Buddhists E-Book

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Serie: Lived Religions
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 996

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

Buddhists: Understanding Buddhism through the Lives of Practitioners provides a series of case studies of Asian and modern Western Buddhists, spanning history, gender, and class, whose lives are representative of the ways in which Buddhists throughout time have embodied the tradition.

• Portrays the foundational principles of Buddhist belief through the lives of believers, illustrating how the religion is put into practice in everyday life
• Takes as its foundation the inherent diversity within Buddhist society, rather than focusing on the spiritual and philosophical elite within Buddhism
• Reveals how individuals have negotiated the choices, tensions, and rewards of living in a Buddhist society
• Features carefully chosen case studies which cover a range of Asian and modern Western Buddhists
• Explores a broad range of possible Buddhist orientations in contemporary and historical contexts

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Cover

Praise for Buddhists

Title Page

Copyright

Notes on Contributors

Preface

Note

Acknowledgments

Introduction

The Eightfold Path and the Gradual Path

Pragmatic and Transcendental Buddhism

References

Further Reading

Notes

Part I: Buddhists in the Earliest and Medieval Eras

Chapter 1: The Female Householder Mallika

Editor's Introduction

Introduction: Mallika's Historical, Geographical, and Cultural Context

Mallika's Biography

Reflections on How This Individual's Life Relates to the Buddhist Community

References

Notes

Chapter 2: Bhadda Kundalakesa

Editor's Introduction

Introduction

The Biographical Details of Bhadda Kundalakesa in Other Texts

Conclusion

References

Further Reading

Notes

Chapter 3: Two Noted Householders of the Buddha's Time

Editor's Introduction

Anathapindika the

Upasaka

Vishakha the

Upasika

References

Further Reading

Notes

Chapter 4: Nagarjuna

Editor's Introduction

Introduction

Second-Century Mathura

Mahayana Traditions in Mathura

Monastic Life in Mathura

Nagarjuna, a Brahmin Monk

Nagarjuna in Andhra Pradesh

Conclusion

References

Further Reading

Notes

Chapter 5: Who Is Uncle Donpa?

Editor's Introduction

Introduction

Uncle Donpa and Trickster Tales in Tibet

Traditional Interpretations

Contemporary Interpretations

Conclusions

References

Further Readings

Notes

Chapter 6: Ma-chig Lab-dron

Editor's Introduction

Introduction: Life in Tibet during the “Later Spread” of Buddhism (Ninth–Twenfth Centuries)

The Life Story of Ma-chig Lab-dron

Ma-chig Lab-dron's Teachings

Spiritual Innovator: Chod Tradition

The Legacy of Ma-chig Lab-dron

References

Further Reading

Notes

Part II: Buddhist Lives in the West

Chapter 7: I.B. Horner and the Twentieth-Century Development of Buddhism in the West

Editor's Introduction

Introduction: Colonial Context, the Centrality of Texts, and the Authority of European Scholarship

Theravada Buddhism and the Pali Canon

The Rhys Davids and the Pali Text Society

I.B. Horner (1896–1981): Early Life and Education

Joining the Pali Text Society

Assuming Leadership of the Pali Text Society

Participation in Buddhist Groups

Was Horner a Buddhist or just an Advocate of Buddhist Views?

Conclusion

References

Notes

Chapter 8: Takyu

Editor's Introduction

Introduction

Life History

The Monastery

The Ordination

Monastic Temple Religious Practices

Forms of Pragmatic Buddhism

Conclusion

References

Further Reading

Notes

Chapter 9: Refuge and Reconnection

Editor's Introduction

Introduction

Refuge and Reconnection

Conclusion

References

Further Reading

Notes

Chapter 10: Conversion, Devotion, and (Trans-)Mission

Editor's Introduction

Introduction

Early Life: Conversion, Training, and Mission

First Charismatic Phase: Foundations (1972–1982)

Second Charismatic Phase: Transition (1982–1992)

“Twenty Years on the Road”: The Making of a Lama

Third Charismatic Phase: The Global Schism and Diamond Way Expansion (1992–2007)

Conclusion: Observations on a Late-Charismatic Movement in Transition

References

Further Reading

Notes

Chapter 11: Noah Levine

Editor's Introduction

The Religious Biography of Noah Levine

Early Life: Drugs, Alcohol, Jail, and Punk Rock Music

Turning Point: Becoming a “Spiritual Person”

