Behold the Buddha by James C Dobbins
Images of the Buddha are everywhere, but what these images mean largely depends on the background and circumstance of those viewing them. James Dobbins invites readers to imagine how premodern Japanese Buddhists understood and experienced icons in temple settings long before the advent of museums and the internet.
Behold the Buddha is a marvel of elucidation and an invitation to discoveryPart introduction to Buddhism in Japan, handbook of Buddhist visual forms, and guide to premodern understandings of sacred images, it is also a reflection on how we see these revered objects today. Its focus is on Buddhist icons as salvific presences—not mere artworks—engaged by communities with scripture, ritual, and narrative and made efficacious through iconography, materiality, and aesthetic technique. With admirable clarity, it introduces us to the constellation of doctrinal concepts, devotional practices, cults, and teachers that animated such icons. Exploring images in Buddhist temples and modern museums, the author invites us to consider how such spaces have contributed to the evolving, not entirely reconcilable, meanings of Buddhist icons and art. Eminently accessible, critically informed, and vividly illustrated, Behold the Buddha will energize classroom discussions on Japanese Buddhism and Buddhist art and enable museum and temple visitors alike to look closely and come away with richer understandings of Buddhism and its sacred images. Behold the Buddha is an excellent handbook of religious imagery and icons for students, museumgoers, and travelers interested in exploring Japanese Buddhism in some detail. The work takes readers on a virtual pilgrimage of Japan's Buddhas and Bodhisattvas; Buddhist masters, relics, and calligraphy—all presented in their proper historical, philosophical, and ritual contexts—allowing them to decode the complex ways to behold these images as art, as symbols of Buddhist teachings and events, and as living entities deserving of worship.
James C. Dobbins is Fairchild Professor Emeritus of Religion and East Asian Studies at Oberlin College.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780824879990 |
| ISBN 10 | 0824879996 |
| Title | Behold the Buddha |
| Author | James C Dobbins |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | University of Hawai'i Press |
| Year published | 2020-03-30 |
| Number of pages | 288 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |