The Jātaka tales, or stories of the Buddha’s previous lives as a bodhisatta, are included in the Pāli Canon and have for centuries been a rich source of inspiration in Theravada Buddhism. In addition to these classical Jātaka, a number of other non-canonical Jātaka tales emerged in Southeast Asia and were widely circulated throughout the region. Collections ... Show More
Jul 3
Zev Handel, "Chinese Characters Across Asia: How the Chinese Script Came to Write Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese" (U Washington Press, 2025)
For centuries, scribes across East Asia used Chinese characters to write things down–even in languages based on very different foundations than Chinese. In southern China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam, people used Chinese to read and write–and never thought it was odd. It was, after ... Show More
46m 54s
Jul 2
Heather Sutherland, "Seaways and Gatekeepers: Trade and State in the Eastern Archipelagos of Southeast Asia, C.1600-c.1906" (NUS Press, 2021)
The eastern archipelagos stretch from Mindanao and Sulu in the north to Bali in the southwest and New Guinea in the southeast. Many of their inhabitants are regarded as “people without history”, while colonial borders cut across shared underlying patterns. Yet many of these socie ... Show More
55m 47s
Jul 1
Malaysian-Nordic Relations
In the latest episode of the Nordic Asia Podcast, Professor Julie Yu-Wen Chen of the University of Helsinki speaks with Mr. Mohamed Ariff Bin Mohamed Ali, Chargé d’Affaires of the Malaysian Embassy in Helsinki, Finland. Their discussion centered on Malaysia's Foreign Policy, Mala ... Show More
19m 55s
Sep 2023
Ravi Gupta and Kenneth Valpey, "The Bhagavata Purana: Sacred Text and Living Tradition" (Columbia UP, 2013)
Today I talked to Ravi Gupta and Kenneth Valpey about The Bhagavata Purana: Sacred Text and Living Tradition (Columbia UP, 2013)A vibrant example of living literature, the Bhagavata Purana is a versatile Hindu sacred text written in Sanskrit verse. Finding its present form by the ... Show More
53m 40s
Nov 2021
Ruth Gamble, "The Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje: Master of Mahamudra" (Shambala, 2020)
A scholarly yet accessible biography of the Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje, one of the great historical figures of Tibetan Buddhism. Known for his mastery of teachings across sectarian lines, his treatises on medicine and astrology, and his work as spiritual advisor to the last Yua ... Show More
1h 1m
Aug 2023
Kelzang T. Tashi, "World of Worldly Gods: The Persistence and Transformation of Shamanic Bon in Buddhist Bhutan" (Oxford UP, 2023)
In World of Worldly Gods: The Persistence and Transformation of Shamanic Bon in Buddhist Bhutan (Oxford UP, 2023), Kelzang T. Tashi offers the first comprehensive examination of the tenacity of Shamanic Bon practices, as they are lived and contested in the presence of an invalida ... Show More
46m 16s
Dec 2020
Courtney Bruntz and Brooke Schedneck, "Buddhist Tourism in Asia" (U Hawaii Press, 2020)
This edited volume is the first book-length study of Buddhist tourism in contemporary Asia in the English language. Featuring chapters from diverse contributors from religious studies, anthropology, and art history, Buddhist Tourism in Asia (University of Hawaii Press, 2020) expl ... Show More
1h 1m
Dec 2023
Nur Sobers-Khan et al., "Beyond Colonial Rupture: Print Culture and the Emergence of Muslim Modernity in Nineteenth-Century South Asia" (2023)
Scholarly discussions on Islam in print have focused predominantly on the role of Urdu in the development of North Indian Muslim publics (Dubrow, 2018; Robb, 2020), ʿulama and Islamic jurisprudence (Tareen, 2020) and relations between Islam and colonial modernity (Robinson, 2008; ... Show More
39m 21s
Sep 2023
the threads connecting eastern and western mysticism (part 3 of 5)
This marks part 3 of a 5-part series where I will read aloud chapters from Manly P. Hall's “The Wisdom of the Knowing Ones: Gnosticism, the Key to Esoteric Christianity.” In this episode, we'll be reading chapter two, “Parallels Between Eastern and Western Philosophy.” What you'l ... Show More
1h 31m
Jul 2023
Yamin Levy, "The Mysticism of Andalusia: Exploring HaRambam's Mystical Tradition" (MHC Press, 2023)
Yamin Levy's The Mysticism of Andalusia: Exploring HaRambam's Mystical Tradition (MHC Press, 2023) is a groundbreaking book that delves into the mystical tradition of Andalusia and specifically of Maimonides. Unlike Kabalah and the European mystical traditions, Andalusian mystici ... Show More
53m 30s
Feb 2024
Keys to Decipher Ibn ʻArabī’s Manzil al-manāzil. Ibn ʻArabī's unique Quranic journey in Kitāb Manzil: A mystical correlation of 114 suras with the science of numbers and symbolic ascent
Pablo writes: This presentation analyses the content of Ibn ʻArabī’s lesser-known work, Kitāb Manzil al-manāzil al-fahwāniyya (“The Mansion that Gathers [the Keys to All] the Mansions in Which Direct Speech Descends”), which is devoted to Quranic hermeneutics and structured on sy ... Show More
54m 45s