Group Topic #2 - Daily Life at Dunhuang

This relatively detailed account of life at Dunhuang toward the end of the first millenium was really eye-opening, as it touched on several typically overlooked topics such as women and poorer families. With the political climate being extremely tumultuous, the constant fear of invasion from foreign, non-Buddhist groups explains why the manuscripts at the cave sites in Dunhuang were hidden so carefully. These cave sites seem to have been both religious sites for monks to meditate as well as for public worship rituals, but it also served as a storage area for more secular documents such as wills, almanacs, and censuses.

While the practice if Buddhism in the region clearly holds great importance (i.e., the preservation of texts with scraps of other, less important documents), its secondary role as a storage area shows how secular life was intertwined with such a religious site.

The Silk Road, bringing foreign groups through China on a regular basis, also facilitated the fusion of Buddhism with these other foreign traditions as well as their animals. While elephants' prevalence in India makes their presence in Dunhuang's Buddhist art understandable, representations of other animals such as monkeys and rabbits are not as easy to explain.

The various anecdotes about Yang Guifei, "the emperor's favourite concubine" (in both the CR article and in Chapter 6 of the Frances Wood book), are both entertaining and insightful. They somewhat exemplify the role of women at the time (she apparently should not have taken lessons in the "Sogdian whirlwind or twirling dance") and the presence of "Western" dogs in Imperial families (both for hunting and as personal pets).

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Similarly, the letters written apologizing for excessive drunkenness shed some light on the non-religious aspects of daily life in Dunhuang. On the other hand, the religious significance placed on wine adds another dimension to the act of drinking alcohol:

"Give men wine with their meat, And never shall they have an evil thought. Where Wine is, there will also be Benevolence and Righteousness, Propriety and Wisdom. Clearly it deserves the highest honour, For what other beverage can compare with it?"

While information regarding women, etc. is limited to the Sogdian letters and artifacts such as hair pins and make up boxes, what we do have allows us to fill in some of the gaps of the social and religious life at Dunhuang.

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The depiction of Yang Guifei as somewhat overweight (at least compared to the old standards of women's appearances) intrigued me, so I did a quick search of images of her:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/35/Yang_Gui-fei_by_Takaku_Aigai.jpg

http://www.ichina.org.uk/admin/eWebEditor/UploadFile/200898224255770.jpg

Blog Post #5 - Buddhism

This weeks reading by Donald S. Lopez was especially useful as a relatively comprehensive introduction to Buddhism. Rather than simply laying out the Four Noble Truths, the Three Jewels, etc., it chronicles the beginnings of the tradition (or "traditions") and its metamorphosis over the centuries regarding both "beliefs" and scriptures.

The translated Chinese sources were also very intriguing, showing how the Chinese "traditions" took the Buddha's message and transformed it to fit in with their way of thinking -- using parables to explain complicated, metaphorical situations regarding the value of life and the importance of worldly goods and pleasures. The mixture of the seemingly Confucian method of story-telling and the Buddhist concepts of suffering and enlightenment are explained very well and provide a good basis for understanding the third reading by Sally Hovey Wriggens, which chronicles a young Chinese monk's journey traveling to India. The first two readings give context to what the monk was experiencing as he visited various sites in the "holy land of Buddhism," and how even though the message had been "distorted" on its journey to China, the Chinese monk still impressed the Indian monks with his deep understanding and his "new depth of feeling."

When learning about Buddhism, introductory religion courses usually restrict themselves to India alone, so it was very useful to get a solid introductory reading explaining the subtle differences between the traditions in each region.

Blog Post #4 - Zoroastrianism

I was really looking forward to reading about an actual religious tradition this week, as up until now we've focused on the history of the Silk Road and other ways of studying religion and language.

Zoroaster, the prophet of Zoroastrianism:

http://www.westminster.edu/staff/brennie/images/zoroaster.jpg

While reading the chapter by Mary Boyce, I was reminded (again) of our conversations about religious studies in general, and how objectivity is difficult, if at all possible. It really stuck with me how religious scholars distorted the study of Zoroastrianism, going so far as to incorrectly translate ancient texts or at least refuse to consider a translation with a different implication regarding their beliefs.

Not only did Thomas Hyde approach Zoroastrianism with the intent on "proving" its monotheism, but even today many religious scholars describe it as a "fire-worshipping" religion, rather than acknowledging that fire is only one part of the religious rituals, performed mainly as a means of purification. Those big distortions AND the small ones (respectively) are clear evidence for why the analysis of "religious studies" is so important: we must first acknowledge what it is we aim to learn about a group of people before we claim to understand them.

Again, overall I really enjoyed this chapter, as it was the first real taste of an ancient religious tradition in this course!