Buddhist Manuscript Cultures explores how religious and cultural practices in premodern Asia were shaped by literary and artistic traditions as well as by Buddhist material culture. This study of Buddhist texts focuses on the significance of their material forms rather than their doctrinal contents, and examines how and why they were made.
Collectively, the book offers cross-cultural and comparative insights into the transmission of Buddhist knowledge and the use of texts and images as ritual objects in the artistic and aesthetic traditions of Buddhist cultures. Drawing on case studies from India, Gandhara, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Mongolia, China and Nepal, the chapters included investigate the range of interests and values associated with producing and using written texts, and the roles manuscripts and images play in the transmission of Buddhist texts and in fostering devotion among Buddhist communities.

Buddhist Manuscript Cultures, Stephen C. Berkwitz, Juliane Schober, Claudia Brown, Routledge, Paperback, 211 pp, $57.95

STEPHEN C. BERKWITZ is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Missouri State University. His research focuses on Buddhist Studies in Sri Lanka. At present he is preparing "South Asian Buddhism: A Survey", also for publication with Routledge. Faculty profile. JULIANE SCHOBER is Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies, Arizona State University. Her research focuses on Theravada Buddhism in Burma, particularly on ritual, sacred geography, and the veneration of icons in the modern state cult. Faculty profile. CLAUDIA BROWN is Professor of Art History, Arizona State University. Her research interest is the History of Art with an emphasis in Chinese painting.

List of figures. xi
Acknowledgements. xiv
List of contributors. xvi
1. Stephen C. Berkwitz, Juliane Schober, and Claudia Brown: Introduction: Rethinking Buddhist Manuscript Cultures. 1
PART I: IDEOLOGIES
2. Richard Salomon: Why Did the Gandharan Buddhists Bury their Manuscripts? 19
3. Stephen C. Berkwitz: Materiality and Merit in Sri Lankan Buddhist Manuscripts. 35
PART II: PRODUCTION
4. Peter Skilling: Redaction, Recitation, and Writing: Transmission of the Buddha's Teachings in India in the Early Period. 53
5. Vesna A. Wallace: Diverse Aspects of the Mongolian Buddhist Manuscript Culture and Realms of Its Influence. 76
6. Jens-Uwe Hartmann: From Words to Books: Indian Buddhist Manuscripts in the First Millennium CE. 95
PART III: CURATING
7. Natasha Heller: Between Zhongfeng Mingben and Zhao Mengfu: Chan Letters in their Manuscript Context. 109
8. Justin McDaniel: Two Buddhist Librarians: The Proximate Mechanisms for Northern Thai Buddhist History. 124
9. Christoph Emmrich: Emending Perfection. Prescript, Postscript and Practice in Newar Buddhist Manuscript Culture. 140
PART IV: ART AND ARCHITECTURE
10. Bilinda Devage Nandadeva: Flowers for the Dhamma: Painted Buddhist Palm-leaf Manuscript Covers from Sri Lanka. 159
11. M.L. Pattaratorn Chirapravati: From Text to Image: Copying as Buddhist Practice in Late Fourteenth-Century Sukhothai. 172
Bibliography. 189
Index 206