While early Buddhists hailed their religion’s founder for opening
a path to enlightenment, they also exalted him as the paragon of
masculinity. According to Buddhist scriptures, the Buddha’s body
boasts thirty-two physical features, including lionlike jaws,
thighs like a royal stag, broad shoulders, and a deep, resonant
voice, that distinguish him from ordinary men. As Buddhism spread
throughout Asia and around the world, the Buddha remained an
exemplary man, but Buddhists in other times and places developed
their own understandings of what it meant to be masculine. This
transdisciplinary book brings together essays that explore the
variety and diversity of Buddhist masculinities, from early India
to the contemporary United States and from bodhisattva-kings to
martial monks. Buddhist Masculinities adopts the methods of
religious studies, anthropology, art history, textual-historical
studies, and cultural studies to explore texts, images, films,
media, and embodiments of masculinity across the Buddhist world,
past and present. It turns scholarly attention to normative forms
of masculinity that usually go unmarked and unstudied precisely
because they are “normal,” illuminating the religious and
cultural processes that construct Buddhist masculinities. Engaging
with contemporary issues of gender identity, intersectionality, and
sexual ethics, Buddhist Masculinities ushers in a new era for the
study of Buddhism and gender.
General
Imprint: |
Columbia University Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
September 2023 |
Editors: |
Megan Bryson
• Kevin Buckelew
|
Dimensions: |
229 x 152mm (L x W) |
Pages: |
304 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-231-21047-8 |
Categories: |
Books
|
LSN: |
0-231-21047-7 |
Barcode: |
9780231210478 |
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