TY - BOOK ID - 7123139 TI - Head, eyes, flesh, and blood : giving away the body in Indian Buddhist literature PY - 2007 SN - 0231137087 9780231137089 0231510284 9780231510288 1322438668 PB - New York : Columbia University Press, DB - UniCat KW - Buddhist literature KW - Sacrifice in literature. KW - Themes, motives. KW - Gautama Buddha KW - Pre-existence. KW - Religious literature KW - Gautama, KW - Fo-tʻo KW - Buddha, KW - Gotama, KW - Shih-chia-mou-ni KW - Shijiamuni KW - Sākyamuni KW - Sŏkka KW - Buddha KW - Sŏgamoni KW - Shākyamuni KW - Shakamuni-butsu KW - Shakuson KW - Shittaruta KW - Shih-chia Ju-lai KW - Phraphutthačhao KW - Pultʻa KW - Putta KW - Siddhartha Gotama KW - Gotama, Siddhartha KW - Budda KW - Śākya-thup-pa KW - Shi-chia-mu-ni KW - Siddhartha Gautama KW - Gautama, Siddhartha KW - Bhayavat KW - Tathagata KW - Siduhat Kumāraya KW - Puttar KW - Puttan̲ KW - Kautama Puttar KW - Puttapirān̲ KW - Cittārtta Kautama Puttar KW - Siddhārtha, KW - Tất Đạt Đa KW - בודהא KW - 釈迦 KW - 释迦牟尼 KW - 釋迦牟尼 KW - Sitthattha Khōtama KW - Khōtama, Sitthattha KW - Gotama, Siddhatta KW - Buddhist literature - India - Themes, motives. KW - Gautama Buddha - Pre-existence. UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:7123139 AB - Head, Eyes, Flesh, and Blood is the first comprehensive study of a central narrative theme in premodern South Asian Buddhist literature: the Buddha's bodily self-sacrifice during his previous lives as a bodhisattva. Conducting close readings of stories from Sanskrit, Pali, Chinese, and Tibetan literature written between the third century BCE and the late medieval period, Reiko Ohnuma argues that this theme has had a major impact on the development of Buddhist philosophy and culture. Whether he takes the form of king, prince, ascetic, elephant, hare, serpent, or god, the bodhisattva repeatedly gives his body or parts of his flesh to others. He leaps into fires, drowns himself in the ocean, rips out his tusks, gouges out his eyes, and lets mosquitoes drink from his blood, always out of selflessness and compassion and to achieve the highest state of Buddhahood. Ohnuma places these stories into a discrete subgenre of South Asian Buddhist literature and approaches them like case studies, analyzing their plots, characterizations, and rhetoric. She then relates the theme of the Buddha's bodily self-sacrifice to major conceptual discourses in the history of Buddhism and South Asian religions, such as the categories of the gift, the body (both ordinary and extraordinary), kingship, sacrifice, ritual offering, and death. Head, Eyes, Flesh, and Blood reveals a very sophisticated and influential perception of the body in South Asian Buddhist literature and highlights the way in which these stories have provided an important cultural resource for Buddhists. Combined with her rich and careful translations of classic texts, Ohnuma introduces a whole new understanding of a vital concept in Buddhists studies. ER -