“Once upon a time”—so what? The importance of place in Buddhist narratives

Deeg, Max ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5703-2976 2023. “Once upon a time”—so what? The importance of place in Buddhist narratives. Religions 14 (6) , 690. 10.3390/rel14060690

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Abstract

This paper deals with the aspect of place (space) in Buddhist narratives. Starting from the observation that narrated time is often vaguely indicated in Buddhist narratives, but places and sites of the narrated events are quite specific—although frequently introduced in a stereotypical way (“Once the Buddha dwelled in Śrāvastī …” “Once when Brahmadatta was king in Vārāṇasī …”)—the question is asked why a place is so important for and in Buddhist narratives. Based on selected examples, the argument is made that it is the “blueprint” of “early” Buddhist biographical sources, with the Buddha acting/preaching at specific places, which made these places accessible spaces where merit could be gained through “contact” with soteriologically important events in the past.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	Published
Schools:	History, Archaeology and Religion
Additional Information:	License information from Publisher: LICENSE 1: URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, Type: open-access
Publisher:	MDPI
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	8 June 2023
Date of Acceptance:	20 May 2023
Last Modified:	09 Jun 2023 11:45
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/160250

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