- Tibetan Studies, Tibetan Buddhism, Buddhism, Central Asian Studies, Oriental Studies, Himalayan studies, and 30 moreTantric Buddhism, Indian Buddhism, Tibet, Tibetan Literature, Philosophy, Himalayan culture, History, Anthropology, Edition of Ola Leaf Manuscripts of Pali and Buddhist Studies, Translation Studies, Translation, Buddhist Studies, Book Reviews, Tibeto-Burman Linguistics, Sino-Tibetan Linguistics, Tibetan Language, Tibetan History, Dunhuang, Tibetology, South East Asian Studies, Bactria, Hellenism, Indo-Greeks, Indo-Greek Coinage, Hellenistic Bactria, Silk Road Archaeology, Tibetan Pure Land Buddhism, Pure Land Buddhism, Pyrrhonism, Transcendental Philosophy, Phenomenology, and Comparative Religionedit
Over 100 in-depth, peer-reviewed articles for students and researchers Covers the foundational thematic areas in the field, including historiographical studies, textual and philological studies, art and architecture, social and... more
Over 100 in-depth, peer-reviewed articles for students and researchers
Covers the foundational thematic areas in the field, including historiographical studies, textual and philological studies, art and architecture, social and academic issues, philosophical and doctrinal studies, and major religious figures.
Introduces new interdisciplinary perspectives to the field, including gender and sexuality, economics, globalisation, science, and media.
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-encyclopedia-of-buddhism-9780190256890?cc=hk&lang=en&
Covers the foundational thematic areas in the field, including historiographical studies, textual and philological studies, art and architecture, social and academic issues, philosophical and doctrinal studies, and major religious figures.
Introduces new interdisciplinary perspectives to the field, including gender and sexuality, economics, globalisation, science, and media.
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-encyclopedia-of-buddhism-9780190256890?cc=hk&lang=en&
Research Interests:
The Copper-Colored Mountain is the pure land of Padmasambhava, the Indian master who brought Buddhism to Tibet. One way in which Buddhist practitioners may be reborn in this pure land is by making aspiration prayers. This work includes a... more
The Copper-Colored Mountain is the pure land of Padmasambhava, the Indian master who brought Buddhism to Tibet. One way in which Buddhist practitioners may be reborn in this pure land is by making aspiration prayers. This work includes a translation of one of the most famous of these aspiration prayers, composed by Jigme Lingpa, and the authors’ verse-by-verse analysis of it. Drawing on both traditional commentaries and contemporary scholarly texts, the authors show how Jigme Lingpa encodes many features of Tibetan Buddhist tantric practice in these verses, and thus they provide a feast of meaning for tantric practitioners.
Research Interests:
A catalogue of a private Hong Kong Collection of 293 Tibetan Buddhist thangka.
Research Interests:
This diverse anthology of original Buddhist texts in translation provides a historical and conceptual framework that will transform contemporary scholarship on Pure Land Buddhism and instigate its recognition as an essential field of... more
This diverse anthology of original Buddhist texts in translation provides a historical and conceptual framework that will transform contemporary scholarship on Pure Land Buddhism and instigate its recognition as an essential field of Buddhist studies. Traditional and contemporary primary sources carefully selected from Buddhist cultures across historical, geopolitical, and literary boundaries are organized by genre rather than chronologically, geographically, or by religious lineage—a novel juxtaposition that reveals their wider importance in fresh contexts. Together these fundamental texts from different Asian traditions, expertly translated by eminent and up-and-coming scholars, illustrate that the Buddhism of pure lands is not just an East Asian cult or a marginal type of Buddhism, but a pan-Asian and deeply entrenched religious phenomenon.
Research Interests:
The ambiguity concerning the interpretation of the ‘physical body’ in religious thought is not peculiar to any given religion, but is discernible in the scriptures, practices, and disciplines in most of the world’s major religious... more
The ambiguity concerning the interpretation of the ‘physical body’ in religious thought is not peculiar to any given religion, but is discernible in the scriptures, practices, and disciplines in most of the world’s major religious traditions. This book seeks to address the nuances of difference within and between religious traditions in the treatment and understanding of what constitutes the body as a carrier of religious meaning and/or vindication of doctrine.
