Bibliography on Buddhism (108)

For the bibliography on Buddhism, here are the 108 works from our graduate students' reading list for their qualifying exams. This list is updated regularly. (Revised 2023). Note: please excuse the format of this bibliography. Microsoft Word does not work well with HTML text. Click here for a PDF copy.

Part 1: Primary Sources

SOUTH ASIA:

* Dīghanikāya: Maurice Walshe, trans., The Long Discourses of the Buddha (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1995).

Theragāthā and Therīgāthā: K. R. Norman, trans., Elders’ Verses I: Theragāthā (London: Pali Text Society, 1969);
 Elders’ Verses II: Therīgāthā (London: Pali Text Society, 1971)

Divyāvadāna: Andy Rotman, trans., Divine Stories Divyāvadāna Part I (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2008).

Buddhacarita: Patrick Olivelle, trans., Life of the Buddha by Aśvaghoṣa (New York: New York University Press &
 JJC Foundation, 2008).

*Hevajra Tantra, David Snellgrove trans. in The Hevajra Tantra: A Critical Study (London: Oxford University
 Press, 1959).

* Mulamadhyamakakārikās: Shōryū Katsura & Mark Siderits, trans., Nāgārjuna’s Middle Way:
 Mulamadhyamakakārikā (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2013)

*Mahāyāna sūtras: one of the following: Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā (Conze translation),

Saddharmapuṇḍarīka (Kern translation), Vimalakīrtinirdeśa (Gomez and Harrison translation),
 Ugraparipṛcchā (Nattier translation).

Śikṣā-samuccaya: Charles Goodman, trans., The Training Anthology of Śāntideva: A Translation of the Śikṣā-samuccaya (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016).

Bodhicaryāvatāra: Kate Crosby & Andrew Skilton, trans. Śāntideva: The Bodhicaryāvatāra (Oxford: Oxford
 University Press, 1996).

TIBET:

The Buddha’s Doctrine and the Nine Vehicles: Rog Bande Sherab’s Lamp of the Teachings, José Ignacio Cabezón, trans. (Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 2013).

Third Dodrup Chen Rinpoche, Wonder Ocean: An Explanation of the Dharma Treasure Tradition (gTer Gyi rNam bShad). In Hidden Teachings of Tibet, Tulku Thondup Rinpoche (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1986).

Milarepa biography: either Lobsang Lhalungpa, trans., The Life of Milarepa (Boulder: Shambhala, 1984) or Andrew
 Quintman, The Life of Milarepa (New York, Penguin, 2010).

Patrul Rinpoche. The Words of my Perfect Teacher, Padmakara Translation Group, trans. (Boston: Shambhala, 1998).

Sakya Pandita Kunga Gyaltshen. A Clear Differentiation of the Three Codes, Jared Kunga Gyaltshen, trans. (SUNY, 2002).

The Life of Shabkar: The Autobiography of a Tibetan Yogin, Matthieu Ricard, trans. (SUNY, 1994).

Tāranātha’s History of Buddhism in India, translated by Lama Chimpa and Alaka Chattopadhyaya (Simla: Indian
 Institute of Advanced Study, 1970).

CHINA:

Clear Serenity, Quiet Insight: T'ien-t'ai Chih-i's Mo-ho chih-kuan 摩訶止觀, trans. by Paul L. Swanson (Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press, 2018).

Empty Cloud: The Autobiography of the Chinese Zen Master Xuyun 虛雲自述年譜, trans. by Charles Luk (Longmead: Element Books, 1988).

Ennin’s Diary 入唐求法巡禮記, trans. by Edwin O. Reischauer (New York: The Ronald Press Company, 1955).

Essays of Sengzhao 肇論, trans. by Rafal Felbur. In Three Short Treatises by Vasubandhu, Sengzhao, and Zongmi
(Berkeley: BDK America, 2017).

Inquiry Into the Origin of Humanity 原人論, trans. by Peter Gregory (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1995).

