buddhism recent » buddhist present (توسيع البحث), buddhism meet (توسيع البحث)
recent history » ancient history (توسيع البحث), orient history (توسيع البحث), secret history (توسيع البحث)
Archaeology of Buddhism : Recent Discoveries in South Asia /
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The archaeology of Buddhism involves the recovery and scientific investigation of the material remains of past cultures that can illuminate the periods, events and other descriptions mentioned in the religious texts. The geographical distribution of the adherents of Buddhism spread rapidly after the mahaparinirvana of the Lord Buddha - 'the Enlightened One'. India was the fulcrum of Buddhism in the ancient world, but today, the whole of South Asia - covering Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka - is replete with innumerable material remains of the past which can be associated with the Lord Buddha and Buddhism. Many of these sites have been inscribed on the UNESCO's list of World Heritage properties. This book contains 40 contributions by 55 leading archaeologists, historians and other experts in the field of South Asian art and archaeology. These contributions range from the country reports on recent discoveries of Buddhist sites and remains in South Asia, to in-depth studies in Buddhist archaeology, art and architecture of this region. Other topics included in this volume discuss the cultural geography of the Buddhist archaeological sites, their digital mapping using advanced ICT tools, the archaeology of the Buddhist monasteries as well as their relationship with contemporary society. These essays read together present a narrative that transcends borders and defies time. It is hoped that this volume will underscore the imperative need for institutionalizing the archaeology of Buddhism as a specialized branch of the study of our shared heritage, and will promote a better appreciation of the archaeological heritage of Buddhism that binds the SAARC nations with a common historical and cultural thread. SAARC Cultural Centre and Sri Lanka
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1 online resource (612 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004754027
Japanese Rinzai Zen Buddhism : Myōshinji, a living religion /
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Zen Buddhist ideas and practices in many ways are unique within the study of religion, and artists, poets and Buddhists practitioners worldwide have found inspiration from this tradition. Until recent years, representations of Zen Buddhism have focussed almost entirely on philosophical, historical or "spiritual" aspects. This book investigates the contemporary living reality of the largest Japanese Rinzai Zen Buddhist group, Myōshinji. Drawing on textual studies and ethnographic fieldwork, Jørn Borup analyses how its practitioners use and understand their religion, how they practice their religiosity and how different kinds of Zen Buddhists (monks, nuns, priest, lay people) interact and define themselves within the religious organization. Japanese Rinzai Zen Buddhism portrays a living Zen Buddhism being both uniquely interesting and interestingly typical for common Buddhist and Japanese religiosity.
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Includes bibliographical references (p. [299]-312) and index. :
1 online resource. :
9789047433095 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The social dimension of Shin Buddhism /
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Shin Buddhism (Jōdo Shinshū), although weakened in many ways by secularization, continues to be a stable presence in Japanese society, as is emblematically shown by the very symmetrical position of the Nishi (Honganji-ha) and the Higashi Honganji (Ōtani-ha) head temples in the center of Kyōto, and by the recent projects for their renovation. This book addresses the need for more academic research on Shin Buddhism, and is specifically directed at describing and analyzing distinctive social aspects of this religious tradition in historical and contemporary perspective. The contributions collected here cover a wide range of issues, including the intersection between Shin Buddhism and fields as diverse as politics, education, social movements, economy, culture and the media, social ethics, gender, and globalization.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004193796 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Pure Land Buddhism in modern Japanese culture /
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Despite being one of the most influential forms of Japanese Buddhism, the Pure Land tradition, and notably its impact on the development of Japanese cultural history, has often been overlooked outside Japan. Taking into account recent scholarship on orientalism and occidentalism, this book, written from the perspective of the Study of Religions, provides an analysis of the impact that the Pure Land tradition, in particular Shin Buddhism, has exerted on mainstream forms of artistic expression (especially creative arts, literature and the tea ceremony) in modern and contemporary Japan.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [243]-258) and index. :
9789047443056 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Seven Weeks after the Buddha's Enlightenment : Contradictions in Text, Confusions in Art /
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This groundbreaking volume explores a revelatory Andharan style relief recently discovered in Sri Lanka. It adds to the growing body of archaeological evidence of important exchanges between the Buddhists of Sri Lanka and their co-religionists in the Krishna Valley. This relief is the most ancient document attested to date depicting the events that took place during the first seven weeks following the enlightenment of the Buddha. Its unique iconography leads the author to closely examine contradictions between literary evidence and visual representations of what is known as the sambodhi, or 'perfect awakening', of the Buddha. According to the classic Buddhist texts, the Mahāvastu and the Lalitavistara, the Buddha spent seven weeks after his enlightenment near the Bodhi tree. By contrast, the Buddhist canonical text the Vinaya-Pitaka describes this period as only four weeks long. Sri Lankan and Burmese artists have preferred to depict the seven-week account. Furthermore, the 'seven-week' motif depicted in this Andharan relief follows the chronological order given in the important Pāli texts, the Nidānakathā and the Mahābodhi-Vamsa. The textual confusions and artistic contradictions uncovered by this volume present a bigger picture of the complex ways in which the story of the Buddha's life was imagined in the earliest period of recorded Buddhist history. The present study is the first in a series of books by this author on Buddhist art.
