(Paperback)

From the first century, when Buddhism entered China, the foreign religion shaped Chinese philosophy, beliefs, and ritual. This study shows that Buddhism brought with it an array of objects as well as new ideas about what objects could do and how they should be treated. It examines the ambivalent relationship between Buddhism and material culture.

(Hardback)

Studies the consecration of a Buddha image or "new Buddha," a ceremony by which the Buddha becomes present or alive. This book demonstrates that the image becomes the Buddha's surrogate by being invested with the Buddha's story and charged with the extraordinary power of Buddhahood.

(Hardback)

Comparing eighteenth-century Sri Lankan Buddhist monastic education to medieval Christian and other contexts, this book examines such issues as bilingual commentarial practice, the relationship between clerical and "popular" religious cultures, and the place of preaching in the constitution of "textual communities".

(Hardback)

Buddhism is seen as a religion stressing the truth of impermanence. How, then, to account for the long-standing veneration, in Asian Buddhist communities, of bone fragments, and other bodily bits said to come from the historic Buddha This book argues that relic veneration has played an integral role in Buddhist traditions in Southeast Asia.

(Paperback)

Popular understanding of Zen Buddhism typically involves a stereotyped image of isolated individuals in meditation, contemplating nothingness. This book presents the 'other side of Zen', by examining the movement's growth during the Tokugawa period (1600-1867) in Japan and by shedding light on the Japanese religious landscape during the era.

(Paperback)

Asks whether Buddhism offers women liberation or limitation. This work focuses on Buddhist conceptions of women and constructions of gender. It also asserts that the study of Buddhism through the gender lens leads us to question what we uncritically call Buddhism, in the singular.

(Paperback)

Is there a Buddhist discourse on sex This book reveals Buddhism's paradoxical attitudes toward sexuality. It covers the geography of this religion, and its long evolution from the time of its founder, Xvkyamuni, to the premodern age.