Posted on

DiValerio, ‘An Historical Study of Tibet’s Holy Madmen’ (2011)

DiValerio, David Michael. ‘Subversive Sainthood and Tantric Fundamentalism: An Historical Study of Tibet’s Holy Madmen’. Ph.D. diss., University of Virginia, 2011, 727 pp. ProQuest document ID: 2516363731.

From the Abstract

This dissertation is an historical study of Tibetan Buddhists generally referred to as “madmen” (smyon pa), whose “madness” carries a positive valuation more often than a negative one. Technically they are referred to as “mad siddhas” (grub thob smyon pa) or “mad yogis” (rnal ‘byor smyon pa). […] This study views this eccentric behavior as strategic, purposeful activity, rather than being the byproduct of a state of enlightenment. This study also considers how these holy madmen have been understood by Tibetans and Euro-Americans, with the purpose of highlighting certain lines of thinking that have become commonplace within those respective discourses.

This study takes into consideration “madmen” living from the 12th century to the present, but with a special focus on the three most famous exemplars of the tradition: Sangyé Gyeltsen (better known as the Madman of Tsang, 1452-1507), Drukpa Künlé (better known as the Madman of the Drukpa, 1455-1529?) and Künga Zangpo (better known as the Madman of Ü, 1458-1532).

Posted on

Donahue, A poststructuralist Nyāya & pramāṇa (2011)

Queering Dharmakīrti:

Amy K. Donahue. ‘Exclusion, violence, and reference: A poststructuralist reading of the classical Nyāya and Buddhist pramāṇa debates’. PhD diss., University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, 2011. 172 pp. UMI Number: 3485454.

From the Abstract

The dissertation draws on the work of contemporary poststructuralist queer, feminist, and postcolonial theorists to set the ground for a poststructuralist reading of the classical Nyāya and Buddhist Pramāna debates.

Posted on

Wakahara, ‘Buddhist Sanskrit MSS in Bangladesh’ (2011)

若原雄昭 「バングラデシュ国内に保存されるサンスクリット仏教写本 , 他」 龍谷大学アジア仏教文化研究センター

Wakahara, Yusho. ‘Sanskrit Buddhist Manuscripts Preserved in Bangla Desh’. Ryukoku University Research Center for Buddhist Cultures in Asia, Working Paper 1, 2011. [PDF]

Kudos to Prof. Wakahara for getting some good photographs of Buddhist Sanskrit manuscripts out of Bangladesh. So in future reports on these manuscripts there should be no problem with providing full transcriptions of the colophons, including all the information about their Nepalese (and Tibetan, in one case) transmitters and users.

Karunapundarika and Karandavyuha
Karuṇāpuṇḍarīka and Kāraṇḍavyūha.
Posted on

Hanneder et al, Utpattiprakaraṇa, Vairāgyaprakaraṇa & Mumukṣavyavahāraprakaraṇa (2011)

Jürgen Hanneder und Peter Stephan. ‘Utpattiprakaraṇa: Vorläufiger Stellenkommentar. Erste Fassung vom August 2011. Erster Teil (1–59).’ adwm.indologie.uni-halle.de/PhilKommUtpatti.pdf

‘Stellenkommentar zum Mokṣopāya: Vairāgyaprakaraṇa, Mumukṣavyavahāraprakaraṇa‘. DFG-Projekt SL40/9-1: Anonymus Casmiriensis. 15.08.2011. adwm.indologie.uni-halle.de/PhilKommVaiMu.pdf

Posted on

Gutschow, ‘Architecture of the Newars’ (2011)

Niels Gutschow. Architecture of the Newars: A History of Building Typologies and Details in Nepal. 3 volumes. Serindia, November 2011. 1030 pp. USD$450 (excluding postage). ISBN 978-1-932476-54-5 [official site]

From the Abstract

Architecture of the Newars by Niels Gutschow presents the entire history of architecture in the Valley of Kathmandu and its neighbours over a period of 1,500 years — right up to the present. It is a rare tribute to an urban culture which has preserved fascinating lifestyles to this very day. Gutschow first travelled to Nepal in 1962, returning in 1970 after reading architecture, and has constantly worked since then on the connections between ritual and the city. Since 1980 he has worked with measured drawings to identify the various building typologies, which are documented in three volumes with 862 photos and 939 drawings.

Buddhist monasteries (bāhā, bahī); Gutschow (2011:707, 724)

The first volume presents the complexity of the sacred landscape of the Valley and the urban context as well as the early periods, Buddhist votive structures (caityas), architectural fragments and temples from the early periods (5th–14th century). The second volume presents the Malla period (1350–1769) with a host of drawings documenting caityas, maths, tiered temples, shrines and monasteries. The third volume presents the modern period with temples and palaces of the Shaha kings and the Ranas; a variety of new caitya types; domestic architecture of the early 20th century; modern architecture and urban planning. The final chapter presents selected architectural details populated by airborne spirits in a transcultural perspective.

