News of the site.

During the past year, we added two minor features: a page explaining research opportunities for visitors, and a list of university resources in Asian studies. We're planning a slightly more robust site this year, with the addition of more information on events at our newly reinvigorated sister Buddhist studies program at Berkeley and a quarterly newsletter from our ARC initiative.

The past year.

For a review of last year's news and events, see our 2002-03 Archive.

The coming year.

This year, at the request of the graduate students, our usual Buddhist studies seminar will be replaced by a year-long proseminar in Buddhist research methods and materials. We hope the exercise will yield a little electronic handbook for use by subsequent students in the program (and perhaps by others as well).

Although our event schedule is still in planning, we do have several programs lined up for the year.

First, we'll be inaugurating what we hope will become an annual colloquium with the Group in Buddhist Studies at Berkeley. This will be the reincarnation of a cooperative program that ran during the late 1980's and early '90's, before Berkeley lost its core Buddhism faculty through retirements. With the new appointments there of Bob Sharf and Alexander von Rospatt, we hope to re-establish the colloquium and other joint projects. This year, the colloquium will feature monthly talks by faculty of the two universities, with the Stanford faculty speaking at Berkeley and vice versa.

In addition to our regular programs of graduate student and SCBS fellows talks, we'll also be co-sponsoring a year-long Humanities Center workshop entitled "Sacred Geographies", organized by doctoral student John Pang. Watch our home page for further information as we put these series together.

In the spring, we'll hold a two-day conference on "Religion and Power in Theravada Buddhist Societies", organized by SCBS research fellow Kumada Naoko (Cambridge) and funded by the Toyota Foundation.

Meanwhile, our ARC initiative will be co-sponsoring two events on South Asia in the autumn: a Cantor Arts Center conference on medicinal herbs that will feature early European knowledge of Indian medicinal plants, and a musical performance of Kabir, organized by Religious Studies faculty member Linda Hess. We're also considering a program in the winter on Indian regional dance styles.

People.

We're delighted that the Buddhist studies faculty will be joined this autumn by Michael Zimmermann, our new appointment in South Asian Buddhism. Michael, who comes to us from his position as director of the Hamburg manuscript project in Kathmandu (and most recently a postdoc at Munich), will add much-needed expertise in Sanskrit and Tibetan to our little program.

Also joining us for the year as center fellows: Keila Diehl (Stanford), in Tibetan ethnomusicology; Lori Meeks (Princeton; Stanford Society of Fellows in Japanese Studies postdoc), in Japanese Buddhism; and Meir Shahar (Tel Aviv), in Chinese religions. And returning as SCBS fellows: Noa Gal (Oxford), abhidhamma studies, and Kumada Naoko (Cambridge), Burmese Buddhism.

On the student front, Tad Cook will be off in Beijing, Will Hansen and David Quinter will be drinking together again in Tokyo, JJ Josephson will be at Oxford, and Sarah Fremermann will likely be commuting back and forth from Mexico City.

Finally, a welcome to entering graduate student Kenneth Koo, who is joining our program from the Art department to work on Korean Buddhism.

Watch our home and calendar pages for updates on news and events throughout the year, and feel free to contact us if you have questions or suggestions for us.

Carl Bielefeldt
Bernard Faure

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News of the site.

Associate Director Wendy Abraham has launched a quarterly online newsletter called ARC Spectrum, which offers news and photos of SCBS and ARC events. Check it out.

The past term.

During the fall quarter, we got a start on several year-long SCBS programs: a Buddhist studies proseminar on research methods and materials; the new Berkeley-Stanford Buddhist Studies Colloquium (popularly known as BS²); our annual SCBS/ARC fellows colloquium; and a Mellon workshop on sacred geographies of Asia.

These various programs brought us talks by Martin Lewis (International Relations) and Kären Wigen (History), Robert Sharf (UC Berkeley), Mark Lewis (History), Noa Ronkin (SCBS), Lori Meeks (Religious Studies), and Rhi Juhyung (Seoul). We also enjoyed Stanford visits by Alexander Piatigorsky (London) and Richard Saloman (Washington).

