Universität Wien

140122 VO Historical Patterns of Buddhist Transmission (2018S)

5.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 14 - Orientalistik, Afrikanistik, Indologie und Tibetologie
Moodle

Details

Language: English

Examination dates

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Wednesday 11.04. 11:45 - 13:45 Seminarraum 1 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-25
  • Wednesday 18.04. 11:45 - 13:45 Seminarraum 1 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-25
  • Wednesday 25.04. 11:45 - 13:45 Seminarraum 1 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-25
  • Wednesday 02.05. 11:45 - 13:45 Seminarraum 1 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-25
  • Wednesday 09.05. 11:45 - 13:45 Seminarraum 1 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-25
  • Wednesday 16.05. 11:45 - 13:45 Seminarraum 1 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-25
  • Wednesday 23.05. 11:45 - 13:45 Seminarraum 1 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-25
  • Wednesday 30.05. 11:45 - 13:45 Seminarraum 1 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-25
  • Wednesday 06.06. 11:45 - 13:45 Seminarraum 1 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-25
  • Wednesday 13.06. 11:45 - 13:45 Seminarraum 1 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-25
  • Wednesday 20.06. 11:45 - 13:45 Seminarraum 1 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-25
  • Wednesday 27.06. 11:45 - 13:45 Seminarraum 1 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-25

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

Lectures explore the historical expansion and transmission of Buddhism across Asia generally following chronological and geographical approaches to the history of Buddhist traditions.

Goals:
• Analyze the evidence of monks, merchants, pilgrims, and other travelers who left traces of their journeys in the form of written accounts, inscriptions, images, or other artifacts
• Retrace networks for long-distance trade and other cross-cultural exchanges in order to understand stages and patterns of mobility
• Raise and answer questions about the transmission of Buddhism as a flexible and dynamic religious system rather than a monolithic unchanging entity with fixed doctrines and rigid rules

Assessment and permitted materials

written take-home essays or oral examination, to be scheduled June 25, 2018)

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

Examination topics

Reading list

McRae, John and Jan Nattier, eds. Buddhism across Boundaries: The interplay of Indian, Chinese and Central Asian Source Materials. Available online: Sino-Platonic Papers 222, 2012.

Neelis, Jason. Early Buddhist Transmission and Trade Networks: Mobility and Exchange within and beyond the Northwestern Borderlands of South Asia. Brill, Leiden; Boston: 2011 (open source: http://www.oapen.org/search?identifier=627414)

Norman, Kenneth Roy. A Philological Approach to Buddhism. SOAS, London: 1997.

Pollock, Sheldon. “The Sanskrit Cosmopolis, 300-1300 CE: Transculturation, Vernacularization, and the Question of Ideology.” In Ideology and the Status of Sanskrit: Contributions to the History of the Sanskrit Language, edited by Jan Houben. Brill’s Indological Library, 13. Leiden; New York; Köln: Brill, 1997, 197-248.

Salomon, Richard. Ancient Buddhist Scrolls from Gandhāra: The British Library Kharoṣṭhī Fragments. British Library and University of Washington, Seattle and London: 1999.

Scheible, Kristin. Reading the Mahāvaṃsa: The literary aims of a Theravāda Buddhist history. South Asia across the disciplines. New York: Columbia University Press, 2016. (e-book)

Schopen, Gregory. Bones, Stones and Buddhist Monks. Univ. of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu: 1997 (e-book)

von Hinüber, Oskar. A Handbook of Pāli Literature (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1996).

Zürcher, Erik. The Buddhist Conquest of China: The spread and adaption of Buddhism in early medieval China. 2 vols. Sinica Leidensia 11. Leiden: Brill, 1959.
____. "Buddhism Across Boundaries: The Foreign Input" in Collection of Essays 1993: Buddhism Across Boundaries - Chinese Buddhism and the Western Regions, ed. by John McRae and Jan Nattier. Fo Guang Shan Foundation for Buddhist & Culture Education, Sanchung, Taipei: 1999, pp. 1-59 (volume available online: http://www.sino-platonic.org/)

Association in the course directory

BA13, EC-1/3, MATB4

Last modified: Th 29.10.2020 00:21