Podcasts by New Books in Buddhist Studies
Interviews with Scholars of Buddhism about their New Books
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Nothing Matters: About the Idea of "Emptiness" from 2023-01-17T09:00
Between the Buddhist doctrine of ‘emptiness,’ the Jewish idea of Ayin, and the quantum mechanical zero-point energy of a vacuum, it turns out there’s quite a lot to be said about Nothing. GuestsJan...
ListenOn the Buddhist Life from 2022-09-15T08:00
Andrea Miller is an editor at Lion’s Roar magazine and is the author of Awakening My Heart: Essays, Articles and Interviews on the Buddhist Life, out now from Pottersfield Press. Learn more about y...
ListenOn Nibiiro Art, the Dalai Lama, and Buddhism from 2022-05-31T08:00
Rima Fujita was born in Tokyo and now resides in Southern California. She graduated from Parsons School of Design with her B.F.A. and has exhibited her work internationally to much acclaim. As a de...
ListenRadhule Weininger, “Heartwork: The Path of Self-Compassion” (Shambhala, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Dr. Radhule Weininger is a clinical psychologist and meditation teacher who integrates psychodynamic, Jungian and Gestalt psychotherapies with Buddhist psychology. In her new book Heartwork: The Pa...
ListenAmy Langenberg, “Birth in Buddhism: The Suffering Fetus and Female Freedom” (Routledge, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Birth and suffering are deeply linked concepts in Buddhism, and their connection has shaped how the bodies and status of women were understood. Join us for a conversation with Amy Paris Langenberg ...
ListenShinshu Roberts, “Being-Time: A Practitioner’s Guide to Dogen’s Shobogenzo Uji” (Wisdom Publications, 2018) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In her new book, Being-Time: A Practitioner’s Guide to Dogen’s Shobogenzo Uji (Wisdom Publications, 2018), Shinshu Roberts focuses on the practical study of the inner self and perception of all phe...
ListenYael Shy, “What Now? Meditation For Your Twenties and Beyond” (Parallax Press, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In an age which seems to be moving faster and faster, it has become difficult for people, especially young people, to stop and take valuable moments of reflection. Our anxieties can rack our produc...
ListenAnna Andreeva, “Assembling Shinto: Buddhist Approaches to Kami Worship in Medieval Japan” (Harvard Asia Center, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In her recent monograph, Assembling Shinto: Buddhist Approaches to Kami Worship in Medieval Japan (Harvard University Asia Center, 2017), Anna Andreeva focuses on a complex network of religious sit...
ListenWendy Hasenkamp and Janna R. White, eds. “The Monastery and the Microscope” (Yale UP, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Wendy Hasenkamp and Janna R. White spent four years editing a series of conversations between prominent scientists, philosophers, scholars of Tibetan Buddhism, and the Dalai Lama, resulting in The ...
ListenMegan Adamson Sijapati and Jessica Vantine Birkenholtz, “Religion and Modernity in the Himalaya” (Routledge, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The Himalayas have long been at the crossroads of the exchange between cultures, yet the social lives of those who inhabit the region are often framed as marginal to historical narratives. And whil...
ListenBryan D. Lowe, “Ritualized Writing: Buddhist Practice and Scriptural Cultures in Ancient Japan” (U of Hawaii Press, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In his recent monograph, Ritualized Writing: Buddhist Practice and Scriptural Cultures in Ancient Japan (University of Hawaii Press, 2017), Bryan D. Lowe examines eighth-century Japanese practices ...
ListenJohn Powers, “The Buddha Party: How the People’s Republic of China Works to Define and Control Tibetan Buddhism” (Oxford UP, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In his recent book, The Buddha Party: How the People’s Republic of China Works to Define and Control Tibetan Buddhism (Oxford University Press, 2016), John Powers presents a comprehensive overview ...
ListenJustin R. Ritzinger, “Anarchy in the Pure Land: Reinventing the Cult of Maitreya in Modern Chinese Buddhism” (Oxford UP, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In his recent monograph, Anarchy in the Pure Land: Reinventing the Cult of Maitreya in Modern Chinese Buddhism (Oxford University Press, 2017), Justin R. Ritzinger examines the cult of Maitreya as ...
ListenHugh Urban, “Zorba the Buddha: Sex, Spirituality, and Capitalism in the Global Osho Movement” (U. Cal Press, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Many contemporary spiritual movements are characterized by denial of material pleasures, subjugation of the self, and focus on transcendence. A spiritual program that cultivates embodied satisfacti...
ListenRobert Wright, “Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment” (Simon and Schuster, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
All “true believers” believe their beliefs are true. This is particularly true of true religious believers: for Christians, Christianity is the true religion, for Jews, Judaism is the true religion...
ListenMatthew J. Walton, “Buddhism, Politics and Political Thought in Myanmar” (Cambridge UP, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Burmese Buddhist monks have featured in the news quite a lot in recent times, not as peaceful practitioners of self-abnegation, but at activists at the forefront of political movements characterize...
ListenScott A. Mitchell, “Buddhism in America: Global Religion, Local Contexts” (Bloomsbury, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Scott A. Mitchell‘s recent monograph, Buddhism in America: Global Religion, Local Contexts (Bloomsbury, 2016), provides a much-needed up-to-date overview of Buddhism in the United States. To tackle...
ListenMelissa Chakars, “The Socialist Way of Life in Siberia: Transformation in Buryatia” (Central European UP, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In The Socialist Way of Life in Siberia: Transformation in Buryatia (Central European University Press, 2014), Melissa Chakars reveals not only how Soviet policies disrupted traditional Buryat ways...
ListenBenjamin Schonthal, “Buddhism, Politics and the Limits of the Law: The Pyrrhic Constitutionalism of Sri Lanka” (Cambridge UP, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In his recent monograph, Buddhism, Politics and the Limits of Law: The Pyrrhic Constitutionalism of Sri Lanka (Cambridge University Press, 2016), Benjamin Schonthal examines the relationship betwee...
