The Anthropology of Eastern Religions The Anthropology of Eastern Religions Ideas, Organizations, and Constituencies Murray J. Leaf LEXINGTONBOOKS Lanham•Boulder•NewYork•London PublishedbyLexingtonBooks AnimprintofRowman&Littlefield 4501ForbesBoulevard,Suite200,Lanham,Maryland20706 www.rowman.com 10ThornburyRoad,PlymouthPL67PP,UnitedKingdom Copyright©2014byLexingtonBooks Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereproducedinanyformorbyany electronicormechanicalmeans,includinginformationstorageandretrievalsystems, withoutwrittenpermissionfromthepublisher,exceptbyareviewerwhomayquote passagesinareview. BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationInformationAvailable LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Leaf,MurrayJ.,author. Theanthropologyofeasternreligions:ideas,organizations,andconstituencies/MurrayJ.Leaf. pagescm Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN978-0-7391-9240-5(cloth)--ISBN978-0-7391-9241-2(electronic) 1.Anthropologyofreligion--Asia.2.Religionandsociology--Asia.3.Asia--Religion.I.Title. GN470.7.L432014 306.6095--dc23 2014007857 TMThepaperusedinthispublicationmeetstheminimumrequirementsofAmerican NationalStandardforInformationSciencesPermanenceofPaperforPrintedLibrary Materials,ANSI/NISOZ39.48-1992. PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica Contents ListofIllustrations vii Preface ix Acknowledgments xi 1 Introduction 1 RelatedApproaches 3 “Higher”TraditionsinGeneral 10 TheTheory 11 UsingtheTheory 16 CommonThemes 21 TheOrderofDescription 21 FurtherReading 25 Notes 25 2 VedasandVedanta 27 IndusValleyIdeas 31 SouthAsianTextsandSects 36 TranslationIssues 39 TheVedas 42 TheUpanishads 51 Organizations,Personnel,andConstituencyofVedanta 57 Conclusion 57 FurtherReading 57 Notes 58 3 JainandBuddhistTraditions 59 TheJainTradition 60 TheBuddhistTradition 67 BuddhistEthics:TheMiddleWay 71 Conclusion 79 FurtherReading 81 Notes 81 4 HinduTraditions 83 Hinduism,HinduSociety,andCaste 83 Sikhism:LivingBhakti 101 Conclusion 114 FurtherReading 115 Notes 116 v vi Contents 5 China’sMainReligions 117 Taoism 118 Confucianism 129 Legalism 135 BuddhisminChina 137 Conclusion 144 FurtherReading 144 Notes 144 6 Japan’sReligiousTraditions 147 Background 147 Shinto 151 JapaneseBuddhistSects 155 Zen 158 Bushido 161 Conclusion 162 FurtherReading 162 Notes 162 7 Conclusion 163 ReligionandSocialDevelopment 164 ReligionandEthics 165 FinalThought 168 Bibliography 169 Index 173 AbouttheAuthor 177 List of Illustrations Fig.2.1 SeatedShiva-likefigure,IndusValleySeal. 32 Fig.2.2 ShivaTemple,Panjabvillage,1978. 34 Fig.2.3 InsidetheShivaTemple. 35 Fig.2.4 Pujatoopenanoffice,1988. 37 Fig.2.5 Suraj(thesun):Kangrapainting,eighteenth orninteenthcentury. 45 Fig.3.1 ThestupaatSanchi. 74 Fig.3.2 RemainsofthemonasteryatSanchi. 75 Fig.3.3 GreatBuddhaatNara,Japan,datedtoc.760CE. 77 Fig.4.1 TheGoddessSaraswatiattheGrandAnicut, TamilNadu. 88 Fig.4.2 BeachTempleatMahabalipuram,India. 89 Fig.4.3 TheGoldenTemple,Amritsar,India. 106 Fig.4.4 ThelangaroftheGoldenTemple. 107 Fig.5.1 TheYang-Yinsymbol. 127 Fig.6.1 ThetoriiatItsukushima,seenfromtheisland atlowtide. 155 Fig.6.2 VillageShintoshrine. 156 vii
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