This dissertation investigates the relationship between waste recycling and social change. Instead of complying with a prevailing notion of recycling as an environmental solution, or as material... Show moreThis dissertation investigates the relationship between waste recycling and social change. Instead of complying with a prevailing notion of recycling as an environmental solution, or as material conversion and trade, this research maintains that recycling is about people, their relation to objects and environments, their networks of interaction and modes of thoughts. The empirical focus of this dissertation is Tzu-chi recycling: a volunteer-operated, community-based, Buddhism-associated national movement in Taiwan since the 1990s. This research analyzes Tzu-chi recycling at three levels: individual, communal and institutional. It studies Tzu-chi recycling against the backdrop of Taiwan’s drastic social change: the economic and demographic restructuring, a movement of political localization, and the dynamic powers of religious phenomenon. By doing so, the dissertation shows post-authoritarian Taiwan through the lens of waste recycling, and understands waste recycling through Taiwan. Overall, it contends that in different forms of action and ways of seeing, Tzu-chi-associated members redefine recycling as a past-oriented strategy and a redemptive tool to deal with different consequences of modernity. From the vantage point of waste, this research sheds light on the entanglement between a society’s development and its waste as an examination of its continuum and rupture between present and past. Through the chapters of this dissertation, it becomes clear that, above all, rubbish is at the core of meaningful and coordinated social activity; it makes us who we are. Show less
Besides the official care for cultural heritage on Java, which in the 1920s and 1930s was under the responsibility of the Dutch Archeological Service, different attitudes towards heritage are... Show moreBesides the official care for cultural heritage on Java, which in the 1920s and 1930s was under the responsibility of the Dutch Archeological Service, different attitudes towards heritage are identified of which three are discussed more elaborately using three typical case studies. It will become clear how for the local population on Java statues and sites were still places of worship where offerings were made and rituals performed. This use of heritage often clashed with repairs undertaken by the Archeological Service, for instance, for constructional reasons, but which in practice sealed off the heritage for local people for whom it was a site of veneration still. On the other hand, local people sometimes also deliebrately destroyed heritage such as statues who would have had a negative agency. This chapter aims to contribute to how such responses and attitudes should be explained and what questions need to be addressed further to understand the meaning of cultural heritage for the people living nearby heritage sites to whom they are more than reminders of an ancient past. Show less
This dissertation focuses on the actors and agencies in the transnational Buddhist networks that were involved in the making of Buddhism in Indonesia from 1900 to 1959. Using the framework of... Show moreThis dissertation focuses on the actors and agencies in the transnational Buddhist networks that were involved in the making of Buddhism in Indonesia from 1900 to 1959. Using the framework of transnational networks, this dissertation endeavours to understand how Buddhism gradually secured a place in Indonesian society. By viewing the late-colonial and early post-colonial period as a continuum in which Buddhism continued to take root, it connects developments that have thus far been treated as separated by the demarcation line of Indonesian independence.Furthermore it argues that modern Buddhism in the Indonesian archipelago developed as a result of global and regional religious transformations. Particularly important was the spread of Theravada Buddhism in South and Southeast Asia. Especially, the dissertation investigates the dominant roles of lay people, Buddhist missionaries and intellectuals who were living in and travelling to colonial Indonesia. The Peranakan Chinese were the primary local actors in this process because of their pivotal role in the making of modern Buddhism from the beginning of the period under consideration until the post- independence years. The Peranakan Chinese community can be seen as a “place” where people from various backgrounds articulated their ideas about Buddhism and interacted with others. Show less