ListenErik W. Davis, “Deathpower: Buddhism’s Ritual Imagination in Cambodia” (Columbia UP, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In his recent monograph, Deathpower: Buddhism’s Ritual Imagination in Cambodia (Columbia University Press, 2015), Erik W. Davis explores funerary ritual in contemporary Cambodian Buddhism and the w...
ListenJan Kiely and J. Brooks Jessup, eds., “Recovering Buddhism in Modern China” (Columbia UP, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The essays in Jan Kiely and J. Brooks Jessup’s new edited volume, Recovering Buddhism in Modern China (Columbia University Press, 2016), collectively make a compelling argument that Buddhism and Bu...
ListenPatrick Jory, “Thailand’s Theory of Monarchy: The Vessantara Jataka and the Idea of the Perfect Man” (SUNY Press, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In Thailand’s Theory of Monarchy: The Vessantara Jataka and the Idea of the Perfect Man (SUNY Press, 2016; in paperback from 2017), Patrick Jory offers a compelling reinterpretation of religious te...
ListenDale S. Wright, “What is Buddhist Enlightenment?” (Oxford UP, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The words “Buddhism” and “enlightenment” are, at least in the West, tightly connected. “Everyone” knows that the goal–or at least one of the goals–of Buddhist practice is “enlightenment.” But what ...
ListenBrooke Schedneck, “Thailand’s International Meditation Centers” (Routledge, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In her recent monograph, Thailand’s International Meditation Centers: Tourism and the Global Commodification of Religious Practices (Routledge, 2015), Brooke Schedneck examines Buddhist meditation ...
ListenErik Hammerstrom, “The Science of Chinese Buddhism: Early Twentieth-Century Engagements” (Columbia UP, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Erik J. Hammerstrom‘s new book looks carefully at “what Chinese Buddhists thought about science in the first part of the twentieth century” by exploring what they wrote in articles and monographs d...
ListenPamela D. Winfield, “Icons and Iconoclasm in Japanese Buddhism: Kukai and Dogen on the Art of Enlightenment” (Oxford UP, 2013) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
What role do images play in the enlightenment experience? Can Buddha images, calligraphy, mandalas, and portraits function as nodes of access for a practitioner’s experience of enlightenment? Or ar...
ListenPaul Rouzer, “On Cold Mountain: A Buddhist Reading of the Hanshan Poems” (U. of Washington Press, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Paul Rouzer‘s new book offers a Buddhist reading of a famous collection of poems and the author associated with them, both of which were called Hanshan, or Cold Mountain. On Cold Mountain: A Buddhi...
ListenHeather Blair, “Real and Imagined: The Peak of Gold in Heian Japan” (Harvard U Asia Center, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In her recent monograph, Real and Imagined: The Peak of Gold in Heian Japan (Harvard University Asia Center, 2015), Heather Blair explores the religious and institutional history of Kinpusen, a mou...
ListenJames A. Benn, “Tea in China: A Religious and Cultural History” (U of Hawaii Press, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
James A. Benn‘s new book is a history of tea as a religious and cultural commodity in China before it became a global commodity in the nineteenth century. Focusing on the Tang and Song dynasties (w...
ListenJanet Gyatso, Being Human in a Buddhist World: An Intellectual History of Medicine in Early Modern Tibet (Columbia University Press, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Janet Gyatso‘s new book is a masterfully researched, compellingly written, and gorgeously illustrated history of medicine in early modern Tibet that looks carefully at the relationships between med...
ListenMaria Heim, “The Forerunner of All Things: Buddhaghosa on Mind, Intention and Agency” (Oxford UP, 2013) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Buddhaghosa, a fifth-century Pali Buddhist scholar or group of scholars, is the most influential commentator in Theravada Buddhist tradition, who has in many respects created the set of ideas we no...
ListenSarah H. Jacoby, “Love and Liberation: Autobiographical Writings of the Tibetan Buddhist Visionary Sera Khandro” (Columbia UP, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Sarah H. Jacoby‘s recent monograph, Love and Liberation: Autobiographical Writings of the Tibetan Buddhist Visionary Sera Khandro (Columbia University Press, 2014), focuses on the extraordinary lif...
ListenSteven E. Kemper, “Rescued from the Nation: Anagarika Dharmapala and the Buddhist World” (U of Chicago Press, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In his recent book, Rescued from the Nation: Anagarika Dharmapala and the Buddhist World (University of Chicago Press, 2015), Steven E. Kemper examines the Sinhala layman Anagarika Dharmapala (1864...
ListenTenzin Chogyel (trans. Kurtis R. Schaeffer), “The Life of the Buddha” (Penguin Books, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Kurtis R. Schaeffer‘s new translation of Tenzin Chogyel’s The Life of the Buddha(Penguin Books, 2015) is a boon for teachers, researchers, and eager readers alike. Composed in the middle of the eig...
ListenAndrea Jain, “Selling Yoga: From Counterculture to Pop Culture” (Oxford UP, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Is yoga religious? This question has not only been asked recently by the broader public but also posed in the courts. Many argue that of course it is. The story of yoga in the popular imagination i...
ListenJohn K. Nelson, “Experimental Buddhism: Innovation and Activism in Contemporary Japan” (U of Hawaii Press, 2013) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In his recent book, Experimental Buddhism: Innovation and Activism in Contemporary Japan (University of Hawaii Press, 2013), John K. Nelson delves into the historical circumstances that have led to...
ListenStuart Young, “Conceiving the Indian Buddhist Patriarchs in China” (U of Hawaii Press, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In Conceiving the Indian Buddhist Patriarchs in China (University of Hawai’i Press, 2015), Stuart Young examines Chinese hagiographic representations of three Indian Buddhist patriarchs–Asvaghosa (...
