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Oxford University Press, USA
Unfortunate Destiny: Animals in the Indian Buddhist Imagination
Unfortunate Destiny: Animals in the Indian Buddhist Imagination
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Unfortunate Destiny focuses on the roles played by nonhuman animals within the imaginative thought-world of Indian Buddhism, as reflected in pre-modern South Asian Buddhist literature. These roles are multifaceted, diverse, and often contradictory: In Buddhist doctrine and cosmology, the
animal rebirth is a most unfortunate destiny (durgati), won through negative karma and characterized by a lack of intelligence, moral agency, and spiritual potential. In stories about the Buddha's previous lives, on the other hand, we find highly anthropomorphized animals who are wise, virtuous,
endowed with human speech, and often critical of the moral shortcomings of humankind. In the life-story of the Buddha, certain animal characters serve as doubles of the Buddha, illuminating his nature through identification, contrast or parallelism with an animal other. Relations between human
beings and animals likewise range all the way from support, friendship, and near-equality to rampant exploitation, cruelty, and abuse. Perhaps the only commonality among these various strands of thought is a persistent impulse to use animals to clarify the nature of humanity itself--whether through
similarity, contrast, or counterpoint. Buddhism is a profoundly human-centered religious tradition, yet it relies upon a dexterous use of the animal other to help clarify the human self. This book seeks to make sense of this process through a wide-ranging-exploration of animal imagery, animal
discourse, and specific animal characters in South Asian Buddhist texts.
Author: Reiko Ohnuma
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 06/01/2017
Pages: 264
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.05lbs
Size: 9.40h x 6.30w x 1.10d
ISBN: 9780190637545
animal rebirth is a most unfortunate destiny (durgati), won through negative karma and characterized by a lack of intelligence, moral agency, and spiritual potential. In stories about the Buddha's previous lives, on the other hand, we find highly anthropomorphized animals who are wise, virtuous,
endowed with human speech, and often critical of the moral shortcomings of humankind. In the life-story of the Buddha, certain animal characters serve as doubles of the Buddha, illuminating his nature through identification, contrast or parallelism with an animal other. Relations between human
beings and animals likewise range all the way from support, friendship, and near-equality to rampant exploitation, cruelty, and abuse. Perhaps the only commonality among these various strands of thought is a persistent impulse to use animals to clarify the nature of humanity itself--whether through
similarity, contrast, or counterpoint. Buddhism is a profoundly human-centered religious tradition, yet it relies upon a dexterous use of the animal other to help clarify the human self. This book seeks to make sense of this process through a wide-ranging-exploration of animal imagery, animal
discourse, and specific animal characters in South Asian Buddhist texts.
Author: Reiko Ohnuma
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 06/01/2017
Pages: 264
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.05lbs
Size: 9.40h x 6.30w x 1.10d
ISBN: 9780190637545
About the Author
Reiko Ohnuma is Professor of Religion, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. She is a specialist in the Buddhist traditions of South Asia, with a particular focus on narrative literature, hagiography, and the role and imagery of women.
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