Dice And Gods On The Silk Road

Author : Brandon Dotson,Constance A. Cook,Zhao Lu
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 353 pages
File Size : 52,5 Mb
Release : 2021-07-19
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN : 9789004464377

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Dice and Gods on the Silk Road by Brandon Dotson,Constance A. Cook,Zhao Lu Pdf

What do dice and gods have in common? What is the relationship between dice divination and dice gambling? This interdisciplinary collaboration situates the tenth-century Chinese Buddhist “Divination of Maheśvara” within a deep Chinese backstory of divination with dice and numbers going back to at least the 4th century BCE. Simultaneously, the authors track this specific method of dice divination across the Silk Road and into ancient India through a detailed study of the material culture, poetics, and ritual processes of dice divination in Chinese, Tibetan, and Indian contexts. The result is an extended meditation on the unpredictable movements of gods, dice, divination books, and divination users across the various languages, cultures, and religions of the Silk Road.

Author : Michael Lackner,Zhao Lu
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 570 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2022-05-20
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN : 9789004514263

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Handbook of Divination and Prognostication in China by Michael Lackner,Zhao Lu Pdf

The first book that systematically explores the manifold aspects of divination and prognostication in traditional and modern China.

Author : Cameron Bailey,Aleksandra Wenta
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 324 pages
File Size : 40,7 Mb
Release : 2024-03-07
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781350354968

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Tibetan Magic by Cameron Bailey,Aleksandra Wenta Pdf

This book focuses on the theme of magic in Tibetan contexts, encompassing both pre-modern and modern text-cultures as well as contemporary practices. It offers a new understanding of the identity and role of magical specialists in both historical and contemporary contexts. Combining the theoretical approaches of anthropology, ethnography, religious and textual studies, the book aims to shed light on experiences, practices and practitioners that have been frequently marginalized by the normative mainstream monastic Buddhist traditions and Western Buddhist scholarship, which focuses primarily on meditation and philosophy. The book explores the intersection between magic/folk practices and Tantra, a complex, socio-religious phenomenon associated not only with the religious and political elites who sponsored it, but also with 'marginal' ethnic groups and social milieus, as well as with lay communities at large, who resorted to ritual agents to fulfil their worldly needs.

Author : Sravana Borkataky-Varma,Aaron Michael Ullrey
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
Page : 388 pages
File Size : 45,9 Mb
Release : 2023-05-30
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781000878622

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Living Folk Religions by Sravana Borkataky-Varma,Aaron Michael Ullrey Pdf

Living Folk Religions presents cutting-edge contributions from a range of disciplines to examine religious folkways across cultures. This collection embraces the non-elite and non-sanctioned, the oral, fluid, accessible, evolving religions of people (volk) on the ground. Split into five sections, this book covers: What Is Folk Religion? Spirit Beings and Deities Performance and Ritual Praxis Possession and Exorcism Health, Healing, and Lifestyle Topics include demons and ambivalent gods, tree and nature spirits, revolutionary renunciates, oral lore, possession and exorcism, divination, midwestern American spiritualism, festivals, queer sexuality among ritual specialists, the dead returned, vernacular religions, diaspora adaptations, esoteric influences underlying public cultures, unidentified flying objects (UFOs), music and sound experiences, death rituals, and body and wellness cultures. Living Folk Religions is a must-read for those studying Comparative Religions, World Religions, and Religious Studies, and it will also interest specialists and general readers, particularly enthusiastic readers of Anthropology, Folklore and Folk Studies, Global Studies, and Sociology.

Author : Constance A. Cook
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 132 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 2023-07-31
Category : History
ISBN : 9781108981224

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Medicine and Healing in Ancient East Asia by Constance A. Cook Pdf

This Element first discusses the creation of transmitted medical canons that are generally dated from early imperial times through the medieval era and then, by way of contrast, provides translations and analyses of non-transmitted texts from the pre-imperial late Shang and Zhou eras, the early imperial Qin and Han eras, and then a brief discussion covering the period through the 11th-c. CE. The Element focuses on the evolution of concepts, illness categories, and diagnostic and treatment methodologies evident in the newly discovered material and reveals a side of medical practice not reflected in the canons. It is both traditions of healing, the canons and the currents of local practice revealed by these texts, that influenced the development of East Asian medicine more broadly. The local practices show there was no real evolution from magical to non-magical medicine. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Author : Lucian De Zilwa
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 308 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 1918
Category : Electronic
ISBN : MINN:31951D008389061