ListenKurtis R. Schaeffer, et al. “The Tibetan History Reader/Sources of Tibetan Tradition” (Columbia UP, 2013) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Two new books have recently been published that will change the way we can study and teach Tibetan studies, and Gray Tuttle and Kurtis Schaeffer were kind enough to talk with me recently about them...
ListenAgnieszka Helman-Wazny, “The Archaeology of Tibetan Books” (Brill, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In Archaeology of Tibetan Books (Brill, 2014), Agnieszka Helman-Wazny explores the varieties of artistic expression, materials, and tools that have shaped Tibetan books over the millennia. Digging ...
ListenTanya Storch, “The History of Chinese Buddhist Bibliography: Censorship and Transformation of the Tripitaka (Cambria, 2014), from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Tanya Storch‘s recent book, The History of Chinese Buddhist Bibliography: Censorship and Transformation of the Tripitaka (Cambria, 2014), focuses on the development of Chinese Buddhist catalogs fro...
ListenAlicia Turner, “Saving Buddhism: The Impermanence of Religion in Colonial Burma” (U Hawaii Press, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In Saving Buddhism: The Impermanence of Religion in Colonial Burma (University of Hawaii Press, 2014), Alicia Turner tells the story of how Burmese Buddhists reimagined their lives, their religious...
ListenMeir Shahar and John Kieschnick, “India in the Chinese Imagination” (U of Pennsylvania Press, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In India in the Chinese Imagination: Myth, Religion, and Thought (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014), eleven scholars (including editors John Kieschnick and Meir Shahar) examine the Chinese re...
ListenCharlotte Eubanks, “Miracles of Book and Body: Buddhist Textual Culture and Medieval Japan (U of California Press, 2011) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In Miracles of Book and Body: Buddhist Textual Culture and Medieval Japan (University of California Press, 2011), Charlotte Eubanks examines the relationship between MahÄ?yÄ?na Buddhist sÅ«tras and...
ListenR. Keller Kimbrough, “Wondrous Brutal Fictions: Eight Buddhist Tales from the Early Japanese Puppet Theater” (Columbia UP, 2013) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In his recent book, Wondrous Brutal Fictions: Eight Buddhist Tales from the Early Japanese Puppet Theater (Columbia University Press, 2013), R. Keller Kimbrough provides us with eight beautifully t...
ListenErik Braun, “The Birth of Insight: Meditation, Modern Buddhism, and the Burmese Monk Ledi Sayadaw” (University of Chicago Press, 2013) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Erik Braun‘s recent book, The Birth of Insight: Meditation, Modern Buddhism, and the Burmese Monk Ledi Sayadaw (University of Chicago Press, 2013), examines the spread of Burmese Buddhist meditatio...
ListenJacob Dalton, “The Taming of the Demons: Violence and Liberation in Tibetan Buddhism” (Yale University Press, 2011) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Jacob Dalton‘s recent book, The Taming of the Demons: Violence and Liberation in Tibetan Buddhism (Yale University Press, 2011), examines violence (both symbolic and otherwise) in Tibetan Buddhism....
ListenClark Chilson, “Secrecy’s Power: Covert Shin Buddhists in Japan and Contradictions of Concealment” (University of Hawaii Press, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Clark Chilson‘s new book, Secrecy’s Power: Covert Shin Buddhists in Japan and Contradictions of Concealment (University of Hawai’i Press, 2014) examines secret groups of Shin (i.e., True Pure Land ...
ListenPaul Copp, “The Body Incantatory: Spells and the Ritual Imagination in Medieval Chinese Buddhism” (Columbia UP, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Paul Copp‘s new book, The Body Incantatory: Spells and the Ritual Imagination in Medieval Chinese Buddhism (Columbia University Press, 2014), focuses on Chinese interpretations and uses of two writ...
ListenChun-fang Yu, “Passing the Light: The Incense Light Community and Buddhist Nuns in Contemporary Taiwan” (U of Hawaii Press, 2013) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Chan-fang Yu‘s new book, Passing the Light: The Incense Light Community and Buddhist Nuns in Contemporary Taiwan (University of Hawaii Press, 2013), focuses on a community of nuns in Taiwan founded...
ListenMark Epstein, “The Trauma of Everyday Life” (Penguin Press, 2013) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Being human, much of our energy goes into resisting the basic mess of life, but messy it is nonetheless. The trick (as psychoanalysts know) is to embrace it all anyway. “Trauma is an indivisible pa...
ListenJames Carter, “Heart of Buddha, Heart of China: The Life of Tanxu, a Twentieth-Century Monk” (Oxford UP, 2011) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Jay Carter‘s new book follows the life of one man as a way of opening a window into the lived history of twentieth-century China. Heart of Buddha, Heart of China: The Life of Tanxu, a Twentieth-Cen...
ListenKathleen D. Singh, “The Grace in Dying: A Message of Hope, Comfort and Spiritual Transformation” (HarperOne, 2013) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In this brilliantly conceived and beautifully written book, Kathleen Dowling Singh illuminates the profound psychological and spiritual transformations experiences by the dying as the natural proce...
ListenRobert K. C. Forman, “Enlightenment Ain’t What It’s Cracked Up To Be” (Changemakers Books, 2011) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In these times, when more and more people are looking for spiritual truth and engage in practices like meditation, it’s hard to know what to expect from attaining a lofty goal like Enlightenment. W...
ListenJane Iwamura, “Virtual Orientalism: Religion and Popular Culture in the U.S.” Oxford University Press, 2011 from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In popular perception, a certain image arises when we imagine eastern religions. Perhaps, we envision a wise old Asian man in traditional clothing sitting in a meditative state (maybe not). But why...
ListenStephen T. Asma, “Against Fairness” (University of Chicago, 2013) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Modern liberalism is built on the principle of equality and its corollary, the principle of fairness (treating equals equally). But have we taken the one and the other too far? Are we deceiving our...
