Buddhist Studies Curriculum
2009-10 offerings in bold; see Courses for details
ARTHIST 182/382: Arts of China, 900-1500: Cultures in Competition. Vinograd
The era from the Five Dynasties and Song to the mid-Ming period was marked by competition in cultural arenas such as between Chinese and formerly nomadic regimes, or between official court art modes and scholar-official and literati groups. Topics include: innovations in architectural and ceramic technologies; developments in landscape painting and theory; the proliferation of art texts and discourses; the rise of educated artists; official arts and ideologies of the Song, Liao, Jin, Yuan, and Ming regimes; new roles for women as patrons and cultural participants; and Chan and popular Buddhist imagery.
GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom
HISTORY 11SC: How Is a Buddhist. Mancall
Buddhism as a system of thought, a culture, a way of life, a definition of reality, a method for investigating it, and a mental, physical, and social practice. Buddhism as a total phenomenon. Readings, films, music, and art. How Buddhist practices constitue the world of the Buddhist.
HISTORY 91D/191D: China: The Northern and Southern Dynasties. Lewis
Examines one of the most dynamic periods of Chinese history with the emergence of the institutional religions (Buddhism and Daoism), the development of the garden as an art form, the rise of landscape as a theme of verse and art, the invention of lyric poetry, and the real beginnings of the southward spread of Chinese civilization.
HISTORY 191/391: East Asia in the Early Buddhist Age. Lewis
Evolution of cities in imperial China through early imperial, medieval, and early modern periods. Topics include physical structure, social order, cultural forms, economic roles, relations to rural hinterlands, and the contrast between imperial capitals and other cities. Comparative examination of cases from European history.
GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom
IHUM 68B: Performing Religion. Bielefeldt and Pitkin
Second in a two quarter sequence. Religion as a process of constructing meaning. Sources include philosophical texts, stories, rituals, dramatic performances, and other forms of religious expression. Historical contingency in the development of ideas and practices. Examples from Christianity and Buddhism.
GER:IHUM-3
OSPKYOTO 17R: Religion and Japanese Culture. Ludvik
Major religious traditions of Japan. Topics include: relation between religion and culture; ancient Japanese religion and Shinto; Buddhist schools of Heian Japan; Zen Buddhism as it flourished in the Kamakura period; Confucianism, as originally conceived in ancient China and as transmitted to Japan in the Edo period in its neo-Confucian form; characteristic modern practices. Field trips to religious centers to observe current religious practices.
GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom
RELIGST 6N: The Life of the Buddha. Harrison
Preference to freshmen. Who was the historical Buddha Gautama and what is known about him, and his time and society? The oldest texts attributed to him and what they reveal about him, and his ideas and spirituality. Sources include Indian literary works in translation, Buddhist art, and contemporary films about the Buddha's life.
GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom
RELIGST 9N: Transgression and Transcendence: Exploring Tantric Buddhism. Harrison
Preference to freshmen. Vajrayana or Tantric Buddhism, its historical development and primary doctrines, ritual practices, and iconography. Focus is on its transgressive aspects, broader Indian background, and contemporary representations.
GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom
RELIGST 14: Exploring Buddhism. Harrison
From its beginnings to the 21st century. Principal teachings and practices, institutional and social forms, and artistic and iconographical expressions.
GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom
RELIGST 18: Zen Buddhism. Bielefeldt
Classical Zen thought in China, and its background, origins, and development.
GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom
RELIGST 35: Introduction to Chinese Religions. Staff
(Formerly 55.) Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism, and the interchange among these belief systems and institutions. Set against the background of Chinese history, society, and culture, with attention to elite and popular religious forms.
GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom
RELIGST 37: Introduction to Japanese Religions. Staff
Major themes in Japanese religious culture, including gods, religious sites, and specialist and popular practices. Films and readings from literary, ethnographic, and historical sources in translation.
GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 90: Buddhism and Gender. Bryson
In the Buddhist tradition there are contradictory approaches to gender: in some cases, gender is described as an illusion; in others, the female body is an impediment to enlightenment. How do Buddhists - men and women, lay and monastic - interpret these divergent views? Different Buddhist approaches to the category of gender. Values associated with masculinity and femininity in Buddhist philosophy, the gendered symbolism surrounding buddhahood, images of the masculine and feminine in Buddhist texts, and the experiences of lay and monastic men and women.
