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BDK Scholarship Previous Holders

2004 Susan Andrews, PhD, Assistant Professor Mount Allison University

Affiliation in Japan:

Institute for Comprehensive Buddhist Studies 大正大学綜合佛教研究所, Taishō University, Tokyo

Supervisor in Japan:

Professor Masao Ichishima

Brief Description of Research conducted in Japan

During the 2005-2006 academic year I was a research fellow at the Institute for Comprehensive Buddhist Studies at Taishō University 大正大学綜合佛教研究所 in Tokyo, Japan. A Buddha Dharma Kyōkai Canada Graduate Scholarship funded this year of dissertation research, language study, and coursework. Under the direction of Professor Masao Ichishima I identified, translated, and studied Japanese and Chinese language materials that now form a central part of my dissertation on Mount Wutai’s 五臺山 emergence as a hub of the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī (Monju, Wenshu 文殊) cult. I also completed an intensive Japanese language course at the Japan Center for Michigan Universities and took a course titled “the Cultural Manifestations of Japanese Religion” at the University of Shiga Prefecture 滋賀県立大学. Earlier this year, I presented research on the pan-Asian Mount Wutai cult of Mañjuśrī at the XVIth Congress of the International Association of Buddhist Studies in Jinshan, Taiwan. The paper forms part of a larger project on the relationship between Kansai 関西 area temples and their Shanxi 山西 counterparts that I began while studying at the Comprehensive Buddhist Studies at Taishō University. The project builds on my dissertation research and should have much to teach us about the complex interactions between Nara, Heian, and Kamakura Buddhism and this famous Chinese locale.

Title of Dissertation, date defended, department and institution.

Representing Mount Wutai’s 五臺山 Past: A Study of Chinese and Japanese miracle tales about the Five Terrace Mountain

December 2012

(a) Assistant Professor of Eastern Religions

Department of Religious Studies
Mount Allison University
Hart Hall
Sackville, NB
E4L 1E2

Canada

sandrews@mta.ca

“Creating Continental Counterparts for the Fujiwara no Kamatari Cult  in Kamakura Japan (1185-1333).” Network and Identity: Exchange Relations between China and the World. Ghent Centre for Buddhist Studies. Ghent, Belgium. December 18-20, 2013.

 “Shingon Ritsu 真言律 and the Reconstruction of Mount Wutai’s Landscapes at Kamakura Period Tōnonime多武峰.” Vinaya Texts and Transmission History: New Perspectives and New Methods” (戒律的文獻與傳播 歷史: 新視野與新方法). Hangzhou, China. August 21-22, 2013.

“Japanese Re-imaginings of Mount Wutai's Significance: An Examination of the Five Terrace Mountain in the Cleric Chōnen’s Hagiographies” Sacred Space and Spatial Sacredness conference. Fudan University 復旦大學. Shanghai, China. August 16-17, 2013.

“Replacing Sukhāvatī: The Centrality of Śākyamuni and India in Contemporary BCA Dharma School Programming." Pure Land in Buddhist Cultures Conference. University of British Columbia. Vancouver, BC, Canada. May 31-June 2, 2013.

“Recreating China's Holy Landscapes in Kamakura Japan.” Invited public lecture. The University of Alberta. Edmonton, AB, Canada. February 27, 2013.

“Sex, Drugs, and Bodies Made Whole: Miracle Tales and Mountain Based Religious Practice in China.” Invited public lecture. Mount Allison University. Sackville, NB, Canada. September 27, 2012.

2006 Dominic Steavu, PhD, Assistant Professor University of California Santa Barbara

Affiliation in Japan:

International College for Postgraduate Buddhist Studies (国際仏教学大学院大学),Tokyo.

Supervisor in Japan:

Professor Hubert Durt

Brief Description of Research conducted in Japan

With the generous support of the BDK, I was able to conduct research on the topic of Buddho-Daoist interchange. I spent the 2007-2008 academic year investigating the conceptual and ritual bedrock shared by Buddhist and Daoist talismanic techniques, longevity-inducing elixirs, and divinatory meditations. My efforts centered on a handful of sources from the early medieval and medieval periods in China and Japan, namely Sanhuang 三皇 (Three Sovereigns) texts from the Donghshen 洞神 (Storing the Divine) section of the Daoist canon, Esoteric Buddhist sources from the Sino-Japanese canon including the Longshu wuming lun 龍樹五明論 (Nāgārjuna’s Treatise on the Five Sciences; T. 1420), and a handful of Buddhist manuscripts preserved at the Kanazawa bunkō. As a result of this research, it emerged that in many respects, “Daoism” and “Buddhism” are often quasi-arbitrary labels appended to concepts and practices that transcend sectarian boundaries and ex post facto categorizations. This is particularly true of certain elements antedating organized Daoism and the development of Esoteric Buddhism in China. The ubiquity and plasticity of these elements and their related methods guaranteed their transmission and successful adaptation to the Japanese religio-cultural context.