In modern Japan, anti-establishment ideas have related in many ways to Japan’s capitalist development and industrialisation. Activist and intellectual Ishikawa Sanshirō exemplifies this imagination... Show moreIn modern Japan, anti-establishment ideas have related in many ways to Japan’s capitalist development and industrialisation. Activist and intellectual Ishikawa Sanshirō exemplifies this imagination, connecting European and Japanese thought during the first decades of the twentieth century. This book investigates the emergence of a strand of non-violent anarchism, reassessing in particular the role of geographical thought in modern Japan as both a vehicle of political dissent and a basis for dialogue between Eastern and Western radical thinkers. By tracing Ishikawa’s travels, intellectual interests and real-life encounters, Nadine Willems identifies a transnational ‘geographical imagination’ that valued ethics of cooperation in the social sphere and a renewed awareness of the man-nature interaction. The book also examines experiments in anarchist activism informed by this common imagination and the role played by the practices of everyday life as a force of socio-political change. The new and now unabridged translation of the original text captures the impact of Huizinga’s deep scholarship and powerful language. The translation is based on the Dutch edition of 1941 – the last edition Huizinga worked on. It features English renderings of the Middle French poems and other contemporary sources, and its colour illustrations include over three hundred paintings and prints, illuminated manuscripts, and miniatures pertinent to Huizinga’s discourse. A complete bibliography of Huizinga’s sources will facilitate further research, while an epilogue addresses the meaning and enduring importance of this classic work. Show less
Indian Buddhist literary sources contain both systematic and casual rejections of, broadly speaking, the caste system and caste discrimination. However, they also provide ample evidence for,... Show moreIndian Buddhist literary sources contain both systematic and casual rejections of, broadly speaking, the caste system and caste discrimination. However, they also provide ample evidence for, possibly subconscious, discriminatory attitudes toward outcastes, prototypically caṇḍālas. The rhetoric found in Indian Buddhist literature regarding caṇḍālas is examined in this paper. Show less
Java was once the origin of extraordinary Buddhist art, including a great number of Avalokiteśvara images, in stone, bronze and other metals. These representations of the Bodhisattva date from... Show moreJava was once the origin of extraordinary Buddhist art, including a great number of Avalokiteśvara images, in stone, bronze and other metals. These representations of the Bodhisattva date from between the seventh and the thirteenth century CE. They form the subject of this thesis. The earliest Avalokiteśvara images show him in his ascetic form, but over time he takes on a princely form with jewellery and a sacred thread. The majority of the Avalokiteśvara images were produced during the Central Javanese period and examples in stone can be found at Borobudur, Candi Mendut and the Plaosan Lor complex. The Javanese developed their own artistic language to depict Avalokiteśvara which we see in the style and combination of iconographic features. A few of the Javanese iconographic choices for Avalokiteśvara were local and not adopted in the rest of Insular Southeast Asia. The final depictions of Avalokiteśvara show him in a specific iconographic form, Amoghapāśa Lokeśvara. These images are linked to Candi Jago, near Malang in East Java. This thesis is an iconographic study and traces the development of Avalokiteśvara imagery in Java through time and in connection with developments elsewhere. Show less
This paper deals with the cultural and linguistic contacts that once existed between Greece and India, after the conquests of Alexander the Great in the regions of Bactria and the Indus Valley. I... Show moreThis paper deals with the cultural and linguistic contacts that once existed between Greece and India, after the conquests of Alexander the Great in the regions of Bactria and the Indus Valley. I focus on the Kandahar Inscriptions, which are the Greek translations of some of the Aśoka-inscriptions, thus being a case study of the contacts between these two fundamental linguistic and cultural traditions. I will reconsider several features of these (bilingual) inscriptions, using, in particular, the recent achievements and rich apparatus of the academic fields of contact linguistics and sociolinguistics. Doing so, this paper will also contribute to the study of Indo-Greek cultural contact in general. I will argue that Indo-Greek contact during the Hellenistic Period, for the most time, needs to be interpreted as an adstratum relationship. Based on my analysis of the Middle Indo-Aryan borrowings in the Greek texts and some grammatical phenomena I will investigate, I will argue that the inscriptions are a good example of the sociolinguistic adstratum relationship between Greek and Middle Indo-Aryan. Show less
