Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.
Dissertation Review: The Making of Buddhism as a World Religion (Poh Yee Wong)
Sile
Veteran
Geoffrey Goble, Department of Religious Studies at DePauw University, reviews Acculturation as Seen Through Buddha’s Birthday Parades in Northern Wei Luoyang: A Micro Perspective on the Making of Buddhism as a World Religion, by Poh Yee Wong (Dharma name: Shi Juewei 釋覺瑋).
Excerpt:
"By moving away from uni-directional models of assimilation, Ven. Juewei’s work presents a new paradigm for understanding the development of Chinese Buddhism as a complex, multifaceted, and multidirectional event. Her focus on the Northern Wei and her close attention to historical detail and multiple sources of data presents a much more nuanced picture of non-Han Buddhist rule during the Northern and Southern Dynasties than the established image of unsophisticated foreign rulers interested primarily in the magical charisma of Buddhism and Buddhist practitioners. Rather, the picture that emerges from Ven. Juewei’s work is one of complex and sophisticated appropriations, assimilations, and adaptations within a web of competing interests, pressures, influences and sources."
Excerpt:
"By moving away from uni-directional models of assimilation, Ven. Juewei’s work presents a new paradigm for understanding the development of Chinese Buddhism as a complex, multifaceted, and multidirectional event. Her focus on the Northern Wei and her close attention to historical detail and multiple sources of data presents a much more nuanced picture of non-Han Buddhist rule during the Northern and Southern Dynasties than the established image of unsophisticated foreign rulers interested primarily in the magical charisma of Buddhism and Buddhist practitioners. Rather, the picture that emerges from Ven. Juewei’s work is one of complex and sophisticated appropriations, assimilations, and adaptations within a web of competing interests, pressures, influences and sources."
0