Includes not only architectural information, but also the cultural significance of these Buddhist monuments.

This book demonstrates how popular ritual texts and story narratives have shaped the religious life and culture of the only surviving South Asian Mahayana Buddhist society, the Newars of Kathmandu. It begins with an account of the Newar Buddhist community's history and its place within the religious environment of Nepal and proceeds to build around five popular translations, several of which were known across Asia: the Srngabheri Avadana, the Simhalasarthabahu Avadana, the Tara, the Mahakala Vratas, and the Pancaraksa. Lewis documents how the respective texts have been domesticated in Nepal's art and architecture, healing traditions, and rituals. He shows how they provide paradigmatic case studies that transcend the Nepalese context, illustrating universal practices or issues in all Buddhist communities, such as gender relations and stupa veneration, the role of merchants, ethnicity, violence, devotions to celestial bodhisattvas by kings and women, and the role of mantra recitations and healing rituals in the lives of Buddhists.

Art, Observation, and an Anthropology of Illustration examines the role of sketches, drawings and other artworks in our understanding of human cultures of the past. Bringing together art historians and anthropologists, it presents a selection of detailed case studies of various bodies of work produced by non-Western and Western artists from different world regions and from different time periods (from Native North America, Cameroon, and Nepal, to Italy, Solomon Islands, and Mexico) to explore the contemporary relevance and challenges implicit in artistic renditions of past peoples and places. In an age when identities are partially constructed on the basis of existing visual records, the book asks important questions about the nature of observation and the inclusion of culturally-relevant information in artistic representations. How reliable are watercolours, paintings, or sketches for the understanding of past ways of life? How do old images of bygone peoples relate to art historical and anthropological canons? How have these images and technologies of representation been used to describe, illustrate, or explain unknown realities? The book is an essential tool for art historians, anthropologists, and anyone who wants to understand how the observation of different realities has impacted upon the production of art and visual cultures. Incorporating current methodological and theoretical tools, the 10 chapters collected here expand the area of connection between the disciplines of art history and anthropology, bringing into sharp focus the multiple intersections of objectivity, evidence, and artistic licence.

"The volume thoroughly examines the origins and principal types of Buddhist architecture in Asia primarily between the third century BCE-twelfth century CE with an emphasis on India. It aims to construct shared architectural traits and patterns alongwith the derivative relationships between Indian and Asian Buddhist monuments. It also discusses the historical antecedents in the Indus Civilization and the religious and philosophical foundations of the three schools of Buddhism and its founder, Buddha. Previously obscure topics such as Aniconic and Vajrayana (Tantric) architecture and the four holiest sites of Buddhism will also be covered in this comprehensive volume. The author further investigates the influences of Buddhist architecture upon Islamic, Christian, and Hindu architecture that have been overlooked by past scholars."

Brian Hodgson lived in Nepal from 1820 to 1843 during which time he wrote and published extensively on Nepalese culture, religion, natural history, architecture, ethnography and linguistics. Contributors from leading historians of Nepal and South Asia and from specialists in Buddhist studies, art history, linguistics, ornithology and ethnography, critically examine Hodgson's life and achievement within the context of his contribution to scholarship. Many of the drawings photographed for this book have not previously been published.

Throughout human history, and across many religious cultures, offerings are made into fire. The essays collected in Homa Variations provide detailed studies of this practice, known in the tantric world as the "homa," from its inception up to the present.

Stupa and Swastika examines urban structures in the city of Patan, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Nepal's Kathmandu Valley. The religious architecture and overall design of the city illustrate the connection between Buddhist symbolism and South Asian concepts of urban design in the Indus Valley, and suggest links with Southeast Asia. -- Back cover.

For more than two millennia Buddhism shaped the cultures of Central, South, Southeast, and East Asia. Each territory had its own peculiar way of developing representations of the Buddha, the Bodhisattvas, and a variety of guardian deities and saints. Of particular importance is the representation of the Buddha and his teachings in an iconic form in the shape of an impassable building. Called Stupa in Sanskrit, and Chörten in Tibetan, these structures not only characterize the urban space of the Newars in the Kathmandu Valley. They also mark the access to Tibetan villages in northern Nepal, line the trails across high passes, and stud topographically prominent places. By their thousands, they transform wilderness into a landscape that promises shelter, protection, and well-being. 584 maps, architectural drawings, and photographs, produced from 1970 to 2008, document the rich cultural heritage of the Tibetan and Tamang enclaves along the range of the high Himalaya.

This book successfully represents the indispensable interdisciplinarity of viewpoints by its authors combining legal perspectives with architectural and anthropological approaches. With the observation and analysis presented here, this book is the first to demonstrate research-based governance solutions for cultural heritage within the process of recovering from traumatic events. Its opening statement is that universal international standards are not effective enough for the specific situations of disaster-struck places. A major objective of this monograph is to allow its readers to go through a learning experience, from plural cases where reconstruction of cultural heritage became central to rebuilding a post-disaster society. This book introduces Japan as the most disaster-prone country, with a long history of confronting and overcoming the power of nature, resulting in its unique solutions for cultural heritage resilience and sustainability. But how do leadership and decision making become efficient in times of recovery? Bearing in mind what may be lacking in Japanese practices, this work also presents comparable governance models from other countries which indicate alternative solutions. While a traumatic event may occur within one night, the process of recovery could last for decades. Such disasters also tend to recur. In order that directly affected communities can sustain resilience throughout the long recovery period, and that equally severe social trauma will not be repeated, a continuous, well-maintained governance response is required, whether grounded in local knowledge or national policy frameworks. At the heart of this book is the matter of the reconstruction process involving networks of small and large communities. Each of those has a role that becomes operational through linkages of contacts, the interchange of knowledge and skills, and above all through the sharing of common goals.

The first comprehensive overview of architectural conservation in Asia Internationally renowned author John Stubbs follows up on the success of his previous volumes Time Honored: A Global View of Architectural Conservation and Architectural Conservation in Europe and the Americas Architectural conservation is a rapidly expanding and under-researched field in Asia and is international experts are often brought in, making the subject of considerable interest to international academics Boxes and case studies by local experts add depth and interest to the authors' meticulous research A website with extra information and resources accompanies the series: http://conservebuiltworld.com