Making Sense of Tantric Buddhism fundamentally rethinks the nature of the transgressive theories and practices of the Buddhist Tantric traditions, challenging the notion that the Tantras were "marginal"... Read More
Description
Making Sense of Tantric Buddhism fundamentally rethinks the nature of the transgressive theories and practices of the Buddhist Tantric traditions, challenging the notion that the Tantras were "marginal" or primitive and situating them instead—both ideologically and institutionally—within larger trends in mainstream Buddhist and Indian culture.
Critically surveying prior scholarship, Wedemeyer exposes the fallacies of attributing Tantric transgression to either the passions of lusty monks, primitive tribal rites, or slavish imitation of Saiva traditions. Through comparative analysis of modern historical narratives—that depict Tantrism as a degenerate form of Buddhism, a primal religious undercurrent, or medieval ritualism—he likewise demonstrates these to be stock patterns in the European historical imagination.
Through close analysis of primary sources, Wedemeyer reveals the lived world of Tantric Buddhism as largely continuous with the Indian religious mainstream and deploys contemporary methods of semiotic and structural analysis to make sense of its seemingly repellent and immoral injunctions. Innovative, semiological readings of the influential Guhyasamaja Tantra underscore the text's overriding concern with purity, pollution, and transcendent insight—issues shared by all Indic religions—and a large-scale, quantitative study of Tantric literature shows its radical antinomianism to be a highly managed ritual observance restricted to a sacerdotal elite. These insights into Tantric scripture and ritual clarify the continuities between South Asian Tantrism and broader currents in Indian religion, illustrating how thoroughly these "radical" communities were integrated into the intellectual, institutional, and social structures of South Asian Buddhism.
Details
- Price: $32.00
- Pages: 336
- Carton Quantity: 24
- Publisher: Columbia University Press
- Imprint: Columbia University Press
- Series: South Asia Across the Disciplines
- Publication Date: 10th June 2014
- Trim Size: 6 x 9 in
- ISBN: 9780231162418
- Format: Paperback
- BISACs:
RELIGION / Buddhism / Rituals & Practice
PHILOSOPHY / Eastern
RELIGION / Buddhism / History
Reviews
Making Sense of Tantric Buddhism is a major contribution to our understanding of Indian esoteric (or Tantric) Buddhism. Christian K. Wedemeyer writes with verve, humor, and—most crucially—remarkable clarity, managing to explain difficult texts and ideas with great lucidity.- Roger R. Jackson, Carleton College
[An] important and useful contribution to the study of Tantric Buddhism in India.- Sumit Guha, H-Asia
A clear work that engages a fresh methodology in order to articulate a new theory of Buddhist antinomianism, offering thereby a novel way to 'make sense' of tantric Buddhism.- Journal of Religion
Wedemeyer not only provides an advanced introduction, but also makes the reader question the assumptions (and almost everyone has assumptions about Tantra!) they bring to and expect of the study of Tantric Buddhism.- Justin Thomas McDaniel, Religious Studies Review
Highly Recommended.- David Templeman, South Asia
An important new work in Buddhology- Choice
Author Bio
Table of Contents
List of Figures and Tables
Preface and Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Introduction: Making Sense in and of the Human Sciences
Part 1: Historiography
1. Origins
Understanding Tantric Buddhism through its Origins
The Quest for Origins as Method in the History of Religions
2. Narrating Tantric Buddhism
The Poetics of Historiography
The Tropology of Esoteric Buddhism
Historical Narrative and Ideological Implication
3. Going Native: Traditional Historiography of Esoteric Buddhism
Historiography and Cosmology in Exoteric Buddhism
Historiography and Cosmology in Esoteric Buddhism
Observations on Structure
Part 2: Interpretation
4. The Semiology of Transgression
The Literal and the Figurative in Tantric Hermeneutics
Connotative Semiotics as Exegetical Method
Connotative Semiotics in Tantric Ritual
Connotative Semiotics in Tantric Scripture
5. "The Practice" of Indian Esoteric Buddhism
Terms of Art as an Interpretative Problem
Interpreting the Practice Observance I: Irony and Inversion
Interpreting the Practice Observance II: Prerequisites and Temporal Frame
Interpreting the Practice Observance III: ?aiva Parallels
6. Tantric Buddhist Transgression in Context
The Social Location of Tantric Buddhism as an Interpretative Problem
Contriving Marginality
The Common Repertoire of Buddhist Professionals
"Carnivalesque" or "Rituals of Rebellion"?
But...Did They Really Do It?!
