Head, Eyes, Flesh, Blood
Giving Away the Body in Indian Buddhist Literature
Seiten
2006
Columbia University Press (Verlag)
978-0-231-13708-9 (ISBN)
Columbia University Press (Verlag)
978-0-231-13708-9 (ISBN)
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A study of the Buddha's bodily self-sacrifice during his previous lives as a bodhisattva. This book argues that this theme has had an impact on the development of Buddhist philosophy and culture. It relates the theme of the Buddha's bodily self-sacrifice to various conceptual discourses in the history of Buddhism and South Asian religions.
Head, Eyes, Flesh, and Blood is the first comprehensive study of a central narrative theme in premodern South Asian Buddhist literature: the Buddha's bodily self-sacrifice during his previous lives as a bodhisattva. Conducting close readings of stories from Sanskrit, Pali, Chinese, and Tibetan literature written between the third century BCE and the late medieval period, Reiko Ohnuma argues that this theme has had a major impact on the development of Buddhist philosophy and culture. Whether he takes the form of king, prince, ascetic, elephant, hare, serpent, or god, the bodhisattva repeatedly gives his body or parts of his flesh to others. He leaps into fires, drowns himself in the ocean, rips out his tusks, gouges out his eyes, and lets mosquitoes drink from his blood, always out of selflessness and compassion and to achieve the highest state of Buddhahood. Ohnuma places these stories into a discrete subgenre of South Asian Buddhist literature and approaches them like case studies, analyzing their plots, characterizations, and rhetoric.
She then relates the theme of the Buddha's bodily self-sacrifice to major conceptual discourses in the history of Buddhism and South Asian religions, such as the categories of the gift, the body (both ordinary and extraordinary), kingship, sacrifice, ritual offering, and death. Head, Eyes, Flesh, and Blood reveals a very sophisticated and influential perception of the body in South Asian Buddhist literature and highlights the way in which these stories have provided an important cultural resource for Buddhists. Combined with her rich and careful translations of classic texts, Ohnuma introduces a whole new understanding of a vital concept in Buddhists studies.
Head, Eyes, Flesh, and Blood is the first comprehensive study of a central narrative theme in premodern South Asian Buddhist literature: the Buddha's bodily self-sacrifice during his previous lives as a bodhisattva. Conducting close readings of stories from Sanskrit, Pali, Chinese, and Tibetan literature written between the third century BCE and the late medieval period, Reiko Ohnuma argues that this theme has had a major impact on the development of Buddhist philosophy and culture. Whether he takes the form of king, prince, ascetic, elephant, hare, serpent, or god, the bodhisattva repeatedly gives his body or parts of his flesh to others. He leaps into fires, drowns himself in the ocean, rips out his tusks, gouges out his eyes, and lets mosquitoes drink from his blood, always out of selflessness and compassion and to achieve the highest state of Buddhahood. Ohnuma places these stories into a discrete subgenre of South Asian Buddhist literature and approaches them like case studies, analyzing their plots, characterizations, and rhetoric.
She then relates the theme of the Buddha's bodily self-sacrifice to major conceptual discourses in the history of Buddhism and South Asian religions, such as the categories of the gift, the body (both ordinary and extraordinary), kingship, sacrifice, ritual offering, and death. Head, Eyes, Flesh, and Blood reveals a very sophisticated and influential perception of the body in South Asian Buddhist literature and highlights the way in which these stories have provided an important cultural resource for Buddhists. Combined with her rich and careful translations of classic texts, Ohnuma introduces a whole new understanding of a vital concept in Buddhists studies.
Reiko Ohnuma is associate professor of religion at Dartmouth College. Her research focuses on premodern South Asian Buddhist literature, especially narrative literature. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband and two children.
Illustrations Tables Conventions Used in This Book Acknowledgments Introduction 1. The Gift-of-the-Body Genre 2. Conventions of Plot 3. Conventions of Rhetoric 4. Dana: The Buddhist Discourse on Giving 5. A Flexible Gift 6. Bodies Ordinary and Ideal 7. Kingship, Sacrifice, Offering, and Death: Some Other Interpretive Contexts Conclusions Appendix: A Corpus of Gift-of-the-Body Jatakas Notes Bibliography of Works Cited Index
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 26.12.2006 |
|---|---|
| Zusatzinfo | 9 illus. |
| Verlagsort | New York |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 152 x 229 mm |
| Themenwelt | Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Buddhismus |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Anglistik / Amerikanistik | |
| ISBN-10 | 0-231-13708-7 / 0231137087 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-231-13708-9 / 9780231137089 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
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