tibet
370 Dwinelle Hall, UC Berkeley
Paul Hackett will discuss the life and legacy of Theos Bernard. Theos Casimir Bernard (1908-1947), a nearly forgotten early pioneer of Indo-Tibetan religious studies and tantric yoga in America, was the third American ever to visit Tibet who, upon his return, promoted himself as the "White Lama of Tibet". Traveling to India and Tibet in the 1930s, Theos Bernard returned to America with a treasure trove of texts, film, still photos, statues, thankas, and ritual implements, which have since been scattered across the United States, including a sizable collection at UC Berkeley. Paul Hackett is the author of A Tibetan Verb Lexicon: Verbs, Classes, and Syntactic Frames (Snow Lion, 2003) and is currently completing a biography of Theos Bernard.
Friday, February 10, 2006, 4:15-5:30 pm
Jonathan Silk, Assistant Professor of Asian Languages and Cultures, UCLA
Berkeley-Stanford Buddhist Studies Colloquium
Incestuous Ancestries: the Family Origins of Gautama Siddhartha and a Comparison with Stories of Abraham and Sarah in Genesis 12 & 20
Building 60, Room 61G (Main Quad, next to Memorial Church), Stanford University
Thursday, February 2, 2006, 5:00 pm
Greg Schopen, Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, UCLA
Locating Buddhist Nuns in the Urban and Cultural Landscape of Early North India
IEAS Conference Room, 2223 Fulton Street, 6th Floor
Older work on Buddhist nuns in India is not particularly interested in the question of where they actually lived. More recent work raises the issue, but is not sufficiently informed and a potential source of confusion. In fact several vinaya traditions contain ample evidence to indicate that the nuns their authors knew, or envisioned, lived – unlike monks – in towns and cities, and were required by rule to do so. Gregory Schopen will present and discuss several texts from one of these traditions, focusing on how their urban location affected the perception of nuns, the problems it created, and the economic activities that it made available to them. The recognition of the textual location of nuns in towns makes it possible to finally identify for the first time several Buddhist nunneries in the archeological record – three such sites will be briefly discussed – and to propose a demographic explanation for the decline or disappearance of Buddhist nuns from medieval India.
Gregory Schopen is a Professor in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at UCLA. His research focuses on the history of Indian Buddhism, the Mulasarvastiavda-Vinaya, early and medieval Mahayana Sutra literature, and Indian Buddhist epigraphy.
Thursday, December 1, 2005, 5:00 pm
Eugene Wang, Department of Art History, Harvard University
Thinking Outside the Boxes: Nesting Reliquary Caskets from a Ninth-Century Chinese Monastic Crypt
IEAS Conference Room, 2223 Fulton Street, 6th Floor
An underground crypt was discovered in the Tang-dynasty pagoda basement of a Chinese Buddhist monastery in 1987. The crypt yielded hundreds of precious artifacts donated in the name of the Tang emperors and others, as well as four Buddha relics, one of them now believed by the Buddhist community to be the "authentic" finger-bone of Buddha Sakyamuni. What merits art historical attention in particular is the set of eight nesting reliquary caskets arranged in the manner of Russian dolls. The reliquary contains examples of the earliest surviving mandalas in China. Professor Wang's lecture will unpack the nesting caskets to reveal the vast ancient and medieval Chinese imaginary cosmos embedded therein.
Eugene Y. Wang is Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Professor of Asian Art at Harvard University. His most recent book is Shaping the Lotus Sutra: Buddhist Visual Culture in Medieval China (2005). He is the art history associate editor of Encyclopedia of Buddhism (2004). He has widely published on Chinese art and visual culture.
Tuesday, November 22, 2005, 5:00 pm
Harunaga Isaacson, Department of South Asia Studies, University of Pennsylvania
Becoming Hevajra
IEAS Conference Room, 2223 Fulton Street, 6th Floor
Professor Isaacson will give an overview of the daily meditative and ritual practice of an initiate into the system of Hevajra, on the basis of a large body of literature in Sanskrit, mostly unpublished, describing this Buddhist tantric practice. He will also comment on the tensions between this form of practice and non-tantric Buddhism, and on how the authors of this corpus attempt to resolve these tensions.
Harunaga Isaacson is Assistant Professor of South Asia Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. His focus is on Sanskrit and classical Indian studies, with special interests in poetry, Puranic literature, Indian philosophy, and Tantric religious practices. He is currently working on a forthcoming monograph entitled, The Practice of Hevajra: Studies in the Sanskrit texts of the Hevajra-cycle.
