Giovanni Verardi (appendices by Federica Barba). Hardships and Downfall of Buddhism in India. Nalanda-Sriwijaya Series 4. Delhi/Singapore: Manohar & Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2011. 523 pp.
Not a very catchy title, but I doubt that something more direct (say, The Hindu Extermination of Buddhism) would have been very appealing to Singapore’s Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre, the book’s publisher.
This book is an extraordinary achievement, all the more so for it relying only indirectly, for the most part, on scriptural and epigraphic sources. Verardi’s contribution is based on something at least as useful: first-hand observation of the key sites and remains, clearly articulated in terms of long-term patterns. It is by far one of the most important contributions to the study of Buddhism in India published in a long time — though I don’t agree with everything in it, by any means. (Given the chance, I will expand on that later.) The omission of any discussion of the Theravādins’ catastrophic role, painstakingly explained in Peter Schalk’s 2002 Buddhism among Tamils volumes, has to be regarded as particularly puzzling — at least until one sees Peter Skilling’s name in the acknowledgements. But let me be clear: Verardi, who has pursued his line of inquiry for over three decades, has succeeded in making sense out of a slew of data in a way that is unlikely to be bettered for some time.
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).
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.
Mathias Fermer. The Life and Works of Gong dkar rDo rje gdan pa Kun dga’ rnam rgyal (1432-1496) (གོང་དཀར་རྡོ་རྗེ་གདན་པ་ཀུན་དགའ་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་༼༡༤༣༢-༡༤༩༦༽གྱི་ལོ་རྒྱུས་དང་གསུང་རྩོམ་།). M.A. Thesis, Department of Indian and Tibetan Studies, University of Hamburg, 2009. 415 pp.
From the Preface:
Gong dkar rDo rje gdan pa Kun dga' rnam rgyalGong dkar Kun dga’ rnam rgyal, alias Gong dkar rDo rje gdan pa or Grwa lnga rgyal po (1432-1496), was one of the great scholar-saints who lived in the religiously highly productive period of the fifteenth century. Today, his religious tradition, which had mainly flourished near its original home in the southern part of Central Tibet (dBus), is commonly referred to as the rDzong tradition (rDzong lugs), a lesser known subsect within the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism. […]
PART I of this thesis gives a rough overview of the religious and political circumstances of Kun dga’ rnam rgyal’s time (chapter 1) and introduces the noble family lineage into which he was born (chapter 2). In PART II, I summarize this master’s life, beginning with an overview of previous modern research (chapter 3), followed by an account of his eventful life (chapter 4) and a discussion on the practice tradition that emerged from him (chapter 5). The next chapter is dedicated to Kun dga’ rnam rgyal’s writings, which will be provided in a composite catalogue of his works and a descriptive catalogue of those texts that have been available to me (chapter 6). PART III consists of the edition (chapter 7) and the translation (chapter 8 ) of the eleventh chapter of his main biography. The translated text gives an impression of how he was perceived as a religious teacher and provides a detailed list of his disciples. In addition, the final section contains several appendices.
Mr. Fermer’s thesis is an impressive piece of work; it won the 2009 Peter Lindegger Preis for graduate students of Tibetan Studies. Plans are, or were, in place to publish the thesis as a monograph. (Here I should disclose my own interest: I receive a mention in the Acknowledgements.)
Moreover, an e-text of the biography is available at Hamburg’s promising Sakya Resource Centre (sakya-resource.de/).
