PDF – Page 9 – Jinajik

2011-02-212011-02-21

Jones, ‘Of offal & others: 2 works by David-Neel’ (2010)

Robert William Jones, II. ‘Of offal, corpses, and others: an examination of self, subjectivity, and authenticity in two works by Alexandra David-Neel’. Thesis (M.A.) Florida Atlantic University, 2010. [UMI / PDF]

From the Abstract

This thesis examines two works (My Journey to Lhasa and Magic and Mystery in Tibet) by Alexandra David-Neel. […] Central to this study is an examination of a claim by His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama that David-Neel creates an “authentic” picture of Tibet. In order to do this the first chapter establishes a working definition of authenticity based on both Western philosophy and Vajrayana Buddhism. This project argues that the advanced meditation techniques practiced by Alexandra David-Neel allow her to access a transcendent self that is able to overcome the self/other dichotomy. It also discusses the ways in which abjection and limit experiences enhance this breakdown. Finally, this thesis examines the roles that gender and a near absence of female Tibetan voice play in complicating the problems of self, subjectivity, and authenticity within these texts.

2011-02-122011-02-12

Wright, ‘The Guhyasamāja Piṇḍikṛta-sādhana’ (2010)

Guhyasamāja Piṇḍikṛtasādhana kumbhastambhas

Roger Wright. ‘The Guhyasamāja Piṇḍikṛta-sādhana and its context’. MA thesis (Religions), School of Oriental and African Studies, 2010. [PDF (‘internet version’)]

From the Abstract (sic)

This paper analyses and comments on the Piṇḍikṛta-sādhana, a ritual practice manual for the Guhyasamāja Highest Yoga Tantra, attributed to Nāgārjuna. It is based on a correlated translation of the Sanskrit and Tibetan versions of the text prepared for the purpose. […]
Particular attention has been given to making the translation of the visualizations of the architecture and the deities themselves clear by providing tables and illustrations. The philosophical background of the text is investigated and the way in which that was subtly altered by subsequent commentators when it no longer fitted the later “philosophical climate” is made clear. The continuity of the practice is discussed, from its inception to the present day.

2011-02-062011-02-07

Stout, ‘Buddhism & the State of the Union’ (2009)

Stout, Daniel R. ‘How the Buddhist concept of Right Speech would be applied towards diplomatic actions using the media: a case study from the 2002 State of the Union’. M.A. thesis, 2009. [http://hdl.handle.net/2097/1485/PDF]

From the Abstract

State of the Union Address, 2003 (Photo: AP) — State of the Union Address, 2003 (AP)

In this analysis it is argued that current strategies of media diplomacy do lead to violence because they encourage power plays, violence, and overemphasis on national ego. The proposed alternative is to embrace a Buddhist alternative identified as Right Speech to overcome current deficiencies. The study found that President Bush’s 2002 State of the Union violated the tenets of Right Speech. The implications of violations including the increased likelihood of violence between nation states will be discussed.

2011-01-312011-01-31

Serbaeva-Saraogi, ‘Relative Chronology of Śaiva Texts’ (2009)

Olga Serbaeva-Saraogi. ‘A Tentative Reconstruction of the Relative Chronology of the Śaiva Purāṇic and Śaiva Tantric Texts on the Basis of the Yoginī-related Passages’. In: Jezic, M; Koskikallio (eds.) Parallels and Comparisons: Proceedings of the Fourth Dubrovnik International Conference on the Sanskrit Epics and Purāṇas. Zagreb: 2009, pp.313–348. [official / PDF]

Dr. Serbaeva-Saraogi’s article inspired me to create the ‘required reading’ tag. This impressive piece of research is associated with a recently completed project at Universität Zürich, which sounds equally intriguing: ‘Translating the Non-Evident: “Altered States of Consciousness” in Vidyapitha Tantras and in Western Transcreations of “Tantrism”‘.

2011-01-222013-03-24

Zotter, ‘Pūjā-Blüten in Nepal’; on the Puṣpacintāmaṇi (2009)

Flowers for the Newars' Ganesacaturthi — Pflanzen, die von Newars zur Gaṇeśacaturthī verwendet werden

Astrid Zotter (née Krause). ‘Pūjā-Blüten in Nepal: Bestimmungen des Puṣpacintāmaṇi‘. Universität Leipzig: PhD dissertation, 2009. [In German; PDF] 408 pp., illus.

Dr. Zotter’s dissertation on the medieval flower-offering manual Puṣpacintāmaṇi presents a critical edition of the Sanskrit and Newar texts, and discusses the role of this important work in Nepal from the reign of Pratap Malla onwards. This is a new milestone in Newar studies, and more generally another welcome contribution to the study of the transmission of Sanskrit texts and vernacular translations in medieval South Asia. A few words from the abstract (roughly translated):

From the Abstract

The Sanskrit text Puṣpacintāmaṇi (PuCi) treats flower offerings (upacāra) in the most important worship ritual of Hinduism, the pūjā. In 400 verses, about 200 names of flowers prescribed as appropriate or inappropriate gifts for various deities and pūjās are listed. The text is a compilation (nibandha), in which the contents of 47 named source texts are reported. […]

The aim of the thesis is not only to edit this text, which was published for the first time in 1966, anew on the basis of all traditional manuscripts and to translate it for the first time, but also to fit it into its context. Here, the context of the historical development of the text, the position of the PuCi in the textual tradition and the varieties of interpretation are taken into account. […] Continue reading “Zotter, ‘Pūjā-Blüten in Nepal’; on the Puṣpacintāmaṇi (2009)”