Title of Dissertation, date defended, department and institution

“The Three Sovereigns Tradition: Talismans, Elixirs, and Meditation in Early Medieval China.” Defended 12/2009;
PhD obtained 04/2010 from the Buddhist Studies Program, Department of Religious Studies, Stanford University, Stanford CA, USA.

Current position and contact information

Assistant Professor
East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies, Religious Studies
University of California Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara CA 93106-7075

dsteavu[at]eastasian[dot]ucsb[dot]edu>

Current research interests

Generally speaking, my current research investigates the strategies through which premodern religions and intellectual currents situate the individual in relation to the cosmos and its components, in other words, the process of composition that is ingredient to any cosmology. More pointedly, I am interested in how socio-historical contingencies shape this process and ultimately impact the production and circulation of knowledge that results from composition. I focus on the transmission of ideas and practices across sectarian, economic, and cultural boundaries. I am presently investigating the cosmological compatibility that permitted Six-Dynasties Daoists and Tang Esoteric Buddhists to absorb and elaborate on many of the notions pertaining to the cosmic body and fate (including illness) that were originally developed in Han-dynasty sources. I am particularly curious about how these conceptual compatibilities were translated into tangible substances (such as alchemical elixirs [dan 丹] and phytochemical medicines [yao 藥]), or concrete implements (such as talismans [fu 符], seals [yin 印], diagrams [tu 圖], and cosmographs [shi 式]), which fueled the motor of Buddho-Daoist interchange. I am also interested in how this interchange was articulated in medieval Japan, where the dynamics and parameters were considerably different the Chinese context.

Recent publications and talks

1. Edited Volumes and Special Issues

Transforming the Void: Embryological Discourse and Reproductive Symbolism in East Asian Religions. Co-editor, with Anna Andreeva. Leiden: Sir Henry Wellcome Asian Series, Brill (2015).

“The Literary Subversive: Writings of Resistance in East Asian History,” special issue, Medieval History Journal 17.2 (October 2014)

2. Articles and Book Chapters

“Delocalizing Illness: Healing and the State in Chinese Magical Medicine.” In Helene Basu and William Sax, eds., The Law of Possession: Ritual, Therapy, and the Secular State, 82–113. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.
 
“Cosmos, Body, and Meditation in Early Medieval Taoism.” In Anna Andreeva and Dominic Steavu, eds., Transforming the Void: Embryological and Reproductive Symbolism in East Asian Religions, 111–146. Leiden: Sir Henry Wellcome Asian Series, Brill (i2015).
 
“Backdrops and Parallels to Embryological Discourse and Reproductive Imagery in East Asian Religions.” Co-authored with Anna Andreeva. In Anna Andreeva and Dominic Steavu, eds., Transforming the Void: Embryological and Reproductive Symbolism in East Asian Religions, 1–50. Leiden: Sir Henry Wellcome Asian Series, Brill (2015).
 
“Cosmogony and the Origin of Inequality. A Utopian Perspective from the Wunengzi.” Special issue on “The Literary Subversive: Writings of Resistance in East Asian History,” Medieval History Journal 17.2 (2014): 295–335.
 
“A Brief Overview of the Role of Intellectuals in Resistance.” Special issue on “The Literary Subversive” Writings of Resistance in East Asian History,” Medieval History Journal 17.2 (2014): 195–206.
 
“The Many Lives of Lord Wang of the Western Citadel: A Note on the Transmission of the Sanhuang wen (Writ of the Three Sovereigns),” Journal of the International College for Postgraduate Buddhist Studies 13 (March 2009): 109–161.

3. Review Articles

“Taking Form in Response to Stimulus: Recent Publications in Taoist Studies, A Field in Motion.”Asiatisches Studien/Études asiatiques 63.4 (2013): 1081–1101.
 
“Recent Publications in Daoist Studies,” Cahiers-d’Extrême Asie 17 (2008) [2010]: 341–355.

