France – Jinajik

2017-04-022017-04-05

Vajrācārya & Baké (1931), mudrā & caryā

Siddhiharṣa Vajrācārya, performer; A. A. Baké, photographer. [Mudrā & caryā poses]. 16mm film digitally archived at Salamandre, Collège de France. Kathmandu: 1931.

Comment: Newly emerged film of Surataśrī Mahāvihāra’s pundit Siddhiharṣa Vajrācārya (1879–1952) demonstrating mudrā and caryā poses, now digitised from 16mm reels, may be the earliest documentary footage of Newar Buddhism in existence. The film was shot in Kathmandu in 1931 by A. A. Baké at the request of Sylvain Lévi (1863–1935). (Thanks to confreres at the Collège de France for the notification and some details.)

2012-06-042012-06-04

Toumpouri, ‘L’illustration de Barlaam et Joasaph’ (2010)

Marina Toumpouri [academia.edu]. ‘L’illustration byzantine du Roman de Barlaam et Joasaph’. 3 vols., 792 pp. PhD diss., Université Charles de Gaulle (Lille), 2010.

A worthy study of some real Western Buddhism:

From the Abstract

The Barlaam and Joasaph tale is a text of Buddhist inspiration which tells the story of the son of an Indian king, Joasaph, who, tired of mundane pleasures, is converted by the monk Barlaam and eventually becomes a monk. The Greek version of the Barlaam and Joasaph Romance, the work of Euthyme the Athonite (+1028), monk of Georgian origin, is datable between 975 and 987. The text is known to us in hundred and fifty nine manuscripts, among which six were illustrated, produced between the eleventh and the sixteenth century. The present work is dedicated to the study of the illustrated manuscripts.