Bringing together an international team of contributors from different disciplines, this collection addresses the intersection of religion, gender, corporeality and/or sexuality in various Western and Eastern cultures. The book analyses instances when religious meaning is attributed to the human body’s physicality and its mechanics in contrast to imagined or metaphorical bodies. In other cases, it is shown that the body may function either as a vehicle or a hindrance for mystical knowledge. The chapters are arranged chronologically and across religious orientations, to offer a differentiated view on the body from a global perspective.
Bringing together an international team of contributors from different disciplines, this collection addresses the intersection of religion, gender, corporeality and/or sexuality in various Western and Eastern cultures. The book analyses instances when religious meaning is attributed to the human body’s physicality and its mechanics in contrast to imagined or metaphorical bodies. In other cases, it is shown that the body may function either as a vehicle or a hindrance for mystical knowledge. The chapters are arranged chronologically and across religious orientations, to offer a differentiated view on the body from a global perspective.
Research Interests:
Divided into three sections, Luminous Bliss shows that Tibetan Pure Land literature exemplifies a synthesis of Mahāyāna sutra-based conceptions with a Vajrayana world-view that fits progressive and sudden approaches to the realization of... more
Divided into three sections, Luminous Bliss shows that Tibetan Pure Land literature exemplifies a synthesis of Mahāyāna sutra-based conceptions with a Vajrayana world-view that fits progressive and sudden approaches to the realization of Pure Land teachings. Part I covers the origins and development of Pure Land in India and the historical circumstances of its adaptation in Tibet and Central Asia. Part II offers an English translation of the short Sukhāvatīvyūha-sūtra (imported from India during the Tibetan Empire) and contains a survey of original Tibetan Pure Land scriptures and meditative techniques from the dGe-lugs-pa, bKa’-brgyud, rNying-ma, and Sa-skya schools of Tibetan Buddhism. Part III introduces some of the most innovative and popular mortuary cycles and practices related to the Tantric cult of Buddha Amitābha and his Pure Land from the Treasure traditions in the bKa’-brgyud and rNying-ma schools.
Luminous Bliss locates Pure Land Buddhism at the core of Tibet’s religious heritage and demonstrates how this tradition constitutes an integral part of both Tibetan and East Asian Buddhism.
Luminous Bliss locates Pure Land Buddhism at the core of Tibet’s religious heritage and demonstrates how this tradition constitutes an integral part of both Tibetan and East Asian Buddhism.
Research Interests:
From the early 1980s onward, the field of Tibetan studies has been transformed by the opening of Tibet to foreign researchers. This has ushered in a new era of engagement with Tibet characterized by partnership between Tibetan scholars... more
From the early 1980s onward, the field of Tibetan studies has been transformed by the opening of Tibet to foreign researchers. This has ushered in a new era of engagement with Tibet characterized by partnership between Tibetan scholars and their international colleagues, and by an increasing focus on the study of modern Tibet. Concomitant with this trend, the study of traditional Tibetan society and the imperative for cultural preservation has gained a newfound sense of urgency as the older generation of Tibetans, both in Tibet and in the Tibetan diaspora, began to pass away, taking their stories with them. This volume of essays, Contemporary Visions in Tibetan Studies, reflects in many ways a critical phase in the discipline of Tibetan studies. The contributions, from promising young scholars, both Tibetan and non-Tibetan from across the globe, are divided evenly between essays that engage with the various modernities of Tibet, China and the diaspora on the one hand, and more classically oriented studies of history, culture and religion on the other. Here Tibetan tradition is scrutinized from without and within, sometimes upheld and sometimes revised. Reflecting the growth of the field and its movement away from assertions of Tibetan exceptionalism and towards cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural projects, many of the essays are problem-oriented, and their enquiries take them outside of the confines of the Tibetan cultural area and towards engagement with the wider world.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This work is a revisionist reading on the impact of the historical meeting of Alexandrian philosophers with Indian ascetics in Gandhāra during the far eastern campaigns of Alexandros of Macedonia (356–323 BCE). A comparative... more
This work is a revisionist reading on the impact of the historical meeting of Alexandrian philosophers with Indian ascetics in Gandhāra during the far eastern campaigns of Alexandros of Macedonia (356–323 BCE). A comparative
re-examination of Greek and Indian sources yields new evidence that situates the religious identity of the Indian gymnosophist Kalanos in early ascetic traditions of Buddhism in NW India that upheld the practice of ritual suicide by immolation on specific occasions during the later part of the fourth century BCE. It supports previous research on the Hellenistic period that philosophically links Pyrrhon of Elis (c.360–c.270 BCE) with Indian Buddhism through his encounters with Kalanos and on the basis of shared soteriological conceptions and practices.