2008 Dewei Zhang, PhD, Post-doctoral Fellow, University of British Columbia

Affiliation in Japan

Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University 京都大學人文科學研究所

Supervisor in Japan

Professor Funayama Toru 船山徹

Brief Description of Research conducted in Japan

When in Japan, I focused on my dissertation and finished it. In the project, I examine how the late Ming (1573-1644) Buddhist revival took place and processed at different social levels in different regions over the one hundred years of the Jiajing-Wanli period (1522-1620). The more theoretic portion of it seeks to understand how, why, and to what extent this revival was a reaction and adjustment to the contemporary political environment by referring to the relevant social, economic, religious, cultural, and regional backgrounds. My argument is that the rise and fall of this revival was largely driven not by the inner dynamics of Buddhism but by drastic changes in the political, socioeconomic, and cultural surroundings of the age. As a result, this religious movement was very sensitive to changes in secular society. Some eminent monks appeared and some Buddhist temples were built or repaired, but the samgha remained susceptible to external elements and its fortune was controlled by laymen. Finally, this revival came to an end when the favorable surroundings disappeared in the early Qing. The results of this study should not only be of interest to Buddhologists, but also to those more generally interested in historic church-state relations, Daoism, folk religion, comparative religion, Chinese social and economic history.

During the term, I also began to prepare for my current project, including collecting materials and doing a field trip.

Title of Dissertation, date defended, department and institution

"A Fragile Revival: Chinese Buddhism under the Political Shadow, 1522-1620" June 9th, 2011; Department of Asian Studies The University of British Columbia

Current position and contact information.

Associate Researcher 
Philosophy Department
Sun Yat-sen University
No. 135, Xingang Xi Road, Guangzhou
Guangzhou, 510275
China

welcomezd[at]gmail[dot]com

Current research interests

I am working on the production and dissemination of the printed Chinese Buddhist canon, which I see as a profound social activity involving not only religion but also politics, economy, culture and regional variations, from religious and non-religious points of view. This project consists of a historical survey and a thematic study. Centering on those canons produced in Ming-Qing China, with frequent reference to editions produced in other periods and countries, I will explore how various forces and interests, sacred and secular, were transformed and traded in a dynamic market which lay underneath the complicated process of producing and distributing a Buddhist canon. I will also reveal how and to what extent sacred and secular elements played their parts at each stage of the production and dissemination of a canon, influenced its reception by different social groups, and eventually helped reshape Buddhism in China and other parts of East Asia during the period in question. My main methodology consists in a close reading of all available sources, quantitative analysis, regional approach, and cases studies. This study will first result in a series of articles and finally a book.

Recent publications and talks

Articles:

  1. "Where the Two Worlds Met: Spreading the Ming Beizang 明北藏 in Wanli (1573-1620) China." Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (Third Series) 26.3(2016): 487-508.
  2. "Engaged but Not Entangled: Miaofeng Fudeng 妙峰福登 (1540-1612) and the Late Ming Court," in Thomas Juelch ed., The Middle Kingdom and the Dharma Wheel: Aspects of the Relationship between the Buddhist Samgha and the State in Chinese History(Leiden: Brill,2016), pp. 322-78.
  3. "Challenging the Reigning Emperor for Success: Hanshan Deqing 憨山德清 (1546-1623) and Late Ming Court Politics." Journal of the American Oriental Society134.2 (2014), pp. 263-85.
  4. "An Unforgettable Enterprise by Forgotten Figures: Making the Zhaocheng Canon 趙城藏 in North China under the Jurchen Jin Regime." ZINBUN: Memoirs of the Research Institute for Humanistic Studies (Kyoto University), no. 44(2012-2013), pp. 1-38.


Book Reviews

  1. Review for Burning for the Buddha: Self-Immolation in Chinese Buddhism. Hanyu foxue pinglun 漢語佛學評論, no.6 (2014), pp. 433-436.
  2. Review for A Northern Alternative: Xue Xuan (1389-1464) and the Hedong School. Canadian Journal of History/Annalescanadiennesd'histoire 48.2 (2013), pp. 384-85.
  3. Review for Buddhist Monasticism in East Asia: Places of Practice. Pacific Affairs 86.1 (2013), pp.126-28.



