Buddhist Concepts and Phrases in Contemporary China

Workshop, 23–25 March 2023

The 70th anniversary of the Buddhist Association of China (BAC) in 2023 is widely regarded as an occasion reflect on the development of Buddhism in the People’s Republic of China since its founding in the year of 1949. The present workshop will adopt a discursive approach to take stock of conceptual (re)inventions and their changing meanings over the past 45 years, a period characterized by the opening policy since 1978.

It is time to undertake a more systematic examination of these four decades and look at contemporary Buddhist concepts, phrases and their dynamic evolution. Which concepts and phrases were favored by whom and how were they interpreted in order to fill Buddhism in China with life again? And what can we learn from the discursive experience over the decades including historiographical, doctrinal, or also practical adaptations? For instance, central phrases that played a dominant role in the early stages, like renjian fojiao (“Buddhism for a Human Realm”) and the associated san da youliang chuantong (“three great and marvelous traditions”), which have been propagated by the BAC since the early 1980s, underwent an enormous change of top-down and bottom-up interpretation. While sangha education (sengcai peiyang) developed into a mantra for the monastics under changing conditions, slogans like wenming jingxiang and heli fangsheng (“civilized burning of incense”, “rational releasing of life”) became part of the daily vocabulary of temple visitors with growing relevance. Other concepts and phrases gained popularity an influence in the 1990s, or even later, including the emergance and diverse understanding of what is called wangluo fojiao (“cyber Buddhism”). Many keywords and phrases could be added that represent conceptual positions which played a more or less dynamic role in the recent history of Buddhism.
The objective of the workshop is to bring together experts and to foster their exchange about concepts and phrases that appear significant for a better understanding of the Buddhist preferences with all the possible changes of meanings through the past four decades.

Participants

Keynote Speech:
Kai Vogelsang (Hamburg)

Participants:
Adam Yuet Chau (Cambridge)
Avi Darshani (Tel Aviv)
Weishan Huang (Hongkong)
Ji Zhe (Paris)
Carsten Krause (Hamburg)
André Laliberté (Ottawa)
Shengkai (Beijing)
Stefania Travagnin (London)
Xuan Fang (Beijing)

Discussion Guests:
Daniela Campo (Strassbourg)
Richard Ellguth (Berlin)
Leo Koenig (Hamburg)
Amandine Péronnet (Marseille/Paris)

Convenor: Dr. Carsten Krause
Venue: Hamburg University
Funded by: Numata Center for Buddhist Studies, German Research Foundation

A flyer of the workshop can be downloaded here. 

Reconsidering the Historiography of the Madhyamaka School

Workshop

December 1–3, 2022

The Madhyamaka school, along with the Yogācāra, is one of the two principal schools of Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism, which was founded by Nāgārjuna (ca. 150–250 CE). The tenet of this school that “all things are svabhāvaśūnya (devoid of intrinsic nature)” has great influence on Buddhism both inside and outside of India, specifically, East Asia and Tibet. Due to lack of Indian sources, modern scholars have constructed the history of the school, mainly based on Tibetan transmission. However, since 2000, new manuscripts of Mādhyamikas’ basic texts were discovered; the increase in the number of the texts accessible to original Sanskrit has changed significantly the circumstances of Madhyamaka studies. It is therefore time to reconsider and reconstruct the history of the Madhyamaka School. The conference is a kickoff-workshop for investigating the issues. Together with leading researchers in this field, the first conference discusses with methodologies in which the history of the school is restored, and its periodization is made.

A flyer can be found here. A timetable is found here. 

To register and receive the Zoom ID, please send an email to arihiro.kosaka@uni-hamburg.de( arihiro.kosaka"AT"uni-hamburg.de)

Venue:  Hamburg University,  Akademischer Senatssaal, Edmund-Siemers-Allee 1, Hauptgebäude

Convenor:  Arihiro Kosaka

Participants 

Keynote Speech: 
Leonard van der Kuijp (Harvard University)

Participants:
Anne MacDonald (Austrian Academy of Sciences)
Ryo Nishiyama (Kyoto University)
Hiromichi Sasaki (Kyoto University)
Masaki Tamura (National Institute of Technology, Kagawa College)
Zhouyang Ma (Harvard University)
Theresa Bachhuber (Hamburg University)
Venerable Hejung (Hamburg University)
Ryan Conlon (Hamburg University)
Arihiro Kosaka (Hamburg University)

Perspectives of Digital Humanities in the Field of Buddhist Studies

Workshop & Symposium (Hybrid)

12 January & 13–14 January 2023

Buddhist Studies have been inspired by the development of Digital Humanities over several decades. While some tools reached maturity about twenty years ago, other tools have been developed very recently and the future offers even more exciting perspectives.

This symposium brings together pioneers and newcomers of the world of Buddhist digital humanities in order to give insights into their projects and experiences. While the event is aimed at promoting a professional exchange, it also seeks to build a bridge between the developers and the users of these tools. For this purpose, an accompanying workshop will consist of introductory units on tools and methods like TACL, Social Network Analysis, and BuddhaNexus. The symposium-cum- workshop is a joint event by the Numata Center for Buddhist Studies and the Khyentse Center for Tibetan Buddhist Textual Scholarship at Hamburg University.

