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Moronval (2017), Vitalités chez les Néwar bouddhistes

Frédéric Moronval. 2017. Vitalités linguistique et religieuse chez les Néwar bouddhistes de la vallée de Kathmandu. Thèse de doctorat en Sciences du langage – linguistique, Normandie Université. Français. NNT: 2017NORMR055. <tel-01697607> [PDF]

From the English abstract: Newari, the indigenous language of the Kathmandu valley, is considered by the UNESCO as an endangered language, […] why and to which extent both the mother tongue and Buddhism are decreasing among Newars, and what, if any, is the causal relationship linking the evolution of these two cultural features. […] Continue reading “Moronval (2017), Vitalités chez les Néwar bouddhistes”

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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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Rogora (2016), Lo Svayambhūpurāṇa

Luigi, Rogora. 2015-2016. ‘La Luce Nella Valle: Lo Svayambhūpurāṇa nel Buddhismo Nepālese’. Università degli Studi di Milano, Facoltà di Studi Umanistici. Corso di Laurea Triennale in Lettere. iv+167 pp. [academia.edu]

Note: Contains an annotated Italian translation of Svayambhūdharmadhātusamutpattinidānakathā 1.1–63.

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Lee (2017), The Śarīrārthagāthā

Lee, Hsu-Feng. 2017. ‘A Study Of The Śarīrārthagāthā In The Yogācārabhūmi‘. PhD diss., University of Sydney. 290 pp. URI: [PDF]

From the Abstract: The Śarīrārthagāthā (Tǐyì qiétā 體義伽他;‘dus pa’i don gyi tshigs su bcad pa) is a collection of canonical verses with accompanying commentary in the Yogācārabhūmi (Yúqié shī dì lùn 瑜伽師地論; rnal ‘byor spyod pa’i sa), an encyclopedic text of India’s major Mahāyāna philosophical school. […] Continue reading “Lee (2017), The Śarīrārthagāthā”

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Ringpapontsang (2016), Qubilai & ’Phags pa

Ringpapontsang, Tenzin Choephak. 2016. ‘Conquering the Conqueror: Reassessing the Relationship between Qubilai Khan and ’Phags pa Lama’. PhD diss., Australian National University. 251 pp. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/1885/114562 [PDF]

NB: Contains translations of the basic text of ’Phags pa’s Advice to a King and a commentary, Shes rab gzhon nu’s Rgyal po la gdams pa’i rab tu byed pa’i rnam par bshad pa gsung rab gsal ba’’i rgyan, Sa skya bka’ ’bum, TBRC W22271. (Many citations in the notes are to cut & pasted URLs, rather than robust conventional citations to published works.)

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Richardson (2016), Murals at Shalu

Richardson, Sarah Aoife. 2016. ‘Painted Books for Plaster Walls: Visual Words in the Fourteenth-century Murals at the Tibetan Buddhist Temple of Shalu.’ PhD diss., University of Toronto. 271+146+186 pp. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/73147.

From the Abstract: Elaborate mural paintings made after a major renovation of the temple in the early fourteenth century included long Tibetan inscriptions, displaying sometimes large passages of Tibetan sacred texts as part of their communicative pictorial program. By variously projecting books onto the walls, the temple’s abbot, Butön Rinchen Drup (Bu ston rin chen ‘grub, 1290-1364) placed new textual collections, inherently scholastic and elite projects, assertively into a more public domain.

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Schlosser (2016), On the Bodhisattva Path in Gandhāra

Schlosser, Andrea. 2013 [2016]. “On the Bodhisattva Path in Gandhāra. Edition of Fragment 4 and 11 from the Bajaur Collection of Kharoṣṭhī Manuscripts”. Freien Universität Berlin: PhD diss. 313+iv pp. URN: urn:nbn:de:kobv:188-fudissthesis000000101376-1 [PDF]

From the Abstract: This dissertation contains an edition, translation and study of two unparalleled Buddhist texts from ‘Greater Gandhāra’ (eastern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan), written in the Gāndhārī language and Kharoṣṭhī script and dating from the first or second century CE.

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Ham (2016), Buddhist Critiques of the Veda

Ham, Hyoung Seok. 2016. “Buddhist Critiques of the Veda and Vedic Sacrifice: A Study of Bhāviveka’s Mīmāṃsā Chapter of the Madhyamakahṛdayakārikā and Tarkajvālā“. University of Michigan: PhD diss. URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/120797 [PDF]

From the Abstract: The dissertation includes an overview of Bhāviveka’s long chapter on Mīmāṃsā in his Madhyamakahṛdayakārikā and reviews previous scholarly opinion on the identity of opponent of the chapter. It next examines how Bhāviveka employed each of the traditional critiques against the new opponent, demonstrating that he drew heavily on the Abhidharma and Sāṃkhya literature to counter the Mīmāṃsaka defense of the Veda and Vedic sacrifice, while adding new levels of specificity and sophistication.

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Feichtinger (2011), Rituelle Pluralität und Performanz [Nyakū Jātrā Matayā]

Feichtinger, Walter. 2011. Rituelle Pluralität und Performanz. Das Newar Festival Nyakū Jātrā Matayā in Pāṭan, Nepal. Diplomarbeit (Mag. Phil.), University of Vienna. Fakultät für Sozialwissenschaften. URN: urn:nbn:at:at-ubw:1-29510.85611.848460-1. [PDF]

Abbildung 6.28: Gesellschaftskritik und die Einflüsse einer globalisierten Welt, Matayā 18.08.2008

Abstract: This diploma thesis is about the plural ritual praxis of a religious festival of the Newars in the city of Pāṭan, within the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal. The Nyakū Jātrā Matayā serves as a stage for the living and dead, gods and demons, as well as the beliefs of two religious systems and a globalized society that is at the same time deep-rooted in tradition. Continue reading “Feichtinger (2011), Rituelle Pluralität und Performanz [Nyakū Jātrā Matayā]”