East of India: Rethinking Buddhist Studies

By Maria Hibbets, Associate Director, Harvard Buddhist Studies Forum

Now in its thirteenth year, the Harvard Buddhist Studies Forum each year presents lecture series, forums, and symposia on issues relating to the interpretation of Buddhist texts and teachings. To encourage a multi-disciplinary, inclusive critical approach, scholars are invited from such disciplines as anthropology, textual studies, history, and religious studies and from a variety of locales within the Buddhist world, including Sri Lanka, Tibet, Burma, China, and Japan.

The March 1999 forum, "East of India: Rethinking Buddhist Studies from the Vantage Point of the Nichiren and Pure Land Traditions of Japan," was supported in part by the Boston Research Center. The presentations of Dennis Hirota, visiting Numata Professor of Buddhist Studies at Harvard Divinity School, and of Jacqueline Stone, professor of religion at Princeton University, which generated commentaries by HBSF's faculty advisor and associate professor in Harvard's Committee on the Study of Religion Charles Hallisey, sparked an engaging discussion on the two quite different traditions The reception and dinner that followed provided an additional opportunity for fostering collegiality and dialogue among the assembled faculty and graduate students.

Also this year, graduate student Natalie Gummer, former associate director of the HBSF, facilitated a workshop of graduate students, "Manuscripts in the Study of Buddhism," in which issues pertaining to editorial practices, material culture, and the discovery and use of manuscripts in Buddhist Studies were analyzed. Together the Forum and the Workshop organized an international conference, "Illuminating Manuscripts: Teaching the Material Text in Buddhist Studies," held in early May.

Scholars presenting their work included: Luis Gomez, Richard Salomon, Stephen Teiser, Cristina Scherrer-Schaub, Jonathan Silk, Charles Hallisey, and Leonard van der Juijp. In addition, John Dagenais, a medieval Spanish manuscript scholar, was the conference respondent. As an academic from outside the discipline of Buddhist Studies, Dr. Dagenais offered an original perspective on manuscript issues raised by participants. Graduate students served as moderators on each of the weekend panels. The inter-generational dialogue that ensued was one of the most satisfying outcomes of the conference and continued at a relaxing post-conference reception hosted by the BRC.