Materiality of devotion: Tibetan Buddhist shrines of the western Himalaya (original) (raw)
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3-credit course on Himalayan Buddhist Art and Architecture offered by Sikkim Central University, 2018
This is a 3 Credit Certificate Course offered by Sikkim Central University, conducted at Namgyal Institute of Tibetology, Gangtok, Sikkim, India. This course is designed to give exposure the students to analyze a wide range of artistic creations of Himalayan region of India, Nepal and Tibet by illustrating the influence and integration of scholastic traditions of Buddhism. A part of the course is to study the salient features of Buddhist philosophy and its impact on Himalayan art and culture; the Buddhist ritual practices and their interconnection with visual and performing arts and, the influence of tantric mandala on the development of Buddhist architecture. The course also points to the significance of the conservation of Himalayan Buddhist heritage.
Enshrining Space: Shrines, Public Space and Hinduization among the Kulung of Nepal
What can the notion of “shrine,” especially “wayside shrine,” tell us about a society? A wayside shrine could be defined as an edifice including a material representation of powers, which is built in a public space and open to all. Such a definition leads us to focus on three main notions associated with it. First of all, that of material representation and its complex association with the presence of powers. Secondly, the notion of public space and how it emerges in relation with the state. And, finally, that of ritual unit and the question of what a ritual unit implies, besides the participation of its members in ritual activity. Describing the emergence of these types of shrines among the Kulung Rai, a so-called tribal society of the Nepalese Himalayas, will lead us to discuss some major changes that have occurred in this society over the last hundred and fifty years and that can be regarded as a Hinduization process coming “from below.”
Ritual Furniture from Tibetan Protector Deity Shrines
Studies in Sino Tibetan Art: Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Tibetan Archaeology and Art, Beijing, 2004.
An analysis of the decoration on the furnishings of Tibetan Protector Deity Shrines (Gonkhang), illuminating the relationship between these shrines and decorated torgam (offering cabinets) that are often present in museum collections of Tibetan furniture.
Monasteries, Mountains, and Maṇḍalas: Buddhist Architecture and Imagination in Medieval Eastern India, 2024
Around the turn of the ninth century, architects in eastern India began to build vast new Buddhist "mega monasteries" (mahāvihāra) underwritten by gifts in land from royal patrons and their subordinates. These monumental "temple-monastery" complexes were organized around new types of "stūpa-temples" built on an unprecedented scale to shelter multiple images of the Buddha and the bodhisattvas. This new kind of architecture amalgamated several long-established architectural ideas and reorganized the Buddhist monastery in support of a new mode of production. I argue that these temple-monasteries constituted a response to a moment of significant political tumult and social change-as rival dynasties fought for supremacy over the subcontinent and its cosmic imaginary and religious groups competed for mastery of a nascent tantric system-in the shadow of an emergent "Temple Hinduism." My dissertation writes a history of Buddhist architecture in India after the eighth century around this new mode of royal temple-monastery. I trace the physical histories of four buildings and built environments at Nalanda, Antichak, Paharpur, and Mainamati in India and Bangladesh over the centuries between c. 750 and 1250. I produce new architectural illustrations, maps, and digital models to visualize and resolve significant problems in their history and to describe a coherent typology and periodization of Buddhist architectural production in medieval eastern India for the first time. iii In a period of rapid and significant architectural invention after c. 750, I argue, architects, patrons, and religious experts used architectural design and production to support the overlapping and divergent ritual and visionary agendas and to satisfy the spiritual and mundane aspirations of an increasingly diverse Buddhist community (saṃgha). The significance of this new mode of Buddhist sacred architecture was not limited to its built environment; rather, I maintain that it provided a structuring principle around which a constellation of visual, literary, and religious ideas took shape. This dissertation traces the invention, construction, and renovation of the Buddhist temple-monastery across eastern India, and into the Himalayas and Southeast Asia. Alongside this material history, I plot the transformation of a developing Buddhist architectural imaginary over time, through which the Buddhist monastery-the paradigmatic ascetic residence-was retold as a charismatic and otherworldly domain with geo-cosmic referents. The Buddhist monastery was transformed, I argue-in a single moment and gradually, over time-from a mundane monastic community to an assembly atop the cosmic mountain. And the path and goal of Buddhism were rearticulated as a hierarchy of sight and access to a transcendent architecture whose founding king was remembered as the paradigmatic lay patron and a Supreme Lord (parameśvara), a King of Kings (mahārājādhirāja). I plot this trajectory as an architectural history and a movement from monastery to mountain and maṇḍala.
Journal of the American Oriental Society, 1995
Taking its point of departure in the Fifth Dalai Lama's arguments in favor of the Indian origins of Tibetan practices of relic deposition, this study supplies an overview of relevant historical developments in the concept of 'relic' in Indian Buddhism, identifies the scriptural sources to which the Fifth Dalai Lama alludes, and discusses certain East Asian parallels. It is argued that relic deposition practices provide one specific example of a more general diachronic process of synthesizing various strands of Indian Buddhism on both the practical and theoretical levels, a process that did not stop at the Tibetan border.
Religions, 2024
This study conducts a comparative analysis of Buddhist sacred structures throughout Asia, focusing on the historical development, regional disparities, and the cultural sinification process of stūpas, caityas, and pagodas. Specifically, it delves into the origins, definitions, and terminologies of early Buddhist monuments, such as stūpas/mahācetiyas and caityas/cetiyas, emphasizing their Indian origins. The research further explores the adaptation and reinterpretation of these original Indian concepts as they spread to East Asia, morphing into new forms, such as pagodas and Buddha halls. It examines the subtle shifts in terminology and the altered meanings and functions of these monuments, from their Indian origins to their sinified representations in East Asia. The transformation of Indian Buddhist monuments through local culture and technology into East Asian architectural forms is investigated, offering a detailed perspective on the dynamic transformation of sacred spaces in Buddhism. This illustrates the religion’s adaptability and integration with the local cultures of ancient East Asia. By analyzing the terminologies and symbolic meanings associated with the architectural transition from stūpa to pagoda, the study argues that sinicized ritual spaces in East Asia have adopted architectural types from pre-Buddhist traditions to represent Indian spaces, thereby highlighting the nuanced changes and the continuous adaptation of sacred Buddhist architecture.