Home > Activities > Lecture - Arcane Cosmopolis: Mandala Origins in the Indian Buddhist Tantras

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Lecture - Arcane Cosmopolis: Mandala Origins in the Indian Buddhist Tantras

Center for Buddhist Studies Colloquium with Ron Davidson, Fairfield University

Friday, January 28, 2005
3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
UCLA
Royce Hall 243
Los Angeles, CA 90095

While hermeneutical etymologies of Buddhist tantric terms have sometimes been considered in the case of Indian esoteric Buddhism, other descriptive statements have been largely ignored, especially in the case of those terms shared with Indian culture in general.  This paper will discuss the origins of Buddhist tantric mandalas in the real politik of early medieval India, when feudal states emerged from rural and tribal areas.  The mandalas' founding mythologies and the ideology of their pronouncements will be related topics, especially as they pertain to questions of secrecy and revelation.

Dr. Ronald Davidson is professor of Religious Studies at Fairfield University, Connecticut.  He is the author of Indian Esoteric Buddhism: A Social History of the Tantric Movement and the forthcoming Tibetan Renaissance: Tantric Buddhism in the Rebirth of Tibetan Culture and the Rise of Sakya.

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This event is free and open to the public. Parking is available at UCLA for $7. For a detailed map of the campus, including parking lots and kiosks, please visit: http://www.ucla.edu/map/index.html.

buddhist@international.ucla.edu
www.international.ucla.edu/buddhist

Sponsor(s): Center for Buddhist Studies, Asia Institute