0
Your cart

Your cart is empty

Books

Buy Now

Ritualized Writing - Buddhist Practice and Scriptural Cultures in Ancient Japan (Paperback) Loot Price: R642
Discovery Miles 6 420
Ritualized Writing - Buddhist Practice and Scriptural Cultures in Ancient Japan (Paperback): Bryan D Lowe, Robert E. Buswell Jr

Ritualized Writing - Buddhist Practice and Scriptural Cultures in Ancient Japan (Paperback)

Bryan D Lowe, Robert E. Buswell Jr

Series: Kuroda Studies in East Asian Buddhism

 (sign in to rate)
Loot Price R642 Discovery Miles 6 420 | Repayment Terms: R60 pm x 12*

Bookmark and Share

Expected to ship within 12 - 17 working days

Ritualized Writing takes readers into the fascinating world of Japanese Buddhist manuscript cultures. Using archival sources that have received scant attention in English, primarily documents from an eighth-century Japanese scriptorium and colophons from sutra manuscripts, Bryan D. Lowe uncovers the ways in which the transcription of Buddhist scripture was a highly ritualized endeavor. He takes a ground-level approach by emphasizing the activities and beliefs of a wide range of individuals, including scribes, provincial patrons, and royals, to reassess the meaning of scripture and reevaluate scholarly narratives of Japanese Buddhist history. Copying scripture is a central Buddhist practice and one that thrived in East Asia. Despite this, there are no other books dedicated to the topic. This work demonstrates that patrons and scribes treated sutras differently from other modes of writing. Scribes purified their bodies prior to transcription. Patrons held dedicatory ceremonies on days of abstinence, when prayers were pronounced and sutras were recited. Transcribing sutras helped scribes and patrons alike realize this- and other-worldly ambitions and cultivate themselves in accord with Buddhist norms. Sutra copying thus functioned as a form of ritualized writing, a strategic practice that set apart scripture as uniquely efficacious and venerable. Lowe employs this notion of ritualized writing to challenge historical narratives about ancient Japan (late seventh through early ninth centuries), a period when sutra copying flourished. He contends that Buddhist practice fulfilled a variety of social, political, and spiritual roles beyond ideological justification. Moreover, he demonstrates the inadequacy of state-folk dichotomies for understanding the social groups, institutions, and individual beliefs and practices of ancient Japanese Buddhism, highlighting instead common organizations across social class and using models that reveal shared concerns among believers from diverse social backgrounds. Ritualized Writing makes broader contributions to the study of ritual and scripture by introducing the notion of scriptural cultures, an analytic tool that denotes a series of dynamic relationships and practices involving texts that have been strategically set apart or ritualized. Scripture, Lowe concludes, is at once a category created by humans and a body of texts that transforms individuals and social organizations who come into contact with it.

General

Imprint: University of Hawaii Press
Country of origin: United States
Series: Kuroda Studies in East Asian Buddhism
Release date: October 2022
Authors: Bryan D Lowe • Robert E. Buswell Jr
Dimensions: 229 x 152mm (L x W)
Format: Paperback
Pages: 292
ISBN-13: 978-0-8248-9547-1
Categories: Books
LSN: 0-8248-9547-9
Barcode: 9780824895471

Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate? Let us know about it.

Does this product have an incorrect or missing image? Send us a new image.

Is this product missing categories? Add more categories.

Review This Product

No reviews yet - be the first to create one!

You might also like..

Dare To Believe - Why I Could Not Stay…
Mmusi Maimane Paperback R350 R249 Discovery Miles 2 490
How To Fix (Unf*ck) A Country - 6 Things…
Roy Havemann Paperback R310 R210 Discovery Miles 2 100
Tipping Point: Turmoil Or Reform…
Raymond Parsons Paperback R300 R215 Discovery Miles 2 150
Suid-Afrikaanse Leefstylgids vir…
Vickie de Beer, Kath Megaw, … Paperback R399 R290 Discovery Miles 2 900
Sizzlers - The Hate Crime That Tore Sea…
Nicole Engelbrecht Paperback R320 R235 Discovery Miles 2 350
Bullsh!t - 50 Fibs That Made South…
Jonathan Ancer Paperback  (2)
R270 R180 Discovery Miles 1 800
Mexico In Mzansi
Aiden Pienaar Paperback R360 R255 Discovery Miles 2 550
Guilty And Proud - An MK Soldier's…
Marion Sparg Paperback R330 R240 Discovery Miles 2 400
Birds Of Greater Southern Africa
Keith Barnes, Terry Stevenson, … Paperback  (4)
R450 R299 Discovery Miles 2 990
In Silence My Heart Speaks
Thobeka Yose Paperback R290 R195 Discovery Miles 1 950
Mission Of Malice - My Exodus From…
Erika Bornman Paperback  (8)
R260 R208 Discovery Miles 2 080
Positively Me - Daring To Live And Love…
Nozibele Mayaba, Sue Nyathi Paperback  (2)
R310 R210 Discovery Miles 2 100

See more

Partners