Consideration of children in the academic field of Religious Studies is taking root, but Buddhist Studies has yet to take notice. This collection is intended to open the question of children in Buddhism. It brings together a wide range of scholarship and expertise to address the question of what role children have played in the literature, in particular historical contexts, and what role they continue to play in specific Buddhist contexts today. Because the material is, in most cases, uncharted, all nineteen contributors involved in the project have exchanged chapters among themselves and thereby engaged in a kind of internal cohesion difficult to achieve in an edited project. The volume is divided into two parts. Part One addresses the representation of children in Buddhist texts and Part Two looks at children and childhoods in Buddhist cultures around the world. Little Buddhas will be an indispensable resource for students and scholars of Buddhism and Childhood Studies, and a catalyst for further research on the topic.

Vanessa R. Sasson is Professor of Religious Studies at Marianopolis College.

Contributors
Introduction: Charting New Territory: Children and Childhoods in Buddhist Texts and Traditions - Vanessa R. Sasson
Part One: Children and Childhoods in Buddhist Texts
Chapter One: A New Hat for Hariti: On ''Giving'' Children for their Protection to Buddhist Monks and Nuns in Early India - Gregory Schopen
Chapter Two: Scarecrows, Upasakas, Fetuses, and Other Child Monastics in Middle Period Indian Buddhism - Amy Paris Langenberg
Chapter Three: The Buddha's ''Childhood'': The Foundation for the Great Departure - Vanessa R. Sasson
Chapter Four: The Inheritance of Rahula: Abandoned Child, Boy Monk, Ideal Son, and Trainee - Kate Crosby
Chapter Five: The Precocious Child in Chinese Buddhism - Miriam Levering
Chapter Six: Picturing Childhood in Chinese Buddhism: The Sujati Jataka in Text and Image - Winston Kyan
Chapter Seven: ''What Children Need'': Making Childhood with Technologies of Protection and Healing - Frances Garrett
Chapter Eight: Picturing Buddhism: Nurturing Buddhist Worldviews through Children's Books - Karen Derris
Part Two: Children and Childhoods in Buddhist Traditions
Chapter Nine: Ordination (Pabbajja) as Going Forth?: Social Bonds and the Making of a Buddhist Monastic - Jeffrey Samuels
Chapter Ten: Monk and Boy: Becoming a Novice in Contemporary Sipsongpanna - Thomas Borchert
Chapter Eleven: Buddhism as a Vehicle for Girls' Safety and Education in Thailand - Monica Lindberg Falk
Chapter Twelve: Superheroes and Slapstick: New Media and the Teaching of Buddhist Children in Thailand - Justin McDaniel
Chapter Thirteen: Once We Were...: Former Child Nuns in Taiwan Reflecting Back - Wei-Yi Cheng
Chapter Fourteen: Zen-Boy Ikkyu - Melissa Anne-Marie Curley
Chapter Fifteen: Marrying the ''Thought Of Enlightenment'': The Multivalency of Girls' Symbolic Marriage Rites in the Newar Buddhist Community of Kathmandu, Nepal - Todd Lewis & Christoph Emmrich
Chapter Sixteen: Children in Himalayan Monasteries - Karma Lekshe Tsomo
Chapter Seventeen: The Westernization of Tulkus - Elijah Ary
Chapter Eighteen: ''Give Me My Inheritance'': Western Buddhists Raising Buddhist Children - Kristin Scheible
Chapter Nineteen: Young Lord Maitreya: The Curious Case of Jiddu Krishnamurti - Hillary Rodrigues
Bibliography
Index