Transcending space: Buddhist travelogues across cultural and other borders

Deeg, Max ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5703-2976 2023. Transcending space: Buddhist travelogues across cultural and other borders. Freudenberg, Maren, Elwert, Frederik, Karis, Tim, Rademacher, Martin and Schlamelcher, Jens, eds. Stepping Back and Looking Ahead: Twelve Years of Studying Religious Contact at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg Bochum, Vol. 13. Dynamics in the History of Religions, Brill, pp. 62-91. (10.1163/9789004549319_004)

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Abstract

This chapter looks at the spatial dimension of “transcendence” in the records of Chinese Buddhist “pilgrims,” particularly in Xuanzang’s “Record of the Western Regions of the Great Tang.” Spatiality provides the basic concepts and metaphors for orientation in general and more specifically for the formal representation of transcendence. The travelogues are analysed according to different semiotic aspects used to express transcendence, such as religious-cultural or geographical (rivers, mountain ranges) borders or objects (stūpas, statues). A higher degree of transcendence – for instance, at Bodhgayā – is often expressed by a higher density of ‘sacred spots’ defined by narratives.

Item Type:	Book Section
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	History, Archaeology and Religion
Publisher:	Brill
ISBN:	9789004549319
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	5 June 2024
Last Modified:	05 Jun 2024 15:15
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/168641

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