“Buddhisms in Asia is both practical and thought-provoking in its comparison of pedagogies. The strength of the book is that it brings multiple authors together for a candid discussion of what needs to be changed within introductory material in the liberal arts classroom. The essays are pertinent for instructors asked to teach Buddhism in a survey of world religions. It provides a concrete approach to tackling decontextualized and ahistorical paradigms still in circulation in the study of Buddhist traditions, for nonspecialists and instructors seeking to revitalize their curriculum.”
—H-Net Reviews (H-Asia)
“Most valuable are the essays that bring to the table areas that typical syllabi neglect, for example, Buddhism in Vietnam and Pure Land Buddhism.”
—CHOICE
“I teach an introductory course on Buddhism on a regular basis, and every single chapter of this book gave me ideas for materials I could incorporate, new modules I might develop, and/or better ways I might organize and present existing content to students. I think that the book will be particularly useful to educators in Asian studies who are not themselves specialized in areas of Buddhism or religion. The collection gives them the information on Buddhist philosophy, doctrine, and practice that they would need to better incorporate the role of Buddhism into classes on Asian culture, history, society, and politics.”
—Leah Kalmanson, coeditor of Buddhist Responses to Globalization
“The spread of Buddhism across Asia is well documented in scholarly works. The transmission of Buddhism which is often described as a linear process spreading from ancient India to other parts of Asia is being questioned, and scholars are aiming at reading the multiple voices of Buddhism not only in Sri Lanka, southeast Asia and China but in countries like Korea, Japan and Vietnam. The complexities in the spread of Buddhism are being recognized. In the process, new themes are emerging and the book that caught my attention recently for its novel theme was Buddhist Asia edited by Christoph Kleine, Karénina Kollmar-Paulenz, and Hubert Seiwert (De Gruyter, 2025). The book argued that the doctrinal and institutional peculiarities of Buddhism enabled it to play a distinctive role in the development of Asian secularities. Buddhist ideas formed an integral part of the dominant epistemes in regions of Asia.With this prelude, I bring to the table a stimulating book which also reconceptualizes pedagogy. Buddhist belief, practice and cultural expression attracted many undergraduate educators who desired to make Buddhism a part of their curriculum where they could go beyond the traditional themes in Buddhist studies and address interrelationships among the intellectual, ritual, and institutional dimensions of Buddhism. The other question was about the shaping of Buddhist traditions by ongoing political, socio-economic, literary and artistic dynamics. The East-West Centre in Honolulu provided a perfect opportunity for a summer faculty and curriculum development programme on teaching Buddhism in an American college classroom and the book under discussion was born out of those intense and critical deliberations in 2019.The collection of essays comprising nine chapters and an Introduction by the editors Nicholas S Brasovan and Micheline M Soong has an erudite and thought-provoking Foreword by Peter D Hershock which sets the stage for delving deep into the pages that follow.The aim of the editors was to focus on an interdisciplinary approach for an academic study of Buddhism. Therefore, the authors of various chapters foreground their arguments by culling sources from history, visual culture, anthropology, literary theory, religious studies and philosophy. To quote the editors, ‘this volume introduces readers to the religious and philosophical dimensions of Buddhism, the culture and social dimensions of Buddhist religion, and historical transformations of Buddhist theory and practice.’ As you go through the chapters, it is evident that the authors have been aware of the need of the students as well as the instructors while they introduce new vistas in the study of Buddhism.The first three chapters focus on the need to engage with primary sources which have a great thrust on reading texts at least in translations along with ideological study. The first chapter by Andy Alexander Davis provides a perfect survey of the available textual material, a study of which would allow the students to have an empirical foundation about Buddhism. The following chapter by Ann Pirruccello emphasizes on Awakening in the Hongzhou School of Chan Buddhism by following a comparative approach. Here she brings in hermeneutic methods of comparative philosophy. The third chapter by Kendall Marchman is about Pure Land Buddhism. A basic introductory note on Pure Land concepts and practices is provided. The author tries to encourage critical thinking among the students by inculcating among them the feeling that we need to investigate any account of religion and there should be an informed discussion on the multiple aspects of Buddhism. Comparative methodology in teaching is advocated.Buddhist imagery, its transformation and transmission in terms of spatiality and temporality from India to China is discussed by Jacqueline Chao in her essay, ‘Representation and Transformation of Nagas, Dragons and Dragon Kings in Chinese Paintings’. The significant stature that the Nagas hold in Buddhism is well known. She argues that the Naga imagery transformed into dragons which indicates the diversification of Buddhisms as they were adapted and represented. The methodology of reading visual imageries was adopted by her. From China we move to Japan in chapter five, ‘Trials of Devotion: Orphaned Children and the Boundaries of Horror in Japanese Buddhist Fiction’ by R Keller Kimbrough. She uses a methodology called ‘Buddhism in Context’ which introduces Buddhism through literature, art, drama and other historical modes of cultural production. In this chapter, she privileges a group of illustrated Japanese tales from the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The sixth essay by Jessica Falcone is about the Buddhist practice of gift giving. One is aware of the scholarly interventions following the anthropological models on gift giving by Malinowski, Mauss and Pierre Bourdieu. Jessica keenly follows and investigates each of these authorities and finally rests her case in favour of Jacques Derrida’s Given Time: I. Counterfeit Money which is a classic deconstruction of Mauss’s The Gift. She talks about the multiple motivations that can propel gifting in a Buddhist social context. While she discusses gifts in Vedic literature, it is surprising that she never mentions Romila Thapar’s seminal work on Dana. Falcone finally argues that the Buddhist gift is not free, as the belief in karmic reciprocity motivates social action in Indian culture.Geoff Ashton in his essay talks about the philosophical foundation of Asian Buddhism. There are many Buddhisms and in turn many Buddhist philosophies in Asia. He studies the Thai way of responding to Buddhist philosophical discourse. Ashton studies the philosophy of DT Suzuki and the philosophy of Buddhadasa for understanding socially engaged Buddhist agency.The last two essays are directly linked with pedagogy. The eighth essay is focal to Vietnam and the author Wynn Gadkar Wilcox is right in stating at the very beginning that Vietnam occupies a liminal space in the study of Asian Buddhism. Lack of resources in English is one of the major reasons for its meagre presence. Through the exploration of five major themes, the author clearly explains how one might try to teach Vietnamese Buddhism. Jane Collins in the last essay furnishes us with the way Buddhism should be introduced into a humanities course. The interdisciplinary and pluralistic nature of Buddhist studies is well manifested in the course. Contemporary critical texts that explore Buddhist themes in the literary or filmic texts are also taught in the course along with reading Buddhist texts.Buddhisms in Asia lives up to the statement made in the Foreword by Peter D Hershock that the book is a response to the needs of the undergraduate educators who are interested in offering their students something more than the traditional representations. The rich diversity of approaches is writ large in the various essays and this book will remain as a significant addition to our rich corpus of knowledge on Buddhism.Having said this, my only disappointment is the sheer neglect of materiality in the treatment of Buddhism. There was a sophisticated philosophy of materiality in Buddhism. Moreover, the wide range of physical objects and practices that shape Buddhist belief and practice has remained unrepresented. In the recent decades, scholars have discovered the value of bringing philosophy, history and ritual into conversation with material culture and this compilation should not have given it a miss in the interest of the students.”
—Suchandra Ghosh is in the Department of History, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, The Book Review, Volume XLIX Number 8 August 2025