Presentations:

  1. "Religious Cosmopolitanism and National Identity: A Revisit of the Creation of the Buddhist Canon in the Context of Modern East Asia." Presented in “Dunghuang Conference on Sutra Transmission and Translation”. Dunhuang, June 15, 2016.
  2. “Saving Practice from Textualism: New Light on the History of Esoteric Buddhist Practices (jiao教) in Late Imperial China.” Presented in the Association for Asian Studies (AAS) Annual conference. Seattle. April 2, 2016.
  3. "A Bridge Not Far Enough: Ciguang si 慈光寺 at Mount Huang on the Imperial Stage." Presented in "An International Conference on More Bonds than Boundaries: The Diverse Roles and Functions of East Asian Temples and Shrines." Shanghai. August 3, 2015.
  4. "More than Seeking for Sacredness: New Light on the Carving of the Jiaxing Canon at Mount Wutai." Presented in "The Mountain of Five Plateaus: Studies of the Wutai Cult in Multidisciplinary and Trans-border/Cultural Approaches." Mount Wutai, China. August 1, 2015.
  5. "Rebuilding an Indian Buddhist Sacred Site in China: The Rise of Mount Jizu 雞足in Late Imperial China." Presented in "繁花似錦:文明交會、人群匯流與個人境遇" 國際學術研討會 (Blossoming into Mosaics: International Conference on Personal Vicissitudes amid the Encounter of Civilizations and Peoples). National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan. November 15, 2014.
  6. "Beyond Seeking for Sacredness: Carving the Jiaxing Canon at Mount Wutai." Presented in the 17th Congress of the International Association of Buddhist Studies (IABS). Vienna, Austria. August 22, 2014.
  7. "Text and Authority: Contending for Control over the Chinese Buddhist Canon." Presented in the "Religious Authority in East Asian" conference. Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität of Munich, Germany. August 13, 2014.
  8. "When the Stone Speaks: The History of Carving the Zhaocheng Canon 趙城藏 in a New Light." Presented in the "International Symposium on Epigraphic Materials and Buddhist Studies" (石刻史料與佛教研究國際學術研討會). Xi’an, China. July 23, 2014.
  9. "Qing Emperors and Buddhism: With a Special Reference to the Compilation of the Dragon Canon (longzang龍藏)." Presented in the "Symposium on Buddhism in Beijing during the Qing dynasty." Beijing, China. July 12, 2014.
  10. "Buddhism and Service: Miaofeng Fudeng妙峰福登 (1540-1612), Late Ming Court, and Local Society.” Presented in “the Sixth International Symposium on Buddhist Studies of the Four Places cross the Taiwan Strait” (第六屆兩岸四地及國際佛教學術研討會). University of Macau. June 13, 2014.

Workshops:

Co-chairing with Dr. Thomas Julch, “Chinese Buddhist Apologetic Literature in a Diachronic Perspective". Ghent University, Belgium. Sept. 28- Oct. 2, 2015.

2010 Robban Toleno, PhD Candidate, University of British Columbia

Institution in Japan

Department of Eastern Philosophy and Culture 東洋思想文化学科, Tōyō University, Tokyo.

Supervisor in Japan

Professor Atsushi IBUKI 伊吹敦

Brief description of research conducted in Japan

Thanks to generous support from Mr. Numata and the Bukkyō Dendō Kyōkai, I spent the 2012-2013 academic year conducting dissertation research at Tōyō University, one of four Tokyo universities forming a consortium for the study of Buddhism.

My project was an investigation of statements on food (shi 食) in Chinese Buddhist leishu 類書, texts that resemble encyclopedias. I focused my attention on Yichu’s 義楚 (10th c.) Shishi liutie 釋氏六帖, a non-canonical work that arrived to the present day as a rare woodblock-print edition held at Tōfukuji in Kyoto, Japan. Translating and analyzing Yichu's citations on food, I found that they tend to frame eating as a skilled activity and emphasize the merit-building power of making offerings of food. The theme of vegetarianism is present but overshadowed by other concerns, which was something of a surprise. My research helps illustrate how Buddhist knowledge of food oriented practitioners toward not only moral self-cultivation, but also physiological benefit.

Title of Dissertation, date defended, department and institution

“Skilled Eating: Knowledge of Food in Yichu’s Shishi liutie, a Buddhist Encyclopedia from Tenth-Century China.” Defended March 2015, Department of Asian Studies, University of British Columbia.