Wednesday, November 16, 2005, 3:00-5:00 pm
Edward Tompkins Lecture Series
Michael Puett, Professor, East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University
Humans, Ghosts, and Spirits in Chinese Late Antiquity
3335 Dwinelle Hall
Monday, November 14, 2005, 5:00 pm
Gautama Vajracharya
Baby Showers: Ajanta Ceiling Paintings and Festivals of Kathmandu Valley
425 Doe Library
Indian astrological texts usually have a chapter called "Symptom of Pregnancy." This chapter, however, has nothing to do with human pregnancy but with the conception of Mother Sky. Recent investigation indicates that this concept is closely associated not only with Ajanta ceiling paintings but also with the Buddhist and Hindu festivals, still observed annually in Kathmandu Valley.
Co-sponsored by the Department of Art History, UC Berkeley.
Saturday, November 5, 2005
'Buddhist Relics Redux' Workshop
Seaborg Room, Faculty Club
In the past few decades the study of relic veneration has taken a central place in research on Buddhist history, material culture, and institutions. This spate of interest was spurred, in part, by the groundbreaking studies of relics in medieval Christendom by scholars such as Peter Brown, Caroline Bynum, and Patrick Geary. Following the lead of these medievalists, Buddhologists such as Gregory Schopen and Bernard Faure turned their attention to the phenomena of relics in the Buddhist tradition, producing a number of important studies. In 1994 Kevin Trainor and David Germano started the Relic Veneration Seminar, which met over a four-year period in conjunction with meetings of the American Academy of Religion. A number of participants in that seminar came out with entire monographs devoted to the subject; the volumes include Kevin Trainor's Relics, Ritual, and Representation in Buddhism: Rematerialising the Sri Lankan Theravada Tradition (1997), Brian Ruppert's Jewel in the Ashes: Buddha Relics and Power in Early Medieval Japan (2000), and John Strong's Relics of the Buddha (2004). And in 2004 Trainor and Germano published a volume of papers that emerged from the Relic Veneration Seminar, entitled Embodying the Dharma: Buddhist Relic Veneration in Asia. As a result of these monographs and dozens of additional articles, book chapters, and encyclopedia articles, we now possess a wealth of data testifying to the importance of relics in Buddhist history across the Asian continent.
Much of the work done to date has been descriptive in nature, testifying to the centrality of relics in Buddhism. When scholars have strayed beyond description, the analyses have often been Foucauldian in nature; we learn that relics were wielded in the interests of institutional authority, political power, and religious legitimation. Many questions, however, remain unexplored. Why do relics assume such a prominent role in Buddhism in the first place? Is there something distinctively "Buddhist" about the Buddhist treatment of relics? Why are there so many apparent parallels – superficial or otherwise – in Buddhist and Christian relic cults? This workshop will take stock of where we are with respect to our understanding of relics, and where we might go from here.
SCHEDULE
10:00 am Keynote address
Roderick Whitfield (London University): "A Phoenix from the Ashes: The Inextinguishable Power of Chinese Buddhist Relics"
11:30 am Lunch Break
1:00 pm Panel 1: Circumscribing Relics
Chair: Bryan Cuevas (Florida State University)
Panelists:
Phyllis Granoff (Yale University): "Relics, Rubies, and Rituals: Some Comments on the Distinctiveness of the Buddhist Relic Cult."
Koichi Shinohara (Yale University): "The Distinctiveness of Relic Miracle Stories."
Peter Skilling (Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, and Fragile Palm Leaves Foundation): "Relics: The Heart of Buddhist Veneration."
Benjamin Bogin (UC Berkeley): "Making Brahman's Flesh in Tibet: The Kyédun Ritual and the Cult of Relics."
Discussant: Duncan Williams (UC Irvine)
3:10 pm Coffee Break
3:30 pm Panel 2: Thinking with Relics
Chair: Jan Nattier (Soka University, Japan)
Justin McDaniel (UC Riverside): "Category Shift: Making New Relics in Bangkok."
James Robson (University of Michigan): "Relic Wary: Facets of Buddhist Relic Veneration in East Asia."
John Strong (Bates College): "What Makes Relics Run."
Discussant: Steven Collins (University of Chicago)
Saturday, October 29, 2005, 11:00 am-5:00 p.m.
Third Berkeley-Stanford Buddhist Studies Graduate Student Colloquium
Slide Ranch (Map and Directions)
DESCRIPTION
This term's Berkeley Stanford Buddhist Studies Graduate Student Colloquium will take place at a particularly beautiful spot directly on the cost (just off Highway 1, a few miles South of Stinson Beach in Marin; see the map and directions). The presentations will be in an isolated "conference yurt" that is located on a bluff overlooking the sea. Outside there are tables and benches where we will serve light refreshments at the start of our gathering at 11 am. After the three presentations (which will be interrupted by a coffee break) there will be more food and drinks. The drive from Berkeley takes 50 minutes, from Stanford 70 minutes, and we suggest participants car-pool.
Space is limited. Please RSVP to Liz Greigg, lgreigg@berkeley.edu, by Tuesday, October 25.
