announcement

this is to inform you that the second volume of the Journal Buddhism, Law & Society 2016–17 has finally appeared (with some delay), see the below announcement.

Best,

Petra

We are pleased to announce the publication of the second volume of Buddhism, Law & Society

VOLUME 2 – 2016-2017

CONTENTS

Rebecca Redwood French – Editor's Introduction

 

Jens W. Borgland – “Undetermined Matters: On the Use of Lay Witnesses in Buddhist Monastic Procedural Law”

This paper investigates one aspect of Buddhist monastic procedural law set forth in the aniyata (“undetermined”) section of the Prātimokṣa/Vibhaṅgas of the extant monastic law codes (vinaya). Here we find rules concerning how to handle cases in which a monk is accused by a trustworthy female lay follower (upāsikā) of having stayed alone in a secluded place with a woman. These rules have hitherto received comparatively little study, most of which has focused on the (Theravāda) Pāli vinaya. By examining the aniyata rules and their canonical commentaries in all six extant vinayas, I show that the treatment of these rules in the Pāli vinaya is not representative of Buddhist monastic law in general, and that the commonly held notion that any punitive legal action taken against a monk at the very least requires that he acknowledge the act, if not the offense with which he stands accused, is in need of revision. This paper further shows that there are significant differences between the Tibetan and Chinese translations of the Vibhaṅga of the Mūlasarvāstivāda vinaya (MSV), and so contributes to recent investigations into multiple MSV traditions. It also discusses some differences and similarities between the different vinayas, especially common elements between the Sarvāstivāda, Mūlasarvāstivāda and Mahāsāṃghika vinayas.

 

Vesna A. Wallace – “The Interface of Mongolian Nomadic Culture, Law and Monastic Sexual Morality”

In traditional Mongolian nomadic society, which had its own culturally embedded dimensions of sexuality and highly flexible rules regulating social life, the monastic institutionalization of sexuality was a long process that has been met with resistance to this day. Mongolian Buddhists’ lenient attitude toward sexual desire also found its support in the Buddhist tantric teachings, as it has been often pointed out by contemporary monks in Mongolia in their response to the critics of their sexual conduct. A study of various laws instituted in Mongolia from the seventeenth to the early twentieth centuries reveals a variety of ways in which different governing bodies sought to negotiate the problem of monks’ sexual misconduct through their prohibitive and penal measures.

 

Richard W. Whitecross – “Of Texts and Drama: Delivering Justice in Bhutan”

This paper presents a short history of the development of legal texts in Bhutan with some analysis of how the later texts reflect the globalized language of the rule of law refracted through recent attempts to anchor and legitimize Bhutanese court process with cultural imagery. It then moves to a discussion of religious cultural imagery and its recent fascinating use in the legal system, a change that has occurred in just the last twenty years. This imagery in the form of huge masks in the courtrooms comes from a key drama enacted throughout Bhutan at the annual tshechu (religious festivals) depicting the judgement of the dead by Yama, Lord of the Dead. The paper argues that the role and meaning of religious belief and its presence in the judicial sphere needs to be examined and re-examined in each context for its presence and use. Building on Brown (2015) the paper argues that we need to consider the different worldviews expressed in different periods, as reflected in the texts examined, when we consider the complex interrelationship between Buddhism and law in Bhutan.

 

Petra Kieffer-Pülz – “Translocal Debates and Legal Hermeneutics: Early Pāli Vinaya Texts in the Adjudication of Sīmā Procedures, c. 1200–1900 CE.”

From the 5th/6th c. ce onwards Vinaya condensations replaced the study of the monastic law code (Vinaya) and its commen­tary, the Samantapāsādikā, in the daily curriculum of the monks of the Theravāda tradition in present-day Sri Lanka. Directives in the royal ordinances (katikāvata) of Lanka dating from the 12th/13th and 18th c. ce regarding the texts to be memorized by young monks show that, in addition to the condensations, the katikāvatas themselves were an issue in the education of the monks. Thus it seems that the Vinaya and its commentary were pushed into the background. In the present contribution I try to show that this attitude in daily life does not reflect the situation in crises of the Buddhist community, when it becomes necessary to prove specific issues by authoritative statements. In such cases the most authoritative source, that is, the monastic law code which is considered the “Word of the Buddha,” the fully Enlightened One, by tradition, came into play again, together with the commentary considered to include the information from the earliest commentaries that as it was understood were included already in the 1st saṅgīti. In two challenging legal disputes concerning Buddhist monastic boun­daries (sīmā) I will show that in the attempt to solve the legal disputes, the monastic law code and its commentary served as the last resort.

