The interdisciplinary volume
Transfer of Buddhism across Central Asian Networks (7th to 13th Centuries), edited by Carmen Meinert, offers a new transregional and transcultural vision for religious transfer processes in Central Asian history. It looks at the region as an integrated (religious) whole rather than from the perspective of fragmented sub-disciplines and analyses the spread of Buddhism as a driving force in a societal and cultural change of pan-Asian importance. One particular dimension of this ‘Buddhist globalisation’ was the rise of local forms of Buddhism. This volume explores Buddhist localisations through manuscripts and material culture in the multiethnic oases of the Tarim basin, the Transhimalyan region of Zangskar, Ladakh and Kashmir and the Western Tibetan Kingdom of Purang-Guge.
Contributors are: Kazuo Kano, Deborah Klimburg-Salter, Rob Linrothe, Linda Lojda, Carmen Meinert, Henrik H. Sørensen, Monica Strinu, Gertraud Taenzer, Sam van Schaik, and Jens Wilkens.
Carmen Meinert, Dr. phil. (2001), Bonn University, is Professor of Central Asian Religions at Bochum University. She has published on Buddhism in Central Asia, on Tibetan-Chinese relations, and monographs including
Buddha in the Yurt — Buddhist Art from Mongolia (Hirmer, 2011).
Contents:
Acknowledgements
General Abbreviations
Bibliographical Abbreviations
Illustrations
Notes on contributors
- Introduction:
Dynamics of Buddhist Transfer in Central Asia CARMEN MEINERT
- Changing political and Religious Contexts in Central Asia on a Micoro-Historical Level
Chapter 1:
Changing Relations between Administration, Clergy and Lay People in Eastern Central Asia: A Case Study According to the Dunhuang Manuscripts Referring to the Transition from Tibetan to Local Rule in Dunhuang, 8th–11th Centuries GERTRAUD TAENZER
- Textual Transfer
Chapter 2:
Tibetan Buddhism in Central Asia: Geopolitics and Group Dynamics SAM VAN SCHAIK
Chapter 3:
The Transmission of Sanskrit Manuscripts from India to Tibet: The Case of a Manuscript Collection in the Possession of Atiśa Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna (980–1054) KAZUO KANO
- Visual Transfer
Chapter 4:
The Tibetan Himalayan Style: Considering the Central Asian Connection LINDA LOJDA/DEBORAH KLIMBURG-SALTER/ MONICA STRINU
Chapter 5:
Origins of the Kashmiri Style in the Western Himalayas: Sculpture of the 7th–11th Centuries ROB LINROTHE
- Transfer Agents
Chapter 6:
Buddhism in the West Uyghur Kingdom and Beyond JENS WILKENS
Chapter 7:
Esoteric Buddhism at the Crossroads: Religious Dynamics at Dunhuang, 9th–10th Centuries HENRIK H. SØRENSEN
- Bibliography
- Index
All interested in an interdisciplinary approach towards understanding religious transfer processes across a Central Asian Buddhist network, best known as the Silk Road(s).