Books by Eric Huntington
Winner of the 2018 Edward Cameron Dimock Jr. Prize in the Indian Humanities
"A profoundly inno... more Winner of the 2018 Edward Cameron Dimock Jr. Prize in the Indian Humanities
"A profoundly innovative and engaging study of cosmological thinking in texts, rituals, imagery, and architecture across the Buddhist world of the Himalayas."
-Catherine Becker, author of Shifting Stones, Shaping the Past: Sculpture from the Buddhist Stupas of Andhra Pradesh
"Offers a new perspective on the depictions of cosmological imagery. A timely topic that makes major contributions to the field of art history."
-Christian Luczanits, David L. Snellgrove Senior Lecturer in Tibetan and Buddhist Art, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
Buddhist representations of the cosmos across nearly two thousand years of history in Tibet, Nepal, and India show that cosmology is a rich language for the expression of diverse religious ideas, with cosmological thinking at the center of Buddhist thought, art, and practice.
In Creating the Universe, Eric Huntington presents examples of visual art and architecture, primary texts, ritual ideologies, and material practices—accompanied by extensive explanatory diagrams—to reveal the immense complexity of cosmological thinking in Himalayan Buddhism. Employing comparisons across function, medium, culture, and history, he exposes cosmology as a fundamental mode of engagement with numerous aspects of religion, from preliminary lessons to the highest rituals for enlightenment. This wide-ranging work will interest scholars and students of many fields, including Buddhist studies, religious studies, art history, and area studies.
http://www.washington.edu/uwpress/search/books/HUNCRE.html
Journal Articles by Eric Huntington
South Asian Studies, 2018
Buddhist rituals that simulate offering the cosmos are often characterized in terms of what they ... more Buddhist rituals that simulate offering the cosmos are often characterized in terms of what they represent rather than their physical actions, material ephemera, or visual depictions. Newar and Tibetan versions of the cosmic offering, however, arise from closely related cosmological texts, but exhibit differences in performance and product. Further, depictions of these rituals in painting create new visions of the cosmos that affect conceptions of the world even outside their original context. Ritual performances and artworks thus become sources for cosmological thinking beyond their authoritative texts. A detailed comparison of Newar and Tibetan rituals and artworks creates nuance in notions of a shared Himalayan Buddhist world-view and highlights complex relationships between texts, practices, depictions, and traditions.
https://doi.org/10.1080/02666030.2018.1514956
Material Religion, 2017
This article addresses the relationships between text and image in a group of Newar Buddhist manu... more This article addresses the relationships between text and image in a group of Newar Buddhist manuscripts from Nepal. While these manuscripts all describe essentially the same ritual, a version of the ubiquitous Vajradhātu maṇḍala, they do so in widely varying ways, serving more as practitioners’ notes than as a meticulously copied sacred text. In this context, words and drawings are employed complementarily to communicate both visual and ritual information, neither complete in itself. While one might expect the images to be straightforward illustrations of visual aspects of the texts, some images perform ritual functions entirely outside the text, while some textual passages convey far more specific and useful visual information than the associated illustrations. Furthermore, both text and image have complex relationships with the meditative visualizations and ritual practices ostensibly performed via the manuscripts. In the end, the illustrations perform multiple functions, including the protection of the manuscript itself, practical instruction in the actions and visualizations of the ritual, and indexing key moments of the performance. These contrasting functions are not explicit, but they are marked by both formal differentiation in the illustrations and noticeably dissimilar relationships between the images and accompanying texts.
https://doi.org/10.1080/17432200.2017.1289307
Book Chapters by Eric Huntington
Awaken: A Tibetan Buddhist Journey Toward Enlightenment, 2019
Readings of Śāntideva's Guide to Bodhisattva Practice (Bodhicaryāvatāra), 2019
Conference Presentations by Eric Huntington
Although texts are often cited as “authoritative sources” for cosmological models, they are actua... more Although texts are often cited as “authoritative sources” for cosmological models, they are actually individual instances of cosmological thought expressed for particular purposes. In this paper, I problematize the scholarly use of such sources to represent broader traditions on two fronts. First, I analyze certain key cosmological texts from Buddhism and Hinduism to show that each is adapted to the specific purposes of its context and authorship, resulting in notable modifications to the cosmic model for particular goals, along with restrictions in broader applicability. Second, I argue that “non-authoritative” expressions of cosmological thinking can provide a much broader view of the many ways that cosmological models actually function within religious thought. The end result is an alternative to viewing a particular cosmological model as a shared backdrop for varied aspects of a religious tradition, rather seeing it as an open framework around which diverse features of a religion can be constructed and expressed.