This study focuses on the life, exploits and ideology of Guru Wuguang (1818-2000), an eclectic and influential Taiwanese Buddhist figure who studied Daoist alchemy, multiple forms of Chinese,... Show moreThis study focuses on the life, exploits and ideology of Guru Wuguang (1818-2000), an eclectic and influential Taiwanese Buddhist figure who studied Daoist alchemy, multiple forms of Chinese, Japanese and Tibetan Buddhism, as well as biology, thermodynamics, philosophy, theology, and occulture. This is done in order to understand what happens when a tradition ‘purified’ from its ‘mythical’ elements reincorporates itself in the tension between its ‘enchanted’ past and ‘scientific’ present. Wuguang is famous throughout the Chinese-speaking Buddhist world for resurrecting Zhenyan, a school of esoteric Buddhism said to have flourished in China during the Tang Dynasty. The academic community has largely ignored Wuguang, making this the first in-depth exploration of this figure, whose influence is truly global. Building upon David McMahan’s work on Buddhist modernism, Jason Josephson’s secular-religious-superstitious trinary, scholarly discourse concerning Weberian disenchantment, and employing the Religious Economy Model, I argue that Wuguang’s teachings represent an intentionally reenchanted form of Buddhist modernism aimed at harmonizing magic with modern science and philosophy. While scholarly discourse on Asian magic in the modern world has been confined to popular religion, this study additionally focuses on ‘High-Church Buddhism’ by analyzing Wuguang’s magico-scientific interpretation of complex Buddhist doctrine. Show less
An introductory paper on new research into cultural interactions between the ancient East and West as evident from the archaeology of the Gandhara region, with focus on Buddhist material culture... Show moreAn introductory paper on new research into cultural interactions between the ancient East and West as evident from the archaeology of the Gandhara region, with focus on Buddhist material culture and its development and spread. Part of a (popular-academic) booklet published for Leiden University's "Dies Natalis" on aspects of globalisation, including (ancient) migrations, linguistic and ethnic diversity, the spread of faiths, and trade routes. With contributions by various Leiden-based academics on new research projects and results. Show less
Many Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples in Japan sell small wooden votive tablets (ema) which are meant to be left on a rack at the sanctuary. The reverse of these tablets offers space to send a... Show moreMany Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples in Japan sell small wooden votive tablets (ema) which are meant to be left on a rack at the sanctuary. The reverse of these tablets offers space to send a self-written wish or personal thank you message to the enshrined deity or buddha. Their front usually has a pre-printed or hand-painted design that is indicative of the intended purpose. In this book hundreds of contemporary ema designs for health-related purposes are reproduced and placed into their religious and biomedical context. A final chapter explores why there are differences between these purposes and current epidemiological patterns. This is the first book in English on the long-standing tradition of ema. Show less
This dissertation explores the diversity and complexity of Korea__s colonial history (1910-1945) through interdisciplinary approaches. It focuses on religion and literature, because they... Show moreThis dissertation explores the diversity and complexity of Korea__s colonial history (1910-1945) through interdisciplinary approaches. It focuses on religion and literature, because they inextricably intertwined with politics during that period. Other scholars have understood this intimate relationship to indicate simply how much artistic and cultural activities contributed to the national ideals and goals of independence from Japanese colonialism. However, this dissertation attempts to diverge from the dominant politicized understanding by adopting four diverse perspectives: postnationalist, postcolonial, feminist, and religious. By using a group of writers as a microcosm, this dissertation examines how Korean writers were fully aware of their role in a colonial society and how they coped with socio-political problems by accepting religion (Buddhism in particular) as the fundamental solution to them. My close investigation presents how their literary and religious narratives provided new and alternative views of significant events in colonial society, from nation-building to pro-Japanese collaboration. These literary sources also intimate a more richly nuanced colonial experience and a more complex response to colonialism than does the dominant scholarship on colonial Korea. Show less
From Prominence to Obscurity focuses on the Darumashū (Bodhidharma school), a little known but important agent in the formative history of Zen in Japan. In the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries... Show moreFrom Prominence to Obscurity focuses on the Darumashū (Bodhidharma school), a little known but important agent in the formative history of Zen in Japan. In the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the Darumashū – established by the monk Dainichi Nōnin (fl. 1189) – was considered representative of the Zen school, one of the budding movements in the Buddhist landscape of medieval Japan. Later the Darumashū was to disappear, marginalized and absorbed by competing claimants to Zen orthodoxy that would affirm themselves. Besides examining scattered references to Nōnin and his lineage, the dissertation considers relics and other objects that were venerated at the now vanished Darumashū temple Sambōji. In addition, the dissertation provides analyses and annotated translations of three long-neglected doctrinal treatises that emerged from the Darumashū itself, entitled Jōtōshōgakuron, Kenshōjōbutsugi and Hōmon taikō. Furthermore, it traces criticisms of the Darumashū in the writings of Eisai (1141-1215), Dōgen (1200-1215) and the Shingon monk Raiyu (1226-1304). Show less