 

Ann Heirman – “Withdrawal from the Monastic Community and Re-ordination of Former Monastics in the Dharmaguptaka Tradition”

At the apex of Buddhist monasticism are its fully ordained members—Buddhist monks (bhikṣu) and nuns (bhikṣuṇī). The texts on monastic discipline (vinayas) indicate that some monks and nuns, at certain points in their lives, may choose to withdraw from the saṃgha (monastic community). The vinaya texts from every tradition attempt to regulate such decisions, as well as the re-ordination of former monastics. In this paper, I focus on the Dharmaguptaka tradition, the vinaya of which has become standard in China and neighboring regions. My intention is to answer intriguing questions raised by Petra Kieffer-Pülz in her study on the re-ordination of nuns in the Theravāda tradition, which appeared in the first volume of this journal (2015–2016): which options are available to monks and nuns who wish to withdraw from the monastic community; and is it possible for them to gain readmission to the saṃgha? I also address a third question: what does this imply for the Dharmaguptaka tradition? My research focuses on the Dharmaguptaka vinaya, and on the commentaries of the most prominent Chinese vinaya master, Daoxuan (596–667 ce), whose work lies at the heart of standard—and contemporary—under­standing of vinayas in China.

 

Shayne Clarke – “The Unique Nature of the Mūlasarvāstivādin Law Code for Nuns”

On the basis of an examination of twenty-seven textual wit­nesses of the section on nuns’ conduct (Bhikṣuṇī-vinayavibhaṅga) in the monastic law code (Vinaya) of the influential north Indian Buddhist school known as the Mūlasarvāstivāda (Mūlasarvāstivāda-vinaya), I argue that a distinct Bhutanese recension is discernible. Found in six of the twenty-seven witnesses—sTog and Shey Palace manuscripts, and four Bhutanese manuscripts (Chizhi, Dongkarla, Gangteng, and Neyphug)—this recension resolves many of the inconsistencies present in the most commonly consulted editions of the Tibetan translation of the Bhikṣuṇī-vinaya­vibhaṅga. The discrepancies between these two recensions are of consider­able interest and importance given that these recensions differ significantly in terms of the presence and absence of certain rules, frame stories, and legal analyses for nuns.

The present article is divided into eight sections. In the first section, I discuss a number of characteristics that make the Mūlasarvāstivāda-vinaya unique among the corpus of extant Buddhist monastic law codes: its linguistic diversity, the sheer volume of canonical texts, the enormous number of commentarial treatises, and the sometimes seemingly insur­mountable philological challenges. In the second section, I provide a brief overview of the corpus of canonical Tibetan Buddhist texts devoted to rules for nuns (Bhikṣuṇī-vinayavibhaṅga, Bhikṣuṇī-prātimokṣa, and Ārya-sarvāstivādi-mūla-bhikṣuṇī-prātimokṣa-sūtra-vṛtti). Here too I discuss the unique position of the Mūlasarvāstivāda-vinaya as the only monastic law code preser­ving frame stories and canonical legal analyses—word-commentaries, casuistries, exception clauses, and discussion of mitigating and aggravating factors—for nuns’ rules which are common to both female and male monastic orders. I also briefly discuss the unique situation of the lack of correspondence between the Tibetan Bhikṣuṇī-vinayavibhaṅga and the Bhikṣuṇī-prātimokṣa, first noted by the Tibetan polymath Bu sTon rin chen grub (1290–1364).

In the third section, I outline the sources used in the present study, and discuss their historical relationships. In the fourth section, I provide an overview of the idiosyncratic numbering system employed in the Tibetan Bhikṣuṇī-vinayavibhaṅga. I also outline one of the key inconsistencies in this text: the fact that the section said to contain 180 pāyantikā rules for nuns contains considerably more than the stated number. In the fifth section, I cite a number of examples of differences between what are ostensibly the same rules in the Tibetan Bhikṣuṇī-vinayavibhaṅga and the Tibetan Bhikṣuṇī-prātimokṣa. In the sixth section, I examine a number of irregularities related to the 72 shared pāyantikā rules for monks and nuns in order to demonstrate the existence of a distinct Bhutanese recension, one which is considerably closer to the normative Mūlasarvāstivādin tradition of the Indian disciplinarian Guṇaprabha (c. 5th–7th cents.) than the text found in other manuscripts and xylographs that are regularly consulted in the study of Indian and Tibetan female monasticism. The conclusion (seventh section) is followed by an Appendix (eighth section) listing details of the twenty-seven witnesses of the Tibetan Bhikṣuṇī-vinayavibhaṅga surveyed herein.

 

CALL FOR PAPERS

Buddhism, Law & Society is the first interdisciplinary academic journal to focus on relationship between Buddhism, law, and society. The scope of the journal is broad. Buddhism and its many social and legal manifestations are a central area of interest for the journal, as are the state’s legal relations to Buddhist actors, institutions and texts. We invite articles on jurisprudence, philosophy, procedure, local community practices, ethics, and social sanctions, both historical and contemporary, as they relate to Buddhism and law in society in Asian and global contexts. The journal welcomes submissions from legal practitioners as well as academics in a wide variety of disciplines in the Humanities, Social Sciences and Law and will consider publishing panels of papers from conferences, geographically specific areas, festschrifts and symposia. Articles are published electronically on a rolling basis and compiled into a print volume at the end of each year.

For more information, email us: editor@....

Or, visit the journal website: http://www.law.buffalo.edu/beyond/journals/buddhism.html.