ListenKevin Gray Carr, “Plotting the Prince: Shotoku Cults and the Mapping of Medieval Japanese Buddhism” (University of Hawai’i Press, 2012) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Kevin Gray Carr‘s beautiful new book explores the figure of Prince Shotoku (573? – 622?) the focus of one of the most widespread visual cults in Japanese history. Introducing us to a range of stori...
ListenCarl S. Yamamoto, “Vision and Violence: Lama Zhang and the Politics of Charisma in Twelfth-Century Tibet” (Brill, 2012) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Lama Zhang, the controversial central figure in Carl S. Yamamoto‘s new book may or may not have participated in animal sacrifice, sneezed out a snake-like creature, and engaged in other acts of put...
ListenAnne M. Blackburn, “Locations of Buddhism: Colonialism and Modernity in Sri Lanka,” (The University of Chicago Press, 2010) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In this important contribution to both the study of South Asian Buddhism as well the burgeoning field of Buddhist modernity, Anne Blackburn‘s Locations of Buddhism: Colonialism and Modernity in Sri...
ListenJeff Wilson, “Dixie Dharma: Inside a Buddhist Temple in the American South” (UNC Press, 2012) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Americanists have long employed a trope of regionalism to better understand American religions, beliefs, and practices. As many of us know, either by academic study or, more often, personal experie...
ListenHank Glassman, “The Face of JizÅ?: Image and Cult in Medieval Japanese Buddhism” (University of Hawai’i Press, 2012) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In this episode, we talk with Prof. Hank Glassman who’s written a new book titled The Face of Jizo : Image and Cult in Medieval Japanese Buddhism (University of Hawaii Press, 2012). Jizo is a Buddh...
ListenJustin Thomas McDaniel, “The Lovelorn Ghost and the Magical Monk: Practicing Buddhism in Modern Thailand” (Columbia University Press, 2011) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
When most people think of Buddhism they begin to imagine a lone monk in the forest or a serene rock garden. The world of ghosts, amulets, and magic are usually from their mind. They may even feel s...
ListenPatricia Campbell, “Knowing Body, Moving Mind: Ritualizing and Learning at Two Buddhist Centers” (Oxford UP, 2011) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
There is a lot of ritual involved in Buddhist practice. As more and more North Americans are discovering Buddhism, they are engaging in more and more Buddhist ritual, despite a general aversion man...
ListenCharles Prebish, “An American Buddhist Life: Memoirs of a Modern Dharma Pioneer” (Sumeru Press, 2011) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Charles Prebish is among the most prominent scholars of American Buddhism. He has been a pioneer in studying the forms that Buddhist tradition has taken in the United States. Now retired, he has wr...
ListenBryan J. Cuevas, “Travels in the Netherworld: Buddhist Popular Narratives of Death and the Afterlife in Tibet” (Oxford UP, 2008) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Today on “New Books in Buddhist Studies” we’ll be going to hell and back with Bryan Cuevas in a discussion of his new book Travels in the Netherworld: Buddhist Popular Narratives of Death and the A...
ListenDavid McMahan, “The Making of Buddhist Modernism” (Oxford UP, 2008) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
For many Asian and Western Buddhists today, Buddhism means meditation and an embrace of the world’s interdependence. But that’s not what it meant to Buddhists in the past; most of them never medita...
ListenLori Meeks, “Hokkeji and the Reemergence of Female Monastic Orders in Premodern Japan” (University of Hawaii Press, 2010) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Scholars have long been fascinated by the Kamakura era (1185-1333) of Japanese history, a period that saw the emergence of many distinctively Japanese forms of Buddhism. And while a lot of this att...
ListenJason Clower, “The Unlikely Buddhologist: Tiantai Buddhism in Mou Zongsan’s New Confucianism” (Brill, 2010) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The 20th-century Chinese philosopher Mou Zongsan is relatively little known in the West, but has been greatly influential in Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China, as well as influencing Confucian s...
ListenDaniel Veidlinger, “Spreading the Dhamma: Writing, Orality, and Textual Transmission in Buddhist Northern Thailand” (University of Hawaii Press, 2006) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
New media technology changes culture. And when it comes to religion, new technology changes the way people think and practice their traditions. And while we usually think of technology as some new ...
ListenCourtney Bruntz and Brooke Schedneck, "Buddhist Tourism in Asia" (U Hawaii Press, 2020) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
This edited volume is the first book-length study of Buddhist tourism in contemporary Asia in the English language. Featuring chapters from diverse contributors from religious studies, anthropology...
ListenGeoffrey C. Goble, "Chinese Esoteric Buddhism: Amoghavajra, the Ruling Elite, and the Emergence of a Tradition" (Columbia UP, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In his recent book, Chinese Esoteric Buddhism: Amoghavajra, the Ruling Elite, and the Emergence of a Tradition (Columbia University Press, 2019), Geoffrey Goble examines the emergence and early his...
ListenMichal Pagis, "Inward: Vipassana Meditation and the Embodiment of the Self" (U Chicago Press, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
There is a strong interest today in turning inward to explore the mind and body. Mindfulness meditation exemplifies this trend, and has become increasingly well-known and widely practiced. In Inwar...
ListenJack Meng-Tat Chia, "Monks in Motion: Buddhism and Modernity Across the South China Sea" (Oxford UP, 2020) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Monks in Motion: Buddhism and Modernity Across the South China Sea (Oxford University Press 2020) is the first monograph in the English language to explore the transnationally connected history of ...
ListenCaroline Starkey, "Women in British Buddhism: Commitment, Connection, Community" (Routledge, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Based on detailed ethnographic research, this book explores the varied experiences of women who have converted to Buddhism in contemporary Britain and analyses the implications of their experiences...