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1 online resource (76 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004752061
A history of Zoroastrianism /
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This volume traces the history of Zoroastrianism at times and places where its existence has previously been largely ignored, or treated only episodically. Literary, archaeological and numismatic evidence has been drawn on (some of it only recently brought to light), and local developments are distinguished. In Iran itself some 200 years of Macedonian rule had little effect on the national religion. To the east, Zoroastrianism survived in the Greco-Bactrian kingdoms and under Mauryan suzereinty, where it came into contact with Buddhism. In Eastern Mediterranean lands it was maintained by Iranian expatriates well down into Roman imperial times. They adopted Greek for their written tongue, and Zoroastrian doctrines thus became known in the Greco-Roman world. Study is made accordingly of Zoroastrian contributions to Hellenistic thought, and to Judaism, Christianity and Mithraism; and an excursus provides a thorough reassessment of the Zoroastrian pseudepigrapha.
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Vol. 3 written by Mary Boyce and Frantz Grenet, with a conritution by Roger Beck. :
1 online resource (xx, 596 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004293915 :
0169-9423 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Handbook of contemporary Japanese religions /
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Representing work by some of the leading scholars in the field, the chapters of this handbook survey the transformation and innovation of religious traditions and practices in contemporary Japan. Readers will find lively scholarly studies about changes in the traditional institutions of Buddhism and Shinto, vivid examples of social activism as well as the so-called "new religions," examination of the relationship between religion and the state, and analysis of the religiosity of individuals encompassed by "spirituality," pilgrimage and tourism, and the marketing of religions. This groundbreaking collection of scholarly papers helps to map out the fascinating complexity and dynamism of religion in contemporary Japanese society and culture.
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1 online resource (xxii, 652 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004234369 :
1874-6691 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Ethics of Alaska Travel Writing since 1959 : An Ecocritical Study /
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This book digs into environmental themes in Alaska travel writing since U.S. statehood in 1959, drawing on the works of six authors including Barry Lopez, Jonathan Raban, Tom Lowenstein and others. Each work, though disparate in style, advocates for the empowerment of the Alaska Native people by connecting not only with diverse perspectives but with the lived realities in the geographical spaces that have formed them. In analyzing how these authors have succeeded in depicting the realities of alterities, and where they have perhaps fallen short by more recent standards, we may begin to carve out a system of ethics. This is important as fresh waves of travel writers search for their own place in the environmental conversations surrounding the ever-evolving, 21st century Arctic and its place on the front lines of a changing climate.
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1 online resource (314 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004734807
The rediscovery and reception of Gandharan art : proceedings of the fourth International Workshop of the Gandhara Connections Project, University of Oxford, 24th-26th March, 2021 /
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From the archaeologists and smugglers of the Raj to the museums of post-partition Pakistan and India, from coin-forgers and contraband to modern Buddhism and contemporary art, this fourth volume of the Gandhara Connections project presents the most recent research on the factors that mediate our encounter with Gandharan art.
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Also issued in print: 2022.
Conference proceedings. :
1 online resource (ix, 215 pages) : illustrations (black and white, and colour) :
Specialized. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9781803272344 (PDF ebook) : :
Open access.
Reading the Fifth Veda Studies on the Mahabharata-- Essays by Alf Hiltebeitel. Volume 1.
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Often spoken of as the 'Fifth Veda', id est, as a text in continuity with the four Vedas and outweighing them all in size and import, the Mahābhārata presents a complex mythological and narrative landscape, incorporating fundamental ethical, social, philosophic, and pedagogic issues. In a series of position pieces and essays written over a span of 30 years, Alf Hiltebeitel, Columbian Professor of Religion, History, and Human Sciences at The George Washington University, articulates a compelling new approach to the epic: as a literary work of fundamental theological and philosophical significance rich in metaphor and meaning. In this three-part volume, the editors gather some of Hiltebeitel's seminal writings on the epic along with new pieces written especially for the volume. This two volume edition collects nearly three decades of Alf Hiltebeitel's researches into the Indian epic and religious tradition. The two volumes document Hiltebeitel's longstanding fascination with the Sanskrit epics: volume 1 presents a series of appreciative readings of the Mahābhārata (and to a lesser extent, the Rāmāyaṇa), while volume 2 focuses on what Hiltebeitel has called "the underground Mahābhārata," id est, the Mahābhārata as it is still alive in folk and vernacular traditions. Recently re-edited and with a new set of articles completing a trajectory Hiltebeitel established over 30 years ago, this work constitutes a definitive statement from this major scholar. Comprehensive indices, cross-referencing, and an exhaustive bibliography make it an essential reference work. For more information on the second volume please click here .
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004216204 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Handbook of religion and the authority of science /
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There has been a significant but little-noticed aspect of the interface between science and religion, namely the widespread tendency of religions to appeal to science in support of their truth claims. Though the appeal to science is most evident in more recent religions like Christian Science and Scientology, no major faith tradition is exempt from this pattern. Members of almost every religion desire to see their 'truths' supported by the authority of science - especially in the midst of the present historical period, when all of the comforting old certainties seem problematic and threatened. The present collection examines this pattern in a wide variety of different religions and spiritual movements, and demonstrates the many different ways in which religions appeal to the authority of science. The result is a wide-ranging and uniquely compelling study of how religions adapt their message to one of the major challenges presented by the contemporary world.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004216389 :
1874-6691 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.