Talks Buddhist Studies Lecture Series continues

“The Pseudo-Śūraṃgama Sūtra as a Chan Text: The Tibetan Perspective”

Abstract:
The Pseudo-Śūraṃgama Sūtra (Shoulengyan jing 首楞嚴經), compiled during the early eighth century in the Tang, has been one of the most influential Buddhist texts in East Asia. Despite its enigmatic and perplexing content, it significantly impacted East Asian Buddhism. Portions of the text were translated into Tibetan and referenced in various Tibetan Chan-related writings. This talk examines the reception of this apocryphon in eighth- and ninth-century Tibet, with a focus on its association with the Northern School of Chan. This apocryphon was employed to justify a distinctive form of doctrinal syncretism and controversial meditative practices. Additionally, its reception history underscores the challenges in translating the text, as its allure and complexity resist straightforward interpretation.

"Buddhism, Gender, and the Language Order of Early Second Millennium Sri Lanka."

Abstract:
Existing scholarship on Sri Lankan history has tended to assume that Pali—the liturgical and scholastic language of Theravāda Buddhism—was also always the language of royal prestige it later became. In this colloquium, I present a revised history of the premodern Sri Lankan “language order,” in which I draw on inscriptional data to make three key interventions. First, I identify a distinct genre of Sinhala-language inscriptional practice, emerging in the ninth century, which cannot be explained away as mere imitation of Sanskrit praśasti inscriptions. Second, I document the increasing use of Tamil and Sanskrit—often dismissed as alien and non-Buddhist languages—in royal inscriptions from the early second millennium kingdom of Poḷonnaruva. Finally, I show that Pali appears only late in the inscriptional record and, notably, is initially employed only by royal consorts, not ruling monarchs. Together, these interventions challenge our received wisdom on the interplay of religion, gender, and transculturality in the formation of Sri Lankan Buddhist culture.

This lecture is organized by the South Asia Institute, in partnership with the department of Buddhist Studies.

“Transnational Buddhism and Ambedkarite migration”

Abstract forthcoming

This lecture is organized by the South Asia Institute, in partnership with the department of Buddhist Studies.