ListenSujung Kim, "Shinra Myojin and Buddhist Networks of the East Asian 'Mediterranean'" (U Hawaii Press, 2020) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Shinra Myojin and Buddhist Networks of the East Asian “Mediterranean” (University of Hawaii Press, 2020) is a fascinating study of the transcultural underpinnings of Medieval East Asian Buddhist tr...
ListenLost Temples of the Jungle: A History of Mrauk-U with Dr. Bob Hudson from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Deep in the jungles of Myanmar lie the remains of an ancient kingdom, the 15th-century royal city of Mrauk-U. Located in the Bay of Bengal and separated from the rest of the country by the Arakan m...
ListenRichard M. Jaffe, "Seeking Sakyamuni: South Asia in the Formation of Modern Japanese Buddhism" (U Chicago Press, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Though fascinated with the land of their tradition’s birth, virtually no Japanese Buddhists visited the Indian subcontinent before the nineteenth century. In the richly illustrated Seeking ??kyamun...
ListenSam van Schaik, "Buddhist Magic: Divination, Healing, and Enchantment through the Ages" (Shambala Publications, 2020) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
As far back as we can see in the historical record, Buddhist monks and nuns have offered services including healing, divination, rain making, aggressive magic, and love magic to local clients. Stud...
ListenTakeshi Morisato, "Faith and Reason in Continental and Japanese Philosophy" (Bloomsbury, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Faith and Reason in Continental and Japanese Philosophy (Bloomsbury, 2019) by Takeshi Morisato is a book that brings together the work of two significant figures in contemporary philosophy. By cons...
ListenJoshua Esler, "Tibetan Buddhism among Han Chinese: Mediation and Superscription of the Tibetan Tradition in Contemporary Chinese Society" (Lexington Books, 2020) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
While Tibetan Buddhism continues to face restrictions and challenges imposed by the state in contemporary China, it has in fact entered mainstream Chinese society with a growing middle-class and ev...
ListenNeela Bhattacharya Saxena, "Absent Mother God of the West: A Kali Lover's Journey into Christianity and Judaism" (Rowman, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In Absent Mother God of the West: A Kali Lover's Journey into Christianity and Judaism (Rowman, 2015) Neela Bhattacharya Saxena draws on her personal religious experiences and devotion to the Godde...
ListenMatty Weingast, "The First Free Women: Poems of the Early Buddhist Nuns" (Shambhala, 2020) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
A radical and vivid rendering of poetry from the first Buddhist nuns that brings a new immediacy to their voices. The Therigatha ("Verses of the Elder Nuns") is the oldest collection of known writi...
ListenSteven Heine, "Readings of D?gen's 'Treasury of the True Dharma Eye'"(Columbia UP, 2020) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye (Sh?b?genz?) is the masterwork of D?gen (1200–1253), founder of the S?t? Zen Buddhist sect in Kamakura-era Japan. It is one of the most important Zen Buddhist co...
ListenAlicia Turner, "The Irish Buddhist: The Forgotten Monk Who Faced Down the British Empire" (Oxford UP, 2020) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Buddhism has always been a world religion, but its popularity in the West really dates only from the late nineteenth century, when much of the Buddhist world was subject to European colonial rule. ...
ListenNaomi Appleton, "Many Buddhas, One Buddha: A Study and Translation of Avad?na?ataka 1-40" (Equinox, 2020) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Naomi Appleton's new book Many Buddhas, One Buddha: A Study and Translation of Avad?na?ataka 1-40 (Equinox Publishing, 2020) introduces a significant section of the important early Indian Buddhist ...
ListenMark A. Nathan, "From the Mountains to the Cities: A History of Buddhist Propagation in Korea" (U Hawaii Press, 2018) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
From the Mountains to the Cities A History of Buddhist Propagation in Korea (University of Hawaii Press, 2018), written by Mark A. Nathan, is a history of P’ogyo (Buddhist Propagation) on the Korea...
ListenMayfair Yang, "Re-enchanting Modernity: Ritual Economy and Society in Wenzhou, China" (Duke UP, 2020) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In Re-enchanting Modernity: Re-enchanting Modernity: Ritual Economy and Society in Wenzhou, China (Duke University Press, 2020), Mayfair Yang examines the resurgence of religious and ritual life af...
ListenAngela S. Chiu, "The Buddha in Lanna: Art, Lineage, Power, and Place in Northern Thailand" (U Hawaii Press, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
For centuries, wherever Thai Buddhists have made their homes, statues of the Buddha have provided striking testament to the role of Buddhism in the lives of the people.?The Buddha in Lanna: Art, Li...
ListenJohannes Bronkhorst, "A ?abda Reader: Language in Classical Indian Thought" (Columbia UP, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In A ?abda Reader: Language in Classical Indian Thought (Columbia University Press, 2019), Johannes Bronkhorst, emeritus professor at the University of Lausanne, makes the case through an extensive...
ListenSara Smith, "Intimate Geopolitics: Love, Territory and the Future on India’s Northern Threshold" (Rutgers UP, 2020) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
What’s love got to do with it? Intimate Geopolitics: Love, Territory and the Future on India’s Northern Threshold (Rutgers University Press, 2020) by feminist political geographer Sara Smith tell u...
ListenYuhang Li, "Becoming Guanyin: Artistic Devotion of Buddhist Women in Late Imperial China" (Columbia UP, 2020) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
How did Buddhist women access religious experience and transcendence in a Confucian patriarchal system in imperial China? How were Buddhist practices carried out in the intimate settings of a boudo...
ListenBrian Greene, "Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe" (Random House, 2020) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Brian Greene is a Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Columbia University in the City of New York, where he is the Director of the Institute for Strings, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Physics, a...
ListenJohan Elverskog, "The Buddha’s Footprint: An Environmental History of Asia" (U Penn Press, 2020) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Challenging the popular image of Buddhism as a religion intrinsically concerned with the environment, Dr. John Elverskog’s new monograph, The Buddha’s Footprint: An Environmental History of Asia (U...