Lives of the Nuns 比丘尼傳, trans. by Kathryn Ann Tsai (Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press, 1994). “Scripture in
 Forty-two Sections” 四十二章經, trans. By Robert Sharf in Donald Lopez, ed. Religions of China In
 Practice (Princeton University Press, 1996), pp.360-371. How Master Mou Removes Our Doubts. A Reader
 Response Study and Translation of the Moutzu Lihuo lun 牟子理惑論, trans. by John P. Keenan (Albany:
 SUNY, 1994). [These short works together count as one].

The Platform Sutra 壇經, trans. by John McRae (Berkeley: Numata, 2000).

A Record of Buddhist Monasteries in Loyang 洛陽伽藍記, trans. by Yit’ung Wang (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984).

Signs from the Unseen Realm: Buddhist Miracle Tales from Early Modern China 冥祥記, trans. by Robert Ford Campany, (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2012).

The Zen Teachings of Master Linchi 臨濟錄, trans. by Burton Watson (Boston: Shambhala, 1993).

JAPAN:

The Heart of Dôgen’s Shôbôgenzô, trans. by Norman Waddell and Abe Masao, (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002).

Kūkai and His Major Works, Hakeda Yoshito S. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1972).

Miraculous Tales of the Lotus Sutra from Ancient Japan: The Dainihonkoku hokekyōkenki. Dykstra, trans. by Yoshiko Kurata (Hirakata City, Osaka-fu: Intercultural Research Institute, the Kansai University of Foreign Studies, 1983).

Sand and Pebbles (Shasekishû): The Tales of Mujû Ichien, a Voice for Pluralism in Kamakura Buddhism, trans. by Robert E. Morrell (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1985).

Senchaku hongan nembutsu shū: A Collection of Passages on the Nembutsu chosen in the Original Vow compiled by
 Genkū (Hōnen), Morris J. Augustine and Kondō Tesshō trans. (Berkeley, CA: Numata Center for Buddhist 
Translation and Research, 1997).

Selected Writings of Nichiren, trans. by Burton Watson et al. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990).

Tannishō: Passages Deploring Deviations of Faith, trans. by Shōjun Bandō BDK Series (Berkeley: Numata Center,
1996).

Wondrous Brutal Fictions: Eight Buddhist Tales from the Early Japanese Puppet Theater, trans. by Keller Kimbrough (New York: Columbia University Press, 2013).

The Zen Master Hakuin: Selected Writings, trans. by Philip B. Yampolsky (New York: Columbia University Press, 1971).

Part 2: Secondary Sources

INDIA, SOUTHEAST ASIA AND TIBET

General Surveys of Buddhism:

Gethin, Rupert. The Foundations of Buddhism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988).

Harvey, Peter. An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices (2nd edition: Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2012).

Strong, John. Buddhisms: An Introduction (London: Oneworld Publications, 2015).

Williams, Paul with Anthony Tribe and Alexander Wynne. Buddhist Thought (London: Routledge, 2013).

Aris, Michael. Hidden Treasures and Secret Lives (London: Routledge, 1989; Indian edition: Delhi: Motilal
Banarsidass, 1988).

Cabezon, José, Sexuality in Classical South Asian Buddhism (Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2017).

Cassaniti, Julia. Living Buddhism: Mind, Self, and Emotion in a Thai Community (Ithaca: Cornell University Press,
 2015).

Collins, Steven. Selfless Persons (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982).

Dalton, Jacob. The Taming of the Demons: Violence and Liberation in Tibetan Buddhism (New Haven: Yale
 University Press, 2013).

Davidson, Ronald M. Tibetan Renaissance: Tantric Buddhism in the Rebirth of Tibetan Culture (New York: Columbia University Press, 2005).

*Dreyfus, George. The Sound of Two Hands Clapping (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003).

Dunne, John D.  Foundations of Dharmakīrti’s Philosophy (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2004).