PROGRAM
1: Shari Ruei-Hua Epstein, Stanford
"Decoding the Dao: Revealing the Buddhist Core of the Zhuangzi"
Hanshan Deqing's (1546-1623) Commentary on the Inner Chapters of the Zhuangzi (ca 1620) was unprecedented in Chinese history. Through this act of exegesis, textual and religious boundaries collapsed as Hanshan reactivated the revered language of this formidable classic to reveal Buddhist rather than Daoist principles. This talk will explore the exegetical techniques that Hanshan employed in his commentary as well as the embedded prophecy that he appealed to in order to justify his interpretation.
2: Wen-shing Lucia Chou, Berkeley
"Fluid Landscape, Timeless Visions, and Truthful Representations: A Sino-Tibetan Remapping of Qing-Dynasty Wutaishan"
The landscape of Wutaishan underwent major transformations during the Qing period (1644-1909), when Manchu emperors patronized temples at Wutaishan with unprecedented vision and fervor. This paper considers the Sino-Tibetan reinvention and representation of Wutaishan by studying a hand-colored woodblock print of Wutaishan carved onsite by a Mongolian lama in 1845. The image is situated at the intersection of several different image-making traditions, each containing its own criterion for truthful representations; examining the particular rhetoric of history and revelations in this image affords us a glimpse into the continuous and dynamic processes of religious and cultural transformation in Chinese sacred geography.
3: Sarah Fremerman Aptilon, Stanford
"Sacred Impersonations: Early Visions of Nyoirin Kannon"
According to legend, Shobo (832-909), founder of the Ono branch of Shingon in Japan, had a vision of Nyoirin Kannon and Juntei Kannon atop Mt. Kasatori that led him to found the temple Daigoji on that site. In his vision, the two Kannon spoke through the goddess Seiry Gongen – or was it the other way around? Early visions of Nyoirin Kannon reveal the way in which the "original substance" (J., honji) of a deity may serve as a mask of Buddhist orthodoxy through which the "manifest trace" (J., suijaku) speaks. This paper explores how various deities merged with and transformed Nyoirin Kannon in Japan.
DIRECTIONS
From San Francisco:
Cross the Golden Gate Bridge on Highway 101 North. Take the Mt. Tamalpais, Stinson Beach, Highway 1 exit (the exit immediately after the Marin City/Bridgeway exit). Follow the "After Exiting Highway 101" directions below.
From the East Bay:
Get across the Richmond Bridge and travel south on Highway 101. Take the Mt. Tamalpais, Stinson Beach, Highway 1 exit. Follow the "After Exiting Highway 101" directions below.
From Marin County:
Take the Mt. Tamalpais, Stinson Beach, Highway 1 exit from Highway 101. Follow the "After Exiting Highway 101" directions below.
From West Marin:
Go to Stinson Beach, and drive 3.8 miles south on Highway 1. Our driveway is on your righthand side. Look for the Slide Ranch sign. If you get to Muir Beach, you have gone 2 miles too far.
After Exiting Highway 101:
After leaving Highway 101, follow the signs for Highway 1. After about 1/3 mile you will come to a stoplight - turn left at the stoplight; you will now be on Highway 1, a narrow, twisty, and hilly road. After 2.4 miles, you will come to a fork in the road at the top of the hill. Turn left to Stinson Beach, do not turn right towards Muir Woods and Mt. Tamalpais. You will reach Muir Beach and the Pelican Inn after 2.5 miles of steep descent. Drive past the Pelican Inn and follow Highway 1. Just beyond the Pelican Inn, Highway 1 curves to the left, so do not go straight or you will end up in Muir Woods. The green highway sign will tell you to bear left to stay on Highway 1 (towards Stinson Beach). Slide Ranch is 2.2 miles north of Muir Beach. You will see Slide Ranch signs shortly before you reach our driveway on your left. Turn left into our drive.
Thursday, October 27, 2005, 5:00 pm
Angela Howard, Department of Art History, Rutgers University
Miracles and Visions Among the Monastic Communities of Kucha, Xinjiang
IEAS Conference Room, 2223 Fulton Street, 6th Floor
In this presentation, Angela Howard focuses on some aspects of the art and Buddhist teachings of the ancient Kingdom of Kucha, present-day Xinjiang, where monastic communities thrived from 200-650. Monks settled in several locations – Kizil and Kumtura are the largest and best known, but equally important are Simsim, Mazabaha, Kizilkargha, and Taitai'er to name a few. Howard discusses a selected number of unusual images from these sites. They are painted representations of the Shravasti miracle, of the Cosmological Buddha, and of monumental clay sculptures of Buddha. All three are rooted in teachings formulated during the earliest phase of Buddhism. Teachings and images are tightly interconnected. These icons, moreover, are the exclusive outcome of devotional practices in which Kuchean monks engaged.
