Burning for the Buddha
Subtitle: self-immolation in Chinese Buddhism
By: James A. Benn.
Publisher: University of Hawai'i Press
Published: 2007
Place of publication: Honolulu, HI
Language: eng
Number of pages: 360
ISBN-13: 9780824829926
Description: "Burning for the Buddha: Self-Immolation in Chinese Buddhism is the first book-length study of the theory and practice of "abandoning the body" (self-immolation) in Chinese Buddhism. Although largely ignored by conventional scholarship, the acts of self-immolators (which included not only burning the body but also being devoured by wild animals, drowning oneself, and self-mummification, among others) form an enduring part of the religious tradition and provide a new perspective on the multifarious dimensions of Buddhist practice in China from the early medieval period to the present time. This book examines the hagiographical accounts of all those who made offerings of their own bodies and places them in historical, social, cultural, and doctrinal context."--BOOK JACKET.