Symposium previews new
emphasis on South Asian religions
The Stanford-bound
specialist in Indian Buddhism had just wrapped up his
presentation, but it was clear to all that as the
question period kicked in, the main event had just begun.
In Gregory Schopen's talk
about selected translations from the Tibetan version of
an early monastic code, the subjects of water and purity
flowed throughout.
He concluded and after a
bit of hesitation, the scholars sitting in his audience
dove into debate on his readings. For instance, if monks
had contact with a corpse, are they cleansed when they
bathe their hands and feet or do they need to wash their
entire bodies and their clothes?
Such food for thought was
passed around at the annual Evans-Wentz Symposium on
Asian Religion, whose theme this year was "Religions
of Early India: Interactions."
The purpose of the Oct.
9-10 conference was to stimulate dialogue among the eight
scholars and 50 participants gathered at the Haas Center
for Public Service to discuss religions of South Asia,
including Buddhism, Brahmanism/Hinduism and Jainism. The
papers addressed texts, practices and histories dating
from approximately the 10th century BCE to the early
centuries of the Common Era.
Schopen, currently at the
University of California-Los Angeles, will join the
faculty of the Stanford Center for Buddhist Studies next
fall. When he shared stories monks told to other monks,
the reactions from scholars of other religious
persuasions were expectedly varied. "I think there's
a whole range of responses to these issues," Schopen
acknowledged to his listeners. He told tales that
emphasized attitudes, rules and tone in the text. And
while some may have thought it funny that a monk would
bandage a healthy foot so he wouldn't be ousted from
favored lodgings -- and could cite religious doctrine to
support his case -- others might regard this situation as
deceitful.
"We need to look at a
range of literature to come up with a complete picture,''
said Wendi Leigh Adamek, an assistant professor of
Chinese religion at the University of Iowa, after various
scholars cited readings with different interpretations of
subjects discussed.
The exchange revealed that
"so much of Brahman values crept into Buddhist
practices," said Kalpana Desai, a docent at the
Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.
Currently, the Department
of Religious Studies concentrates on three main areas of
graduate training: Modern Western Religious Thought,
Judaic studies and East Asian religions. The department
has offered little on religions in India because its
emphasis has been on China and Japan, said Carl
Bielefeldt, co-director of the Center for Buddhist
Studies.
Schopen's knowledge of
South Asian and Sri Lankan religions will flesh out the
existing curriculum. "This was an opportunity to
fill a plan we've had for 10 years," Bielefeldt
said.
In 1985 Schopen was named
a MacArthur Fellow, an honor that over a five-year period
bestows a no-strings-attached award that can range from
$30,000 to $75,000 a year, according to the recipient's
age (Schopen is in his early 50s). During his fellowship
period, Schopen scaled back his teaching load to part
time and slowed down his pace: "I spent most of my
time reading; the pressure was off."
A native of Deadwood,
S.D., Schopen earned his bachelor's degree in American
literature from Black Hills State College, his master's
degree in religious studies from McMaster University in
Ontario, Canada, and his doctorate in South Asian and
Buddhist studies from Australian National University.
Prior to joining the faculty at UCLA, he taught at the
University of Texas-Austin.
Schopen has taught in
Europe, and while he has never lived anywhere more than
five or six years, he says he plans "to stay at
Stanford and grow old with dignity."
There won't be much moss
growing under Schopen's Birkenstocks in the near future.
In his role as a member of the executive committee of the
Center for Buddhist Studies, he's already planning a big
conference for Spring 2001 on the origins of Mahayana
Buddhism, one of his specialties.
"Buddhism will be hot
at Stanford," Bielefeldt said.
The conference is named in
memory of W.Y. Evans-Wentz, a scholar of Buddhism whose
family endowed an annual lecture in the Department of
Religious Studies. SR
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