Battling the Buddha of Love : A Cultural Biography of the Greatest Statue Never Built / Jessica Marie Falcone.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Falcone, Jessica Marie, 1976- Author.

Series:

Cornell scholarship online.

Cornell scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ethnology--India--Kushinagar (District).

Ethnology.

Maitreyanātha--Cult--India--Kushinagar (District).

Maitreyanātha.

Mahayana Buddhism--India--Kushinagar (District).

Mahayana Buddhism.

Buddhist converts.

Mahayana Buddhism--Relations.

Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xviii, 303 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press, [2018]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Battling the Buddha of Love is a work of advocacy anthropology that explores the controversial plans and practices of the Maitreya Project, a transnational Buddhist organization, as it sought to build the "world's tallest statue" as a multi-million-dollar "gift" to India. Hoping to forcibly acquire 750 acres of occupied land for the statue park in the Kushinagar area of Uttar Pradesh, the Buddhist statue planners ran into obstacle after obstacle, including a full-scale grassroots resistance movement of Indian farmers working to "Save the Land."Falcone sheds light on the aspirations, values, and practices of both the Buddhists who worked to construct the statue, as well as the Indian farmer-activists who tirelessly protested against the Maitreya Project. Because the majority of the supporters of the Maitreya Project statue are converts to Tibetan Buddhism, individuals Falcone terms "non-heritage" practitioners, she focuses on the spectacular collision of cultural values between small agriculturalists in rural India and transnational Buddhists hailing from Portland to Pretoria. She asks how could a transnational Buddhist organization committed to compassionate practice blithely create so much suffering for impoverished rural Indians.Falcone depicts the cultural logics at work on both sides of the controversy, and through her examination of these logics she reveals the divergent, competing visions of Kushinagar's potential futures. Battling the Buddha of Love traces power, faith, and hope through the axes of globalization, transnational religion, and rural grassroots activism in South Asia, showing the unintended local consequences of an international spiritual development project.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Note On Conventions

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Introduction. Meditation/DHYANA: Focusing On The Maitreya Project

Part 1: The Transnational Buddhist Statue Makers

1. Community/SANGHA: FPMT's Transnational Buddhists

2. The Teachings/DHARMA: Religious Practice in a Global Buddhist Institution

3. The Statue/MURTI: Planning a Colossal Maitreya

4. The Relics/SARIRA: Worship and Fundraising with the Relic Tour

5. Aspirations/ASHA: Hope, the Future Tense, and Making (Up) Progress on the Maitreya Project

Part 2: The Kushinagari Resistance

6. Holy Place/TIRTHA: Living in the Place of the Buddha's Death

7. Steadfastness/ADITTHANA: Indian Farmers Resist the Buddha of Love

8. Loving-Kindness/MAITRI: Contested Notions of Ethics, Values, and Progress

9. Compassion/KARUNA: Reflections on Engaged Anthropology

Conclusion. Faith/SHRADDHA: Guru Devotion, Authority, and Belief in the Shadow of the Maitreya Project

Epilogue. Rebirth/SAMSARA: The Future of the Maitreya Project

Appendix

Notes

Glossary

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Previously issued in print: 2018.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 26. Nov 2019)

ISBN:

9781501723490

1501723499

9781501723476

1501723472

OCLC:

1027730871