PILGRIMAGE AND BUDDHIST ART . Edited by Adriana Proser . New Haven, CT : The Asia Society Museum and Yale University Press , 2010 . $65.00 .
摘要
This sumptuously illustrated volume is the catalogue that accompanied an exhibit at the Asia Society Museum in New York from March 16 to June 30, 2010. The exhibit, with over ninety objects from North American and private collections on display, surveyed Buddhist pilgrimage as it developed “throughout Asia, becoming the impetus for new forms of art and visual culture.” The curator's goal is to show how pilgrimage art and practice mutually interacted and developed throughout Buddhist history. The volume is usefully organized in three sections, “The Buddha and the Sacred Site,”“The Journey,” and “Merit, Mementos, and Sacred Bonds.” Although the photographs from the exhibit alone are worth the price, the book includes several short essays that are immensely valuable to introduce Buddhist pilgrimage to a general audience, all written by key scholars in the field such as D. Swearer (Thailand), Chün‐fang Yü (China), and I. Reader (Japan). The overall focus is on regional traditions and the sacralization of local landscapes. Appendices including maps, a chronology of Buddhist pilgrimage, and an aptly selected bibliography are welcome additions making this an excellent reference work. If there were a low‐cost paperback edition, it would also work for classroom use as a nice introduction to Buddhist pilgrimage.