2011-01-07

Widdess, ‘Rāga Knowledge in the Kathmandu Valley’ (2011)

Widdess, Richard. ‘Implicit Rāga Knowledge in the Kathmandu Valley.’ Analytical Approaches to World Music 1 (1), 2011, pp.73-92. [abstract / PDF (11 MB)]

Abstract extract

The term rāga is current not only in the classical traditions of North and South Indian music, where it is the subject of an extensive written and oral theory, but also in many non-classical traditions especially of religious music in South Asia. For example, devotional songs (dāphā) sung by groups of Newar farmers in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, are regularly attributed to rāgas; but there is little explicit (i.e. verbally expressed) knowledge about rāga among the performers. […] The present study suggests that rāga-preludes sung before each dāphā song constitute melodic models that underlie song melodies. […]

2011-01-042011-01-04

Weiler, ‘Neoclassical Newar Residences’ (2009)

Katharina Maria Lucia Weiler. ‘The Neoclassical Residences of the Newars in Nepal: Transcultural Flows in the Early 20th century Architecture of the Kathmandu Valley’. PhD diss., Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, 2009. [abstract / PDF (40 MB)]

Almost as good as being there, this lavishly illustrated dissertation treats an important architectural subculture of the Kathmandu Valley. Weiler looks closely at the stylistic origins of buildings built by people who wanted to emulate Europe, while remaining tantric Hindus and Buddhists at heart. This lucid description of a relatively recent strand in the rich tapestry of Newar urban life is commended to aficionados of Nepalese taste.

Screenshot-Weiler_2009_The_Neoclassical_Residences_of_the_Newars_in_Nepal — Nike of Samothrace and Śrī yantra at Ananda Niketan

2010-12-122010-12-12

Salguero, ‘Buddhist Medicine in China’ (2010)

C. Pierce Salguero. Buddhist Medicine in Medieval China: Disease, Healing, and the Body in Crosscultural Translation (Second to Eighth Centuries C.E.). PhD diss., Johns Hopkins University, March 2010. 395 pp. [abstract at author’s site/PDF]

Abstract

This dissertation is a study of the role of literary and cultural translation in the transmission and reception of Buddhist medicine in medieval China between the second and eighth centuries. This dissertation brings to light the diversity of medical material in the Chinese Tripitaka, analyzes the central metaphors and discourses in this corpus, and examines how these foreign medical ideas were understood in their historical context. I employ methodologies from Translation Studies to reconcile the study of the transregional exchange of linguistic and cultural repertoires with the agency of individual historical authors as they retooled and adapted foreign knowledge to forward contemporary social strategies. I utilize this theoretical framework to analyze how Indian medical doctrines influenced Chinese Buddhist discourses and practices, while also emphasizing the importance of disease, healing, and the body as sites of crosscultural negotiation.

[via kuden-ML]

2010-12-022010-12-02

Fiordalis, ‘Miracles in South Asian Buddhist Lit’ (2008)

David V. Fiordalis. Miracles and Superhuman Powers in South Asian Buddhist Literature. PhD diss., University of Michigan, 2008. 232 pp. [HDL / PDF]

Abstract

Scholars have long been aware of the presence of marvelous events in Buddhist literature. While it is now more fashionable to speak about them, some still hesitate to use the word miracle in reference to Buddhism. Paying attention to how Buddhists defined their own terms, this dissertation argues that the concept of the miracle is appropriate to use in translating specific Buddhist terminology. The present study examines the narrative and scholastic language Buddhists used to denote and classify various types of miracles and superhuman powers. […] Continue reading “Fiordalis, ‘Miracles in South Asian Buddhist Lit’ (2008)”

2010-11-212010-11-23

Läänemets, ‘The Gaṇḍavyūha as Historical Source’ (2009)

Märt Läänemets. ‘Gaṇḍavyūha-sūtra kui ajalooallikas (The Gaṇḍavyūha-sūtra as a Historical Source)’. Dissertationes Historiae Universitatis Tartuensis 17. PhD diss., Tartu University, 2009. 281 pp. [abstract / PDF]

Gandavyuha, LACMA — Folios from a Gaṇḍavyuha codex, LACMA.

Läänemets’ dissertation, written in Estonian, also comes with a detailed English summary (pp.263‒274).

Allow me to briefly take up a couple of points mentioned in the summary. Firstly, it is surprising that the writer concludes that the Gv was composed in Central Asia “on the basis of extra-textual historical facts”, even though it is pointed out that the action takes place almost entirely in identifiable sites in South India (p.269).

Secondly, it is stated that the “Gv reached Nepal… no later than the middle of the 12th century, but likely a century or two earlier” (p.268). Here Läänemets refers to an MS dated ~1166 CE, which he describes as the oldest and “only [this must be a typo] extant text”. There is no reason to think that the Gv was not circulating in Nepal in approximately the same period that it began to circulate in the rest of South Asia, even if very few palmleaf MSS have survived. For instance, Kamalaśīla, who prescribes the recitation of the Bhadracārī (which was attached to the Gv by Kamalaśīla’s time, the late eighth century) as part of a bodhisattva’s routine in his first Bhāvanākrama, is said to have resided in Nepal, where such texts were presumably already well known.

One Nepalese MS which is not mentioned is an illustrated palmleaf codex, preserved in just a few folios across two collections in the United States: at LACMA [see right; link], and Brooklyn Museum [link]. Although the folios at LACMA have been studied by the inimitable Dr. Gautam V. Vajracharya, I do not know whether these two remarkable leaves have been identified as constitutents of the same codex, as they manifestly appear to be.