WHAT DID (TANTRIC) BUDDHIST INDIA EXPORT TO (TANTRIC) BUDDHIST JAPAN? PRAXES AS COHERENT SYSTEMS
This presentation raises a methodological question: When writing the history of the transmission of tantric Buddhism to Japan, what is the appropriate object of study? Something between general abstract entities, such as « Buddhism » and « tantra, » and very specific entities, such as texts, rituals, doctrines, masters. In both cases, such entities may serve in response to questions raised by specific research projects. However, the abstractions are socially constructed, and what one can say about them depends on shared understandings.
And, specific entities are all too easily relocated into interpretive frames that isolate them from their lived context. In contrast, praxes constitute interconnected systems that are based on lived contexts, and which endure over time and across cultural and linguistic boundaries. They are in this way more « natural » objects of study for understanding the transmission of Buddhism out of India.
- Organisateurs : Émilie Aussant (USN) et Vincent Eltschinger (EPHE-PSL)
- Invité : Richard Payne (Berkeley)
- Date et horaire : Mercredi 8 avril 2026 de 12h à 14h
- Lieu et salle : Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Campus Nation, 8 avenue de Saint Mandé 75012 Paris, salle C110