Librarian
Asian Studies Librarian
Library Resources-Art of the Buddhist Relic and Reliquary
Welcome to the Central Library
This guide will introduce you to some of the resources available to you at the Vanderbilt Libraries.
Please let us know if you need help at any point in your research process.
Yvonne & Yuh-Fen
Sometimes the best place to start is a subject specific dictionary or encyclopedia.
ONLINE RESOURCES
Buddhism and Medicine: An Anthology of Premodern Sources by This anthology combines dozens of English-language translations of premodern Buddhist texts with contextualizing introductions by leading international scholars in Buddhist studies, history of medicine, and a range of other fields
- Cultural Intersections in Later Chinese BuddhismThis collection of essays on later Chinese Buddhism takes us beyond the bedrock subjects of traditional Buddhist historiography - scriptures and commentaries, sectarian developments, lives of notable monks - to examine a wide range of extracanonical materials that illuminate cultural manifestations of Buddhism from the Song dynasty (960-1279) through the modern period.
- Death and the Afterlife in Japanese BuddhismFor more than a thousand years, Buddhism has dominated Japanese death rituals and concepts of the afterlife. The nine essays in this volume, ranging chronologically from the tenth century to the present, bring to light both continuity and change in death practices over time. They also explore the interrelated issues of how Buddhist death rites have addressed individual concerns about the afterlife while also filling social and institutional needs and how Buddhist death-related practices have assimilated and refigured elements from other traditions, bringing together disparate, even conflicting, ideas about the dead, their postmortem fate, and what constitutes normative Buddhist practice.
- Digital Dictionary of Buddhism (DDB) This link opens in a new windowPan-Buddhist compilation of Chinese logograph-based terms, texts, temple, schools, persons, etc. found in Buddhist canonical sources. Dictionaries and other reference sources are in many Asian languages (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Pali, Sanskrit and Tibetan).
- Encyclopedia of Buddhism This link opens in a new windowThe Buddhist world view, basic teachings and practices, schools and sects. Entries on Buddhist scriptures, art, architecture, divinities, monastic orders, festivals, rites and ceremonies, history, forms in different parts of the world, and how Buddhism blends with other religions.
- Encyclopedia of Religion This link opens in a new windowCross-cultural encyclopedia that emphasizes religion's role within everyday life and as a unique experience from culture to culture.
- Oxford Art OnlineThe online version of the 34 printed volumes devoted to the visual arts: painting, sculpture, architecture, photography, drawing, and printmaking, as well as decorative arts. Its multicultural approach offers detailed analyses of civilizations from Asia, Africa, the Americas, Europe, and the Pacific, including art forms, cultures, and artists that have previously been neglected. It is full-text with links to color images.
Oxford Handbook of Religion and the ArtsMore than ever before, scholars recognize that nearly every form of religion or spirituality has a vital connection with art. World religions, from Hinduism to The Eastern Orthodox Church, have a long and rich relationship with an array of artistic traditions. In recent decades, the academicstudy of religion and the arts has burgeoned. Yet a broad and serious consideration of the topic has yet to reach readers. The first comprehensive book of its kind, The Oxford Handbook of Religion and the Arts provides expert guidance to artistry and aesthetic theory in religion.Edited by Frank Burch Brown, the Handbook brings together an international team of leading scholars to present an interdisciplinary volume of nearly forty original essays. Readers are presented the main topics, issues, methods, and resources for the study of religious and theological aesthetics. Theessays give light to the dynamic interaction of world religions and art making. The volume ranges from antiquity to present day to examine idolatry, aesthetics in liturgy, and the role of art in popular religion.Ranging from music and poetry to architecture and film, the Handbook crosses the boundaries of different faiths and art forms to survey established and pioneering voices within the field. An authoritative text for scholars and students, The Oxford Handbook of Religion and the Arts will remain aninvaluable resource for years to come.
- Oxford Reference Online PremiumGood source for begining your research on many different topics. Brief articles with recommended books and articles.