In this dissertation, I have focused on the construction of the life account of the founder of Bon Religion, Shenrab Miwo. I try to answer some key questions such as, who was Shenrab Miwo and why... Show moreIn this dissertation, I have focused on the construction of the life account of the founder of Bon Religion, Shenrab Miwo. I try to answer some key questions such as, who was Shenrab Miwo and why is he considered to have been the founder of Bon? How did the hagiography of Shenrab Miwo emerge and how did this contribute toward the development of Bon? Shenrab Miwo was designated as the founder of Bon probably during the second spread of Buddhism in Tibet, starting the 10th–11th century AD. In order to compete with the Buddhist claim that their religion was founded by the Buddha Śākyamuni, Bonpos began to claim that their religion was founded by Shenrab Miwo, and that it was much older than Buddhism. The Bonpos began to formalize their religion by appropriating Buddhist literature and adjusting it for their own purposes. The choice of Shenrab Miwo as the founder of Bon was first canonized with the creation of the mDo ’dus. Its basic narrative patterns are based on proto-narratives, such as still extant in Tibetan Dunhuang documents, on Tibetan translations of legends of the life of the Buddha, and other textual fragments that existed in Tibet at that time, and are most likely also based on stories that were passed down orally. Show less
This research starts from the historical assertion that notwithstanding their claim of increased religious tolerance, the dramatic post-Mao political campaigns have continued to weaken the... Show moreThis research starts from the historical assertion that notwithstanding their claim of increased religious tolerance, the dramatic post-Mao political campaigns have continued to weaken the pervasive force of religious faith, traditional monastery-centered religious power, religious leadership, and education, motivated by the perceived threat of potential subversive anti-government activities. This research maintains that within such a socio-political landscape and the revivalist wave in the cultural and religious sphere, a number of Tibetan rNying ma leaders are advancing charisma-based authority to promote the growth of alternative rNying ma centers of ritual and meditative instruction. In revitalizing this and other forms of traditional religious practices, they are galvanizing some of the most significant forces of today’s Buddhist practice in selected areas of Khams and mGo log of eastern Tibet. In this dissertation I examine the Treasure revelation movement as it is active in present-day cultural and ethnic regions of Tibet in the PRC. More specifically, I will explore the role of Treasure revealers in the religious world of today’s Tibet. One way this research will accomplish this is by introducing a case study, the life and activities of bDe chen ’od gsal rdo rje (b. 1921) a well-known Buddhist master, visionary, and Treasure revealer who currently lives in Shar mda’ in Nang chen county in the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (TAP). A corpus of Tantric scriptures (probably composed under visionary inspiration by Tibetan Buddhist masters) including texts on rDzogs chen or Great Perfection, meditation manuals, prayers, and various rituals began to appear in tenth-century Tibet. The first Treasure revealer, however, whose works we have access to is the famed twelfth-century mNga’ bdag nyang ral nyi ma ’od zer (1136-1204). Since he and other Treasure revealers appeared in Tibet, the larger phenomenon of Treasure revelations has apparently continued to flourish. In modern Tibet Treasure revealers still possess indisputable reputation and social status in the religious sphere. Show less
Since the late 1980s, scholars have viewed China’s progress towards market capitalism with great optimism, but in the last ten years intellectuals, both in China and abroad, have begun to voice... Show moreSince the late 1980s, scholars have viewed China’s progress towards market capitalism with great optimism, but in the last ten years intellectuals, both in China and abroad, have begun to voice reservations. Critics have pointed out China’s growing problems of income inequality, unemployment and environmental degradation. In this context of critical reflection, Viren Murthy argues that the work of the late Qing intellectual Zhang Taiyan is especially meaningful. Show less
