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McGrath (2017), Buddhism and Medicine in Tibet

William McGrath. 2017. ‘Buddhism and Medicine in Tibet: Origins, Ethics, and Tradition’. PhD diss., University of Virginia. 264 pp. DOI:10.18130/V39H1N [PDF]

From the Abstract: Primarily focusing on the literary contributions made by the Drangti family at the Sakya Medical House, the present dissertation demonstrates the process in which the Tibetan medical tradition transitioned from controversy, competition, and change, to a narratively unified set of theories and practices that came to be taught at Buddhist institutions throughout the Tibetan plateau. Continue reading “McGrath (2017), Buddhism and Medicine in Tibet”

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Yang (2018), Bukong 不空 aka. Amoghavajra

Yang, Zeng. 2018. ‘A biographical study on Bukong 不空 (aka. Amoghavajra, 705-774): networks, institutions, and identities’. PhD diss., University of British Columbia. DOI:10.14288/1.0363332. URI: hdl.handle.net/2429/64506

Note: This dissertation is distinguished by its use of Japanese scholarship and secular historical sources in Chinese. However, the back-Sanskritization of Chinese jingang ding 金剛頂 as Vajroṣṇīṣa adopted here (p. 4, n.1) is doubtful. Continue reading “Yang (2018), Bukong 不空 aka. Amoghavajra”

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Wollein (2017), The Mūl Dīpaṅkara shrine

Andrea Wollein. 2017. ‘An ethnographic study of the Mūl Dīpaṅkara shrine in Bhaktapur (Nepal): the relationship between people and place’. University of Vienna: M.A. thesis (Masterstudium Kultur u. Gesellschaft des neuzeitlichen Südasiens). 189 pp., 87 figures. URN: nbn:at:at-ubw:1-20536.38953.228466-1 [official notice] [author: facebook]

Mul Dipankara
Wollein (2017:165) fig.74: The tilted face of the Mūl Dīpaṅkara. Photo by the author (August 2016).

Abstract: This thesis presents locality specific research in the form of an ethnography that draws both from fieldwork and published scholarly literature. The inter-disciplinary research is contextualized within the wider field of South Asian Studies and pertains to Himalayan, Buddhist and Newar Studies as well as to Tibetology. It is specifically concerned with the socioreligious dimension of Newar Buddhist monasteries (Skrt. vihāra, New. bāhā and bahī), the Buddhist deity Dīpaṅkara and the configuration of the relationship between the two of them as found in the setting of the Mūl Dīpaṅkara shrine in Bhaktapur. Continue reading “Wollein (2017), The Mūl Dīpaṅkara shrine”

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Mabbett (2012, ed.), Prācyaprajñāpradīpa

Ian W. Mabbett (ed). Prācyaprajñāpradīpa: Professor Dr Samaresh Bandyopadhyay Felicitation Volume on Early Indian History and Culture. Franklin, Tennessee: NIOS (North American Institute for Oriental and Classical Studies) and International Forum for Felicitating Professor Dr. Samaresh Bandyopadhyay. 2012. xxii+584 pp. ISBN 978-0-9848617-0-1. Rs 2500 / USD$70.

From the Preface

The volume contains (in Part 1 with 3 sections) a compendium of information about the career and scholarly achievements of Professor Dr. Samaresh Bandyopadhyay along with a large number of tributes written by people who have benefited from their association with him, and also (in Part 2) an exceptional collection of learned research articles; these have been written in his honour by many who have been impressed and inspired by his scholarship and personality, and they mirror the great depth and the diversity of his own research interests. […]

Contents

PART II: Research Papers on Early Indian History and Culture
Continue reading “Mabbett (2012, ed.), Prācyaprajñāpradīpa”

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Bellezza, ‘Death and Beyond in Ancient Tibet’ (2013)

John Vincent Bellezza. Death and Beyond in Ancient Tibet: Archaic Concepts and Practices in a Thousand-Year-Old Illuminated Funerary Manuscript and Old Tibetan Funerary Documents of Gathang Bumpa and Dunhuang. Denkschriften der philosophisch-historischen Klasse 454; Beiträge zur Kultur- und Geistesgeschichte Asiens 77. Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences Press, 2013 [official]. 292 pp. ISBN 978-3-7001-7433-2.

John Bellezza in Kathmandu after walking from China, September 2007. (Photograph © I. S.)
John Bellezza in Kathmandu after walking from China, September 2007. (Photograph © I. S.)
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Wood, ‘The Shalu Abbatial History’ (2012)

Benjamin Wood. ‘The Jeweled Fish Hook: Monastic Exemplarity in the Shalu Abbatial History’. PhD diss., University of Toronto, 2012. iii+284 pp. [URI: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/34970]

From the Abstract

This dissertation is an in-depth study of the nineteenth-century Shalu Abbatial History, a collection of biographies of abbots and other important religious masters, or lamas, from the Tibetan monastery of Shalu, located in the Tibetan region of Tsang.

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International Conference on Tibetan History &c. (2013-7-13)

四川大学中国藏学研究所（会议主办）、哈佛燕京学社（会议协办）： “7至17世纪西藏历史与考古、宗教与艺术国际学术研讨会”。 中国·成都·四川大学 2013年7月13-15日。

Center for Tibetan Studies of Sichuan University & Harvard-Yenching Institute (co-conveners). ‘International Conference On Tibetan History And Archaeology, Religion And Art (7th–17th c.)’. Sichuan University, Chengdu, China, July 13–15, 2013. [official site / 2nd circular w/ abstracts]

会议召集 人：霍 巍 教授（四川大学）、范德康 教授（哈佛大学）

Conference conveners: Prof. Huo Wei (Sichuan University) & Prof. Leonard W.J. van der Kuijp (Harvard University).

7至17世纪西藏历史与
Continue reading “International Conference on Tibetan History &c. (2013-7-13)”

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On not reviewing Wedemeyer’s ‘Making Sense’

Wedemeyer (2012), p.39.
Wedemeyer (2012), p.39.

Currently I have no plans to review Christian Wedemeyer’s Making Sense of Tantric Buddhism (2012), but that’s not to say that it shouldn’t be reviewed. Just a couple of months after its release, it is now on the shelves of over 80 libraries. Moreover, Dr. Wedemeyer promises to publish a minimum of three more volumes on the Śrīsamāja. Hopefully someone — who isn’t me — will soon get around to a review.