RELIGST 113A: Sacred Space and the Supernatural in Japanese Religion. Staff
Ties to place in Japanese religious history, legends, and religious practices. The role of Japan's mountains in the religious imagination.
RELIGST 113B: Japanese Religion Through Film. Lin
Themes in premodern and modern Japanese religion though animations, movies and documentaries.
GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 136: Buddhist Yoga. Bielefeldt
Buddhist models of spiritual practice emphasizing issues in the interpretation of the contemplative path.
GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom
RELIGST 150: The Lotus Sutra: History of a Buddhist Book. Bielefeldt
The Lotus school of Mahayana, and its Indian sources, Chinese formulation, and Japanese developments.
GER:EC-GlobalCom
RELIGST 151A: Buddhist Art in a Cosmopolitan Environment. Luczanits
The Buddhist art of Gandhara, historical Northwest India, was the product of a complex interplay of different cultures, religions and societies in the region. Gandharan art from the historic circumstances that led to its development in the first century AD to its gradual disappearance in its homeland around 500 AD.
GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 154: Buddhism Today: Responses to New Global Challenges. Staff
How do the traditions of Buddhism cope with new social, ethical, and global challenges? Case studies from Sri Lanka, Japan, and the West. The historical position of Buddhist social thought. Buddhism's ascetic and meditative legacy: friend or foe of social engagement?
GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom
RELIGST 199: Individual Work. Staff
Prerequisite: consent of instructor and department. May be repeated for credit.
RELIGST 216: Japanese Buddhism. Bielefeldt
Recent scholarship.
GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 217/317: Japanese Studies of Religion in China. Staff
(Graduate students register for 317.) Readings in Japanese secondary sources on Chinese religions.
RELIGST 219: Buddhism and Death. Staff
The role of pre and post mortem practices in ancient and modern Buddhist traditions; examples from India, China, and Japan. How the clergy and laity conceived of the process of dying, and how those beliefs were transformed into rituals.
RELIGST 247/347: Chinese Buddhist Texts. Harrison
From the Han Dynasty onwards, including sutra translations, prefaces, colophons, and biographies. Prerequisite: reading competence in Chinese.
GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 248A/348A: Chinese Buddhism Beyond the Great Wall. Gimello
The thought, practice, and cultural resonance of the sorts of originally Chinese Buddhism that flourished to the north and northwest of China proper during the two to three centuries following the fall of the Tang - i.e., under the Khitan Liao (907-1125) and the Tangut Xixia (1032-1227) dynasties - with special emphasis on the later fortunes of the Huayan, Chan, and Mijiao (Esoteric) traditions. Prerequisite: reading knowledge of Chinese.
GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 250: Classics of Indian Buddhism. Harrison
Texts in English translation including discourses (sutras), philosophical treatises, commentaries, didactic epistles, hymns, biographies, and narratives.
GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 250B/350B: Depictions of the Buddha. Luczanits
The image of the Buddha changes relatively little from its earliest conceptions. The role of the image and the notion of the Buddha do change fundamentally with time and place. South Asian depictions of the Buddha from the earliest symbolic representations to the wrathful and peaceful forms found in the esoteric Buddhism of India and the Himalayas, as well as the changing conceptions of the Buddha to which these depictions are related.
GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 251/351: Readings in Indian Buddhist Texts. Harrison
(Graduate students register for 351.) Introduction to Buddhist literature through reading original texts in Sanskrit. Prerequisite: Sanskrit.
GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 251A/351A: Buddhist Visions of Paradise. Harrison
Textual and art-historical evidence for the early development in the greater Indian cultural area of the cult of the Buddhas of the present and their paradise worlds ("Pure Land Buddhism").
GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 254: Recent Contributions to Buddhist Studies. Staff
May be repeated for credit.
RELIGST 258/358: Japanese Buddhist Texts. Bielefeldt
Readings in medieval Japanese Buddhist materials. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: background in Japanese or Chinese.
GER:DB-Hum
RELIGST 308: Medieval Japanese Buddhism. Staff
Japanese religion and culture, including Buddhism, Shinto, popular religion, and new religions, through the medium of film.
RELIGST 312: Buddhist Studies Proseminar. Staff
Research methods and materials for the study of Buddhism. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: reading knowledge of Chinese or Japanese.
RELIGST 389: Individual Work for Graduate Students. Staff
May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