Relics of the BuddhaBuddhism is popularly 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, hair, teeth, and other bodily bits said to come from the historic Buddha? Early European and American scholars of religion, influenced by a characteristic Protestant bias against relic worship, declared such practices to be superstitious and fraudulent, and far from the true essence of Buddhism. John Strong's book, by contrast, argues that relic veneration has played a serious and integral role in Buddhist traditions in South and Southeast Asia-and that it is in no way foreign to Buddhism. The book is structured around the life story of the Buddha, starting with traditions about relics of previous buddhas and relics from the past lives of the Buddha Sakyamuni. It then considers the death of the Buddha, the collection of his bodily relics after his cremation, and stories of their spread to different parts of Asia. The book ends with a consideration of the legend of the future parinirvana (extinction) of the relics prior to the advent of the next Buddha, Maitreya. Throughout, the author does not hesitate to explore the many versions of these legends and to relate them to their ritual, doctrinal, artistic, and social contexts.
- Surviving Nirvana: Death of the Buddha in Chinese Visual CultureThe Buddha's nirvana marks the end of the life of a great spiritual figure and the beginning of Buddhism as a world religion. Surviving Nirvana is the first book in the English language to examine how this historic moment was represented and received in the visual culture of China. ...
PRINT SOURCES
Buddhist Art: an historical and cultural journeyBuddhism and its art is the one truly unifying factor of the entire Asian continent and has become a fundamental part of our shared world heritage. To draw a unique portrait of this art in a single work is a formidable undertaking due to the great plurality of traditions spanning different countries and regions over various epochs. Furthermore, the variability in the state of conservation of Buddhist monuments and their decorations provides additional challenges. A passionate scholar of Buddhist art, Giles Beguin has chosen to organise his work in the form of an historical atlas. Thus together with beautiful photography, plans and reconstructions of the monuments and their magnificent works of art, this book also contains previously unpublished cartography. The author takes the reader on an historical and cultural journey across the vast continent of Asia stretching from India, Sri Lanka and Gandhara to countries such as Thailand, Cambodia and Burma in Southeast Asia up to the Himalayan kingdoms of Nepal and Tibet before arriving at the far eastern civilisations of China, Korean and Japan. The book is not only a visual feast but also a far-reaching introduction to Buddhist beliefs and practices. 650 colour illustrations
Buddhist Stupas in South AsiaBringing together the latest research on stupas in South Asia, this volume includes new conceptual paradigms as well as new approaches to monuments, sculpture, material culture, and textual interpretation. The collection utilizes archaeological, art historical and epigraphic evidence in broader cultural and historical frameworks to enrich our understanding, not only of stupa monuments but also ancient Buddhism and the wider history to which they pertain.
Dictionary of Buddhist and Hindu IconographyThis Dictionary Attempts To Reveal The Divine Paradoxes Of Buddhist-Hindu Iconography By Even Interpreting The Nuances Of Their Iconic Language. It Explains, Vividly, Thousands Of Iconic Representations (Visual, Conceptual Symbols, Images, Objects, Concepts, Rites).
The History of the Buddha's Relic ShrineBuddhist chronicles have long been had a central place in the study of Buddhism. Scholars, however, have relied almost exclusively on Pali works that were composed by elites for learned audiences, to the neglect of a large number of Buddhist histories written in local languages for popular consumption. The Sinhala Thūpavamsa, composed by Parakama Pandita in thirteenth-century Sri Lanka, is an important example of a Buddhist chronicle written in the vernacular Sinhala language.
Images, Relics, and Legends the formation and transformation of Buddhist sacred sitesA major collection of important essays by many of the leading scholars in the field of Buddhism, including Phyllis Granoff from Yale University, T.H.Barrett from the University of London, Raoul Birnbaum from University of California, Toru Funayama from Kyoto University, Eugene Wang from Harvard University and others.
Relics, Ritual, and Representation in Buddhism: rematerializing the Sri Lankan TheravÄda traditionThis book is a serious study of relic veneration among South Asian Buddhists. Drawing on textual sources and archaeological evidence from India and Sri Lanka, including material rarely examined in the West, it looks specifically at the practice of relic veneration in the Sri Lankan Theravada Buddhist tradition. The author portrays relic veneration as a technology of remembrance and representation which makes present the Buddha of the past for living Buddhists. By analysing the abstract ideas, emotional orientation and ritual behaviour centred on the Buddha's material remains, he contributes to the 'rematerializing' of Buddhism which is currently under way among Western scholars. This book is an excellent introduction to Buddhist relics. It is well written and accessible and will be read by scholars and serious students of Buddhism and religious studies for years to come.