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The Dice of the Gods by Lucian De Zilwa Pdf

Author : Chuanming Rui
Publisher : World Scientific Publishing Company
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 2021
Category : Asia, Central
ISBN : 9811232962

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On the Ancient History of the Silk Road by Chuanming Rui Pdf

The Silk Road was a network of trade routes which connected the East and West, and was central to the economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between these regions from the 2nd century BCE to the 18th century. This book studies various aspects of the ancient history of the silk road. The 16 chapters in the book are divided into three parts: Silk Road and The Nomads; The Sogdians, the Special Role on the Silk Road; Silk Road and the Spread of Religious Ideas. It studies the purpose and effects of silk exportation, the intermarriage between China and other ethnic groups, the origin of the Turks, the influence and domination of the Sogdians on the nomads, and the religious ideas, especially the Manicheism, spreading across the Silk Road.

Author : Donald Wells
Publisher : Av2 by Weigl
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2005
Category : Asia
ISBN : 1590362071

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The Silk Road by Donald Wells Pdf

Examines the history of the Silk Road, the name given to a series of three major trade routes and hundreds of smaller side roads by which goods were transported from China to countries and empires around the Mediterranean Sea, and discusses the importance of the Silk Road in the exchange of information and ideas.

Author : Peter Linenthal
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 21 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2015-10-20
Category : Juvenile Fiction
ISBN : 9781614292326

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Jaya's Golden Necklace by Peter Linenthal Pdf

Jaya's Golden Necklace is the first children's book to tell of the origin and cultural roots of the beloved Buddha image. A story of East and West, it teaches lessons and entertains while also opening a door into Asian culture. Set along the Silk Road, Jaya's journey highlights the interconnected and multicultural worlds of yesterday and today.

Author : JUSTIN. GRAHAM,Thomson ELT
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2020-05-29
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 0357455142

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China Showcase Library - the S Ilk Rd Cnncts the Est and Wst by JUSTIN. GRAHAM,Thomson ELT Pdf

Author : Jacqueline I. Stone
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
Page : 633 pages
File Size : 47,9 Mb
Release : 2016-11-30
Category : History
ISBN : 9780824867652

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Right Thoughts at the Last Moment by Jacqueline I. Stone Pdf

Buddhists across Asia have often aspired to die with a clear and focused mind, as the historical Buddha himself is said to have done. This book explores how the ideal of dying with right mindfulness was appropriated, disseminated, and transformed in premodern Japan, focusing on the late tenth through early fourteenth centuries. By concentrating one’s thoughts on the Buddha in one’s last moments, it was said even an ignorant and sinful person could escape the cycle of deluded rebirth and achieve birth in a buddha’s pure land, where liberation would be assured. Conversely, the slightest mental distraction at that final juncture could send even a devout practitioner tumbling down into the hells or other miserable rebirth realms. The ideal of mindful death thus generated both hope and anxiety and created a demand for ritual specialists who could act as religious guides at the deathbed. Buddhist death management in Japan has been studied chiefly from the standpoint of funerals and mortuary rites. Right Thoughts at the Last Moment investigates a largely untold side of that story: how early medieval Japanese prepared for death, and how desire for ritual assistance in one’s last hours contributed to Buddhist preeminence in death-related matters. It represents the first book-length study in a Western language to examine how the Buddhist ideal of mindful death was appropriated in a specific historical context. Practice for one’s last hours occupied the intersections of multiple, often disparate approaches that Buddhism offered for coping with death. Because they crossed sectarian lines and eventually permeated all social levels, deathbed practices afford insights into broader issues in medieval Japanese religion, including intellectual developments, devotional practices, pollution concerns, ritual performance, and divisions of labor among religious professionals. They also allow us to see beyond the categories of “old” versus “new” Buddhism, or establishment Buddhism versus marginal heterodoxies, which have characterized much scholarship to date. Enlivened by cogent examples, this study draws on a wealth of sources including ritual instructions, hagiographies, doctrinal writings, didactic tales, courtier diaries, historical records, letters, and relevant art historical material to explore the interplay of doctrinal ideals and on-the-ground practice.

