長谷 法寿 (編著) 河辺 利晴 (撮影) 『インド･オリッサ秘密佛教像巡礼』 柳原出版 12,000円＋税 A4判変型
Hase, Hōju (ed.), Kawabe, Toshiharu (photography). Indo orissa: himitsu bukkyōzō junrei (Orissa, India: a Journey into Esoteric Buddhism and Its Iconography). Tokyo: Yanagihara Shuppan, April 2012 [official]. 286 pp. ISBN-13: 978-4840950244.
Vaziri, ‘Buddhism in Iran: An Anthropological Approach’ (2012)
Vaziri, Mostafa. Buddhism in Iran: An Anthropological Approach to Traces and Influences. Palgrave Macmillan USA, [forthcoming August] 2012. ISBN-13: 9781137022936.
Any leads on the Tripiṭaka in Persian?
“This study explores the interactions of Buddhism with the dominant cultures of Iran in pre- and post-Islamic times [sic], demonstrating the traces and cross influences as well as the importance of parallel practices, a process which has brought the culture of Iran to its present state.”
Hugon & Tomabechi, ‘Pramāṇaviniścaya 3’ (2012)
Pascale Hugon and Toru Tomabechi (eds.) Dharmakīrti’s Pramāṇaviniścaya Chapter 3. Critically edited by Pascale Hugon and Toru Tomabechi with a preface by Tom J.F. Tillemans. Sanskrit Texts from the Tibetan Autonomous Region 8. Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences Press, 2012. 223 pp, €45. ISBN13: 978-3-7001-6893-5. [official site]
Tanaka, ‘Nāgabodhi’s *Samājasādhanavyavasthālī II’ (2011)
田中 公明 「『秘密集会』の身体曼荼羅論 : Nāgabodhiの安立次第論』第2章サンスクリット写本ローマ字化テキスト」 『東洋文化研究所紀要』 第160冊 2011.12
Tanaka, Kimiaki. ‘Nāgabodhi’s *Samājasādhanavyavasthālī: The Tibetan Translation and Sanskrit Text of Chapter II’ [in Japanese]. Tōyō Bunka Kenkyūjo kiyō 160, 2011, pp. 324(313)–338(299). [URI / PDF]
From the Abstract
“In this article I have transcribed the Sanskrit text of Chapter II of the Vyavasthālī. This chapter mainly explains the body-maṇḍala theory of the Guhyasamāja-tantra. For further details, reference should be made to pp. 333-324.”
Book of the Year: ‘Hardships and Downfall of Buddhism’
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.
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.
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.
Sakuma, ‘Lokeśvara in Indian Tantric Buddhism’ (2011)
佐久間 留理子 『インド密教の観自在研究』 山喜房佛書林 10.5.2011 A5 17,000円
Sakuma, Ruriko. Indo Mikkyō no Kanjizai Kenkyū [*Studies on Avalokiteśvara in Indian Tantric Buddhism]. Tokyo: Sankibo Busshorin, 2011. 620 pp. ISBN 978-4-7963-0015-5.
Contents (目次)
第１部
研究目的、及び、研究対象の成立背景
１）研究目的と先行研究
２）成就法の成立背景
３）観自在の展開
第１章 文献学的研究
１）研究目的と先行研究
２）『サーダナ．マーラー』のサンスクリット写本
３）バッタチャルヤ校訂本とサンスクリット写本と関係
第２章 図像学的研究
１）観自在の種類
２）聖観自在のタイプ
３）密教的聖観自在のタイプ
第３章 宗教実践方法の研究
１）成就法の構造
２）成就法における二種の映像
３）身体技法としての成就法
結論
第２部
翻訳研究
略号
1 ローカナータ（世門主）成就法
2 カサルパナ（空行）世自在成就法
3 ヴァジュラダルマ（金剛法）成就法
4 シャダクシャリー（六字）世自在成就法
5 シンハナーダ（獅子吼）世自在成就法
6 ニーラカンタ（青頸）聖観自在成就法
7 ハーラーハラ世自在成就法
8 パドマナルッテーシュヴァラ（蓮華舞自在）成就法
9 ハリハリハリヴァーハナ生起成就法
10 トラーイロークヤヴァシャンカラ（三界制御)世自在成就法、及び、トラーイロークヤヴァシャンカラ（三界制御)の教えのブグマ世自在成就法
11 ラクタ（赤）世自在成就法
12 ローケーシュヴァラ（世自在）敬愛儀軌
13 マーヤージャーラクラマ（幻化網次第）観自在
14 供養を伴うマーシャムカの陀羅尼
15 スガティサンダルシャナ（善趣示現）世自在
16 プレータサンタルピタ世自在成就法
17 スカーヴァティー(極楽）世自在成就法
作例表
（Ａ）聖観自在のタイプ
(A.1) ローカナータ（世門主)
(A.2) カサルパナ(空行)世自在
(A.3) ヴァジュラダルマ（金剛法）
（Ｂ）密教的観自在のタイプ
(B.1) シャダクシャリー（六字）世自在
(B.2) シンハナーダ（獅子吼）世自在
(B.3) ニーラカンタ（青頸）聖観自在
(B.4) ハーラーハラ世自在
(B.5) パドマナルッテーシュヴァラ（蓮華舞自在）
(B.6) ハリハリハリヴァーハナ世自在
(B.7) トラーイロークヤヴァシャンカラ (三界制御)世自在
(B.8) ラクタ（赤）世自在
(B.9) マーヤージャーラクラマ（幻化網）観自在
(B.10) スガティサンダルシャナ（善趣示現）世自在
(B.11) プレータサンタルピタ世自在
(B.12) スカーヴァティー（極楽）世自在
参考文献
あとがき
索引
Ishida, ‘Dharmottara’s Pramāṇaviniścayaṭīkā 2’ (2011)