Fogelin, Lars. An Archaeological History of Indian Buddhism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015).

Gellner, David N. Monk, Householder, and Tantric Priest: Newar Buddhism and its Hierarchy of Ritual
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992).

Gyatso, Janet. Apparitions of the Self: The Secret Autobiographies of a Tibetan Visionary (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1999).

Hirakawa, Akira. A History of Indian Buddhism, Paul Groner, trans. (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 1990),
or Étienne Lamotte, History of Indian Buddhism , Sara Boin, trans. (Louvain-la-Neuve: Institut  Orientaliste, 
1988).

Jacoby, Sarah. Love and Liberation: Autobiographical Writings of the Tibetan Buddhist Visionary Sera Khandro (New York: Columbia University Press, 2015).

Jones, C.V. The Buddhist Self: On Tathāgatagarbha and Ātman (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2020).

Kapstein, Matthew T. The Tibetan Assimilation of Buddhism: Conversion, Contestation, and Memory (Oxford:
 Oxford University Press, 2000).

Linrothe, Rob. Ruthless Compassion: Wrathful Deities in Early Indo-Tibetan Esoteric Buddhist Art
(Boston: Shambhala, 1999).

McDaniel, Justin. The Lovelorn Ghost and the Magical Monk: Practicing Buddhism in Modern Thailand (New
York, Columbia University Press, 2011).

Ohnuma, Reiko. Unfortunate Destiny: Animals in the Indian Buddhist Imagination (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2017).

Samuel, Geoffrey. Civilized Shamans: Buddhism in Tibetan Societies (Washington: Smithsonian, 1993).

* Schopen, Gregory. Bones, Stones, and Buddhist Monks: Collected Papers on the Archaeology, Epigraphy, and
 Texts of Monastic Buddhism in India (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 1997); or Buddhist Monks
 and Business Matters: Still More Papers on Monastic Buddhism in India (Honolulu : University of Hawai‘i
 Press, 2004).

Seneviratne, H. L. The Work of Kings: The New Buddhism in Sri Lanka (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
 1999).

Snellgrove, David. Indo-Tibetan Buddhism: Indian Buddhists and Their Tibetan Successors (1 vol. ed., London:
Serindia, 1987; 2 vol. ed., Boston: Shambhala, 1987).

Spiro, Melford. Burmese Supernaturalism (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1967).

Strong, John. Relics of the Buddha (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004).

*Tambiah, Stanley. One of the following three: Buddhism and the Spirit Cults in Northeast Thailand (Cambridge: C.U.P., 1970); World Conqueror and World Renouncer (Cambridge: C.U.P., 1976); The Buddhist Saints of the Forest and the Cult of Amulets (Cambridge: C.U.P., 1984).

Wedemeyer, Christian. Making Sense of Tantric Buddhism: History, Semiology, and Transgression in the Indian
Traditions (New York: Columbia University Press, 2012).

Westerhoff, Jan. The Golden Age of Indian Buddhist Philosophy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018).

*Williams, Paul. Mahāyāna Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations (2nd ed., London: Routledge, 2008).

EAST ASIA

Abe Ryūichi, Weaving of Mantra (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999).

Ambros, Barbara R. Women in Japanese Religions (New York: New York University Press, 2015).

Benn, James. Burning for the Buddha (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2007).

Buswell, Robert E., The Zen Monastic Experience (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992).

Campany, Robert Ford. “On the Very Idea of Religions (in the Modern West and in Early Medieval China).” 
History of Religions 42 (2003), pp.287-319. Gimello, Robert M. “Random Reflections on the ‘Sinicization’
 of Buddhism,” Society for the Study of Chinese Religions Bulletin, vol.5 (1978), pp.52-89. Sharf, Robert H.
 “Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience." Numen, vol. 42, no.3 (1985), pp.228-
 283. Faure, Bernard. “Bodhidharma as Textual and Religious Paradigm,” History of Religions, vol.25,
 no.3 (1986), pp.187-198. Zürcher, Erik. "Perspectives in the Study of Chinese Buddhism," Journal of the
 Royal Asiatic Society, vol.2 (1982), pp.161-176. [These short works together count as one monograph]

Chen, Kenneth. Buddhism in China. A Historical Survey (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972).

