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Venue

Presenter

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USYD

Venerable Dr Juewei, Nan Tien Institute

The lives of women in the Tang were undeniably bounded by Confucian behavioral codes for daughters, wives, and daughters-in-law. As was the norm in premodern civilizations, prevailing cultural practices relegated most of them to anonymity. However, there was always more to the picture. We have images of women painted on silk, on the walls of tombs and cave-temples, and sculpted in clay and stone. The mortuary niches of Lanfengshan 嵐峰山 (Misty Peak Mountain) at the Buddhist temple complex of Baoshan 寶山 (Treasure Mountain) in Henan give us a unique window into the lives and aspirations of 6th-7th century female practitioners. The memorial inscriptions on Lanfengshan are the single largest extant insitu collection of records of medieval Chinese Buddhist nuns and laywomen.

In this talk Professor Adamek discusses two poems inscribed on the Lanfengshan memorial niche dedicated for the nun Benxing 本行in 676 (LFS 72). She argues that the verses were written either by Benxing herself or by one of the nuns who contributed to the memorial. If so, then these two pieces significantly augment the corpus of extant poems written by Tang Buddhist nuns. The Benxing verses use standard poetic themes like reflections on the evanescence of pleasure and the voice of the imagined dead. They use didactic tropes that underscore the need for Buddhist practice. However, Professor Adamek also suggests that Buddhist preoccupation with the nature of the experience of self and the consequences of actions opened up spaces for literary exploration of ambiguous notions of identity and agency.

The Tibetan conception of consciously reborn bodhisattvas as so-called tulkus in a successive line of recognised incarnations seems unique within Buddhist cultures. It is further remarkable how such tulku positions became institutionalised and lasted over centuries, sometimes with considerable religious and political influence – thus also becoming prone to disagreement. While some initial research about the origins, benefits, and problems of such a system has been undertaken, its manifold dimensions and numerous textual sources still await further investigation.

After introducing the tulku as a form of succession with religious, legal, and social implications, this lecture discusses some salient case studies from the 13th to 16th centuries, the period in which the Tibetan tulku system emerged and became established institutionally. Some of the questions addressed are: Why has this system become so prevalent in the Tibetan cultural sphere? What sources and methods are available for its study? What are its many dimensions (such as spiritual, political, cultural)? The lecture concludes by asking how research into the different dimensions of the tulku system can help us move towards a more differentiated understanding of religions in the Tibetan cultural sphere and beyond.