From the ground up. Buddhism and East Asian religions

拔地入雲,造端倡始: 佛教與東亞宗教
Begin - Einde 
2016 - 2024 (lopend)
Vakgroep(en) 
Vakgroep Talen en Culturen
Andere instituten 
The University of British Columbia (Canada)
For a list of participating institutions, see here: http://www.frogbear.org/people/institutional-partners/
Land/Regio 

Tabgroup

Abstract

Recently, the Department of Languages and Cultures with the Centre for Buddhist Studies at Ghent University has joined a large multidisciplinary project on East Asian religions (for a short abstract, see below). Ghent University has been one of the co-applicants of this project initiated and headed by Prof. Chen Jinhua from the University of British Columbia, Canada. The project is funded over a period of seven years by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, as well as by several other co-sponsors.

Researchers of the Department of Languages and Cultures are directly involved in the research activities (mainly consisting of field visits in China and other East Asian countries, in addition to a large database project which collects and publishes the results from the field visits). Prof. Ann Heirman is also functioning as member of the Central Steering Committee (CSC), and Prof. Christoph Anderl is co-investigator and leading one of the 15 research clusters: Typologies of Text and Image Relations (cliffs/caves). As a special feature of the project, all research activities during the field visits will be conducted together with accompanying graduate / Ph.D. students.

For detailed information on the project, please see here.

 

For a passage from the project description, see below:

"As the global importance of East Asia (EA) grows and its cultural identities are asserted ever more strongly, scholars in many fields are recognizing the vital importance of studying EA religions. Distinctive styles of religiosity, ecclesiastical organization, and moral suasion shape all EA societies, even those in which the state has formally renounced religion. Encouraged by the discovery of new texts, artefacts, and increased opportunities for ethnographic fieldwork, the past decade of scholarship has contributed much to our understanding of both historical and contemporary religious phenomena. Technological advances have, during the same period, allowed specialists to make material accessible in ways hitherto unimaginable. Despite these achievements, however, the study of EA religions remains hindered by, on the one hand, the continued privileging of materials deemed to be canonical and, on the other hand, artificial boundaries imposed by geographical borders and academic disciplines. Numerous texts and images, for example, which have played pivotal roles within EA religious discourse—past and present—but were never canonized by religious authorities, remain unstudied or understudied, while connections between artefacts and documents remain hidden from view because scholars trained in separate disciplines study them in relative isolation and at a distance from the complex and multilayered contexts of their creation and use.

This partnership grant research program seeks to overcome these obstacles by bringing together scholars and sources that have rarely, if ever, been in progressive dialogue. Over a seven-year period, our international team will survey key sites of religious practice and strategic nodes in the dissemination and preservation of religious knowledge in EA. While taking stock of ongoing ethnological and sociological research concerning living religions in several EA societies, our focus is on the long-term production and transmission of religious knowledge, based on the pivotal observation that many ancient texts written in Chinese characters (in various languages) continue to be studied and utilized today.Our principal aim is to create a forum for indisputably collaborative and interdisciplinary analysis of textual and visual sources, non-canonical and canonical alike, which were not only integral to pre-modern religious people across EA but also continue to be read and put into practice by present-day Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese communities within EA and overseas. Accessing, recording, and interpreting this material requires a worldwide network of institutions and scholars, each contributing different skills and resources, with a robust infrastructure for online storage and dissemination of the results of our research. The insights we produce and publish based on the project promise to fundamentally change what we know about EA religions and how we know it, from the ground up."

拔地入雲,造端倡始

佛教與東亞宗教

 

這一跨國界、跨領域項目的之所以可能,有賴于加拿大社會科學與人文研究基金會(SSHRC)250萬加元的撥款,以及來自主辦方大學——加拿大英屬哥倫比亞大學(UBC)——和加拿大及世界各國二十余所合作機構高達2000 萬加元的配套資金。此項目從世界範圍內萃集了22個機構的45名學者,依託宗教場所的實地考察和宗教資料的收集,將文本、背景、器物和實踐存檔分析,旨在培養下一代從事東亞宗教研究的歷史學者。各國際分組將制定培訓章程,并帶領學者和研究生前往位於東亞的歷史性和當代宗教實踐場所,收集各種資料,包括照片、記錄,以及3D 影像。這些資料將匯存到 UBC的電子數據庫。這一東亞宗教研究上的切身體驗之方法勢將打破學科之間的壁壘,并將UBC推向宗教史學術交流的最前列。

我們的團隊將會在UBC建立并推廣一個“東亞宗教數據庫”,以提供新的視覺與文本資料來服務於21世紀的東亞宗教學研究。它將使學者可以在宗教資料之間尋找并發現新的聯繫,并鼓勵具有建設性的研究以促進此領域的突破。同樣重要的還有,我們將開展一項線上展覽活動,以展示重要的發現,并會出版一系列書籍以昭示在跨地域背景之中與多學科視角下檢視地方傳統的有效性。

對于加拿大而言,太平洋地區的重要性與時俱進;此計劃除了對學術研究有諸多利益,它也對致力於推動與東亞有著更深、更為持久的經濟、文化聯繫的教育從業者、政策制定者與企業家都極為重要。不僅僅是為了加拿大人,對於來自全世界的學生,加拿大已經建立了通往亞洲的絕佳北美門戶的聲譽,而尖端、21世紀的亞洲研究將進一步提升這一聲譽。

我們很榮幸得到了兩個國際學術項目的支持,共同增進佛教和東亞文化的研究。兩個項目均由國際頂尖的高校協作並提供學術支持。詳情請見以下鏈接。

天柱國際佛教文化研究網絡

由中國廣東六祖禪寺發起成立,旨在為全世界的佛教徒和佛教研究者提供一個分享和交流的平台。

旭日國際佛學網絡

由旭日文教基金會發起成立,旨在加強佛教及佛學研究與其他學科的對話交流和跨文化研究。

Onderzoekers

Promotor(en)

Co-promotor(en)

Onderzoeker(s)

Externe medewerkers

Chen Jinhua

University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada
Subprojects