Buddhist Tourism in Asia

Buddhist Tourism in Asia
Author: Courtney Bruntz
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2020-03-31
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0824881184

This innovative collaborative work—the first to focus on Buddhist tourism—explores how Buddhists, government organizations, business corporations, and individuals in Asia participate in re-imaginings of Buddhism through tourism. Contributors from religious studies, anthropology, and art history examine sacred places and religious monuments as they have been shaped and reshaped by socioeconomic and cultural trends in the region. Following an introduction that offers the first theoretical understanding of tourism from a Buddhist studies’ perspective, early chapters discuss the ways Buddhists and non-Buddhists imagine concepts and places related to the religion. Case studies highlight Buddhist peace in India, Buddhist heavens and hells in Singapore, Thai temple space, and the future Buddha Maitreya in China. Buddhist tourism’s connections to the state, market, and new technologies are explored in chapters on Indian package tours for pilgrims, thematic Buddhist tourism in Cambodia, the technological innovations of Buddhist temples in China, and the promotion of pilgrimage sites in Japan. Contributors then situate the financial concerns of Chinese temples, speed dating in temples in Japan, and the diffuse and pervasive nature of Buddhism for tourism promotion in Ladakh, India. How have tourist routes, groups, sites, and practices associated with Buddhism come to be possible and what are the effects? In what ways do travelers derive meaning from Buddhist places? How do Buddhist sites fortify national, cultural, or religious identities? The comparative research in South, Southeast, and East Asia presented here draws attention to the intertwining of the sacred and the financial and how local and national sites are situated within global networks. Together these findings generate a compelling comparative investigation of Buddhist spaces, identities, and practices.

Holy Places of the Buddha

Holy Places of the Buddha
Author: Dharma Publishing
Publisher: Dharma Publishing
Total Pages: 560
Release: 1994
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN:

Presents sites important to those interested in the Dharma, and gives location of the site, historical events associated with the site, the features a pilgrim would find, and how the site figured in the transmission of the Dharma.

Temples of South India

Temples of South India
Author: V. V. Subba Reddy
Publisher: Gyan Publishing House
Total Pages: 420
Release: 2009
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9788121210225

Cross-disciplinary Perspectives on a Contested Buddhist Site

Cross-disciplinary Perspectives on a Contested Buddhist Site
Author: David Geary
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 226
Release: 2012
Genre: History
ISBN: 0415684528

Bodh Gaya in the North Indian state of Bihar has long been recognized as the place where the Buddha achieved enlightenment. This book brings together the recent work of twelve scholars from a variety of disciplines - anthropology, art history, history, and religion - to highlight their various findings and perspectives on different facets of Bodh Gaya's past and present. Through an engaging and critical overview of the place of Buddha's enlightenment, the book discusses the dynamic and contested nature of this site, and looks at the tensions with the on-going efforts to define the place according to particular histories or identities. It addresses many aspects of Bodh Gaya, from speculation about why the Buddha chose to sit beneath a tree in Bodh Gaya, to the contemporary struggles over tourism development, education and non-government organizations, to bring to the foreground the site's longevity, reinvention and current complexity as a UNESCO World Heritage monument. The book is a useful contribution for students and scholars of Buddhism and South Asian Studies.

Power Places of Kathmandu

Power Places of Kathmandu
Author:
Publisher: Inner Traditions
Total Pages: 144
Release: 1995-09-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780892815401

Award-winning photographer Kevin Bubriski captures in stunning detail the sacred places of Nepal's Kathmandu Valley. Noted scholar Keith Dowman provides history and commentary on the significance of the sites.