Current Affiliation

Sheng Yen Postdoctoral Fellow in Chinese Buddhism 2016-2018
Center for Buddhism and East Asian Religion (CBEAR)
80 Claremont Avenue
Columbia University
New York City, NY 10027
USA

rt2627[at]columbia[dot]edu

Current research Interests

I research Chinese Buddhism and Chinese food history, as well as longevity patterns in Chinese history. My aim is to better understand relationships between food practices and the moral structures of premodern society. Specifically, I use Buddhist encyclopedias to analyze the way ideas about food evolved over time or settled into normative patterns that traveled in literary form through time and space. My historical focus is on texts compiled in the 10th-13th centuries, from the end of the Tang, through the Five Dynasties, and into the Song period. Around this time, newly developing print technology allowed an unprecedented volume of written works to be published and circulated, providing a broad base for scholarship on China's religious and social history. My pilot study of longevity patterns in Chinese history suggests that tonsured Buddhists enjoyed better longevity than the general population, an intriguing finding that has stimulated my interest in pursuing further research on long-lived Chinese Buddhists and their food practices.

Recent publications and talks

“Buddhist Method as Medicine: The Chan Materia Medica and its Ming-Dynasty Elaboration.” In Buddhism and Healing: A Sourcebook, edited by C. Pierce Salguero. Forthcoming in 2017.

"Rustic Recipes for Nourishing Life: Lin Hong’s Shanjia qinggong from Song China.” Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference, Seattle, WA, USA, 31 March-3 April, 2016.

"Media Chains and Reading Methods: Illustrating Strengths and Limitations of Digital Media with a Non-Canonical Tenth-Century Chinese Buddhist Encyclopedia." Paper, Print, and Cyberspace: The Perspective of a Global Network for the Multimedia and Interdisciplinary Studies of Buddhism and East Asian Religions, a workshop held at the University of British Columbia, 4-5 October 2015.

"Four-Foods Doctrine in Chinese Buddhism: Non-Cartesian Nourishment?" Buddhism and Wellbeing: Therapeutic Approaches to Human Flourishing, The 5th Annual Tung Lin Kok Yuen Canada Foundation Conference, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, 28-30 May 2015.

“Skilled Eating: Chinese Buddhist Perspectives on Food and Morality.” 2014 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion (AAR), San Diego, CA, USA, 22-25 November 2014.

“ Zen honzō to En Chūdō no Zenmon honzō ho: Zen honzō no genkei to shindai ni okeru ryōsha no kondō 『禪本草』と袁中道の『禪門本草補』―『禪本草』の原形と清代における両者の混同―” (“The Chan bencao and Yuan Zhongdao’s Chanmen bencao bu: The original text of the Chan bencao and confusions between the two during the Qing dynasty”). Tōyōgaku kenkyū 東洋学研究, vol. 50 (2013):149-161 (396-384). Tōyō University, Tokyo, Japan.

"Food and Efficacy: Porridge, Milk, and Beans in the Shishi liutie, a Buddhist Encyclopedia from Tenth-Century China." 17th Congress of the International Association of Buddhist Studies (IABS), Vienna, 19 August 2014.

"Longevity in China: Integrating Statistical and Textual Inquiries." Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference, Philadelphia Downtown Marriott, Philadelphia, PA, USA, 30 March 2014.

"Apotropaic Plants and Intrinsic Efficacy: Revisiting Kuwa (Mulberry) in Japanese Cultural History." Centre for Japanese Research Lunchtime Lecture Series, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 13 November 2013.

"Lexicon or Encyclopedia? Assessing Yichu's Non-Canonical Shishi liutie from Tenth-Century China." 2013 International Graduate Students' Conference on Buddhism and Chinese Religions, sponsored by the International Center for Studies of Chinese Civilization (ICSCC), Fudan University, Shanghai, China, 12 August 2013.

"Sacred or Profane? Spatial Frames in Yichu's Shishi liutie, a Buddhist Encyclopedia from Tenth-Century China." Space That is More Than Space: New Perspectives on Buddhist Sacred Sites in East Asia, a workshop held at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 2 August 2013.

“Food and Eating in the Shishi liutie, a Buddhist Encyclopedia from Tenth-Century China.” Buddhism Discussion Group, Tokyo, Japan, March 10, 2013.

“The Normative Force of Recipes: Food Writing from Thirteenth-Century China in Historical and Ethnological Perspective.” Ninth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic, and Social Sustainability, International Conference Center, Hiroshima, Japan, January 24, 2013.

“The Flavor of Meditation: Botanical Metaphor and Religious Efficacy in the Chan Bencao of Song China.” Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference, Sheraton Centre, Toronto, Canada, March 17, 2012.

“Pure Offerings: Buddhist Moral Themes in Lin Hong’s Shanjia qinggong.” Legacies of Taste: An International Conference on Food Narratives in China: School of Chinese, The University of Hong Kong, December 17, 2011.