Dobbins, James. Jōdo Shinshū: Shin Buddhism in medieval Japan (Bloomington: Indiana
University Press, 1989).

Eubanks, Charlotte D.  Miracles of Book and Body: Buddhist Textual Culture and Medieval Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011).

Faure, Bernard. The Rhetoric of Immediacy. A Cultural Critique of Chan/Zen Buddhism (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1991).

Gernet, Jacques. Buddhism in Chinese Society. An Economic History from the Fifth to the Tenth Centuries
(Columbia University Press, 1995).

Greene, Eric M. Chan Before Chan: Meditation, Repentance, and Visionary Experience in Chinese Buddhism
(Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2021).

Groner, Paul, Saicho: The Establishment of the Japanese Tendai School (Berkeley: Center for South and Southeast
Asian Studies, University of California/Institute of Buddhist Studies, 1984 or Honolulu: University of
Hawai’i Press, 2000).

Jaffe, Richard. Neither Monk Nor Layman: Clerical Marriage in Modern Japanese Buddhism (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 2001).

Kieschnick, John. The Impact of Buddhism on Chinese Material Culture (Princeton University Press, 2003).

LaFleur, William R.: The Karma of Words. Buddhism and the Literary Arts in Medieval Japan (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1983).

Lowe, Bryan D.  Ritualized Writing: Buddhist Practice and Scriptural Cultures in Ancient Japan (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2016).

McRae. John R. Seeing Through Zen: Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in Chinese Chan Buddhism
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003).

Moerman, Max. The Japanese Buddhist World Map (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2021).

Nelson, John.  Experimental Buddhism: Innovation and Activism in Contemporary Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2013).

Rambelli, Fabio. Buddhist Materiality: A Cultural History of Objects in Japanese Buddhism (Stanford: Stanford
University Press, 2007).

Reader, Ian: Religion in Contemporary Japan (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1991).

Reader, Ian and George Joji Tanabe. Practically Religious: Worldly Benefits and the Common Religion of Japan
(Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1998).

Rong, Xinjiang. (Imre Galambos translator) Eighteen Lectures on Dunhuang (Leiden: Brill, 2013).

Schlütter, Morten. How Zen Became Zen: The Dispute Over Enlightenment and the Formation of Chan Buddhism in
 Song-Dynasty China (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2008).

Shen, Hsueh-man. Authentic Replicas: Buddhist Art in Medieval China (Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press, 2019).

Tamura, Yoshiro Japanese Buddhism: A Cultural History (Kosei Publishing Company, 2001).

Teiser, Stephen F. The Ghost Festival in Medieval China (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988).
 
__________ and Jacqueline I. Stone, Readings of the Lotus Sutra (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009).

Stone, Jacqueline. Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1999).

__________. Right thoughts at the last moment: Buddhism and deathbed practices in early medieval Japan
(Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2016)

Welch, Holmes. The Practice of Chinese Buddhism (Cambridge Mass: Harvard University Press, 1967).

Williams, Duncan Ryūken. The other Side of Zen: A Social History of Sōtō Zen Buddhism in Tokugawa Japan 
(Princeton/Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2005).

Yü, Chün-fang. Chinese Buddhism: A Thematic History (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2020).

Zürcher, Erik. The Buddhist Conquest of China: The Spread and Adaptation of Buddhism in Early Medieval China
(Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1972).

THE WEST

Batchelor, Stephen. The Awakening of the West: The Encounter of Buddhism and Western Culture (London:
Aquarian, 1994).

Williams, Duncan. American Sutra: A Story of Faith and Freedom in the Second World War (Cambridge MASS:
Harvard University Press, 2019).