Meanwhile, our ARC initiative hosted a performance of Kabir singers, organized by Linda Hess (Religious Studies); co-sponsored a conference on medicinal herbs, organized by Anna Spudich; and presented a lecture by Dilip Basu (UC Santa Cruz) on the films of Satyajit Ray.

The coming term.

Over the last several years, we've been able to use the Religious Studies Department's Hwei Tai fund to offer special SCBS faculty-graduate seminars by visiting scholars during winter quarter. Past years have featured Fabio Rambelli (Sapporo), on Shinto texts; Griff Foulk (Sarah Lawrence), on monastic codes; and Mimi Yiengpruksawan (Yale), on iconography. This year, we're pleased that SCBS fellow Noa Ronkin will lead the seminar on the topic of early Theravada thought.

Winter quarter will see the continuation of events in our sacred geographies workshop, with (at this writing) visits scheduled by Stanford alumnus Max Moerman (Barnard) and Allan Grapard (UC Santa Barbara).

We have two presentations scheduled for our fellows colloquium this term: Keila Diehl, on Tibetan music, and Lori Meeks, on Japanese religion.

Also visiting Stanford under other auspices this term, two old friends: Wendy Doniger (Chicago), for a Presidential Lecture; and Lothar von Falkenhausen (UCLA) for the Inner Asia/Silkroad Study Group.

Finally, we're pleased to announce that, in March, Professsor Michael Friedrich (Hamburg) will offer the annual Evans-Wentz Lecture.

Check our winter calendar for the dates of these and other events.

People.

In October, we welcomed new Religious Studies faculty member Michael Zimmermann, whose visa problems forced him to postpone his autumn course. Michael will thus be well rested to begin teaching this winter.

In November, Carl, Wendy Abraham, Winnie Chin, and graduate student Yang Zhaohua were in Taiwan, exploring the possibilities for cooperative relations with academic institutions there. More news on this as it develops.

This winter, Bernard will spend the term in Berlin, teaching at Stanford's campus there.

Congratulations to Mark Gonnerman, long-time friend and former staff of SCBS, for completion of his dissertation in Religious Studies on Gary Snyder. Mark takes up a full-time post as director of special projects for Stanford's Continuing Studies Program, a position in which we hope he'll continue to work with us on joint programs.

Watch our home and calendar pages for updates on news and events throughout the year, and feel free to contact us if you have questions or suggestions for us.

Carl Bielefeldt
Bernard Faure

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The past term.

As usual, the winter quarter was a busy one. The Sacred Geographies Workshop brought us talks by Stanford alumnus Max Moerman (Barnard), as well as Allan Grapard (UCSB), and Jean DeBernardi (Alberta); while our Fellows Colloquium heard presentations on Tibetan music (Keila Diehl) and Japanese ordination rituals (Lori Meeks).

During February and March, SCBS fellow Noa Ronkin led a five-week faculty-student workshop on early Theravada thought; and our year-long faculty-student proseminar on research methods continued, with presentations on Taoism (Pregadio), art history (Koo), women's studies (Bryson), Shugendô (Clonos), and hongaku (Odagiri).

The term ended with the annual Evans-Wentz Lecture, this year ably delivered by Michael Friedrich (Hamburg).

Meanwhile, our ARC Initiative organized a lecture on Zoroastrian art by visiting professsor Boris Marshak (Hermitage), and a series of events on Tibet at Stanford, including a lecture on Tibetan medicine, a performance of Mongolian and Tibetan music, and a public session with Tibetan teacher Arjia Rinpoche. The Tibet events were part of the ARC series Tibet at Stanford 2004, a warmup for a promising campaign to develop arc/tibet, a new initiative for Tibetan studies at Stanford. The campaign is featured in the spring issue of arc spectrum.

Our thanks to the Bukkyô Dendô Kyôkai (BDK), which kindly provided funds during winter term for the purchase of Buddhist books for our SCBS library; and to Guillaume Peters and Nancy MacLeod, who donated Tibetan dance costumes to ARC.

The coming term.