re-examination of Greek and Indian sources yields new evidence that situates the religious identity of the Indian gymnosophist Kalanos in early ascetic traditions of Buddhism in NW India that upheld the practice of ritual suicide by immolation on specific occasions during the later part of the fourth century BCE. It supports previous research on the Hellenistic period that philosophically links Pyrrhon of Elis (c.360–c.270 BCE) with Indian Buddhism through his encounters with Kalanos and on the basis of shared soteriological conceptions and practices.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Travellers and Magicians (2003) is a road movie incorporating elements of neorealism. It was directed by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Norbu (1961-present) and filmed in its entirety in Bhutan and with an all-Bhutanese cast that, soon after... more
Travellers and Magicians (2003) is a road movie incorporating elements of neorealism. It was directed by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Norbu (1961-present) and filmed in its entirety in Bhutan and with an all-Bhutanese cast that, soon after its release, attracted world-wide attention. In its visually unassuming style, the film succeeds in tracing the delusional trajectories of human desire from a Buddhist perspective. The intimate space created by the film’s focus on a few characters, its slow narrative pace, minimalistic dialogue, and arresting yet unembellished mise-en-scène, succeeds in luring viewers into a comfortable dream-like space that incites contemplative reflection on Buddhist elements in the storyline and the ethical dangers that lie in pursuit of dreamlands. In this study, I will selectively investigate aspects that contribute to a nuanced reading of the road movie Travellers and Magicians, both as a “Buddhist film” and as a reflective experience in Buddhist practice. The present contribution will link some of the visual imagery and narrative tropes with themes and interpretations drawn from Tibetan history and culture, Buddhist doctrines, film studies, and Western literature.
Research Interests:
The history of the earliest transmission of Indian Buddhism to Tibet in the 7th to 8th centuries is the story of the transmission of its scriptures. Tibetan translations of Sanskrit texts from the early imperial period, along with... more
The history of the earliest transmission of Indian Buddhism to Tibet in the 7th to 8th centuries is the story of the transmission of its scriptures. Tibetan translations of Sanskrit texts from the early imperial period, along with manuscripts translated from the 11th century onwards, contributed to the formation of Buddhist scriptural collections. Today, diferent versions of the Tibetan Kangyur survive in the interior and at the margins of the Tibetan cultural world. This research report serves as a modest introduction to the illustrated Prajñāpāramitā (Perfection of Wisdom) manuscripts and handwriten Buddhist canons preserved in the Indian north-western Himalayas. Their further study will undoubtedly advance our knowledge of Ladakh’s cultural and religious heritage and ofer critical insights to the formation of Tibetan canonical literature. The purpose of this overview is to highlight the results of initial fndings, explain how they relate to existing knowledge, and raise important themes for additional enquiries.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Reprint 2013. In Critical Readings on the History of Tibetan Foreign Relations, vol. 2, ed. Saul Mullard, Leiden: Brill, pp. 573-604.
Research Interests:
Discussions on the rise of Global China, through the Belt and Road Initia- tive [BRI] and beyond, have focused on physical infrastructures, financial in- vestments, commerce, and geopolitics. What about the religious dimension of China's... more
Discussions on the rise of Global China, through the Belt and Road Initia-
tive [BRI] and beyond, have focused on physical infrastructures, financial in-
vestments, commerce, and geopolitics. What about the religious dimension of China's deepening entanglements with the world? This international conference, composed of 3 sessions, wil bring together scholars working on different regions and disciplines, to map out the contours of the religious dimensions and implications of Global China, through discussion of empirical studies and testing of different analytical frameworks.
tive [BRI] and beyond, have focused on physical infrastructures, financial in-
vestments, commerce, and geopolitics. What about the religious dimension of China's deepening entanglements with the world? This international conference, composed of 3 sessions, wil bring together scholars working on different regions and disciplines, to map out the contours of the religious dimensions and implications of Global China, through discussion of empirical studies and testing of different analytical frameworks.
