Travels of Buddhism: c.500BCE-1500CE.
Theme: Mobility, transmission, and dispersion; territorial domestication, utility, embodiment, and transformation.
Reading:
Liu Xin Ru, “Early Buddhism,” (OREAH) (10pp) [here is a youtube lecture on ganasangha territorial formations]
Jason Emmanuel Neelis, Early Buddhist Transmission and Trade Networks : Mobility and Exchange Within and Beyond the Northwestern Borderlands of South Asia, Brill, 2010. (online PDF), Chapter One (64pp)
Max Deeg, “Chinese Buddhist Travelers” (OREAH) (12pp)
Tansen Sen, “Buddhism and the Maritime Crossings.” (16pp)
John Guy, “Introducing Early Southeast Asia,” pp. 3-13 in Lost Kingdoms: Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture in Early Southeast Asia, edited by John Guy.
Study: MetMuseum Heilbrun essay on Buddhist Art . … Faxian travel map.…Buddhism in Korea, at the Met.… Brown Library Tibetan Buddhism Website. Tree and Serpent: Early Buddhist Art in India, 200BCE-400CE …
Reference:
Llewelyn Morgan, The Buddhas of Bamiyan. Harvard University Press, 2102.
Tansen Sen, “The spread of Buddhism.” In B. Kedar & M. Wiesner-Hanks (Eds.), The Cambridge World History (The Cambridge World History, pp. 447-480). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (PDF online) — and search “spread of Buddhism” in Cambridge Core. (requires NYU library login)
Susantha Goonatilake, “Anuradhapura Is No ‘Theocracy.’” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka, vol. New Series, Vol 55, 2009, pp. 183–91. (PDF online)
David Ludden, “The Decline of Buddhism, Revisited: The Rise of Hindu Territorial Hegemony, circa 950-1250,” (online PDF), in Clio and Her Descendants: Essays for Kesavan Veluthat, edited by Manu V. Devadevan, Delhi: Primus Books, 132-162
Natasha Heller, “Buddhist Religious Practice in Imperial China,” (OREAH) (12pp)
Bagan and the World, Edited by Goh Geok Yian, John Miksic and Michael Aung-Thwin, : ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute, 2017
2500 Years of Buddhism, P.V.Bagat, New Delhi, 1956
The Rubin Museum, “Faith and Empire: Art and Politics in Tibetan Buddhism.”
Video10:“Travels of Buddhism” (Lecture with slides)” … Slides only. GoogleEarth Tour of Buddhist Sites. Silk Road Central GoogleEarth Project
Assignment 5. 1-page paper#4. Write a one page synopsis for your first 5-page paper, due next week. Explain the spatial logic of Buddhist travels and territorial transformations, using specific examples. You can use any sources you clear with instructor in advance but please focus on readings and lecture material in this course. Remember: the travels of Buddhism involve much more than religion.
Individual Weeks in full syllabus: Week 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14