Committing to Buddhism

Mixing Punk with Buddhism: The Teaching Style of Noah Levine

Noah Levine's Life Story and Its Relation to the Buddhist Tradition

References

Further Reading

Notes

Chapter 12: Legendary Beat Poet

Editor's Introduction

Introduction

A Poet's Jewish Roots and Buddhist Beginnings

Asian Pilgrimage, Tibetan Influences, Antiwar Expressions

Problems at Naropa Institute and with Chogyam Trungpa

Last Years

References

Further Reading

Notes

Chapter 13: Dr. Stephen John Fulder

Editor's Introduction

Background

Western Meditation

From One Man's Project to a Community

Influenced by yet Ambivalent toward Goenka

Relation to Judaism

Politics

Some Concluding Remarks

References

Further Reading

Notes

Chapter 14: Amala Sensei

Editor's Introduction

Background

Coming to the Path

Conclusion

References

Further Reading

Notes

Part III: Buddhist Lives in South and Southeast Asia

Chapter 15: Pawinee Bunkhun

Editor's Introduction

Introduction

Lay Buddhism in Thailand

Gender and Buddhism

Abhidharma

Studies

Conclusion

References

Further Reading

Notes

Chapter 16: Mahasi Sayadaw of Burma

Editor's Introduction

The Early Life of Mahasi Sayadaw

Monastic Ordination and Ascetic Practices

The Lay Meditation Movement

Missionary Buddhism

References

Further Reading

Notes

Chapter 17: Corporal Monk

Editor's Introduction

Introduction

A Forest Monastic Sanctuary

References

Notes

Chapter 18: The Lure of Renunciation and the Ways of the World

Editor's Introduction

Introduction

The Path to Ordination

References

Further Reading

Notes

Chapter 19: Becoming a Theravada Modernist Buddhist in Contemporary Nepal

Editor's Introduction

Introduction

Childhood: Newar Buddhist Critic

Theravada Buddhism as a Reformist Movement in Nepal

Becoming a Theravada Devotee

Vipassana

Meditation and the Practice of “Pure Buddhism”

Remaining a Householder: Marriage and Family Life

Conclusion

References

Further Reading

Notes

Part IV: Buddhist Lives in the Himalayan Region

Chapter 20: Tenpe Gyaltsen

Editor's Introduction

Introduction: 1916–1924

Exile: 1924–1927

Early Adulthood: 1928–1937

Pilgrimage to Lhasa: 1937–1940

Return to Labrang: 1940–1947

Why a Biography of Tenpe Gyaltsen?

References

Further Reading

Notes

Chapter 21: A Female Tibetan Buddhist Diviner in Darjeeling

Editor's Introduction

Introducing Mo Sukey

2

Returning from Death

A Professional

Mopa

Devotion to a Lama

Conclusion

References

Further Reading

Notes

Chapter 22: Tsultrim Zangmo

Editor's Introduction

Introduction

Return to Her Parents' Home in Nepal

The Loss of a Father

Mother and Lama as Spiritual Guides

Notes

Chapter 23: Bakula Arhat's Journeys to the North

Editor's Introduction

Background

Birth and Early Life of a Reincarnate Lama

Outreach and Missionary Activities in the Soviet Union and Mongolia

Monk-Ambassador to Mongolia

Revitalizing Buddhism in Mongolia

Death, Commemoration, and the Perpetuation of the Tradition

References

Further Reading

Notes

Chapter 24: Hunger, Hard Work, and Uncertainty

Editor's Introduction

Background: Practicing Buddhism and the Complexities of Subsistence Farming

Context and Early Life

A Life of Struggle, New Opportunities, Tragedy

Elder Years and Religious Orientation

References

Notes

Chapter 25: Benefiting the Doctrine and Sentient Beings

Editor's Introduction

Introduction

Methodology and Context

Ts'ampa Nawang: The Formative Years

Ever Broader Activities

Altruistic Action

Conclusion

References

Further Reading

Notes

Chapter 26: Living Practical Dharma

Editor's Introduction

Introduction

1

Locating Lubra and the Bon Tradition

Life as a

Chomo

: Birthright or Burden?

