The Upcoming Events held by Edinburgh Buddhist Studies or its members. We hold a range of events for different audiences: public lectures, seminars and academic conversations works-in-progress workshops for network members special webinars for school teachers EBS Guest Lecture "Popular Buddhism and Mummification Practices in Tōhoku Japan" Edinburgh Buddhist Studies is delighted to announce an upcoming talk by Dr Julia Cross. The talk will be hybrid as Dr Cross is Zooming in from the US. Date: 20 March at 2pm GMT For the Zoom link: please email buddhist.studies@ed.ac.uk for registration. For in-person attendees: Room J.03 of the North-East Studio Building of ECA (NESB_J.03). Popular Buddhism and Mummification Practices in Tōhoku Japan Julia Cross This talk will be focused on a forthcoming article on mummification practices in premodern Japan; specifically, those practiced in the Tōhoku region from the 17th through 19th century. These mummification-bound practitioners are often presented as lone ascetics in the mountains, who through years of extreme physical and mental practices, ultimately, reached their goal of self-mummification. This talk will address how these practitioners could not have finalized their practice (i.e., become buddhas in their bodies, or sokushin butsu 即身仏) without the support of the local communities that assisted them through their decades of asceticism. In this light, Julia will argue that this practice is an example of popular Buddhism, as it was dependent on local devotional groups. As such, this talk will present new materials illuminating how regional politics and environmental factors encouraged, or even led to Buddhist mummification-bound practices in this period, specifically in Japan’s northern most regions. Bio abstract: Julia Cross is a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University, in Stanford’s Ho Center for Buddhist Studies. Her work focuses on notions of the sacred dead, the body, and gender in medieval Japan. Julia’s book project examines the sacred theft (Lt. futra sacra) and worship of relics in Japan’s Southern Capital, Nanto, from the thirteenth through the fifteenth century. Online Roundtable "Curating Buddhism: Museum, Pedagogy, and Religious Experience" Date: March 22nd, 2024 Time: 15:00-16:30 GMT We are excited to invite you to our forthcoming online roundtable titled "Curating Buddhism: Museum, Pedagogy, and Religious Experience", focusing on the intersection of Buddhism, museum curation, and pedagogy. For details, please find in the poster attached below. For zoom link registration, please email: buddhist.studies@ed.ac.uk This article was published on 2023-11-15
