Religion & Art in East Asia

Catalog description

Vision and Visualization: This class is about ways of seeing in East Asian religions, with an emphasis on the Buddhist and Daoist traditions. It investigates the visual arts of these religious traditions with special attention to how these materials function in the context of ritual practice. Specific topics include the production of mandalas (or sacred circles) and their uses in the visualization practices of China, Tibet, and Japan; the uses of maps, charts, diagrams, and talismans in the Daoist ritual traditions of China and Taiwan; the relationship between sacred texts and ritual visualizations in late imperial Daoism; the religious and ritual dimensions of Chinese landscape painting; and the practices surrounding sacred icons in the Buddhist and Shinto traditions of Japan. In addition to providing a comprehensive introduction to the visual culture of several East Asian religions, this class also asks students to consider the implications these diverse practices have for how we ourselves perceive, understand, and engage with the visual world around us.