A01=Jinah Kim
ancient art
anthropology
art
artists
asian
Author_Jinah Kim
beauty
buddhism
buddhist
buddhist imagery
buddhist manuscripts
buddhist temples
Category=JHMC
Category=WFU
cultic innovation
cultural history
divine presence
eastern india
engaging
eq_bestseller
eq_crafts-hobbies
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
historical
historical analysis
illustrated manuscripts
indian practitioners
medieval illustrated buddhist manuscripts
paintings
patronage
religion
religious
religious texts
sacred objects
sacred space
social science
south asian buddhist book cult
spiritual transformation
Product details
- ISBN 9780520273863
- Weight: 907g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 12 Apr 2013
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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In considering medieval illustrated Buddhist manuscripts as sacred objects of cultic innovation, "Receptacle of the Sacred" explores how and why the South Asian Buddhist book-cult has survived for almost two millennia to the present. A book "manuscript" should be understood as a form of sacred space: a temple in microcosm, not only imbued with divine presence but also layered with the memories of many generations of users. Jinah Kim argues that illustrating a manuscript with Buddhist imagery not only empowered it as a three-dimensional sacred object, but also made it a suitable tool for the spiritual transformation of medieval Indian practitioners. Through a detailed historical analysis of Sanskrit colophons on patronage, production, and use of illustrated manuscripts, she suggests that while Buddhism's disappearance in eastern India was a slow and gradual process, the Buddhist book-cult played an important role in sustaining its identity.
In addition, by examining the physical traces left by later Nepalese users and the contemporary ritual use of the book in Nepal, Kim shows how human agency was critical in perpetuating and intensifying the potency of a manuscript as a sacred object throughout time.
Jinah Kim is Assistant Professor of History of Art & Architecture at Harvard University.