“Modeling Materia Medica: Interactions Between Lay Intellectual and Buddhist Forms of Knowledge in the Chan Bencao and Related Texts.” The Ninth International Symposium Sponsored by UBC Tzu-Chi Buddhist Forum, Lay Buddhism: An Old Issue Viewed in New Perspectives, Vancouver, BC, Canada, March 25, 2011.

2012 Chris Jensen, PhD Candidate, McMaster University

Institution in Japan

Kyoto University

Supervisor in Japan

Funayama Toru

Brief description of research to be conducted in Japan

In my dissertation research, I hope to elucidate the understanding(s) of dreams in medieval East Asian Buddhism by considering a number of specific research questions. In approaching these questions, I will draw much of my material from the broad (and largely under-explored) vistas of medieval East Asian miracle tales, as these sources offer the best (and, in many cases, the only) evidence of the interests, concerns, and activities of the non-elite religious. Some of these questions include the following: how can we best access the dream worlds of medieval East Asia? To what extent did oneiric visions help to define the waking experience of religion? How were such experiences discussed, explored and contested, and why were they seen as compelling? Why do dreams figure so prominently in the devotional literature of the period (in particular, in miracle tales)? To what extent can these texts be used to reconstruct the “discourse communities” within which such tales were told, retold, disseminated, and (eventually)
canonized? What insights can be garnered by comparing references to dreams in Chinese and Japanese miracle tales?

Title of Dissertation, date defended, department and institution

"Oneiric Visions and Social Realities: Dream Narratives in Medieval East Asian Buddhism."
Proposal defended Nov. 2012. Department of Religious Studies, McMaster University.

Current Affiliation

McMaster University

Current Research Interests

 sleep and dreaming, medieval China, lived religion, narrative

Recent publications and talks

2013 CSSR National Meeting
“Oneiric Visions, Social Expectations and Editorial Agendas: Using Lotus Sutra Miracle Tales to Explore Dreaming in Medieval Chinese Buddhism”
June 1-4, 2013, Victoria, BC, Canada

2013 AAR Eastern International Meeting
“Poisons and Insects and Demons! Oh My! The Multivalency of 'Gu' in Chinese Buddhist Sources”
            May 10-11, 2013, Toronto, ON, Canada

2012 AAR Eastern International Meeting
“Actual and Idealized Dreaming: Preliminary Considerations Regarding the Use of the Hongzan fahua zhuan to Explore Sleep and Dreaming in Medieval China"
May 4-5, 2012, Waterloo, ON, Canada

2014, Jeffrey Kotyk, Phd Candidate, Leiden University

Institution in Japan:

Komazawa University
 

Supervisor in Japan: 

Ishii Kosei 石井公成

Brief description of research to be conducted in Japan:

I initially collected primary and secondary materials (in particular Japanese articles and monographs) on topics related to astrology, astral deities and calendrical science in East Asia. I was especially interested in finding extra-canonical works, documents and specimens of art related to the Buddhist practice of astrology in China and Japan. It was with all these materials in hand that I could start tracing out an accurate chronology for the development of Buddhist astrology in China. I discovered that many of the purported authors of relevant texts are misattributed, leading to numerous misunderstandings even in modern scholarship. I also looked at the influence of foreign astrology in Tang and Heian-era literature as well as the East Asian art record. I published many of my findings in a Japanese article.

Title of Dissertation, date defended, department and institution:

"Buddhist Astrology and Star Worship in the Tang Dynasty" To be defended September, 2018. Institute for Area Studies (Humanities), Leiden University.

Current Affiliation:

PhD Candidate, Leiden University.

j.kotyk@hum.leidenuniv.nl

Current Research Interests:

Astrology in Asia, Religions in the Tang Dynasty, Buddhist Chinese, Lexicography.

Recent publications and talks:

Kotyk, Jeffrey. “Kanjiken no bungaku ni okeru saihō-senseijutsu no yōso: tōzai bunka kōryū ni okeru Bukkyō no yakuwari” 漢字圏の文学における西方占星術の要素:東西文化交流における仏教の役割 [Elements of Occidental Astrology in Literature of the Sinosphere: a Role of Buddhism in Eurasian Cultural Exchange]. Bukkyō bungaku kenkyū 佛教文學研究 19 (2016): 85–110. http://repo.komazawa-u.ac.jp/opac/repository/all/35666/