ListenRichard McBride II, "Doctrine and Practice in Medieval Korean Buddhism: The Collected Works of ?ich’?n" (U Hawaii Press, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Today I talked to Richard McBride II about Doctrine and Practice in Medieval Korean Buddhism: The Collected Works of ?ich’?n (University of Hawaii Press, 2016). The book is a comprehensive study of...
ListenLeslie M. Harris, "Slavery and the University: Histories and Legacies" (U Georgia Press, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Slavery and the University: Histories and Legacies (University of Georgia Press, 2019), edited by Leslie M. Harris, James T. Campbell, and Alfred L. Brophy, is the first edited collection of schola...
ListenGregory Scott, "Building the Buddhist Revival: Reconstructing Monasteries in Modern China" (Oxford UP, 2020) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Gregory A. Scott's Building the Buddhist Revival: Reconstructing Monasteries in Modern China (Oxford University Press, 2020) is the first major work in any language to address the topic of Buddhist...
ListenC. Baker and P. Phongpaichit, "From the Fifty J?taka: Selections from the Thai Paññ?sa J?taka" (Silkworm Books, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The J?taka tales, or stories of the Buddha’s previous lives as a bodhisatta, are included in the P?li Canon and have for centuries been a rich source of inspiration in Theravada Buddhism. In additi...
ListenJin Y. Park, "Women and Buddhist Philosophy: Engaging Zen Master Kim Iry?p" (U of Hawaii Press, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Women and Buddhist Philosophy: Engaging Zen Master Kim Iry?p (University of Hawaii Press, 2017) by Jin Y. Park, professor of philosophy and religion at American university, is an account of the Kor...
ListenMatt Cook, "Sleight of Mind: 75 Ingenious Paradoxes in Mathematics, Physics, and Philosophy" (MIT Press, 2020) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Paradox is a sophisticated kind of magic trick. A magician's purpose is to create the appearance of impossibility, to pull a rabbit from an empty hat. Yet paradox doesn't require tangibles, like ra...
ListenPhillipa Chong, “Inside the Critics’ Circle: Book Reviewing in Uncertain Times” (Princeton UP, 2020) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
How does the world of book reviews work? In Inside the Critics’ Circle: Book Reviewing in Uncertain Times (Princeton University Press, 2020), Phillipa Chong, assistant professor in sociology at McM...
ListenStephanie Kaza, "Green Buddhism: Practice and Compassionate Action in Uncertain Times" (Shambhala, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Stephanie Kaza is Professor Emerita of Environmental Studies at the University of Vermont, and has written widely on Buddhism and the environment. She describes herself as a long-time lover of tree...
ListenK. Linder et al., "Going Alt-Ac: A Guide to Alternative Academic Careers" (Stylus Publishing, 2020) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
If you’re a grad student facing the ugly reality of finding a tenure-track job, you could easily be forgiven for thinking about a career change. However, if you’ve spent the last several years work...
ListenDr. Alice Collett, "Lives of Early Buddhist Nuns: Biographies as History" (Oxford UP, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Dr. Alice Collett’s monograph Lives of Early Buddhist Nuns: Biographies as History (Oxford University Press, 2016) delves into the lives of six of the best-known nuns from the period of early Buddh...
ListenM. Sheehy and K-D Mathes, "The Other Emptiness: Rethinking the Zhentong Buddhist Discourse in Tibet" (SUNY Press, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Michael R. Sheehy and Klaus-Dieter Mathes's edited collection The Other Emptiness: Rethinking the Zhentong Buddhist Discourse in Tibet (SUNY Press, 2019) brings together perspectives of leading int...
ListenAlberto Cairo, "How Charts Lie: Getting Smarter about Visual Information" (Norton, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
We’ve all heard that a picture is worth a thousand words, but what if we don’t understand what we’re looking at? Social media has made charts, infographics, and diagrams ubiquitous?and easier to sh...
ListenCharles B. Jones, "Chinese Pure Land Buddhism: Understanding a Tradition of Practice" (U Hawaii Press, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Today’s guest is Charles B. Jones, Associate Professor and Director of the Religion and Culture graduate program in the School of Theology and Religious Studies at the Catholic University of Americ...
ListenKarine Gagné, "Caring for Glaciers: Land, Animals, and Humanity in the Himalayas" (U Washington Press, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In her new book, Caring for Glaciers: Land, Animals, and Humanity in the Himalayas (University of Washington Press, 2019), Karine Gagné explores how relations of reciprocity between land, humans, a...
ListenKathryn Conrad on University Press Publishing from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
As you may know, university presses publish a lot of good books. In fact, they publish thousands of them every year. They are different from most trade books in that most of them are what you might...
ListenJ. Neuhaus, "Geeky Pedagogy: A Guide for Intellectuals, Introverts, and Nerds Who Want to Be Effective Teachers" (West Virginia UP, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The things that make people academics -- as deep fascination with some arcane subject, often bordering on obsession, and a comfort with the solitude that developing expertise requires -- do not nec...
ListenJolyon Baraka Thomas, "Faking Liberties: Religious Freedom in American-Occupied Japan" (U Chicago Press, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Jolyon Baraka Thomas’s Faking Liberties: Religious Freedom in American-Occupied Japan (University of Chicago Press, 2019) challenges the commonsensical notion that the Japanese empire granted its s...
ListenGeoffrey Barstow, "Food of Sinful Demons: Meat, Vegetarianism, and the Limits of Buddhism in Tibet" (Columbia UP, 2018) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Tibetan Buddhism teaches compassion toward all beings, a category that explicitly includes animals. Slaughtering animals is morally problematic at best and, at worst, completely incompatible with a...
ListenRonald E. Purser, "McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality" (Repeater Books, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In his recent exposé, McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality (Repeater Books, 2019), Ronald Purser Ph.D. takes a hard look at the mindfulness movement that has taken ...
