Buddhist Manuscript Cultures: Knowledge, Ritual, and Art

by Berkwitz; Stephen C.

• ISBN13: 9780415776165
• ISBN10: 0415776163
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-02-26
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This book explores how Buddhist material culture as well as literary and artistic traditions shaped religious and cultural practices in pre-modern Asia. Specifically, they investigate the roles manuscripts and images play in the transmission of Buddhist texts and in fostering devotion among Buddhist communities. Collectively, the book offer cross-cultural and comparative insights into the transmission of Buddhist knowledge and the use of texts and images as ritual objects in the artistic and aesthetic traditions of Buddhist cultures.Contributions are by reputed scholars in Buddhist Studies and as a whole represent diverse disciplinary approaches from art history, religious studies, history and anthropology. The comparative focus of the book on the use of manuscripts and other forms of texts will make a distinctive contribution to the field of Buddhist Studies.

Table of Contents

Introduction : rethinking Buddhist manuscript cultures	p. 1
Why did the Gandharan Buddhists bury their manuscripts?	p. 19
Materiality and merit in Sri Lankan Buddhist manuscripts	p. 35
Redaction, recitation, and writing : transmission of the Buddha's teaching in India in the early period	p. 53
Diverse aspects of the Mongolian Buddhist manuscript culture and realms of its influence	p. 76
From words to books : Indian Buddhist manuscripts in the first millennium CE	p. 95
Between Zhongfeng Mingben and Zhao Mengfu : Chan letters in their manuscript context	p. 109
Two Buddhist librarians : the proximate mechanisms of Northern Thai Buddhist history	p. 124
Emending perfection : prescript, postscript, and practice in Newar Buddhist manuscript culture	p. 140
Flowers for the Dhamma : painted Buddhist palm leaf manuscript covers (kamba) of Sri Lanka	p. 159
From text to image : copying as Buddhist practice in late fourteenth century Sukhothai	p. 172
Bibliography	p. 189
Index	p. 206
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