ENGLISH

Courtesans and Tantric Consorts: Sexualities in Buddhist Narrative, Iconography, and Ritual

Book information

Publisher
Routledge
Year
2004
ISBN
0415914833, 9780415914833
LCC
BQ1133.W6 Y68 2001
Google Books ID
Emt9PcJT2A8C
Open Library ID
OL3679759M
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
20 MB (20619172 bytes)
Edition
1
Pages
204\299
Topic
Art Graphic Arts
Orientation
yes
Scanned
yes
Time added
2011-06-04 13:46:07

Description

The wisest teachings of Buddhism say that, like all oppositions, one must move beyond gender. But as Serinity Young shows in this enlightening work, the rhetoric of Buddhist texts, the symbolism of its iconography, and the performative import of its rituals, tell different, and often contradictory, stories. In Courtesans and Tantric Consorts, Serinity Young takes the reader on a journey through more than 2000 years of biographical writings, iconographic depictions, and ritual practices revealing Buddhism's deep struggles with gender.Juxtaposing empowering images of women with their textual repudiation, beginning with the Buddha himself who abandoned his wife; tantric courtesans who are considered necessary to male enlightenment with fertility rituals designed to ensure male offspring; tales of gender-bending gods and goddesses with all male heavens; Serinity Young draws on a vast range of sources to reveal the colourful, and often troubling, mosaic of beliefs that inform Buddhist views about gender and sexuality.

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