[preview]

Update: Book signing by the author at Vajra Books, Kathmandu, 2pm 14 December 2011.

Posted on

Li, ‘The 13th-century monk U rgyan pa Rin chen dpal’ (2011)

Brenda W. L. Li. ‘A critical study of the life of the 13th-century Tibetan monk U rgyan pa Rin chen dpal based on his biographies’. D.Phil dissertation, Oxford University. 2011. [official site]

From the Abstract

U rgyan pa Rin chen dpal (1230–1309) was a great adept of the bKa’ brgyud school of Tibetan Buddhism, particularly renowned for his knowledge of the Kālacakra tantra and the unique teaching known as the Approach and Attainment of the Three Vajras (rDo rje gsum gyi bsnyen sgrub), said to have been given to him in his vision by Vajrayoginī (rDo rje rnal ‘byor ma) in the Miraculous Land (sprul pa’i zhing) of U rgyan. He was the student of the 2nd Karma pa, who entrusted him with the Black Hat, which he passed to the 3rd Karma pa. He was also a great traveller who journeyed widely across and beyond Tibet. He met Qubilai Khan in the capital of Yuan China and visited sacred Buddhist sites in South India. He has been aptly described by van der Kuijp as “the great Tibetan yogi, thaumaturge, scholar, alchemist, and traveler”.

Thanks to the availability of a large amount of hitherto unknown materials from eleven biographies, the thesis has put considerable weight on the bibliographical comparison and analysis of the different works in an attempt to establish the possible relationship between them.

Posted on

Ramachandran, Lumbini ‘courts controversy’ (2011/11/17)

An article published in the Asia Times this month* reminds us what an awful mess Lumbini is:

Mired in corruption, it evokes despair rather than spiritual upliftment.

[…]

“The monastic zone is dominated by Japanese Mahayana sects. Vajrayana, the Himalaya’s own distinctive contribution to Buddhism, is the most neglected,” Pathak pointed out.

[…]

This has “sparked competition among sects” and encouraged “factionalism – that, too, based on nationality”, Rachana Pathak wrote in Himal magazine.

[…]

But crass commercialization and ostentation evident in new buildings prompted a Western scholar of Himalayan Buddhism to lament that Lumbini was on its way to becoming a “religious Disneyland”.

It’s a little late to complain about that. When you hitch your wagon to globalized culture, which the McBuddhism at Lumbini epitomizes so well, false taste and colonial structure is what you inevitably get. It’s a small world, after all:

Lumbini's Theravadin monastery (this image may be factually inaccurate).

* Sudha Ramachandran. ‘Buddha’s birthplace courts controversy’. Asia Times, November 17, 2011. [link]

Posted on

Pabongkha / Gonsalez, ‘Secret Dakini of Naropa’ (2011)

Pha bong kha pa Byams pa bstan ʼdzin ʼphrin las rgya mtsho (David Gonsalez, tr.) The extremely secret Dakini of Naropa: Vajrayogini practice and commentary. Ithaca, N.Y.: Snow Lion Publications, 2011. 408 pp. ISBN 9781559393867. [official site]

From the Blurb

The Extremely Secret Dakini of Naropa is the commentary to the practice of Vajrayogini in the Naro Kacho lineage composed by Kyabje Pabongkha [1874–1941] as revealed to him directly by Vajrayogini herself. This text has become the basis for almost every subsequent Vajrayogini commentary in the Gelug tradition.

Restriction: The material in this book is restricted. This book may be read only by those who have received a Highest Yoga Tantra empowerment. [Unless you are an Indologist, in which case you may consider this requirement beneath you.]

Posted on

Raguram et al, Reconstruction of Reflected Input (2011)

Extreme philology: typed text can be recovered from a reflected image of the writer’s hand motions, even when the writing device itself is in motion and the writing itself is invisible. For example, if you sit at the front of a vehicle and type on a mobile phone, someone at the back of the vehicle can record the reflection in glasses or a window and extract the typed text from the recording. The process is innovative, but its constituent elements are not; it chains digital magnification, image stabilization, difference matting and optical character recognition into a single hair-raising violation of privacy:

Rahul Raguram, Andrew White, Dibyendusekhar Goswami, Fabian Monrose and Jan-Michael Frahm. ‘iSpy: Automatic Reconstruction of Typed Input from Compromising Reflections’. ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS), 2011. [author’s site / PDF]

From the Abstract

Using footage captured in realistic environments (e.g., on a bus), we show that we are able to reconstruct fluent translations of recorded data in almost all of the test cases, correcting users’ typing mistakes at the same time. We believe these results highlight the importance of adjusting privacy expectations in response to emerging technologies.