Hisataka Ishida. „Dharmottaras Pramāṇaviniścayaṭīkā zum auf der Realität basierenden logischen Nexus“. Ph. D. Dissertation, Philologisch-Kulturwissenschaftliche Fakultät, Universität Wien, 2011. [official site / PDF]
Vienna is producing dissertations on the pramāṇa manuscripts in China at an impressive rate. I note, however, that projects which might have been expected to showcase the cultural achievements of Tibet do not always turn out that way:
From the Abstract
Since the manuscript is a codex unicus, a diplomatic edition is also included, as is an edition of the Tibetan translation. The [necessity of including the] latter is due to the fact that, upon closer examination, it became apparent that the Tibetan translation shows frequent “deviations”, likely due to the free translation style of the Tibetan translator monk rNgog Lotsaba. These deviations cannot be briefly stated in the critical apparatus of the Sanskrit edition in a manner that would be meaningful for the reader, and thus this edition has been added.
Slusser, ‘Antiquity of Nepalese Wood Carving’ (2010)
Mary Slusser. The Antiquity of Nepalese Wood Carving: A Reassessment. Freer/Sackler Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution: August 2010. ISBN 9780295990293. 325 pp., 201 illus. [official site]
According to the blurb, the author has carbon-dated certain items to a period as early as the Licchavi era, notably the struts of Uku Bāhā, one of the oldest continuously maintained Buddhist institutions in South Asia. Objects still in situ appear to be of much greater antiquity than previously thought.
A preview of Slusser’s findings was published on asianart.com. Given the author’s impressive contribution, we can perhaps overlook the misplaced horror at the recent painting of those wooden struts, which, incidentally, I witnessed during the Bāhā’s preparatory cleaning for its hosting of the Matayā festival. I am sure Dr. Slusser appreciates that sacred places in the Valley are living entities, subject to periodic renovation, which do not stay frozen in time for the amusement of Westerners with antiquarian fetishes.
It should also be said that “the first to publish an Ukubāhāḥ strut—or for that matter any Nepalese wooden sculpture” was not “Pratapaditya Pal in his 1974 Art of Nepal“. Previously there was Stella Kramrisch, and of course Giuseppe Tucci published many photographs of such items in the course of his career, culminating in his ’69 coffee-table book of erotic Newar temple sculpture, Rati-Līlā — a lyrical and mature statement of Tucci’s thinking, juxtaposed in a slightly tawdry way with photographed wood carvings of human (and other) maithuna scenes of questionable artistic merit.
Twist, ‘Devotion and Politics’ (2008)
Twist, Rebecca L. Patronage, Devotion and Politics: A Buddhological Study of the Paṭola Śāhi Dynasty’s Visual Record. PhD diss., Ohio State University, 2008. 393 pp. [abstract/PDF]
A few lines from the abstract:
During the 6th – 8th centuries, the Paṭola Śāhi dynasty ruled the country of Bolor, which is Baltistan and Gilgit […] a number of Buddhist artworks […] can be attributed through inscriptions to a donation by members of the royal Paṭola Śāhi family. This study focuses on these inscribed works and other extant visual culture of the Paṭola Śāhi dynasty. […] the Paṭola Śāhis were devout Buddhist practitioners, some of them adherents of early Vajrayāna Buddhism.