Buddhist Literature: Scripture in Stone

This course in Buddhist literature is centered around Borobudur, the largest Buddhist temple in the world, from ninth century central Java, Indonesia. Borobudur's thousands of relief panels depict some of the most conceptually rich and historically important pieces of classical Buddhist literature. We will study this monumentalized literary corpus, and interrogate the choices made in representing Buddhist stories, principles and practices in different forms. And, we will place Borobudur in context, to develop broader understandings of the textual and physical worlds of premodern Buddhism across Asia.