ListenWilliam M. Gorvine, "Envisioning A Tibetan Luminary: The Life of a Modern Bonpo Saint" (Oxford UP, 2018) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In his new book, Envisioning A Tibetan Luminary: The Life of a Modern Bonpo Saint (Oxford University Press, 2018), William M. Gorvine provides a multifaceted analysis of Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen (185...
ListenLevi McLaughlin, "Soka Gakkai’s Human Revolution: The Rise of A Mimetic Nation in Modern Japan" (U Hawaii Press, 2018) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Being Japan’s largest and most influential new religious organization, Soka Gakkai (Society for the Creation of Value) and Soka Gakkai International (SGI) claims to have 12 million members in 192 c...
ListenBerthe Jansen, "The Monastery Rules: Buddhist Monastic Organization in Pre-Modern Tibet" (U California Press, 2018) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The Monastery Rules: Buddhist Monastic Organization in Pre-Modern Tibet (University of California Press, 2018) discusses the position of the monasteries in pre-1950s Tibetan Buddhist societies and ...
ListenMax Oidtmann, "Forging the Golden Urn: The Qing Empire and the Politics of Reincarnation in Tibet" (Columbia UP, 2018) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In 1995, the People’s Republic of China resurrected the technology of the “Golden Urn,” a Qing-era tool which involves the identification of the reincarnations of prominent Tibetan Buddhist monks b...
ListenDaniel Veidlinger, "From Indra’s Net to Internet: Communication, Technology, and the Evolution of Buddhist Ideas" (U Hawaii Press, 2018) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In this episode of New Books in Buddhist Studies, I am joined by Daniel Veidlinger to discuss his exciting new book From Indra’s Net to Internet: Communication, Technology, and the Evolution of Bud...
ListenJulia Cassaniti, "Remembering the Present: Mindfulness in Buddhist Asia" (Cornell UP, 2018) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
How do you understand mindfulness? Is your understanding limited by your own culture’s definition of what mindfulness is? These are some of the questions you will ask yourself while reading Remembe...
ListenJessica Starling, "Guardians of the Buddha’s Home: Domestic Religion in Contemporary J?do Shinsh?" (U Hawaii Press, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In her recent ethnography, Guardians of the Buddha’s Home: Domestic Religion in Contemporary J?do Shinsh? (University of Hawaii Press, 2019), Prof. Jessica Starling invites us into the daily lives...
ListenAshley Thompson, "Engendering the Buddhist State: Territory, Sovereignty and Sexual Difference in the Inventions of Angkor" (Routledge, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Thanks to the international tourism industry most people are familiar with the spectacular ruins of Angkor, the great Cambodian empire that lasted from about the 9th to the early 15th century. We a...
ListenMegan Bryson, “Goddess on the Frontier: Religion, Ethnicity, and Gender in Southwest China” (Stanford UP, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Megan Bryson, Assistant Professor at the University of Tennessee, centers gender as an analytical framework in the study of Buddhism. The benefit of this approach is vividly demonstrated in Goddess...
ListenEric Huntington, "Creating the Universe: Depictions of the Cosmos in Himalayan Buddhism" (U Washington Press, 2018) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Eric Huntington’s Creating the Universe: Depictions of the Cosmos in Himalayan Buddhism (University of Washington Press, 2018) explores the various ways that Buddhists have imagined and represented...
ListenMatthew W. King, "Ocean of Milk, Ocean of Blood: A Mongolian Monk in the Ruins of the Qing Empire" (Columbia UP, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
After the fall of the Qing empire, amid nationalist and socialist upheaval, Buddhist monks in the Mongolian frontiers of the Soviet Union and Republican China faced a chaotic and increasingly uncer...
ListenJane Caple, "Morality and Monastic Revival in Post-Mao Tibet" (U Hawaii Press, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In this podcast, I speak with Prof. Jane Caple about her recently published book, Morality and Monastic Revival in Post-Mao Tibet (University of Hawaii Press, 2019). The revival of mass monasticism...
ListenAnn Gleig, "American Dharma: Buddhism Beyond Modernity" (Yale UP, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In her new book, American Dharma: Buddhism Beyond Modernity (Yale University Press, 2019), Ann Gleig makes a major contribution to scholarship on American Buddhism. Gleig focuses on meditation-base...
ListenBhikkhu An?layo, "Rebirth in Early Buddhism and Current Research" (Wisdom Publications, 2018) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In today’s podcast, I speak with German professor and Buddhist monk Bhikkhu An?layo about his book Rebirth in Early Buddhism and Current Research (Wisdom Publications, 2018). Bhikkhu An?layo skillf...
ListenWard Keeler, "The Traffic in Hierarchy: Masculinity and Its Others in Buddhist Burma" (U Hawaii Press, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Michael Walzer once began a book with the advice of a former teacher to “always begin negatively”. Tell your readers what you are not going to do and it will relieve their minds, he says. Then they...
ListenIra Helderman, "Prescribing the Dharma: Psychotherapists, Buddhist Traditions, and Defining Religion" (UNC Press, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In today's podcast, I speak with American professor Ira Helderman about his newly published book, Prescribing the Dharma: Psychotherapists, Buddhist Traditions, and Defining Religion (University of...
ListenNathan McGovern, "The Snake and The Mongoose: The Emergence of Identity in Early Indian Religion" (Oxford UP, 2018) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The history of Indian religions in the centuries leading up to the common era has been characterized in the scholarship by two distinct overarching traditions: the Brahmans (associated with Vedic t...
ListenDiscussion of Massive Online Peer Review and Open Access Publishing from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In the information age, knowledge is power. Hence, facilitating the access to knowledge to wider publics empowers citizens and makes societies more democratic. How can publishers and authors contri...
ListenIan Johnson, "The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao" (Pantheon, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Ian Johnson’s new book, The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao (Pantheon, 2017), was called "a masterpiece of observation and empathy" by The New York Review of Books, and The Econom...