On Writing and Weaving: Gender-Bending Identities

Changing Religious, Economic, and Educational Landscapes

Continuing the Lineage

References

Further Reading

Notes

Chapter 27: Excavating the Stories of Border-Crossing Women Masters in Modern Buddhism

Editor's Introduction

Introduction

Sikkim: Religious and Historical Context

References

Further Reading

Notes

Part V: Buddhist Lives in East Asia

Chapter 28: The Life of a Contemporary Japanese Buddhist Priest

Editor's Introduction

Introduction

Pure Land in the Context of Modern Japanese Buddhism

The Life of Rev. Keishin Ogi

References

Further Reading

Notes

Chapter 29: Toshihide Numata

Editor's Introduction

Background

Early Life and Formative Influences

Further Reading

Chapter 30: Seno'o Giro

Editor's Introduction

Introduction

Early Life and Its Context

Education and Formative Influences

Immersion in the Nichiren Buddhist Tradition

New Movements: Merging Nichiren Buddhism and Western Radical Traditions

Repression, Imprisonment, and Postwar Activities

References

Further Reading

Notes

Chapter 31: Building a Culture of Social Engagement

Editor's Introduction

Nichiren Buddhism in Practice: The Experience of Keiko Yonamine

Conclusion: Religion as a Life Philosophy and Practice of Value-Creation

References

Further Reading

Notes

Chapter 32: Blood and Teardrops

Editor's Introduction

Introduction

Translations of Fazun's Autobiography

References

Further Reading

Notes

Chapter 33: A Modern Chinese Laywoman

Editor's Introduction

Introduction

Introducing Auntie Li

Practicing Buddhism

Pathway into Buddhism

Defining a “Good Buddhist”

Balancing Business and Buddhism

Conclusion

References

Further Reading

Notes

Index

End User License Agreement

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Guide

Cover

Table of Contents

Preface

Part I: Buddhists in the Earliest and Medieval Eras

Introduction

List of Illustrations

Figure I.1

Figure 32.2

Praise for Buddhists: Understanding Buddhism Through the Lives of Practitioners

“This volume invites readers to understand what it can mean to be Buddhist in manifold ways. Rather than approaching Buddhism as an abstract entity by means of investigating ideas and practices that form a coherent and fixed system, these humanistic accounts enable one to situate and to comprehend various ways in which people have actually

lived

and thereby impacted Buddhist tradition. One comes away from reading this book with a knowledge of how Buddhism is a force that is fluid, diverse, and distinctive in its countless iterations.”

John Holt, Bowdoin College

“In the past there has been a tendency in Western books to approach Buddhism through its doctrines, in particular some of its more intellectually elite and perhaps more controversial philosophical doctrines. On the other hand, in the Western ‘popular’ press and culture Buddhism is sometimes seen as a fairly loose collection of ‘new-agey’ ideas and attitudes about compassion and reincarnation often presented with little potential for radical transformative impact on lives. Todd Lewis has for many years been in the forefront of a contemporary approach to Buddhism among scholars that seeks to reorient our understanding of Buddhism around what Buddhists

do

: the way in which Buddhist doctrines and experiences themselves interact with Buddhist lives and actual living Buddhism. The present comprehensive collection looks at the interface between what Buddhists do and Buddhist biographies, the specific way of living Buddhism expressed in the lives of a wide range of ‘eminent’ and also (until now) perhaps less well-known Buddhists, past and present. I know of no other book in Buddhists Studies quite like this, and it should make fascinating reading for those who really want to understand what makes Buddhists and Buddhism ‘tick,’ not as a collection of abstract ideas but as an actual lived way of being in the world and looking forward to the world(s) to come. Great stuff—this book is highly recommended!”

Paul Williams, University of Bristol, author of Mahāyāna Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations

Buddhists

Understanding Buddhism Through the Lives of Practitioners

Edited by

Todd Lewis

This edition first published 2014

© 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

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Cover image: Ts'ampa Nawang. Photograph by Nicolas Sihlé. Reprinted with permission. Asian woman praying with incense sticks © szefei/iStock, Little Tibetan monks ©\ beemore/iStock

Notes on Contributors

George D. Chryssides is Honorary Research Fellow in Contemporary Religion at the University of Birmingham, UK, and was formerly Head of Religious Studies at the University of Wolverhampton, UK. He has published extensively on new religious movements and has a particular interest in new expressions of Christianity and Buddhism.

Sid Brown, Professor at Sewanee, the University of the South in Tennessee, focuses on the lived experience of Buddhism. Her first book, The Journey of One Buddhist Nun (2001), is a biography of a modern Thai female renunciant, and her second, A Buddhist in the Classroom (2009), views classroom teaching through a Buddhist lens, exploring the ethical quandaries, lived experiences, and intimacy of teaching. Brown has been studying Buddhism since being introduced to it by the Antioch Buddhist Studies Program in 1982. During her years earning her B.A. from Emory, her M.A. from Florida State University, and her Ph.D. from the University of Virginia, she researched and lived in India, Sri Lanka, Japan, and Thailand. More recently her work has turned to Buddhist views and rituals associated with environmental concerns and animals.