Author : Henning Haslund
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2019-05-28
Category : History
ISBN : 9780429639364

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Men and Gods in Mongolia by Henning Haslund Pdf

First published in 1935, Men & Gods in Mongolia is rare and unusual travel book that takes the reader into the virtually unknwon world of Mongolia, a country only now opening up to the West. Henning Haslund was a Swedish Explorer who accompanied Sven Hedin and other explorers into Mongolia and Central Asia in the 1920s and 30s. Haslund takes the reader to the lost city of Karakota in the Gobi desert, introduces the reader to the Bodgo Gegen, a God-king in Mongolia, and allows the reader to meet Dambin Jansang, the dreaded warlord of the 'Black Gobi'. Alongside the esoteric and mystical material, there is plenty of adventure; caravans across the Gobi desert; kidnapped and held for ransom; initation into shamanic societies; encounters with warlords; and the violent birth of a new nation.

Author : Sherry D. Fowler
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
Page : 457 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 2016-11-30
Category : Art
ISBN : 9780824856250

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Accounts and Images of Six Kannon in Japan by Sherry D. Fowler Pdf

Buddhists around the world celebrate the benefits of worshipping Kannon (Avalokiteśvara), a compassionate savior who is one of the most beloved in the Buddhist pantheon. When Kannon appears in multiple manifestations, the deity’s powers are believed to increase to even greater heights. This concept generated several cults throughout history: among the most significant is the cult of the Six Kannon, which began in Japan in the tenth century and remained prominent through the sixteenth century. In this ambitious work, Sherry Fowler examines the development of the Japanese Six Kannon cult, its sculptures and paintings, and its transition to the Thirty-three Kannon cult, which remains active to this day. An exemplar of Six Kannon imagery is the complete set of life-size wooden sculptures made in 1224 and housed at the Kyoto temple Daihōonji. This set, along with others, is analyzed to demonstrate how Six Kannon worship impacted Buddhist practice. Employing a diachronic approach, Fowler presents case studies beginning in the eleventh century to reinstate a context for sets of Six Kannon, the majority of which have been lost or scattered, and thus illuminates the vibrancy, magnitude, and distribution of the cult and enhances our knowledge of religious image-making in Japan. Kannon’s role in assisting beings trapped in the six paths of transmigration is a well-documented catalyst for the selection of the number six, but there are other significant themes at work. Six Kannon worship includes significant foci on worldly concerns such as childbirth and animal husbandry, ties between text and image, and numerous correlations with Shinto kami groups of six. While making groups of Kannon visible, Fowler explores the fluidity of numerical deity categorizations and the attempts to quantify the invisible. Moreover, her investigation reveals Kyushu as an especially active site in the history of the Six Kannon cult. Much as Kannon images once functioned to attract worshippers, their presentation in this book will entice contemporary readers to revisit their assumptions about East Asia’s most popular Buddhist deity.

Author : Michael K. Jerryson
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 761 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 2017
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780199362387

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The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Buddhism by Michael K. Jerryson Pdf

As an incredibly diverse religious system, Buddhism is constantly changing. The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Buddhism offers a comprehensive collection of work by leading scholars in the field that tracks these changes up to the present day. Taken together, the book provides a blueprint to understanding Buddhism's past and uses it to explore the ways in which Buddhism has transformed in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The volume contains 41 essays, divided into two sections. The essays in the first section examine the historical development of Buddhist traditions throughout the world. These chapters cover familiar settings like India, Japan, and Tibet as well as the less well-known countries of Vietnam, Bhutan, and the regions of Latin America, Africa, and Oceania. Focusing on changes within countries and transnationally, this section also contains chapters that focus explicitly on globalization, such as Buddhist international organizations and diasporic communities. The second section tracks the relationship between Buddhist traditions and particular themes. These chapters review Buddhist interactions with contemporary topics such as violence and peacebuilding, and ecology, as well as Buddhist influences in areas such as medicine and science. Offering coverage that is both expansive and detailed, The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Buddhism delves into some of the most debated and contested areas within Buddhist Studies today.

Author : James C. Scott
Publisher : Yale University Press
Page : 462 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2020-03-17
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780300252989

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Seeing Like a State by James C. Scott Pdf

“One of the most profound and illuminating studies of this century to have been published in recent decades.”—John Gray, New York Times Book Review Hailed as “a magisterial critique of top-down social planning” by the New York Times, this essential work analyzes disasters from Russia to Tanzania to uncover why states so often fail—sometimes catastrophically—in grand efforts to engineer their society or their environment, and uncovers the conditions common to all such planning disasters. “Beautifully written, this book calls into sharp relief the nature of the world we now inhabit.”—New Yorker “A tour de force.”— Charles Tilly, Columbia University