Stephen C. Berkwitz
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195301397
- eISBN:
- 9780199785100
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195301397.003.0014
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
This epilogue describes a prediction wherein Duṭugämuṇu and various members of his family and court will be reborn to attend to the future Buddha Maitreya.
This epilogue describes a prediction wherein Duṭugämuṇu and various members of his family and court will be reborn to attend to the future Buddha Maitreya.
Jessica Marie Falcone
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781501723469
- eISBN:
- 9781501723476
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501723469.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Asian Cultural Anthropology
This ethnography explores the controversial plans and practices of the Maitreya Project, as they worked to build the “world's tallest statue” as a multi-million dollar “gift” to India. This effort ...
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This ethnography explores the controversial plans and practices of the Maitreya Project, as they worked to build the “world's tallest statue” as a multi-million dollar “gift” to India. This effort entailed a plan to forcibly acquire hundreds of acres of occupied land for the statue park in the Kushinagar area of Uttar Pradesh. The Buddhist statue planners ran into obstacle after obstacle, including a full-scale grassroots resistance movement of Indian farmers working to “Save the Land.” In telling the “life story” of the proposed statue, the book sheds light on the aspirations, values and practices of both the Buddhists who worked to construct the statue, as well as the Indian farmer-activists who tirelessly protested against it. Since the majority of the supporters of the Maitreya Project statue are “non-heritage” practitioners to Tibetan Buddhism, the book narrates the spectacular collision of cultural values between small agriculturalists in rural India and transnational Buddhists from around the world. The book endeavors to show the cultural logics at work on both sides of the controversy. Thus, this ethnography of a future statue of the Maitreya Buddha—himself the “future Buddha”—is a story about divergent, competing visions of Kushinagar’s potential futures.Less
This ethnography explores the controversial plans and practices of the Maitreya Project, as they worked to build the “world's tallest statue” as a multi-million dollar “gift” to India. This effort entailed a plan to forcibly acquire hundreds of acres of occupied land for the statue park in the Kushinagar area of Uttar Pradesh. The Buddhist statue planners ran into obstacle after obstacle, including a full-scale grassroots resistance movement of Indian farmers working to “Save the Land.” In telling the “life story” of the proposed statue, the book sheds light on the aspirations, values and practices of both the Buddhists who worked to construct the statue, as well as the Indian farmer-activists who tirelessly protested against it. Since the majority of the supporters of the Maitreya Project statue are “non-heritage” practitioners to Tibetan Buddhism, the book narrates the spectacular collision of cultural values between small agriculturalists in rural India and transnational Buddhists from around the world. The book endeavors to show the cultural logics at work on both sides of the controversy. Thus, this ethnography of a future statue of the Maitreya Buddha—himself the “future Buddha”—is a story about divergent, competing visions of Kushinagar’s potential futures.
Romila Thapar
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195637984
- eISBN:
- 9780199081912
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195637984.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, Indian History
This chapter argues that new chronological forms did not result in a new eschatology at the beginning and end of creation. For this, the cyclic theory continued to be the basis of cosmological time. ...
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This chapter argues that new chronological forms did not result in a new eschatology at the beginning and end of creation. For this, the cyclic theory continued to be the basis of cosmological time. Elements of the eschatology of linear time do occur even within the broadly cyclic, but there is no single deity controlling time as in the Semitic religions. However, some elements of the eschatology seemed to have encouraged deviations. Even the Buddhist wheel of time is discussed in this context. Among these may be noticed the variations in the structure of the cycle itself, as also the innovative idea of the coming of a saviour-figure (the Maitreya Buddha in Buddhism, Kalkin in Visnu Purana) who could intervene to change conditions and who assists in taking the cycle towards the next golden age. The coming of such a figure, it would seem, may not have been unrelated to the linear perceptions of time.Less
This chapter argues that new chronological forms did not result in a new eschatology at the beginning and end of creation. For this, the cyclic theory continued to be the basis of cosmological time. Elements of the eschatology of linear time do occur even within the broadly cyclic, but there is no single deity controlling time as in the Semitic religions. However, some elements of the eschatology seemed to have encouraged deviations. Even the Buddhist wheel of time is discussed in this context. Among these may be noticed the variations in the structure of the cycle itself, as also the innovative idea of the coming of a saviour-figure (the Maitreya Buddha in Buddhism, Kalkin in Visnu Purana) who could intervene to change conditions and who assists in taking the cycle towards the next golden age. The coming of such a figure, it would seem, may not have been unrelated to the linear perceptions of time.