Conclusion: No Two "Ways" About It
Appendix I: The Indrabhuti Story According to Pad ma dkar po (ca. 1575)
Appendix II: Chapter Nine of the Buddhakapala Tantra, "The Practice" (Caryapatala)
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Making Sense of Tantric Buddhism fundamentally rethinks the nature of the transgressive theories and practices of the Buddhist Tantric traditions, challenging the notion that the Tantras were "marginal" or primitive and situating them instead—both ideologically and institutionally—within larger trends in mainstream Buddhist and Indian culture.
Critically surveying prior scholarship, Wedemeyer exposes the fallacies of attributing Tantric transgression to either the passions of lusty monks, primitive tribal rites, or slavish imitation of Saiva traditions. Through comparative analysis of modern historical narratives—that depict Tantrism as a degenerate form of Buddhism, a primal religious undercurrent, or medieval ritualism—he likewise demonstrates these to be stock patterns in the European historical imagination.
Through close analysis of primary sources, Wedemeyer reveals the lived world of Tantric Buddhism as largely continuous with the Indian religious mainstream and deploys contemporary methods of semiotic and structural analysis to make sense of its seemingly repellent and immoral injunctions. Innovative, semiological readings of the influential Guhyasamaja Tantra underscore the text's overriding concern with purity, pollution, and transcendent insight—issues shared by all Indic religions—and a large-scale, quantitative study of Tantric literature shows its radical antinomianism to be a highly managed ritual observance restricted to a sacerdotal elite. These insights into Tantric scripture and ritual clarify the continuities between South Asian Tantrism and broader currents in Indian religion, illustrating how thoroughly these "radical" communities were integrated into the intellectual, institutional, and social structures of South Asian Buddhism.
- Price: $32.00
- Pages: 336
- Carton Quantity: 24
- Publisher: Columbia University Press
- Imprint: Columbia University Press
- Series: South Asia Across the Disciplines
- Publication Date: 10th June 2014
- Trim Size: 6 x 9 in
- ISBN: 9780231162418
- Format: Paperback
- BISACs:
RELIGION / Buddhism / Rituals & Practice
PHILOSOPHY / Eastern
RELIGION / Buddhism / History
Making Sense of Tantric Buddhism is a major contribution to our understanding of Indian esoteric (or Tantric) Buddhism. Christian K. Wedemeyer writes with verve, humor, and—most crucially—remarkable clarity, managing to explain difficult texts and ideas with great lucidity.– Roger R. Jackson, Carleton College
[An] important and useful contribution to the study of Tantric Buddhism in India.– Sumit Guha, H-Asia
A clear work that engages a fresh methodology in order to articulate a new theory of Buddhist antinomianism, offering thereby a novel way to 'make sense' of tantric Buddhism.– Journal of Religion
Wedemeyer not only provides an advanced introduction, but also makes the reader question the assumptions (and almost everyone has assumptions about Tantra!) they bring to and expect of the study of Tantric Buddhism.– Justin Thomas McDaniel, Religious Studies Review
Highly Recommended.– David Templeman, South Asia
An important new work in Buddhology– Choice
List of Figures and Tables
Preface and Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Introduction: Making Sense in and of the Human Sciences
Part 1: Historiography
1. Origins
Understanding Tantric Buddhism through its Origins
The Quest for Origins as Method in the History of Religions
2. Narrating Tantric Buddhism
The Poetics of Historiography
The Tropology of Esoteric Buddhism
Historical Narrative and Ideological Implication
3. Going Native: Traditional Historiography of Esoteric Buddhism
Historiography and Cosmology in Exoteric Buddhism
Historiography and Cosmology in Esoteric Buddhism
Observations on Structure
Part 2: Interpretation
4. The Semiology of Transgression
The Literal and the Figurative in Tantric Hermeneutics
Connotative Semiotics as Exegetical Method
Connotative Semiotics in Tantric Ritual
Connotative Semiotics in Tantric Scripture
5. "The Practice" of Indian Esoteric Buddhism
Terms of Art as an Interpretative Problem
Interpreting the Practice Observance I: Irony and Inversion
Interpreting the Practice Observance II: Prerequisites and Temporal Frame
Interpreting the Practice Observance III: ?aiva Parallels
6. Tantric Buddhist Transgression in Context
The Social Location of Tantric Buddhism as an Interpretative Problem
Contriving Marginality
The Common Repertoire of Buddhist Professionals
"Carnivalesque" or "Rituals of Rebellion"?
But...Did They Really Do It?!
Conclusion: No Two "Ways" About It
Appendix I: The Indrabhuti Story According to Pad ma dkar po (ca. 1575)
Appendix II: Chapter Nine of the Buddhakapala Tantra, "The Practice" (Caryapatala)
Notes
Bibliography
Index