Bøker i Routledge Critical Studies in Buddhism-serien

Explores the British encounter with Buddhism in nineteenth century Sri Lanka, examining the way Buddhism was represented and constructed in the eyes of the British scholars, officials, travellers and religious seekers who first encountered it.

Presents the study of the important Mahayana Buddhist scripture Gandavyuha-sutra. This book provides a fresh approach to the study of Mahayana Buddhist sources, the 'systems approach', by which literature is viewed as embedded in a social system. It analyses the key themes of power, wealth and women to its social context in ancient India.

Presents a sophisticated study of some of the underlying assumptions involved in the study of Buddhism. Placing a distinct emphasis on Indian Buddhism, this book is suitable for those interested in Buddhism and India, and also scholars of religion and history.

This insightful study analyzes the phenomenon of Buddhism in Canada from a regional perspective, providing an important examination of the place of Buddhism in a developed western country associated with a traditional Judeo-Christian culture, but undergoing profound sociological transformation due to large-scale immigration and religio-cultural pluralism.

Presents a logical examination of the metaphysical and ethical dimensions of early Buddhist literature. This book determines the meaning of nature in the early Buddhist context from general Buddhist teachings on dhamma, paticcasamuppada, samsara and the cosmogony of the "Agganna Sutta".

By providing an annotated translation of, and applying the methods of literary criticism to, a first-century account of the life of the saint Purna, this study introduces the reader to a genre which has played an essential role in Buddhist self-understanding for over 2000 years.

Including a foreword by the Dalai Lama, this book explores the interface between Buddhist studies and the uses of Buddhist principles and practices in psychotherapy and consciousness studies. It also presents a collection of articles that illustrate the potential of Buddhist informed social sciences in contemporary society.

Interdisciplinary in its approach, this book explores the dilemmas that Buddhism faces in relation to the ethnic conflict and violence in Sri Lanka. Prominent scholars in the fields of anthropology, history, Buddhist studies and Pali examine multiple dimensions of the problem. This book discusses Buddhist responses to the crisis in detail.

The medieval period of Japanese religious history is commonly known as one in which there was a radical transformation of the religious culture. This book suggests an alternate approach to understanding the dynamics of that transformation. It also focuses on what Buddhism meant for medieval Japanese peoples themselves.

Contains works by scholars of Buddhism, themselves Buddhist, who seek to apply the critical tools of the academy to reassess the truth and transformative value of their tradition in its relevance to the contemporary world.

This book reconceptualizes the historiography of East Asian Buddhism by shifting the focus of analysis from philosophical texts and doctrine to ritual and practice.

Laos remains one of the few officially socialist countries in the world. Once a Buddhist kingdom, its involvement into the Vietnam War, the communist revolution of 1975 and the subsequent introduction of reformed socialism have deeply affected Buddhism, the religion of the ethnic majority. With a historical and anthropological focus on the religious field in the capital Vientiane, the book follows these transformations and extrapolates the ruptures and continuities of Buddhist religious life from 1958 to the present.