Kooperativer Bibliotheksverbund

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Format: 1 online resource (240 p.)

ISBN: 9780824858582

Content: This book introduces contemporary Buddhists from across Asia and from various walks of life. Eschewing traditional hagiographies, the editors have collected sixty-six profiles of individuals who would be excluded from most Buddhist histories and ethnographies. In addition to monks and nuns, readers will encounter artists, psychologists, social workers, part-time priests, healers, and librarians as well as charlatans, hucksters, profiteers, and rabble-rousers—all whose lives reflect changes in modern Buddhism even as they themselves shape the course of these changes. The editors and contributors are fundamentally concerned with how individual Buddhists make meaning and display this understanding to others. Some practitioners profiled look to the past, lamenting the transformations Buddhism has undergone in recent times, while others embrace these. Some have adopted a “new asceticism,” while others are eager to explore different religious traditions as they think about their own ways of being Buddhist. Arranging the profiles according to these themes—looking backward, forward, inward, and outward—reveals the value of studying individual Buddhists and their idiosyncratic religious backgrounds and attitudes, thus highlighting the diversity of approaches to the practice and study of Buddhism in Asia today. Students and teachers will welcome sections on further readings and additional tables of contents that organize the profiles thematically, as well as by tradition (Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana), region, and country.

Note: Frontmatter -- , Contents -- , Contents by Buddhist Tradition -- , Contents by Region and Country -- , Introduction -- , Looking Backward -- , Yangon Airport Tower Communications Worker -- , The “Insane” Monk -- , The Choices of a Priest on the Edge of Toyota City -- , A Witness to Genocide -- , A Monk between Worlds -- , A Buddhist Media Pioneer -- , Embracing Belief and Critique in an Academic Life -- , Knowing Buddha Organization -- , Educate, Agitate, Organize -- , Sinhala Buddhism and Alcohol Consumption -- , The Builder of Temporary Temples and Golden Corpses -- , A Rakhine Monk from Bangladesh -- , Rebuilding Temples after War -- , Scholar, Reformer, and Activist -- , A Thai Mural Painter in Singapore -- , Looking Forward: Social-Psychological Care in a Troubled World -- , Stabilizing the Rhythms of Life after the Tsunami -- , President of the Theravada Nuns’ Order of Nepal -- , The Rise of the “Clinical Religionist” -- , Activist Temple Wife -- , Modernizing Buddhist Proselytization in Hong Kong -- , Modern Miracles of a Female Buddhist Master -- , The Temple Is a Place of Solutions -- , Maitreya’s IT Guy -- , A Female Monk and the Hmong -- , The Globally Local Priest -- , Raising the Powerful Girl Child -- , Buddha Was Tharu -- , A Modern Taiwanese Educator -- , Inventor of a Buddhist Alphabet -- , Trading in the Buddhist Life for Drugs -- , Two Self-Sacrificing Bureaucrats -- , A Facebook Buddhist -- , A Daughter of Lamas, Yogis, and Shamans -- , Taiwan’s New Age Buddhist -- , A Modernist Monk with Chinese Characteristics -- , An Anticommunist Monk and Violence -- , Looking Inward: New Asceticism in Modern Buddhism -- , Art, Service, And A High-Rise Temple -- , State Secularism and the Tibetan Non-monastic Tradition -- , A Buddhist Spirit Medium -- , An Act of Merit -- , A Buddhist Lay Leader -- , A Modern-Day Burmese Weikza -- , Negotiating Religion and the State -- , Mother and Son and Meditation -- , Reconnecting with the Land (and the Gods) -- , A Buddha in the Making -- , The Singing Nun -- , The Only Buddhist in the Village -- , Stars for the Drowning -- , Alien Behavior -- , The Life and Times of a Shan Buddhist -- , Looking Outward: Local Buddhists Becoming Global Citizens -- , Teaching Buddhism as a Second Language -- , The Empowerment of Buddhist Women -- , A Buddhist Mickey Mouse -- , A Twenty-first Century Custodian -- , The Return of the Dutch -- , The Blogger Monk in Southern China -- , Carving Playful Buddhas -- , Prolific Writer, Cool Blogger -- , Collector of Magic, Esquire -- , A Sovereign Body beyond the Nation-State -- , Post-Monk Life in New Zealand -- , The First Theravada Bhikkhuni in Vietnam -- , Monk, Writer, Educator, and International Buddhist -- , On Being a “Human Being” -- , Thousand Hands, Thousand Eyes -- , Further Reading -- , Contributors -- , Index , In English.

Language: English

DOI: 10.1515/9780824858582

URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824858582

URL: https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9780824858582

URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824858582

URL: https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9780824858582