The loci classici for Buddhist cosmology are generally systematic textual accounts, such as Vasubandhu’s scholastic Abhidharmakośa or the all-encompassing tantric system of the Kālacakra corpus. In other traditions, descriptions of the cosmos may form only small parts of divergent projects, such as Buddhaghosa’s Visuddhimagga or, in Hindu literature, certain purāṇas. These “sources” do not straightforwardly express the cosmological models of their traditions, but rather employ cosmological thinking oriented towards particular agendas. Vasubandhu’s articulation of the geographic cosmos expresses key arguments about causality and karma for his philosophical project, while Buddhaghosa describes a subtly different cosmos understood within the meditative practices leading to enlightenment. The radically different models of the Kālacakra system and the purāṇas, in turn, articulate cosmoses that are explicitly shaped towards particular ritual and social agendas, respectively. These textual portrayals, viewed in context, present remarkably varied ways of thinking about the role of cosmology in religion, as well as ways in which cosmic models can be suited to particular purposes. Further comparison of even the most detailed “source” texts with other textual and visual representations of the cosmos also reveals that these texts simply cannot be the only foundations for even the cosmological traditions that claim them as such.
Beyond these commonly cited sources are vastly numerous other expressions of the Buddhist cosmos in text, artwork, and material culture. Relationships between the Buddhist cosmos and the architecture of the stūpa, for example, are well studied. Perhaps less thoroughly considered are unsystematic or incomplete examples, such as the use of cosmic elements in literary metaphor, their appearances in narrative illustrations of the Buddha’s life story and certain avadānas, and many other cases in text, art, and ritual. Like the “authoritative” sources, all of these expressions of the cosmos emphasize particular ways of thinking about the structure and parts of the Buddhist world towards particular effects. Viewing them collectively provides new ways of thinking about the role of cosmology in religion more broadly as well as the particular relationships between individual cosmic models.
The Buddhist maṇḍala (circle of deities) is frequently described in scholarship as a cosmogram, b... more The Buddhist maṇḍala (circle of deities) is frequently described in scholarship as a cosmogram, but the meaning of this term varies, referring to anything from the perfected realm of the central deity to the minute psychological factors of the meditator. I argue that a new geo-spatial analysis of the maṇḍala-as-cosmos is necessary to understand its ritual function and historical importance. Previously, scholars have interpreted the Buddha’s enthronement at the center of the cosmos as the key cosmological innovation of early tantrism, but this cosmic status of the Buddha actually preceded tantrism by several centuries. Rather, the development of the tantric maṇḍala is better understood as a new relationship between multiple levels of hierarchy within the cosmic space, creating the possibility of translocation and transformation within that system. Moreover, thinking about the maṇḍala in terms of cosmic space provides a productive alternative to typical analyses of the maṇḍala in terms of personhood, especially the well-known trikāya system.
Entrances to Buddhist monasteries and shrines in Tibetan cultural regions are often framed by two... more Entrances to Buddhist monasteries and shrines in Tibetan cultural regions are often framed by two cosmological murals—one of the wheel of rebirth (bhavacakra, saṃsāracakra, srid pa’i ’khor lo) and one of the geographic cosmos (cakravāla, khor yug). While the former has been masterfully studied by other scholars, the latter and its relationship to the former have remained largely unexplored. I examine the historical development of this imagery alongside the wheel of rebirth and articulate several didactic and ritual reasons for its portrayal specifically at entrances to architectural sacred spaces. Functioning as offerings and introducing structural principles of sacred architecture, murals of the geographic cosmos have developed in specific complement to the roles of the wheel of rebirth so that cosmological imagery at entrances can take on increasingly complex functions of mediation between exterior (mundane) and interior (sacred) space.
A common practice of Tibetan and Himalayan Buddhism involves ritually offering a simulacrum of th... more A common practice of Tibetan and Himalayan Buddhism involves ritually offering a simulacrum of the cosmos as a sign of commitment to the Buddhist path. Because the objects used in this ritual must invoke a complex model of the Buddhist universe within a limited scope of time and material, various strategies allow for simplifying the cosmic model into as little as five elements. Inherent within these simplifications, however, is an acknowledged tension that the goal of offering the cosmos is to be uncountably vast and complete. As such, opposing strategies call for the inclusion of additional elements whereby infinity is generated out of unity, and instructions for meditative visualization demand even greater complexity. This sliding scale between the singularity of the cosmos and the unlimited forms within it allows for great diversity in the material aspects of these offering objects, which range from simple hand gestures to plastic sculptures, metal platters, paintings, embroideries, and jewel-encrusted models. In turn, the very materiality of these objects provides additional sites for the negotiation between simplicity and lavishness, depending on the value of the materials used and the skills of the craftsmen. A distinction can also be made, therefore, between objects that are strictly created by rote in ritual practice and one-of-a-kind gifts and altarpieces. Each of these objects represents a particular kind of scaling of the cosmos to a manageable scope with a simultaneous gesture back at the infinity being captured. Because of such self-conscious negotiations of scale and complexity in the creation of these objects, they become productive sites for examinations of scale within a particular cultural tradition.