Grace G. Burford, Ph.D., is Professor of Religious Studies at Prescott College, USA, and the author of Desire, Death, and Goodness: The Conflict of Ultimate Values in Theravada Buddhism (1991) and numerous articles on Buddhist-Christian studies. She is currently writing a biography of twentieth-century British scholar of Buddhism I. B. Horner.

Geoff Childs holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology and Tibetan Studies from Indiana University and is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis who specializes in studying the interconnections between demographic processes, economic changes, and family transformations in the highlands of Nepal and the Tibet Autonomous Region, China. His recent collaborations with physical anthropologists aim to document out-migration and population decline in Himalayan communities of Nepal, investigate the links between genetic adaptation to high altitude and reproductive outcomes, and examine the association between adaptation to high altitude, mother's milk, and infant growth.

Bradley S. Clough teaches about Asian religions (with a focus on Buddhism) at the University of Montana, USA. He has written many articles on different facets of Buddhism and has a forthcoming book from Cambria Press titled Noble Persons' Paths: Diversity and Controversy in Theravāda Buddhism.

Alice Collett is a Senior Lecturer at York St. John University. She received her M.A. from the University of Bristol in 1999 and her Ph.D. from Cardiff University in 2004. Since then she has worked in various universities in North America and the United Kingdom. She has published several articles on women in early Indian Buddhism and a recent edited volume titled Women in Early Indian Buddhism: Comparative Textual Studies (2013). She has just completed work on a monograph entitled Pāli Biographies of Buddhist Nuns, which was supported by an Arts and Humanities Research Council fellowship award.

David J. Cooper is a doctoral student focusing on Tibetan Buddhism in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA. His research interests include humor, religious literature and folklore, and monastic life.

Anne M. Fisker-Nielsen is a social anthropologist with reference to Japan. She is particularly interested in Buddhist theory, civil society, political participation, and the issue of religion and the secular in the modern nation state. She teaches at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Fisker-Nielsen has undertaken long-term and firsthand research in Japan, in particular with the Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai and the Clean Government Party (Komeito). Her recent book, Religion and Politics in Contemporary Japan: Soka Gakkai Youth and Komeito (2012), is a study of grassroots-level political engagement in a group whose value orientation is derived from Nichiren Buddhism.

Amy Holmes-Tagchungdarpa is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History at the University of Alabama, USA. She is the author of The Social Life of Tibetan Biography: Textuality, Community and Authority in the Lineage of Tokden Shakya Shri (forthcoming) and essays on Tibetan, Chinese, and Himalayan social and cultural history.

Stewart Jobrack teaches anthropology at the Ohio State University-Marion, USA. He is writing a Ph.D. dissertation on the practice of Theravada Buddhism among Lao refugees and immigrants in the United States.

Alison Denton Jones is a lecturer on Social Studies at Harvard University, USA, specializing in cultural and institutional developments in contemporary Buddhism in Chinese societies. Her dissertation, “A modern religion? The state, the people, and the remaking of Buddhism in urban China today,” examines lay Buddhism in a single Chinese city.

Daniel W. Kent is a visiting Assistant Professor of Asian religions at Whitman College in Walla Walla, USA. Dr. Kent has lived and researched in Sri Lanka for over four years. His primary research interests include Buddhism and war, Buddhist ethics, and Buddhist nationalism.

Lauren Leve is Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA. An anthropologist by training, she has been conducting ethnographic research on Theravada Buddhism in Nepal since 1990. Her research is driven by concerns with the cultural dynamics of globalization, particularly the relations between political and economic liberalization, ethical personhood, and religious change. She is also interested in the globalization of vipassana meditation, human rights and democracy, gender, Buddhist modernity, and nongovernmental organizations and the developmental state.

Todd Lewis is Professor of World Religions at the College of the Holy Cross. His primary research since 1979 has been on Newar Buddhism in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. He is the author of many articles on this tradition, and is the coauthor of World Religions Today (fourth edition 2011). His most recent translation, Sugata Saurabha: A Poem on the Life of the Buddha by Chittadhar Hridaya of Nepal (2010), received awards from the Khyentse Foundation and the Numata Foundation as the best book on Buddhism published in 2010.