Research Interests:
PROF. GEORGIOS HALKIAS (UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG) The Encounter of Hellenism with Buddhism: A Tale of Conversion and Cultural Diffusion 15 June Room 8&9 FAMES CB3 9DA
Research Interests:
Infrastructures of Faith: Religious Mobilities on the Belt and Road [Brinfaith]
https://brinfaith.com
https://brinfaith.com
Research Interests:
From their earliest stages, Buddhist traditions have displayed a sceptical attitude towards various types of accepted knowledge. Buddhist thinkers, beginning from the historical Buddha, questioned metaphysical assumptions, the realistic... more
From their earliest stages, Buddhist traditions have displayed a sceptical attitude towards various types of accepted knowledge. Buddhist thinkers, beginning from the historical Buddha, questioned metaphysical assumptions, the realistic view of the world, and the reliability of our sources of knowledge, and expressed doubt about common social norms and religious views. In this way, philosophical scepticism played a pivotal role in the way Buddhist thought evolved. It served both as a method for arriving at a reliable and liberating understanding of reality and, as some argue, as an aspect of spiritual practice. The conference on Buddhism and Scepticism investigates the place of scepticism in the development of classical Buddhist thought from historical and philosophical perspectives. From a historical standpoint, the conference explores the development of sceptical strategies in Buddhism and their relation to non-Buddhist systems of thought in Europe and Asia. From a philosophical point of view, it explores the ways in which sceptical arguments are used in Buddhist philosophical works, and how they resemble, and differ from, sceptical methods in other, non-Buddhist philosophies. Convenor: Oren Hanner (Universität Hamburg/Germany)
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
During the times of the Tibetan empire, the earliest records that catalogued Buddhist scriptures, predominantly translated from Sanskrit to Tibetan, played a crucial role in preserving and classifying many of the texts currently found in... more
During the times of the Tibetan empire, the earliest records that catalogued Buddhist scriptures, predominantly translated from Sanskrit to Tibetan, played a crucial role in preserving and classifying many of the texts currently found in the Tibetan Buddhist canons. The empire’s adoptation of Buddhism was inseparable from the project of religious conversion and the bureaucratic mechanisms that were established to monitor the registration, classification and standardization of Buddhist texts, doctrines, and practices. This talk will draw from the contents of the last imperial catalogue of Buddhist works in Tibetan translation, the dkar chag ’phang thang ma, to shed light on the formation and contents of the earliest Tibetan canons, as well as their role in facilitating the transmission and dissemination of Buddhist teachings across the Tibetan Empire.
Research Interests:
Tung Lin Kok Yuen International Conference – Buddhist Canons: In Search of a Theoretical Foundation for a Wisdom-oriented Education
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Islam and Tibet: Cultural Interactions (8th-17th Centuries). The project was based at the Warburg Institute. The researchers were Dr Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim, Dr Anna Akasoy, and Dr Georgios T. Halkias.... more
Islam and Tibet: Cultural Interactions (8th-17th Centuries). The project was based at the Warburg Institute. The researchers were Dr Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim, Dr Anna Akasoy, and Dr Georgios T. Halkias.
https://warburg.sas.ac.uk/research-projects/archived-research-projects/islam-tibet
https://warburg.sas.ac.uk/research-projects/archived-research-projects/islam-tibet
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Page 1. Page 2. Page 3. Page 4. Page 5. Page 6. Page 7. Page 8. Page 9. Page 10. Page 11. Page 12. Page 13. Page 14. Page 15. Page 16. Page 17. Page 18. Page 19. Page 20. Page 21. Page 22. Page 23. Page 24. Page 25. Page 26. Page 27. Page... more
Page 1. Page 2. Page 3. Page 4. Page 5. Page 6. Page 7. Page 8. Page 9. Page 10. Page 11. Page 12. Page 13. Page 14. Page 15. Page 16. Page 17. Page 18. Page 19. Page 20. Page 21. Page 22. Page 23. Page 24. Page 25. Page 26. Page 27. Page 28.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Psychology and Prayer
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This chapter discusses how Buddhist practitioners adapted the Brahmanic homa for their own use. As adopted by the Tibetans, homa rites were employed both for the accomplishment of worldly goals, such as safety, prosperity, and power, but... more
This chapter discusses how Buddhist practitioners adapted the Brahmanic homa for their own use. As adopted by the Tibetans, homa rites were employed both for the accomplishment of worldly goals, such as safety, prosperity, and power, but also for the accomplishment of the highest goals of liberation from the rounds of saṃsara. Focusing on a little known buddha, Aparimitāyus, the chapter shows that this buddha is also part of the broader Pure Land tradition. Like the much better known Pure Land buddha, Amitāyus, Aparimitāyus has the attribute of granting longevity. The manual, attributed to the Queen of Siddhas, a dākini, includes discussions of the four different kinds of rites. Like most tantric rituals it includes ritual identification, in this case at the beginning of the ritual. The chapter closes with a discussion of the rationales employed in the adoption of Brahmanic rites into the context of Buddhist practice.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Buddhist literature in India and Tibet abounds with literal and allegorical references to terrestrial, celestial, and transcendent realms. Of all celestial dwellings cast along Buddhist lines, the pure land Sukhāvatī holds a prominent... more
