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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).

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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.

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EB Garamond: A better class of open-source font

Georg Duffner’s EB Garamond, according to its official website, “is an open source project to create a revival of Claude Garamont’s famous humanist typeface from the mid-16th century.”

It has true italics, true bold (more like semi-bold), true subscripts and superscripts, true swash caps and true small caps (including true capital ß – see Ralf Herrmann’s crystal-clear presentation on this). There are old style figures, discretionary ligatures, and work-in-progress initials. And in particular, there is coverage of the Unicode Latin Extended Additional codeblock.

This is not only actually all in a free font, but in one that looks pretty good, as the specimen [PDF] shows:

EB Garamond specimen, p.9
EB Garamond specimen: just... wow.

Although I haven’t given EB Garamond a full tryout yet, I can confirm that it works out of the box in XeTeX, which is probably the tool that can exploit its advantages to the fullest.

A caveat: EB Garamond is work in progress; Cyrillic italics, for example, are clearly provisional at the time of writing, and some outlines were updated as recently as a couple of weeks ago on github. Nonetheless, it will be good enough to set camera-ready copy for many projects as it stands; it is certainly miles ahead of the unspeakable G****** U****** and its ilk. Thankyou, Mr. Duffner.

Files

https://github.com/georgd/EB-Garamond/blob/master/otf/EBGaramond.otf?raw=true
https://github.com/georgd/EB-Granjon/raw/master/OTF/EBGaramondItalic.otf
https://github.com/georgd/EB-Granjon/blob/master/OTF/EBGaramondBold.otf

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Birkenholtz, ‘The Svasthānī Vrata Kathā Tradition’ (2010)

Jessica Lynn Vantine Birkenholtz. ‘The Svasthānī Vrata Kathā Tradition: Translating Self, Place and Identity in Hindu Nepal’. PhD dissertation, University of Chicago, 2010. 337 pp. UMI Number: 3408505.

From the Abstract

This dissertation presents an alternate social and cultural history of Nepal through the lens of a textual-historical study of the Svasthānī Vrata Kathā (SVK). A popular Nepali Hindu textual tradition, the SVK has an unbroken history that spans five hundred years and three languages (Sanskrit, Newar, and Nepali). Beginning in the sixteenth century, the text expanded from a handwritten eight-folio palm-leaf local legend on the origin of the Svasthānī vrat, or ritual vow, into a Purāṇic sourcebook of thirty-one chapters in over four hundred printed pages. The SVK’s medieval-modern historical span, the diversity of forms of its textual (re)production, and its sustained uniform core narrative provide a lens through which both immediate shifts and gradual transformations in Nepal’s literary, linguistic, social, religious, and political history can be viewed and interpreted.


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Okita, ‘Purāṇic Vedānta’ (2010)

Kiyokazu Okita. Purāṇic Vedānta: On the Issue of Lineage in the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Sampradāya. PhD diss., Faculty of Theology, University of Oxford, 2010 (Supervisor: Gavin Flood). 543 pp.

Some details from material kindly supplied by the author:

This thesis examines the issue of lineage in the Brahmā-Mādhva-Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava sampradāya. In the South Asian context, it is the idea of sampradāya or lineage which guarantees the authenticity and salvific efficacy of a religious community. […] The authority of a particular group is often based on a claim that the divine figure revealed the original teaching, and it has been transmitted generation after generation through the a succession of teachers and disciples. The idea of the four orthodox Vaiṣṇava sampradāyas, which correspond to four divine figures, became popular in medieval northern India
from around the 15th century CE. These divine figures were said to be Śrī, Brahmā, Rudra, and Sanatkumāra. […]
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