The Buddhist model of the physical cosmos is an essential part of the Vajrayāna ritual of offerin... more The Buddhist model of the physical cosmos is an essential part of the Vajrayāna ritual of offering to the teacher (guru-pūjā, bla ma mchod pa) in both Newar (Nepalese) and Tibetan traditions. Despite apparent similarities in the offering practices, the material objects that represent the cosmic offering in these two cultures are remarkably different. Corresponding to small structural differences in the procedures of the ritual, the Newar versions are usually ephemeral, flat, two-dimensional arrangements, while the Tibetan versions are most frequently tall heaps of offerings held together by ornate metal rings. The relative grandeur of such Tibetan objects has influenced the way the cosmological model is understood and depicted in other contexts, so that the “cosmos-as-heap” has become a major theme in Tibetan ritual iconography and visual culture.
Recent Buddhism in Bhutan devotes equal attention to the mutually contradictory cosmologies of th... more Recent Buddhism in Bhutan devotes equal attention to the mutually contradictory cosmologies of the Kālacakra and Abhidharmakośa systems. Each of these models is considered canonical and serves as the basis for important textual traditions, scientific analyses, and ritual functions. Vasubandhu’s Abhidharmakośa is a foundational text of many Buddhist traditions, presenting a cosmology that was concretized at least half a millennium before the Kālacakra system. The Kālacakra, in turn, conveys the pinnacle of macrocosmic and microcosmic integration into a coherent philosophical and ritual system. While both of these cosmological models were imported into Bhutan, many Dzongs (fortress-monasteries) prominently display cosmological imagery relating to both of these systems at their entrances, revealing the prime importance of cosmological thought in Bhutanese Buddhism and the equal respect that both of these systems receive. Close inspection of these murals actually reveals a much more complex relationship between the two models: each type of cosmological image actually borrows specific attributes from the other, such that Abhidharmakośa cosmoses distinctly utilize the visual language of the Kālacakra versions, and vice versa. Some of the most recent examples also show subtle evidence of a third influence—the Western scientific perspective. While textual sources allow one important type of analysis of this kind of cultural negotiation, such visual imagery provides unique and otherwise unknowable insights into the ways in which competing cosmologies can be compromised and mediated in the minds of practitioners.
Uploads
Books by Eric Huntington
"A profoundly innovative and engaging study of cosmological thinking in texts, rituals, imagery, and architecture across the Buddhist world of the Himalayas."
-Catherine Becker, author of Shifting Stones, Shaping the Past: Sculpture from the Buddhist Stupas of Andhra Pradesh
"Offers a new perspective on the depictions of cosmological imagery. A timely topic that makes major contributions to the field of art history."
-Christian Luczanits, David L. Snellgrove Senior Lecturer in Tibetan and Buddhist Art, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
Buddhist representations of the cosmos across nearly two thousand years of history in Tibet, Nepal, and India show that cosmology is a rich language for the expression of diverse religious ideas, with cosmological thinking at the center of Buddhist thought, art, and practice.
In Creating the Universe, Eric Huntington presents examples of visual art and architecture, primary texts, ritual ideologies, and material practices—accompanied by extensive explanatory diagrams—to reveal the immense complexity of cosmological thinking in Himalayan Buddhism. Employing comparisons across function, medium, culture, and history, he exposes cosmology as a fundamental mode of engagement with numerous aspects of religion, from preliminary lessons to the highest rituals for enlightenment. This wide-ranging work will interest scholars and students of many fields, including Buddhist studies, religious studies, art history, and area studies.
http://www.washington.edu/uwpress/search/books/HUNCRE.html
Journal Articles by Eric Huntington
https://doi.org/10.1080/02666030.2018.1514956
https://doi.org/10.1080/17432200.2017.1289307
Book Chapters by Eric Huntington
Conference Presentations by Eric Huntington
The loci classici for Buddhist cosmology are generally systematic textual accounts, such as Vasubandhu’s scholastic Abhidharmakośa or the all-encompassing tantric system of the Kālacakra corpus. In other traditions, descriptions of the cosmos may form only small parts of divergent projects, such as Buddhaghosa’s Visuddhimagga or, in Hindu literature, certain purāṇas. These “sources” do not straightforwardly express the cosmological models of their traditions, but rather employ cosmological thinking oriented towards particular agendas. Vasubandhu’s articulation of the geographic cosmos expresses key arguments about causality and karma for his philosophical project, while Buddhaghosa describes a subtly different cosmos understood within the meditative practices leading to enlightenment. The radically different models of the Kālacakra system and the purāṇas, in turn, articulate cosmoses that are explicitly shaped towards particular ritual and social agendas, respectively. These textual portrayals, viewed in context, present remarkably varied ways of thinking about the role of cosmology in religion, as well as ways in which cosmic models can be suited to particular purposes. Further comparison of even the most detailed “source” texts with other textual and visual representations of the cosmos also reveals that these texts simply cannot be the only foundations for even the cosmological traditions that claim them as such.
