2017 Lekha Newsletter

ddhist Stu Bu di es r fo a t r S e t t a n n e f o C r o d · H LEKHA 史 · 丹心 NEWSLETTER • ISSUE 6 • 2017 佛何中氏佛學研究 The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Center for Buddhist Studies at Stanford University IN THIS ISSUE: CO-DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE HIGHLIGHTS 4 THERAVADA BUDDHISM LECTURE SERIES Alicia Turner, York University, Canada 5 TT & WF CHAO DISTINGUISHED BUDDHIST PRACTITIONER LECTURES Venerable Ajahn Sona, Abbot of Birken Forest Monastery, Canada 6 TIBETAN STUDIES INITIATIVE Ester Bianchi, University of Perugia, Italy 7 THE EVANS-WENTZ LECTURE Lothar Ledderose, Heidelberg University, Germany 8 SILK ROAD LECTURES Imre Galambos, University of Cambridge, England 8 9 HWEI TAI SEMINAR Wendi Adamek, University of Calgary, Canada 10 SHINNYO-EN VISITING PROFESSOR LECTURE Jens-Uwe Hartmann, University of Munich, Germany 11 INDIAN BUDDHISM LECTURES Jowita Kramer, University of Munich, Germany Alexandra Kaloyanides, the Ho Center’s 2015–17 Postdoctoral Fellow, Stanford University Christian Wedemeyer, University of Chicago Divinity School 14 SPECIAL TOPIC SERIES Max Moerman, Barnard College and Columbia University Lekha Newsletter Alexandra Kaloyanides, the Ho Center’s 2015-17 Postdoctoral Fellow, Issue 6 • 2017 Stanford University Lekha is a Sanskrit word for 15 CHINESE BUDDHISM LECTURES letter or writing Charles Orzech, University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK 16 GRADUATE STUDENTS WORKSHOP Editor and Writer: Wendi Adamek, University of Calgary, Canada Irene Lin Marcus Bingenheimer, Temple University Stuart Young, Bucknell University Designer: 17 SPECIAL EVENT Tatiana Deogirikar Buddhist Studies Symposium 2016 Contributors: HCBSS NEWS Yi Ding Eric Huntington, the Ho Center’s 2017-19 Postdoctoral Fellow John Kieschnick Simona Lazzerini STUDENT REFLECTIONS Grace Ramswick Daniel Tuzzeo 18 FIRST YEAR REFLECTIONS Simona Lazzerini, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Religious Studies, Cover image: Stanford University photographer: 19 STUDENT NEWS Christian Luczanits Best Undergraduate Paper in Buddhist Studies for 2016-17 “The mahasiddha cave of Konchokling Qualifying Exams in Upper Mustang, Nepal” Student Publications CO-DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE This has been the year of qualifying graduate students or, more generally, exams. The stars aligned in such a way for her collegiality. Our new that over the past few weeks six PhD postdoctoral fellow, Eric Huntington, students in Buddhist Studies have taken comes to us after a stint as the their qualifying exams. In designing the Cotsen Postdoctoral Fellow in the reading list for the Buddhism exam the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts challenge was to provide enough breadth at Princeton. Eric, who works on to ensure that our students graduate Buddhist depictions of the cosmos, with a grounding in the major areas of starts in September and will teach a Buddhist Studies, but short enough that seminar this year entitled “Creating they have time to read carefully and the Universe: Buddhist Science, Ritual to complete the reading in a couple and Art” in the Winter quarter. John Kieschnick, Co-Director of HCBSS of quarters. We settled on a model in which students choose from a short list Paul Harrison was on leave this year of 10 primary sources and 10 secondary but, in a series of bodhisattva-like acts We (and by “we” I mean, mostly, Irene, sources, covering different geographical of sacrifice, emerged from his study to Tatiana and Stephanie) have been hard at regions and different approaches to the help us out time and again, not only work preparing for the 20th anniversary material. The timed, written portion of with the eighteen hours of qualifying of the Ho Center, which we will celebrate the exam is followed by a three-hour oral exams, but also with planning for the with workshops, presentations, exhibitions exam. Now that this round of exams is 20th anniversary and all manner of and other surprises. It’s too early to over, we are waiting on student response administrative crises. He did vacate his confirm all of the participants and to the latest iteration of the reading list, office long enough for this year’s Shinnyo- activities, but keep an eye on the Center’s but personally I’ve found the 18 hours of en Visiting Professor, Jens-Uwe Hartmann website as November 2017 approaches. intense discussion on the state of Buddhist of the University of Munich to make full Studies in the space of a few weeks use of it during his time with us this year. fascinating—one of the highlights of my I had come to expect Uwe’s erudition, but year. his relentless good cheer in the midst of the gloomiest California winter in memory In the next few months we will say took me by surprise. goodbye to our first Buddhist Studies postdoc and hello to our next. Alexandra Lectures at the Center included 16 Kaloyanides, our postdoc for the past speakers this year, including our yearly John Kieschnick two years, will be taking up a position workshop organized by a graduate The Robert H. N. Ho Family