Kim: Receptacle of the Sacred

Kim, Jinah:
Receptacle of the Sacred : Illustrated Manuscripts and the Buddhist Book Cult in South Asia / Jinah Kim. - Berkeley : University of California Press, 2013. - xxv, 377 S. : Ill. - (South Asia Across the Disciplines)
Hochschulschrift. Teilw. zugl.: Berkeley, Calif., Univ. of California, Diss., 2006 unter dem Titel: Unorthodox Practice : Rethinking the Cult of Illustrated Buddhist Books in South Asia (WorldCat)
ISBN 978-0-520-27386-3
US$ 70,00 / £ 48,95
DDC: 745.6708829430954
-- Angekündigt für April 2013 --

Beschreibung
In considering medieval illustrated Buddhist manuscripts as sacred objects of cultic innovation, Receptacle of the Sacred explores how and why the South Asian Buddhist book-cult has survived for almost two millennia to the present. A book “manuscript” should be understood as a form of sacred space: a temple in microcosm, not only imbued with divine presence but also layered with the memories of many generations of users. Jinah Kim argues that illustrating a manuscript with Buddhist imagery not only empowered it as a three-dimensional sacred object, but also made it a suitable tool for the spiritual transformation of medieval Indian practitioners. Through a detailed historical analysis of Sanskrit colophons on patronage, production, and use of illustrated manuscripts, she suggests that while Buddhism’s disappearance in eastern India was a slow and gradual process, the Buddhist book-cult played an important role in sustaining its identity. In addition, by examining the physical traces left by later Nepalese users and the contemporary ritual use of the book in Nepal, Kim shows how human agency was critical in perpetuating and intensifying the potency of a manuscript as a sacred object throughout time. [Verlagsinformation]

Inhalt
Acknowledgements. xi
List of Figures in the Printed Book. xv
List of Figures and Diagrams Online. xxi
Introduction: Text, Image and the Book. 1
PART 1: THE BOOK
   1. Buddhist Books and their Cultic Use. 23
   2. Innovations of the Medieval Buddhist Book Cult. 43
PART 2: TEXT AND IMAGE
   3. Representing the Perfection of Wisdom, Embodying the Holy Sites. 73
   4. The Visual World of Buddhist Book Illustrations. 113
   5. Esoteric Buddhism and the Illustrated Manuscripts. 149
PART 3: THE PEOPLE
   6. Social History of the Buddhist Book Cult. 213
   Epilogue: Invoking a Goddess in a Book. 271
Notes. 287
Bibliography. 351
Index. 367

Vorschau

Autorin
JINAH KIM is Assistant Professor of History of Art & Architecture at Harvard University. Profile page.

Quellen: University of California Press; WorldCat; Amazon; Library of Congress; Bookbutler; Open ISBN; Google Books
Bildquelle: University of California Press
Bibliographie: [1]

References