Buddhist literature in India and Tibet abounds with literal and allegorical references to terrestrial, celestial, and transcendent realms. Of all celestial dwellings cast along Buddhist lines, the pure land Sukhāvatī holds a prominent place in the religious, cultural, and national imagination of the Tibetans. Many centuries before the first imperially sponsored Sanskrit to Tibetan translations of the long and short Sukhāvatīvyūha sutras, Buddha Amitābha and his western abode Sukhāvatī made headway in the cosmopolitan region of greater Gandhāra. Active in the northwest of the Indian subcontinent he emerged as an influential solar deity with his own paradise in Buddhist monastic circles and enjoyed unprecedented success in his subsequent transmigration to East and Central Asia and across the Tibetan plateau. Notwithstanding a Mahāyāna theological reading of Amitābha and his Pure Land, heliocentric metaphors and symbols informed Mahāyāna Buddhism in its encounters with Eurasian solar cults celebrating the vital force of the sun and its metaphorical transition into a spiritual life triumphing over darkness and death. Ritual invocations and creative visualizations of Amitābha-Amitāyus are noticeable in Indian Vajrayāna scriptures imported to Tibet during the postimperial transmission of Buddhism. This second wave of religious assimilation coincides with Amitābha rising to a position of retroactive primacy and exclusivity in narratives concerning Tibet’s conversion to Buddhism and in ancestral myths of the Tibetan race rescued, through his divine emissary Avalokiteśvara, from indigenous forces of malignancy. His overstated presence in Tibetan mythopoiesis bears witness to various soteriological instantiations and expressions of worship in religious art and esoteric registers. In his dual function as the lord of infinite light (Amitābha) and infinite life (Amitāyus), this Mahāyāna deity absorbed functions that had previously been attributed to a range of divinities. Over time, Amitābha and his celestial field inspired a distinct genre of Tibetan pure land literature, the demön, comprising for the most part aspirational prayers for rebirth in Sukhāvatī and tributes to his extraordinary salvific powers. Under the guise of attaining rebirth in the pure land, these popular supplications of devotional nature were supplemented by substantive commentaries elaborating on Mahāyāna practices and doctrines. Hence, the demön came to encompass a wide range of exoteric and esoteric scriptures including funereal rites, tantric rituals for extending life, and meditation manuals derived from visionary kratophanies of the deity. Sukhāvatī inspired a number of ontological possibilities, corporeal, incorporeal, and subtle interpretations derived from the pure land sutras, the tantras, and the revealed scriptures of the Nyingma school. The fusion of devotional praises, faith-based aspirations, and esoteric subtle-body practices had a profound effect in the soteriological formulation of the pure land in Tibet conceptualized simultaneously as an external after-death destination, an interiorized place of the subtle-body infrastructure culminating in the Vajrayāna practice of mind transference to the pure land, and as a sublimated state representing the immutable nature of the awakened mind.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Age of Empires: Chinese Art of the Qin and Han Dynasties (221 B.C. – A.D. 220
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Philosophy and Pure Land
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Conference Theme: Appropriation and Transformation in Asian Translation TraditionsPanel
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Many Buddhist rulers attained the cultic status of divinity as buddhas or celestial bodhisattvas and were expected to exercise their power in accord with Buddhist principles. The bodhisatta is depicted as perfecting both the virtues of... more
Many Buddhist rulers attained the cultic status of divinity as buddhas or celestial bodhisattvas and were expected to exercise their power in accord with Buddhist principles. The bodhisatta is depicted as perfecting both the virtues of kingship and the virtues of renunciation, thus preparing the way for his supreme enlightenment in which the two strands of sovereignty and renunciation “receive their final synthesis and fulfilment”. Politics was realistically seen as an unavoidable exercise of power that can and ought to be used to promote righteousness, while the philosophical interpretation of Buddhist doctrines reflects the pragmatic nature of Buddhist ethics, which, unlike the deontological and absolutist ethical traditions, allows for the expression of multiple and variant attitudes towards the state and the role of religion in shaping and being shaped by social and political conditions
Research Interests: Geography and Sovereignty
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Many Buddhist texts recommend that a ruler best fit for public office is he who governs according to the precepts of dharma and exercises moderation and moral prudence in the domains of law and economy – not unlike the philosopher-King in... more
Many Buddhist texts recommend that a ruler best fit for public office is he who governs according to the precepts of dharma and exercises moderation and moral prudence in the domains of law and economy – not unlike the philosopher-King in Plato’s Republic who draws his authority from the maxim the knowing is wise and the wise is good.1 Plato and later Aristotle envisioned a political order immune to the superficial excesses of democracy in Athens. They directed their critiques at the shortcomings of a social system that placed its faith on “the majority’s ambivalence to a comprehensive social justice” that led to “political instability, often tending to war and tyranny and the lack of moral virtues.” In their view, democracy in Athens promoted “injustices occasioned by a superficial and selfish ethic of egalitarianism,” the “widespread pursuit of indolent pleasures,” and “the absence of genuine social and moral aims” (Corcoran, 1983: 16-17).
