Buddhist East Asia: Religion, the Arts, and Politics

FAIN: EH-256793-17

Center for Cultural and Technical Interchange Between East and West, Inc. (Honolulu, HI 96848-1601)
Peter D. Hershock (Project Director: February 2017 to February 2021)

A four-week institute for twenty-five college and university faculty examining how Buddhism has shaped East Asia, to be held on the adjacent campuses of the University of Hawaii and the East-West Center.

"Buddhist East Asia: The Interplay of Religion, the Arts and Politics" is proposed as a four-week summer institute that will enable educators from community colleges, liberal arts colleges and universities to develop curricular content reflecting how Buddhism has both shaped and been shaped by cultures and societies in East Asia for nearly two thousand years. The program will enable participants to understand how Buddhism offered East Asians a new "total care system" that addressed both personal and social needs in ways that were inseparable from the dynamics of cultural interaction, artistic production, trade and politics, and will build on lessons learned from the very successful 2015 institute on "Buddhist Asia: Traditions, Transmissions and Transformations."