By James C. Dobbins (NHC Fellow, 2006–07) Images of the Buddha are everywhere—not just in temples but also in museums and homes and online—but what these images mean largely depends on the background and circumstance of those viewing them. In Behold the Buddha, James Dobbins invites readers to imagine how premodern Japanese Buddhists understood and experienced icons … Continued
By Dorothy C. Wong (NHC Fellow, 2011–12) The period ca. 645-770 marked an extraordinary era in the development of East Asian Buddhism and Buddhist art. Increased contacts between China and regions to both its west and east facilitated exchanges and the circulation of ideas, practices and art forms, giving rise to a synthetic art style … Continued
By Robert Magliola (NHC Fellow, 1979–80) The book has four parts. The first provides a lengthy explication and critique of Derrida, a service still much needed by today's philosophers and literary theorists. The second part locates a recension of Heideggerian thought at a site the author calls centric mysticism. Throughout this section, there are original … Continued
Edited by Charles D. Orzech (NHC Fellow, 2009–10), Henrik H. Sorensen, and Richard K. Payne In all likelihood, it was the form of Buddhism labeled “Esoteric Buddhism” that had the greatest geographical spread of any form of Buddhism. It left its imprint not only on its native India, but far beyond, on Southeast Asia, Central … Continued
By Donald S. Lopez, Jr. (NHC Fellow, 1996–97) To the Western imagination, Tibet evokes exoticism, mysticism, and wonder: a fabled land removed from the grinding onslaught of modernity, spiritually endowed with all that the West has lost. Originally published in 1998, Prisoners of Shangri-La provided the first cultural history of the strange encounter between Tibetan Buddhism and … Continued
By Richard M. Jaffe (NHC Fellow, 2004–05) Though fascinated with the land of their tradition’s birth, virtually no Japanese Buddhists visited the Indian subcontinent before the nineteenth century. In the richly illustrated Seeking Śākyamuni, Richard M. Jaffe reveals the experiences of the first Japanese Buddhists who traveled to South Asia in search of Buddhist knowledge beginning in 1873. … Continued
By Hwansoo Ilmee Kim (NHC Fellow, 2014–15) In the first part of the twentieth century, Korean Buddhists, despite living under colonial rule, reconfigured sacred objects, festivals, urban temples, propagation—and even their own identities—to modernize and elevate Korean Buddhism. By focusing on six case studies, this book highlights the centrality of transnational relationships in the transformation … Continued
Intentionally wandering in Yangon, Burma with a good friend, led to being found by two Buddhist monks our same age. I was there to study how Buddhism influences culture as part of a study abroad program through Samford University. The monks invited us to spend the day at their monastery. The all-day conversation that ensued … Continued