Beyond these commonly cited sources are vastly numerous other expressions of the Buddhist cosmos in text, artwork, and material culture. Relationships between the Buddhist cosmos and the architecture of the stūpa, for example, are well studied. Perhaps less thoroughly considered are unsystematic or incomplete examples, such as the use of cosmic elements in literary metaphor, their appearances in narrative illustrations of the Buddha’s life story and certain avadānas, and many other cases in text, art, and ritual. Like the “authoritative” sources, all of these expressions of the cosmos emphasize particular ways of thinking about the structure and parts of the Buddhist world towards particular effects. Viewing them collectively provides new ways of thinking about the role of cosmology in religion more broadly as well as the particular relationships between individual cosmic models.
"A profoundly innovative and engaging study of cosmological thinking in texts, rituals, imagery, and architecture across the Buddhist world of the Himalayas."
-Catherine Becker, author of Shifting Stones, Shaping the Past: Sculpture from the Buddhist Stupas of Andhra Pradesh
"Offers a new perspective on the depictions of cosmological imagery. A timely topic that makes major contributions to the field of art history."
-Christian Luczanits, David L. Snellgrove Senior Lecturer in Tibetan and Buddhist Art, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
Buddhist representations of the cosmos across nearly two thousand years of history in Tibet, Nepal, and India show that cosmology is a rich language for the expression of diverse religious ideas, with cosmological thinking at the center of Buddhist thought, art, and practice.
In Creating the Universe, Eric Huntington presents examples of visual art and architecture, primary texts, ritual ideologies, and material practices—accompanied by extensive explanatory diagrams—to reveal the immense complexity of cosmological thinking in Himalayan Buddhism. Employing comparisons across function, medium, culture, and history, he exposes cosmology as a fundamental mode of engagement with numerous aspects of religion, from preliminary lessons to the highest rituals for enlightenment. This wide-ranging work will interest scholars and students of many fields, including Buddhist studies, religious studies, art history, and area studies.
http://www.washington.edu/uwpress/search/books/HUNCRE.html
https://doi.org/10.1080/02666030.2018.1514956
https://doi.org/10.1080/17432200.2017.1289307
The loci classici for Buddhist cosmology are generally systematic textual accounts, such as Vasubandhu’s scholastic Abhidharmakośa or the all-encompassing tantric system of the Kālacakra corpus. In other traditions, descriptions of the cosmos may form only small parts of divergent projects, such as Buddhaghosa’s Visuddhimagga or, in Hindu literature, certain purāṇas. These “sources” do not straightforwardly express the cosmological models of their traditions, but rather employ cosmological thinking oriented towards particular agendas. Vasubandhu’s articulation of the geographic cosmos expresses key arguments about causality and karma for his philosophical project, while Buddhaghosa describes a subtly different cosmos understood within the meditative practices leading to enlightenment. The radically different models of the Kālacakra system and the purāṇas, in turn, articulate cosmoses that are explicitly shaped towards particular ritual and social agendas, respectively. These textual portrayals, viewed in context, present remarkably varied ways of thinking about the role of cosmology in religion, as well as ways in which cosmic models can be suited to particular purposes. Further comparison of even the most detailed “source” texts with other textual and visual representations of the cosmos also reveals that these texts simply cannot be the only foundations for even the cosmological traditions that claim them as such.
Beyond these commonly cited sources are vastly numerous other expressions of the Buddhist cosmos in text, artwork, and material culture. Relationships between the Buddhist cosmos and the architecture of the stūpa, for example, are well studied. Perhaps less thoroughly considered are unsystematic or incomplete examples, such as the use of cosmic elements in literary metaphor, their appearances in narrative illustrations of the Buddha’s life story and certain avadānas, and many other cases in text, art, and ritual. Like the “authoritative” sources, all of these expressions of the cosmos emphasize particular ways of thinking about the structure and parts of the Buddhist world towards particular effects. Viewing them collectively provides new ways of thinking about the role of cosmology in religion more broadly as well as the particular relationships between individual cosmic models.