Joseph Loss teaches in the Sociology and Anthropology Department at Bar-Ilan University, Israel. He has published on the history of Israeli anthropology (Anthropological Quarterly) and on Israeli Buddha-dhamma (Nova Religio). His most recent article addresses the issue of a converted Buddhist identity. It appeared in the collection Kabbalah and Contemporary Spiritual Revival (2011).

Sally McAra is an adjunct research associate in the School of Art History, Classics and Religious studies at Victoria University, New Zealand. She has researched and written several works about Buddhism in the West. She is Secretary of the New Zealand Buddhist Council and is a member of the Auckland Zen Centre.

Paul K. Nietupski is a professor of Asian religions at John Carroll University, USA. His recent publications include Labrang Monastery: A Tibetan Buddhist Community on the Inner Asian Borderlands 1709–1958 (2011) and contributions to a coedited volume titled Reading Asian Art and Artifacts: Windows to Asia on American College Campuses (2011).

Naoyuki Ogi has written many articles for various periodical publications on Buddhism. He is a 14th-generation Buddhist priest of the Choshoji Temple (Pure Land School) in Japan and is connected with the International Affairs Section of Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai (Society for the Promotion of Buddhism) in Tokyo. He graduated from Ryukoku University and the Theological Union/Institute of Buddhist Studies located in Berkeley, California, USA. He also completed a 2010–11 residential fellow program at Harvard Divinity School, USA.

Brooke Schedneck is Lecturer in Buddhist Studies at the Institute of Southeast Asian Affairs at Chiangmai University, Thailand. She holds a Ph.D. in Asian Religions from Arizona State University. Her main scholarly interests include the intersection of Buddhism and modernity as well as the emerging global Buddhist landscape. Her most recent project explores the history of modern vipassana meditation, specifically investigating Thailand's international meditation centers. The title of her monograph through Routledge's series Contemporary Asian Religions is Thailand's International Meditation Centers: Tourism and the Global Commodification of Religious Practices (2014). She has been published in The Buddhist Studies Review, The Pacific World Journal, The Journal of Contemporary Religion, and Contemporary Buddhism and maintains a research website called Wandering Dhamma (www.wanderingdhamma.org).

Kristin Scheible earned a Ph.D. from Harvard University, USA, in 2006 and is Assistant Professor of Religion at Bard College, USA. Her area of expertise is Theravada Buddhist literature; her research revolves around the work of narratives in the genre of historical literature (vamsa) in the Pali language, and her current book project is on the Pali Mahavamsa. Her most recent publications include “Priming the lamp of dhamma: the Buddha's miracles in the Pāli Mahāvamsa” in the Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies (2011) and “‘Give me my inheritance’: Western Buddhists raising Buddhist children” in Little Buddhas: Children and Childhoods in Buddhist Texts and Traditions (2012).

Burkhard Scherer is Chair in Comparative Religion, Gender and Sexuality at Canterbury Christ Church University, UK, and specializes in Buddhist philosophy, queer theory, and the globalization of Buddhism(s). Among Professor Scherer's books are Buddhismus (2005) and Queering Paradigms (2010).

Rachelle Scott is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Tennessee. She received her Ph.D. in Religion from Northwestern University in 2002. Her first book, Nirvana for Sale? Buddhism, Wealth, and the Dhammakāya Temple in Contemporary Thailand (2009), examines the relationships between wealth and Buddhist piety in Theravada Buddhism and in contemporary Thailand. Dr. Scott is currently working on her second book project, Gifts of Beauty and Blessings of Wealth: The New Prosperity Goddesses of Thailand, which focuses on the emergence of new narratives about female spirits within contemporary Thai religious practice. Her research examines how these cults are linked in complex ways to representations of Thailand's past, present, and future, as well as to issues of religious authority, economic development, cultural globalization, and sexuality.

James Mark Shields is Associate Professor of Comparative Humanities and Asian Thought at Bucknell University, USA, and Japan Foundation Visiting Research Fellow at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies, Japan (2013–14). He was educated at McGill University, Canada; the University of Cambridge, UK; and Kyoto University, Japan. He conducts research on modern Buddhist thought, Japanese philosophy, comparative ethics, and the philosophy of religion. He is author of Critical Buddhism: Engaging with Modern Japanese Buddhist Thought (Ashgate, 2011) and coeditor of Teaching Buddhism in the West: From the Wheel to the Web (2003), and is currently completing a book on progressive and radical Buddhism in Japan.

