Family in Buddhism

Contents

v Contents Acknowledgments vii 1. Introduction: Family and the Construction of Religious Communities Liz Wilson 1 PART I Historical Families, Imagined Families 2. Serving the Emperor by Serving the Buddha: Imperial Buddhist Monks and Nuns as Abbots, Abbesses, and Adoptees in Early Modern Japan Gina Cogan 21 3. The Tantric Family Romance: Sex and the Construction of Social Identity in Tantric Buddhist Ritual David Gray 43 4. Bone and Heart Sons: Biological and Imagined Kin in the Creation of Family Lineage in Tibetan Buddhism Amy Holmes-Tagchungdarpa 67 5. Families Matter: Ambiguous Attitudes toward Child Ordination in Contemporary Sri Lanka Jeffrey Samuels 89 vi Contents PART II Parents and Children 6. The Passion of Mulian’s Mother: Narrative Blood and Maternal Sacrifices in Chinese Buddhism Alan Cole 119 7. Māyā’s Disappearing Act: Motherhood in Early Buddhist Literature Vanessa R. Sasson 147 8. Mother as Character Coach: Maternal Agency in the Birth of Sīvali Liz Wilson 169 PART III Wives and Husbands 9. Yasodharā in the Buddhist Imagination: Three Portraits Spanning the Centuries Ranjini Obeyesekere 189 10. Evangelizing the Happily Married Man through Low Talk: On Sexual and Scatological Language in the Buddhist Tale of Nanda Amy Paris Langenberg 205 11. Runaway Brides: Tensions Surrounding Marital Expectations in the Avadānaśataka Phillip Green 237 12. The Priesthood as a Family Trade: Reconsidering Monastic Marriage in Premodern Japan Lori Meeks 253 Contributors 277 Index 281 ...