Syllabus/achievement requirements

REL 4530 Topics in Buddhist Studies

Reading list:

Students will write a term paper on one of the main themes of the course. From the reading list, and in agreement with the course leader, students are obliged to make their individual reading list consisting of 1000 pages of which at least c. 200 pages deal with research methodology.

*Diemberger H., A. Hovden, A., and E.T. Yeh, 2015. “The honour of the mountains is the snow: Tibetan livelihoods in a changing climate.” In Huggel, Clague, K??b, and Carey (eds), The high-mountain cryosphere: environmental changes and human risks. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 249-271.

Huber, T., and P. Pedersen, 1997. “Meteorological Knowledge and Environmental Ideas in Traditional and Modern Societies: The Case of Tibet.” The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 3(3), pp. 577–597.

*Jacoby, S.H., 2014. Love and Liberation: Autobiographical Writings of the Tibetan Buddhist Visionary Sera Khandro. Columbia University Press. (422 pages)

McGranahan, C. 2010. Arrested Histories. Tibet, The CIA, and Memories of a Forgotten War. Durham: Duke University Press. (306 pages)

*Moran, P, 2004. Buddhism Observed. Travelers, Exiles and Tibetan Dharma in Kathmandu. London: Routledge 2004. (224 pages)

Salick, J., A. Byg, and K. Bauer. “Contemporary Tibetan Cosmology of Climate Change.” Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture 6(4): 447-?476 (31 pages)

*Yeh, E. T. and C. Coggins (eds), 2014. Mapping Shangrila: Contested Landscapes in the Sino-Tibetan borderlands. Seattle: University of Washington Press. 2014 (332 pages)

*Veldman, R.G., A. Szasz and R. Haluza-Delay (eds), 2014. How the World's Religions are Responding to Climate Change: Social scientific investigations. London: Routledge, chs 1-4 (61 pages).

Yü, D. S., 2015. Mindscaping the Landscape of Tibet. Place, Memorability, Ecoaesthetics. Boston/Berlin: De Gruyter (257 pages).

*Yü, D. S., 2012. The Spread of Tibetan Buddhism in China. Charisma, money, enlightenment. London: Routledge (222 pages).

Research methods:

*Falzon, M-A. (ed.), 2012, Multi-Sited Ethnography. Theory, Praxis and Locality in Contemporary Research. Surrey: Ashgate.

Atkinson, R., 2001. “The Life Story Interview.” In Handbook of Interview Research. Context & Method, edited by Jaber F. Gubrium, and James A. Holstein, 121–140. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Ferguson, J., 2011. “Novelty and Method. Reflections on Global Fieldwork.” In Multisited Ethnography: Problems and Possibilities in the Translocation of Research Methods, edited by Simon Coleman, and Pauline von Hellermann, 194–208. New York: Routledge.

*Stausberg M. and S. Engler (eds), 2011. The Routledge Handbook of Research Methods in the Study of Religion, London and New York: Routledge.


Kaul, AR. ?The Anthropologist as Barman and Tour-guide: Reflections on Fieldwork in a Touristed Destination? http://www.dur.ac.uk/anthropology.journal/vol12/iss1/kaul/kaul.html

Published Nov. 23, 2016 2:29 PM - Last modified Jan. 17, 2017 1:12 PM