ListenMeido Moore, "The Rinzai Zen Way: A Guide to Practice" (Shambhala, 2018) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Meido Moore Roshi is the abbot of Korinji monastery in Wisconsin. He studied under three Rinzai Zen masters: Tenzan Toyoda Rokoji (under whom he also endured training in traditional martial arts), ...
ListenRichard Salomon, "The Buddhist Literature of Ancient Gandh?ra: An Introduction with Selected Translation" (Wisdom Publications, 2018) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In this episode of New Books in Buddhist Studies, Dr. Richard Salomon speaks about his book The Buddhist Literature of Ancient Gandh?ra: An Introduction with Selected Translation (Wisdom Publicatio...
ListenDuncan Williams, “American Sutra: A Story of Faith and Freedom in the Second World War” (Harvard UP, 2019 from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In American Sutra: A story of Faith and Freedom in the Second World War (Harvard University Press, 2019), Duncan Ry?ken Williams recenters the role of faith in the Japanese-American experience in ...
ListenThomas Patton, "The Buddha’s Wizards: Magic, Protection, and Healing in Burmese Buddhism" (Columbia UP, 2018) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In his recent monograph, The Buddha’s Wizards: Magic, Protection, and Healing in Burmese Buddhism(Columbia University Press, 2018), Thomas Patton examines the weizz?, a figure in Burmese Buddhism w...
ListenRichard Gombrich, "Buddhism and Pali" (Mud Pie Slices, 2018) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Richard Gombrich's new book, Buddhism and Pali (Mud Pie Slices, 2018), puts the richness of the Pali language on display. He introduces the reader to the origins of Pali, its linguistic character, ...
ListenArnika Fuhrmann, "Ghostly Desires: Queer Sexuality and Vernacular Buddhism in Contemporary Thai Cinema" (Duke UP, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Since the late 1990s Thai cinema has come to global attention with movies like the famous ghost film, Nang Nak, and more recently the evocative films of director Aphichatpong Weerasethakul, who won...
ListenThomas Borchert, “Educating Monks: Minority Buddhism on China’s Southwest Border” (U Hawaii Press, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
What makes a Buddhist monk? This is the motivating question for Thomas Borchert, Professor of Religion at the University of Vermont, as he explores the social and educational formation of Buddhists...
ListenMcKenzie Wark, "General Intellects: Twenty-One Thinkers for the Twenty-First Century" (Verso, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
McKenzie Wark’s new book offers 21 focused studies of thinkers working in a wide range of fields who are worth your attention. The chapters of General Intellects: Twenty-One Thinkers for the Twenty...
ListenJessica Marie Falcone, "Battling the Buddha of Love: A Cultural Biography of the Greatest Statue Never Built" (Cornell UP, 2018) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
What can we learn from the anthropological study of projects that are never realized, or of dreams that are never fulfilled? In her new book Battling the Buddha of Love: A Cultural Biography of the...
ListenStephen Batchelor, “Secular Buddhism: Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World” (Yale UP, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
As the practice of mindfulness permeates mainstream Western culture, more and more people are engaging in a traditional form of Buddhist meditation. However, many of these people have little intere...
ListenRuth Gamble, “Reincarnation in Tibetan Buddhism: The Third Karmapa and the Invention of a Tradition” (Oxford UP, 2018) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Ruth Gamble’s Reincarnation in Tibetan Buddhism: The Third Karmapa and the Invention of a Tradition (Oxford University Press, 2018) is a thorough and accessible study on reincarnation, the tulku tr...
ListenKatherine A. Bowie, “Of Beggars and Buddhas: The Politics of Humor in the Vessantara Jataka in Thailand” (U Wisconsin Press, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
From the sidelines of the Asian Studies Association of Australia’s biennial conference, where she presented the inaugural keynote address of the Association of Mainland Southeast Asia Scholars, Kat...
ListenMichelle C. Wang, “Mandalas in the Making: The Visual Culture of Esoteric Buddhism at Dunhuang” (Brill, 2018) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Michelle C. Wang’s new book Mandalas in the Making: The Visual Culture of Esoteric Buddhism at Dunhuang (Brill, 2018) joins a growing body of scholarship on esoteric Buddhism in China. Her work is ...
ListenHolly Gayley, “Love Letters from Golok: A Tantric Couple in Modern Tibet” (Columbia UP, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Often when people think of Tibetan Buddhism they have a limited vision of that social reality, perhaps one that imagines monks sitting in meditation or focused on the Dalai Lama. Rarely is the hist...
ListenGuillaume Rozenberg, “The Immortals: Faces of the Incredible in Buddhist Burma” (U Hawaii Press, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
“It is difficult to characterize this fascinating book,” George Tanabe writes in his short preface to The Immortals: Faces of the Incredible in Buddhist Burma (University of Hawai’i Press, 2015), “...
ListenReiko Ohnuma, “Unfortunate Destiny: Animals in the Indian Buddhist Imagination” (Oxford UP, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Reiko Ohnuma‘s Unfortunate Destiny: Animals in the Indian Buddhist Imagination (Oxford University Press, 2017) is a masterful treatment of animals in Indian Buddhist literature. Although they are l...
ListenDaniel Veidlinger, “Spreading the Dhamma: Writing, Orality, and Textual Transmission in Buddhist Northern Thailand” (University of Hawaii Press, 2006) from 2011-06-03T16:52:37
New media technology changes culture. And when it comes to religion, new technology changes the way people think and practice their traditions. And while we usually think of technology as some new ...
ListenDaniel Veidlinger, “Spreading the Dhamma: Writing, Orality, and Textual Transmission in Buddhist Northern Thailand” (University of Hawaii Press, 2006) from 2011-06-03T16:52:37
New media technology changes culture. And when it comes to religion, new technology changes the way people think and practice their traditions. And while we usually think of technology as some new ...
Listen