Research Interests:
Online Encyclopedia with research articles on Buddhism
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Session
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Philosophy and Pure Land
Tibetan Buddhism is characterized by an extensively diverse corpus of contemplative practices that draws from over one thousand years of Indian historical developments in Buddhist philosophical discourse and experimentation with... more
Tibetan Buddhism is characterized by an extensively diverse corpus of contemplative practices that draws from over one thousand years of Indian historical developments in Buddhist philosophical discourse and experimentation with contemplative techniques. Traditions of Chinese and Central Asian Buddhism also played a role in influencing some of the contents and structure of the Tibetan Buddhist canon that contains a voluminous collection of exoteric and esoteric meditations. The purpose of Tibetan Buddhist meditations (sgom pa) is to progress toward the cherished goal of Mahāyāna: to lead oneself and all others to liberation. In order to offer a general and useful overview of meditations across Indo-Tibetan lineages and schools, this chapter will resort to emic categories of classification, such as the distinction between exoteric (sutra) and esoteric (tantra), and between meditations with and without a “reference object” (sgom bya). By invoking traditional categories of distribution...
Research Interests:
Travellers and Magicians (2003) is a road movie incorporating elements of neorealism. It was directed by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Norbu (1961-present) and filmed in its entirety in Bhutan and with an all-Bhutanese cast that, soon after... more
Travellers and Magicians (2003) is a road movie incorporating elements of neorealism. It was directed by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Norbu (1961-present) and filmed in its entirety in Bhutan and with an all-Bhutanese cast that, soon after its release, attracted world-wide attention. In its visually unassuming style, the film succeeds in tracing the delusional trajectories of human desire from a Buddhist perspective. The intimate space created by the film’s focus on a few characters, its slow narrative pace, minimalistic dialogue, and arresting yet unembellished mise-en-scène, succeeds in luring viewers into a comfortable dream-like space that incites contemplative reflection on Buddhist elements in the storyline and the ethical dangers that lie in pursuit of dreamlands. In this study, I will selectively investigate aspects that contribute to a nuanced reading of the road movie Travellers and Magicians, both as a “Buddhist film” and as a reflective experience in Buddhist practice. The present contribution will link some of the visual imagery and narrative tropes with themes and interpretations drawn from Tibetan history and culture, Buddhist doctrines, film studies, and Western literature.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Bringing together an international team of contributors from different disciplines, this collection addresses the intersection of religion, gender, corporeality and/or sexuality in various Western and Eastern cultures. The book analyses... more
Bringing together an international team of contributors from different disciplines, this collection addresses the intersection of religion, gender, corporeality and/or sexuality in various Western and Eastern cultures. The book analyses instances when religious meaning is attributed to the human body’s physicality and its mechanics in contrast to imagined or metaphorical bodies. In other cases, it is shown that the body may function either as a vehicle or a hindrance for mystical knowledge. The chapters are arranged chronologically and across religious orientations, to offer a differentiated view on the body from a global perspective. This collection is an exciting exploration of religion and the human body. As such, it will be of great interest to scholars in religious studies, theology, Islamic studies, South Asian studies, history of religions and gender studies.