Indian Monastic Buddhism: Collected Papers on Textual, Inscriptional and Archaeological Evidence (2 Volumes, bound in one)
Schopen, Gregory
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PRODUCT DETAILS
Book ID : 37215
ISBN-10 : 81-208-3411-9 / 8120834119
ISBN-13 : 978-81-208-3411-8 / 9788120834118
Place
of Publication :
Delhi
Year
of Publication :
2010
Edition : (First Indian Edition)
Language : English
xxi+298p., xv+422p., Abb., Index, 23 cm. (First pub. by the University of Hawai'i Press in 2 Volumes in 1997 & 2004) (Buddhist Tradition Series Vol. 59)
CONTENTS
DESCRIPTION
Until the late twentieth century, scholars of Indian Buddhism focused almost exclusively on Buddhist scriptural and commentarial sources-sources that depict Buddhism in an idealized and prescriptive fashion. Accordingly, Buddhist monks and nuns were imagined as celibate renunciants engaged in sophisticated Philosophical debate and austere meditative practices leading to enlightenment. Little attention was paid to the kinds of textual and archaeological materials that go beyond mere prescription and shed light on the lived realities of Buddhist monastic culture. What was life in monasteries actually like? How did monks (and nuns!) sustain themselves and administer their establishments? What kind of ritual and devotional practices did they engage in, and what were their relations with the laity?