UID:
almafu_9959739546002883
Format:
1 online resource (227 p.)
ISBN:
0-231-54100-7
Series Statement:
Columbia Readings of Buddhist Literature
Content:
The Vessantara Jataka tells the story of Prince Vessantara, who attained the Perfection of Generosity by giving away his fortune, his children, and his wife. Vessantara was the penultimate rebirth as a human of the future Gotama Buddha, and his extreme charity has been represented and reinterpreted in texts, sermons, rituals, and art throughout South and Southeast Asia and beyond. This anthology features well-respected anthropologists, textual scholars in religious and Buddhist studies, and art historians, who engage in sophisticated readings of the text and its ethics of giving, understanding of attachment and nonattachment, depiction of the trickster, and unique performative qualities. They reveal the story to be as brilliantly layered as a Homeric epic or Shakespearean play, with aspects of tragedy, comedy, melodrama, and utopian fantasy intertwined to problematize and scrutinize Theravada Buddhism's cherished virtues.
Note:
Includes index.
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Frontmatter --
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Contents --
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Preface --
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Introduction, Dramatis Personae, and Chapters in the Vessantara Jātaka --
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1. Readers in the Maze: Modern Debates About the Vessantara Story in Thailand --
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2. Emotions and Narrative: Excessive Giving and Ethical Ambivalence in the Lao Vessantara Jātaka --
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3. Blissfully Buddhist and Betrothed: Marriage in the Vessantara Jātaka and Other South and Southeast Asian Buddhist Narratives --
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4. Jūjaka as Trickster: The Comedic Monks of Northern Thailand --
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5. Narration in the Vessantara Painted Scrolls of Northeast Thailand and Laos --
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6. A Man for All Seasons: Three Vessantaras in Premodern Myanmar --
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7. Vessantara Opts Out: Newar Versions of the Tale of the Generous Prince --
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Index
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Issued also in print.
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In English.
Additional Edition:
ISBN 0-231-16038-0
Additional Edition:
ISBN 0-231-16039-9
Language:
English
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