Silk Road Transformation of Buddhism

Catalog description

When Buddhism spread from India to China along the Silk Roads in the first millennium CE, the cultural interactions it encountered on its journey east also transformed Buddhism itself. Who were the individuals and groups behind this transmission of Buddhism? How were personal religious beliefs articulated against broader political and ecological contexts? In what ways did their gender, ethnicity, occupation, and religious identities contribute to the transformation of Buddhism? And how, in turn, did Buddhism shape the civilizations along the Silk Roads? Each week we explore a stop or a group of migrants along the Silk Roads, a text or an artifact associated with them, and a Buddhist idea to be transformed through them. This course also reflects on the modern adaption of Buddhist ideas through similar decentralized cultural contacts. No prerequisite. Undergraduates register for 200 level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units.