Angela Howard is Professor of Asian Art, Department of Art History, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. As Special Consultant in Chinese Buddhist art, the Asian Art Department, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, she contributed to the exhibition China – Dawn of a Golden Age (October 2004-January 2005). In addition to numerous articles, Dr. Howard has authored The Imagery of the Cosmological Buddha (1986) and Summit of Treasures, Buddhist Cave Art of Dazu, China (2001). She is the Western editor and collaborator of the volume Chinese Sculpture, a Yale University and Foreign Language Press publication, forthcoming Fall 2005.
Wednesday, October 26, 2005, 3:00-5:00 pm
Edward Tompkins Lecture Series
Vincent Goossaert, Vice-Director, Institute of Sociology of Religions and Secularism, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, and David Palmer, Director, Hong Kong EFEO Centre, Chinese University of Hong Kong
How Taoist Masters Engaged with the Modern Spiritual Market: The Case of Peking, 1800-1949 and The Qigong Movement, Taoist Revival, and Nationalism in Post-Mao China
3335 Dwinelle Hall
Wednesday, October 19, 2005, 3:00-5:00 pm
Edward Tompkins Lecture Series
Xun Liu, Assistant Professor, History, Rutgers University
An Immortal in Politics: Abbot Gao Rentong and the Quanzhen Daoist Nexus of Patronage, Power, and Monastic Expansion in Ninteenth Century Beijing
3335 Dwinelle Hall
Wednesday, October 12, 2005, 3:00-5:00 pm
Edward Tompkins Lecture Series
Franciscus Verellen, Director, cole franaise d'Extrme-Orient and Fabrizio Pregadio, Acting Associate Professor, Religious Studies, Stanford University
Disciple of the Three Caverns: Lu Xiujing's renewal of medieval Taoism and Daoist Inner Alchemy and its views of other practices
3335 Dwinelle Hall
Tuesday, October 11, 2005, 12:00 pm
Venerable Master Hsing Yun, Founder, Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Order, Taiwan - Lecture and Calligraphy Exhibit
IEAS Conference Room, 2223 Fulton Street, 6th Floor
Lecture followed by reception.
This exhibit features a wide array of Master Hsing Yun's calligraphy works and other artifacts. The works have been grouped into three categories: encouragement to disciples, blessings to devotees, and Dharma words. Venerable Master Hsing Yun founded Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Order in Taiwan in 1967. He has devoted his time to promoting Dharma propagation through educational, cultural, and charitable endeavors.
The lecture is organized in conjunction with Master Hsing Yun's calligraphy exhibit, which is on display October 11-28, 2005, in the IEAS lobby, 2223 Fulton Street, 6th Floor: Monday through Friday, 9:00 am-5:00 pm.
Thursday, October 6, 2005, 5:00 pm
Peter Skilling, Fragile Palm Leaves Foundation, Thailand
Doxography, History, and Identity: Reflections on 'Theravada Buddhism'
IEAS Conference Room, 2223 Fulton Street, 6th Floor
'Theravada Buddhism' has become an unquestioned category in modern religious studies, as well as one of the premier options for Buddhist practice in the globalized 'marketplace of religions.' Peter Skilling will examine the origins and significance of the term 'Theravada.' Is the modern usage historically accurate? Have there been alternate designations? Was 'Theravada' the chosen marker of identity for the Buddhist communities of Southeast Asia in the pre-colonial and pre-modern periods? Is it possible that the term flattens the landscape, and lulls us into thinking we know more than we do?
Peter Skilling is the 2005/06 Numata Visiting Professor in Buddhist Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Fellow of the Lumbini International Research Institute (Lumbini, Nepal) and a Special Lecturer at Chulalongkorn University (Bangkok, Thailand). He is founder of the Fragile Palm Leaves Foundation (Bangkok), a project dedicated to the preservation, study and publication of the Buddhist literature of Southeast Asia. He is also a founding member of the International Centre for Buddhist Studies (Bangkok).
Co-sponsored by the Center for Southeast Asia Studies.
Thursday, September 22, 2005, 5:00 pm
Jonathan Silk, Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, UCLA
What Mahayana Sutras Mean: Thinking about Interpretation and Commentary
IEAS Conference Room, 2223 Fulton Street, 6th Floor
Scholars and students of Buddhism have given much attention to Mahayana sutras, but little to the question of what they may have meant to traditional Indian readers. This talk will explore some questions of the meaning of Mahayana scriptures, how we might determine that meaning, and what to make of the comparative absence of Buddhist scripture commentaries in India.
Jonathan Silk is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research focuses on the history and scriptures of Indian Buddhism on the basis of Indian, Tibetan and Chinese literary sources. He is the author of Heart Sutra in Tibetan and the editor of Wisdom, Compassion, and the Search for Understanding: A Buddhist Studies Legacy of Gadjin M. Nagao.