Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1995. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 213-226).

Thesis (M.A. (Human Rights))--Mahidol University, 2007. / LICL has E-Thesis 0023 ; please contact computer services.

Originally presented as the author's thesis, Göttingen, 1974. / At head of title: Akademie der Wissenschaften der DDR. Zentralinstitut für Alte Geschichte und Archäologie. Romanized text, German translation and facsimile reproduction of Mss. CH/U7570 of Turfan-Sammlung of Akademie der Wissenschaften der DDR. "Das Thema des Insadi-Sūtra sind die Prāvaraṇā-Zeremonie (die Zeremonie des "Einander-Einladens") und insbesondere ihre Entstehungsgründe."--P. 10. Includes bibliographical references (p. [19]-22).

In 733, Japan’s ninth diplomatic mission to Tang China conveyed two Japanese Buddhist monks committed to finding a Chinese master of Buddhist precepts. The prevailing explanation for the precepts master solicitation states that Japan lacked sufficient numbers of fully ordained monks to conduct ordinations using vinaya codes of conduct. While this campaign successfully resulted in precept masters going to Japan in 736 and again in 754, there were no notable changes to monastic ordinations until after the final monk arrived. It is commonly presumed that only the latter precepts master possessed sufficient charisma, training, and followers necessary to establish a vinaya tradition. However, this explanation presumes that the later reforms matched the original expedition’s intent. Moreover, this position ignores the other monks’ activities in Japan’s political, cultural, and religious affairs between 736-754. It is also not supported by period texts. In this work, I utilize textual and physical evidence to demonstrate that these overseas monks’ activities and significance were largely unrelated to monastic precepts and ordinations. Instead, they rose to prominence due to their knowledge of Buddhist texts and rituals, familiarity with neighboring countries’ Buddhist legitimation and protection systems, fluency in overseas forms of cultural capital, and embodied otherness. Their influence can be seen in their involvement in the Ministry for Monastic Affairs, promulgation of the Avataṃsaka Sutra, and the creation and worship of the Great Buddha of Nara. Through highlighting these understudied and highly diverse monks, I demonstrate that Japan’s overseas population was intrinsically involved with the country’s transformation into a transregionally-connected, Buddhist country. Moreover, I argue that the overseas monks affiliated with Daianji Temple (大安寺) provided the Japanese court with direct ties to foreign countries that not only expanded Japanese international awareness, but also helped establish the country’s understanding of its position within a broader Buddhist world.

The dissertation delineates how the writings compiled in The Collected Works (Gsung ’bum) of Jey Tsongkhapa Lobzang Drakpa (1357–1419), the founder of the Geluk School of Tibetan Buddhism, constitute the centrality of the Geluk thought and philosophy and have contributed towards the school’s formation. It details how the texts have played a prominent role in establishing doctrinal authority, defining philosophical boundaries, postulating intellectual identity, and reorienting monastic education for the school. These texts have also considerably enhanced the intellectual, spiritual, and charismatic authority of Jey Tsongkhapa as a teacher and philosopher. This dissertation bases its approach on the premise that the life and writings of Tsongkhapa define the core identity of the Geluk School and that an explicit rejection of either tantamount to an outright abnegation of its membership. The dissertation begins with a critical retelling of Tibet’s religious history to contextualize the subject. The second chapter presents the culture and practice of life writing in Tibet to inform about the mechanism employed in traditional auto/biographies. Given the enormous attention drawn by the study of Jesus Christ (c. 4 BCE–c. 33 CE) in western academia, the chapter includes a literary review of contemporary studies and research for their emulation in the study of Tibetan hagiographies. The life story of Tsongkhapa is recounted in the third chapter. The fourth chapter details significant historical events that helped recenter Tsongkhapa in the Tibetan religio-cultural landscape. The fifth chapter presents his oeuvre—The Collected Works, the first extensive xylographic work printed in Tibet in the early fifteenth century. It also outlines the volume contents, presents sample texts, and chronicles the history of its publication and printing. The sixth chapter illustrates the centrality of Jey Tsongkhapa’s writings and its integration into the Geluk monastic educational system. The seventh chapter explicates on the topic of textual transmission and demonstrates how the texts were passed down through unbroken lineages to this day. The dissertation concludes with an epilogue and other back matters, including a list of transliteration of names, which are phoneticized in the main body for the ease of reading.

Bzhad pa'i rdo rje (1697-1740), the Fifth Sle lung Rin po che, was a religiously and politically controversial figure and an incredibly prolific author, having written or compiled over 46 volumes worth of mainly religious texts. A high-ranking Dge lugs pa sprul sku, Sle lung is seen as having gradually "defected" to the Rnying ma school, although he self-identified as a follower of the "non-sectarian" (ris med) perspective. Sle lung also acted as a spiritual advisor to most of the major central Tibetan rulers during the course of his life, most significantly Mi dbang Pho lha nas (r. 1729-1747). But despite numerous features of fascinating interest, Sle lung and his writings have received very little scholarly attention, and this thesis is intended to fill this unfortunate lacuna. The present study begins with an extended biographical examination of Sle lung's life, and the political and religious unrest in central Tibet at the time in which he was deeply invested. I pay special attention to the controversies that surrounded him, particularly his purported sexual licentiousness and his ecumenical work which was unpopular among his more sectarian Dge lugs pa critics. This opening biography provides critical historical context as I move on to examine two of Sle lung's most important literary works. The first is the sixteen-volume Gsang ba ye shes chos skor, a massive cycle of teachings by Sle lung and his students that integrates tantric theories derived from Sle lung's experience with Gsar ma (specifically Dge lugs pa) teachings. The second work is the Bstan srung rgya mtsho'i rnam thar, a unique text in Tibetan literature which consists of an apparently unprecedented compilation of Tibetan Buddhist protector deity (bstan srung, chos skyong) origin myths. I will make sense of key features of these two works within the larger context of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, as well as the political and personal concerns of Sle lung himself.

In this Master’s thesis, I attempt to illuminate the historical relationship between Classical Indian medical practice and Buddhist monastic law codes, vinaya, in India around the turn of the Common Era. Popular scholarly conceptions of this relationship contend that the adoption of the Indian medical tradition into the Buddhist monastic institution is directly traceable to the Pāli canon. The Mūlasarvastivāda-vinaya (MSV) does not appear to take issue with physicians or medical knowledge, yet the condemnation of physicians in ancient Indian literature strongly suggests that the relationship between monks and medicine is more complex than the Pāli canon illustrates. Similar to other vinaya traditions, the MSV includes detailed information about permitted medicaments, as well as allowances for monastics to provide medical care to other monastics and even, in particular cases, the laity. I argue that the incentives for monastics to maintain a positive relationship with the medical world were driven by the economic benefits of monastic medical knowledge, as well as associations with wealthy physicians. Using a variety of extant Sanskrit materials, as well as epigraphic evidence, I aim to present a nuanced picture of the history of the relationship between Indian Buddhist monasticism and medicine around the turn of the Common Era. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)