- Hardcover: 240 pages
- Publisher: Oxford University Press (Jun 2 2005)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0195173732
- ISBN-13: 978-0195173734
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 16.6 x 1.9 cm
- Shipping Weight: 476 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,542,458 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
Product Details |
Product Description
Review
"The Indian mystical poet Saraha is one of the most influential, compelling, and elusive figures in the history of tantric Buddhism, and Kurtis Schaeffer's Dreaming the Great Brahmin takes scholarship on the great adept a quantum leap past anything published before. Resisting yet another futile search for the historical Saraha, Schaeffer draws on a wide range of little-studied texts to show that, whatever the Indian origins of Saraha's legend and songs, most of what we know of him actually emerged from medieval Tibet, in response to uniquely Tibetan religious, social, and literary concerns. Erudite, well written, and intellectually challenging, Dreaming the Great Brahmin will be required reading for serious students of Indian and Tibetan tantric Buddhism for many years to come." --Roger R. Jackson, translator of Tantric Treasures: Three Collections of Mystical Verse from Buddhist India
"This is a splendid contribution to the growing body of materials about Saraha and his famed treasury of tantric songs with a special focus on the Tibetan creation, and recreation, of both over the centuries. Schaeffer examines both in the larger contexts of Tibetan literature, history and aesthetics, tracing the development of the figure of Saraha and his esoteric poetry in Tibetan narratives, ritual cycles, visions, iconography, and polemical debate. He reveals Saraha's famous anthology, The Treasury of Doha, to be a rich, creative and fluid communal tradition that had an organic life in Tibet, rather than a static composition with origins lost in an Indian past. This wonderful blend of the social analysis, aesthetics, and translation is an important work for Tibetan, Buddhist, and Tantric studies."--David Germano, University of Virginia
"Kurtis Schaeffer has set before us a feast of Saraha lore, demonstrating the Tibetans' continued fascination with the person and the songs of the Great Brahmin. In this excellent book, Schaeffer details the polysemic stature of Saraha in Tibetan literature: as the source of religious inspiration, as the vehicle for art, as the field of contested symbols, and as the basis for elaborate hermeneutics. His critical treatment of the Saraha literature shows how Tibetans continued to redefine Saraha, so that he became a saint for all seasons."--Ronald M. Davidson, author of Indian Esoteric Buddhism: A Social History of the Tantric Movement
"This is a splendid contribution to the growing body of materials about Saraha and his famed treasury of tantric songs with a special focus on the Tibetan creation, and recreation, of both over the centuries. Schaeffer examines both in the larger contexts of Tibetan literature, history and aesthetics, tracing the development of the figure of Saraha and his esoteric poetry in Tibetan narratives, ritual cycles, visions, iconography, and polemical debate. He reveals Saraha's famous anthology, The Treasury of Doha, to be a rich, creative and fluid communal tradition that had an organic life in Tibet, rather than a static composition with origins lost in an Indian past. This wonderful blend of the social analysis, aesthetics, and translation is an important work for Tibetan, Buddhist, and Tantric studies."--David Germano, University of Virginia
"Kurtis Schaeffer has set before us a feast of Saraha lore, demonstrating the Tibetans' continued fascination with the person and the songs of the Great Brahmin. In this excellent book, Schaeffer details the polysemic stature of Saraha in Tibetan literature: as the source of religious inspiration, as the vehicle for art, as the field of contested symbols, and as the basis for elaborate hermeneutics. His critical treatment of the Saraha literature shows how Tibetans continued to redefine Saraha, so that he became a saint for all seasons."--Ronald M. Davidson, author of Indian Esoteric Buddhism: A Social History of the Tantric Movement
Product Description
Dreaming the Great Brahmin explores the creation and recreation of Buddhist saints through narratives, poetry, art, ritual, and even dream visions. The first comprehensive cultural and literary history of the well-known Indian Buddhist poet saint Saraha, known as the Great Brahmin, this book argues that we should view Saraha not as the founder of a tradition, but rather as its product. Kurtis Schaeffer shows how images, tales, and teachings of Saraha were transmitted, transformed, and created by members of diverse Buddhist traditions in Tibet, India, Nepal, and Mongolia. The result is that there is not one Great Brahmin, but many. More broadly, Schaeffer argues that the immense importance of saints for Buddhism is best understood by looking at the creative adaptations of such figures that perpetuated their fame, for it is there that these saints come to life.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
Saraha has been definitively dated by modern scholarship to somewhere between the third century BCE and the twelfth century CE, and located in East, North, or South India (though curiously never West). Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
Saraha has been definitively dated by modern scholarship to somewhere between the third century BCE and the twelfth century CE, and located in East, North, or South India (though curiously never West). Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Customer Reviews
|
There are no customer reviews yet on Amazon.ca
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
"History" notwithsatndingistory, Aug 3 2008
By mike dickman - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Dreaming the Great Brahmin: Tibetan Traditions of the Buddhist Poet-Saint Saraha (Hardcover)
I'm not at all convinced of Kurtis Schaeffer's argument as regards the growth of the Saraha corpus... As Sahara has been presented to me by several teachers who hold lineages descending from either him, himself, or whatever his school of thought was originally, Sahara, himself, is a fairly monolithic character for all that the stories concerning him vary in both tone and content.Surely, for someone as pivotal in several traditions, anecdotes of many different kinds - 'true', projected and totally imaginary - are bound to crop up.
For all the fact that the research is probably impeccable, the Sahara of this book is *not* the Sahara of the 'Three Songs of Realisation', but another, somewhat less authentic eponymous being with similar, but less exceptional, achievements.
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > History > Asia > Tibet
- Books > Nonfiction > Philosophy > Eastern > Buddhism > History
- Books > Nonfiction > Philosophy > Eastern > Buddhism > Tibetan
- Books > Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Special Groups
- Books > Religion & Spirituality > Buddhism > History
- Books > Religion & Spirituality > Buddhism > Tibetan
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