Registration for the Workshop Part I, II, III and for the Symposium:

Please send an e-mail( carsten.krause"AT"uni-hamburg.de) to Carsten Krause before 10 January 2023. Those who want to participate on-site, should inform us explicitly, due to the large number of registrations, we are starting with a waiting list soon.

A flyer can be found here. 

Venue:  Hamburg University

Funded by: 
Numata Center for Buddhist Studies, Hamburg University
Khyentse Center for Tibetan Buddhist Textual Scholarship,
Hamburg University

Convenors: 
Carsten Krause, Sebastian Nehrdich

Speakers 

Workshop: 
Orna Almogi (Hamburg University)
Marcus Bingenheimer (Temple University)
Sebastian Nehrdich (Düsseldorf University, Hamburg University)
Michael Radich (Heidelberg University)

Symposium: 
Orna Almogi (Hamburg University)
Marcus Bingenheimer (Temple University)
Laurent Van Cutsem (Ghent University)
Christian Faggionato (University of Cambridge)
Oliver Hellwig (Düsseldorf University)
Leo Maximilian Koenig (Hamburg University)
Carsten Krause (Hamburg University)
Patrick McAllister (Austrian Academy of Sciences)
Kiyoinori Nagasaki (International Institute for Digital Humanities, Tokyo)
Sebastian Nehrdich (Düsseldorf University, Hamburg University)
Alexander James O’Neill (SOAS, University of London)
Jörg Plassen (Bochum University)
Michael Radich (Heidelberg University)
Élie Roux (Buddhist Digital Resource Center)
Gregory Adam Scott (University of Manchester)
Sven Sellmer (University of Poznań, Düsseldorf University)
Leon Woltermann (Hamburg University)

Abendkurs Sanskrit (Online-Veranstaltung)

Mit dem Abendkurs Sanskrit bieten wir Ihnen hier am Numata Zentrum für Buddhismuskunde der Universität Hamburg eine universitätsnahe Möglichkeit des Sanskritstudiums außerhalb des Hörsaals.

Dieser Kurs vermittelt die Grundlagen des Sanskrit, sodass nach erfolgreichem Abschluss zum einen einfache Prosatexte selbstständig gelesen werden können und zum anderen ein weiterführendes Studium in Eigenregie möglich ist.

Über einen Zeitraum von insgesamt 14 Kursterminen hinweg werden wir uns, beginnend im Wintersemester 2021/22, die Grundbausteine des Sanskrit durch praktische Übungen erschließen. Wir lernen nach dem Buch "Sanskrit - Devavāṇi. Die Sprache aus der Stadt der Götter"  von Jutta Zimmermann. Die Kursinhalte umfassen u.a. die Schrift (die Devanāgarī), Aufbau und Verwendung thematischer Verben, Aufbau und Verwendung von Substantiven der häufigsten Endungen und ihrer Fälle sowie die Adjektive.

Textpassagen aus dem Lehrbuch (u.a. aus dem Pañcatantra und aus den Upanischaden) werden in Abstimmungen mit den Kursteilnehmenden durch weiteres Material aus der indischen Sanskrit-Literatur ergänzt.

Kenntnisse der grammatischen Terminologie sind zwar hilfreich, aber nicht Voraussetzung für eine erfolgreiche Teilnahme.

Termine

Der Kurs findet im Wintersemester 2022/23 immer dienstags in der Zeit von 18-20 Uhr statt. Es handelt sich bei diesem Kurs um eine Fortführung aus dem Wintersemester 2021/22 und dem Sommersemester 2022. 

Anmeldung

Die Kursteilnahme ist kostenfrei. Für Studierende besteht die Möglichkeit, bei erfolgreicher Teilnahme zwei ECTS zu erhalten. 

Bitte senden Sie eine Mail an buddhismuskunde"AT"uni-hamburg.de  mit den folgenden Informationen: Name, Vorname, Kontakt (e-mail und Telefonnummer), sowie zwei Absätze zu Ihnen und zu Ihrer Motivation, Sanskrit zu lernen.

Dozent: Leo Maximilian Koenig

Leo Koenig ist Student des Masterprogramms Buddhist Studies an der Universität Hamburg.  Er studiert seit  2016 in Hamburg und verbrachte ein Auslandsjahr am Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts in Taiwan. Dort waren seine Schwerpunkte Sanskrit, Chinesisch und Tibetisch. Erfahrungen in der Lehre konnte er in seiner mehrjährigen Tätigkeit als studentischer Tutor für Sanskrit und modernes Hochchinesisch sowie in diversen Sanskrit-Workshops sammeln.

Leo Koenig ist Dozent der jährlichen Sanskrit Yoga Summer Class am  Wissenschaftsschwerpunkt Yogastudien.