as Assistant Professor at the University student. This year it was a workshop Foundation Professor, called “text is territory” which focused on of North Carolina, Charlotte. Alex has Religious Studies been a major presence at the Center, the relationship between text and space and set the bar high for subsequent in Chinese Buddhism. (Next year, Adeana postdocs, whether for her intellectual McNicholl is organizing a workshop on contributions to discussions at talks, Buddhist theories of embodiment). her own presentations, her work with 3 THERAVADA BUDDHISM LECTURE SERIES The Most Democratic Monastery: Religious Difference and Indifference in Colonial Burma Alicia Turner (by Grace Ramswick) HIGHLIGHTS Alicia Turner, York University, Canada Alicia Turner, Associate Professor at order to explore how such institutionally Turning to her second example, Turner York University and author of Saving reinforced religious and ethnic boundaries acquainted us with two reform-minded Buddhism: The Impermanence of were in some circumstances ignored or monks who were active in the smaller Religion in Colonial Burma, visited us in transgressed. southern port city of Tavoy. The first October 2016 to share some of her recent of these monks was Indra Wunsa, who work on constructions and deconstructions Her first example brought us to navigated complex relationships with of religious difference in colonial Burma. Thayettaw, a monastic complex of royal, colonial, and monastic authorities Rangoon known as “the most democratic in such a way that he was granted a fair As a prelude to the main portion of her of monasteries.” She began by detailing amount of latitude in pursuing reforms talk, Professor Turner spoke briefly about how its growth from a single monastery in his community. She then introduced twentieth and twenty-first century shifts in into a large complex is historically us to Indra Wunsa’s successor, Thila the country’s political climate, including tied to the British reconstruction of Thera, who went on to found the Tavoy’s the more recent success of the National the city along a grid in the 1850s. The comparatively multi-ethnic (and Chinese- League for Democracy in the 2015 new grid infrastructure, through which sponsored) Zeyawadi Monastery. general election and ongoing concerns colonial order, hierarchy, and bounded about religious tolerance in the country. multiculturalism were inscribed into the In her closing comments, she invited us Referencing theoretical scholarship surroundings, left only a limited number to join her in reflecting further on these on notions of the “secular” and the of plots for religious groups of various case studies, and expressed the hope that “religious,” she drew our attention to the sorts. These plots went largely to groups her work will generate new questions manner in which both modern nation- serving ethnic enclaves, and as a result, about contingent modes of tolerance and states and Buddhist institutions of various most indigenous Burmese Buddhist inclusion in colonial and post-colonial sorts rely for their functioning on the monasteries relocated to Thayettaw at Burma. reproduction and management of ethnic the city’s northern fringe. Here, Turner and religious boundaries. claimed, a different type of urban space began to take shape—one which, by virtue Yet in her subsequent turn to case studies of its “maze-like” layout and inclusiveness, from the mid-late nineteenth century, has over the years been physically and Turner’s goal was not simply to provide socially at odds with its more regimented examples of overt colonial constructions environs and certain sensibilities of the of difference. Instead, she focused on Buddhist elite. two “pockets of pluralist interaction” in 4 TT & WF CHAO DISTINGUISHED BUDDHIST PRACTITIONER LECTURE My 40 Years of Buddhism in the West Venerable Ajahn Sona Venerable Ajahn Sona, Abbot of Birken Forest Monsetery, Canada Venerable Ajahn Sona started his talk and abstract. We no longer experience Ajahn Sona teaches two main practices. by reflecting on his first encounter with reality directly. He emphasized that our First, through breath meditation, Buddhism. Attracted to philosophy at emotional afflictions and intellectual practitioners become conscious, aware, university and interested in the meaning excess could be controlled or shut down and not harassed by linear or discursive of life, he became a classical musician and through meditation. If we are able to thinking. Second, through the practice joined the music faculty at the University experience life in a new and different way, of metta or loving kindness, practitioners of Toronto. His first encounter with we can overcome the disappointment become less critical or harsh toward Buddhism was through a Tibetan Buddhist and disenchantment of the world as themselves and others. Ajahn Sona tulku giving instructions in meditation. experienced through the sensory world of states that the most important therapy in After practicing with the tulku, Ajahn sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch.

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