Sara Shneiderman is Assistant Professor of Anthropology and South Asian Studies at Yale University, USA. Her research explores the relationships between political discourse, ritual action, and crossborder mobility in producing identities and shaping social transformation in the Himalayan regions of Nepal, India, and China's Tibetan Autonomous Region. Her forthcoming book is titled Rituals of Ethnicity: Thangmi Identities across Himalayan Borders, and she has published several articles on the themes of Nepal's Maoist movement and ongoing political transformation; ethnic classification, affirmative action, and the politics of recognition in South Asia; and borders and citizenship in the Himalaya.

Nicolas Sihlé is an anthropologist specializing in the Tibetan cultural area and in the comparative anthropology of Buddhist societies. He has taught anthropology at the University of Virginia, USA, and is now a full-time researcher at the Centre for Himalayan Studies at the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) in France. He has carried out fieldwork over a total of more than three years in Tibetan communities, and is the author of a forthcoming book on Tibetan tantrists: Rituels bouddhiques de pouvoir et de violence: La figure du tantriste tibétain (Buddhist rituals of power and violence: the figure of the Tibetan tantrist). His current work focuses on communities of tantrists in post-Mao, northeast Tibet (among which he has been carrying out fieldwork since 2003) and on the larger, collective project of an anthropology of Buddhism. He is also the editor of a collective research blog, The Himalayas and Beyond (http://himalayas.hypotheses.org).

Michelle J. Sorensen recently completed her Ph.D. at Columbia University, USA. Her dissertation is titled “Making the old new again and again: legitimation and innovation in the Tibetan Buddhist Chöd tradition.” Her publications include “The body extraordinary: embodied praxis, Vajrayogini, and Buddhist Gcod” in Tibetan Studies: An Anthology (2006); “Cutting to the chase: the problem of ‘mind’ in the context of gCod” in Mahayana Buddhism: History and Culture (2008); “Mahāmudrā Chöd? Rangjung Dorjé's commentary on The Great Speech Chapter of Machik Labdron” in Wading into the Stream of Wisdom (2012); and “Translation and vestige” in Sagar (2013). She is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Mississippi, USA.

Brenton Sullivan is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia, USA. His dissertation research is focused on the growth of the Geluk school of Tibetan Buddhism in Amdo (Northeastern Tibet) and, in particular, on the history of the influential Monguor monastery known as Gonlung Jampa Ling (Ch. Youning si).

Tony Trigilio is a Professor of English at Columbia College Chicago. His books include the critical monograph Allen Ginsberg's Buddhist Poetics (2012) and the anthology Visions and Divisions: American Immigration Literature, 1870–1930 (coedited with Tim Prchal, 2008). He is the author of five volumes of poetry, the most recent of which is White Noise (2013). He coedits the poetry journal Court Green and is a former editor for the academic book-review journal The Beat Review.

Vesna A. Wallace is a Professor of Buddhist Studies in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA. The areas of her specialization are Indian and Mongolian Buddhist traditions. She received her M.A. in Asian Languages and Literature from the University of Washington, USA, and her Ph.D. in South Asian Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, USA. In addition to the languages of India, she studied classical and modern Mongolian and classical Tibetan. She has authored and translated four books on Indian Buddhism and published many articles on Indian and Mongolian Buddhism. She is a recipient of many grants and awards, including the Silver Medal bestowed by Mr. Elbegdorj, the President of Mongolia, for her contribution to the friendship of peoples.

Joseph Walser is Associate Professor of Religion at Tufts University, USA. His first book, Nagarjuna in Context (2005), examines what Nagarjuna's writings would have meant in their immediate social contexts. He is currently investigating the intersections of Buddhism and Brahmanism in ancient India, and the origins of Mahayana Buddhism among Brahmin Buddhists.

Tanya M. Zivkovic is a social anthropologist whose research explores notions of body and life course through death, relics, reincarnation, and biographical representations. She is a Research Fellow in the Department of Anthropology, University of Adelaide, Australia.

Preface

The genesis of this book goes back to my interdisciplinary graduate training, and especially the last class offered in fieldwork methods at Columbia University by Margaret Mead. In her inimitable way, she forced her students to consider a variety of research methods, including taking life histories. When I did so as part of my own first fieldwork in Nepal from 1979 to 1982, I collected information on a large sample of Buddhist merchants, and found these biographies to be rich and illuminating on a variety of topics.