The spring quarter will see lectures by visiting SCBS fellow Meir Shahar (Tel Aviv), Brian Victoria (visiting professor, Hawaii), and Alexander von Rospatt (UC Berkeley), while the Sacred Geographies Workshop gets visits by Phyllis Granoff and Koichi Shinohara (McMaster) and author William Porter.

ARC will host Islam scholar David Pinault (Santa Clara), as well as co-sponsor a series of lectures on women in Tibet, with visiting scholar Tsam La (Tibetan Academy of Social Sciences, Lhasa) and Jennifer Chertow (CASA).

The month of May will be packed with no less than three conferences: on Burmese Buddhism and the spirit cult, organized by SCBS fellow Naoko Kumada; on religion and politics in China, hosted by CEAS; and on Buddhism and medicine in Japan, organized by SCBS fellow Lori Meeks for SSFJS.

Check our spring calendar for the dates of these and other events.

People.

Congratulations to alumni David Gardiner ('94), on his promotion at Colorado College, and James Robson ('02), on his appointment at Michigan. Also to SCBS fellow Lori Meeks, on her appointment at USC.

Our Bay Area Buddhist studies faculty is now at full strength, with Alexander von Rospatt joining Berkeley's program during the winter, and Bernard returning to campus after a term at Stanford's Berlin campus.

Watch our home and calendar pages for updates on news and events throughout the year, and feel free to contact us if you have questions or suggestions for us.

Carl Bielefeldt
Bernard Faure

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News of the site.

We are in the process of reorganizing the relationship between the SCBS and ARC sites, such that SCBS will be focused more strickly on Buddhism, while ARC takes over the broader field of Asian religions. The change will be seen most immediately in new calendar pages for the two sites.

A welcome to new web master Harish Chakravarthy, who will be taking over both the SCBS and ARC sites.

Events of the past term.

Spring quarter was unusually busy for us this year, with a steady stream of SCBS and ARC events. The term began in April with a joint Stanford-Berkeley weekend seminar at the Lee Institute of Japanese Art in Hanford, California; it ended with no less than three conferences in May: on contemporary Chinese religion (with CEAS), on medicine in Japanese Buddhism (organized by SCBS fellow Lori Meeks, with SSFJS), and on Burmese Buddhism (organized by fellows Kumada Naoko and Noa Ronkin). We are posting the papers for the Burma conference in our resources directory.

Meanwhile, our Berkeley-Stanford colloquium heard papers by Jacob Dalton (British Library), Christian Luczanits (Vienna), and Bill Porter (author), as well as Berkeley's Alex von Rospatt, and our own Michael Zimmermann. We also had talks by SCBS fellow Meir Shahar, doctoral students George Clonos and Yang Zhaohua, and visitor Brian Victoria (Hawaii).

Our Sacred Geographies workshop finished up the year with visits by Phyllis Granoff and Koichi Shinohara (McMaster), Bill Porter, and Nam-lin Hur (UBC). The workshop, organized this year by Carl and doctoral student John Pang, will continue next year, under the guidance of Michael Zimmermann and Kenneth Koo.

Finally, our ARC initiative co-sponsored a four-day event on Shakespeare in Asia and joined with the new Islamic studies program to host a talk on Shia ritual by David Pinault (Santa Clara).

Developments.

During spring term, the ARC initiative launched two drives to raise funds for Asian religions: one, headed by Linda Hess, for India; another, led by Fabrizio Pregadio, for China. Meanwhile, the ARC/Tibet initiative has been joined by old friend Tenzin Tethong, of the Dalai Lama Foundation, who will serve as an ARC fellow while spearheading our campaign.

Our thanks to the family of Prof. James McDermott (Canisius) for the donation of his library to the center, and to Prof. Christopher Lee, of Canisius, for facilitating the gift. On a related note, the Stanford library has agreed to integrate our center holdings into the university collection, a long-awaited development that will enable us at last to catalogue and rationalize our reading room materials.

Looking ahead.

As usual, SCBS will go into sleep mode during the summer. We have started planning our programs for next year, among which we hope to include a special week-long seminar on early Mahayana by Jan Nattier (Indiana).

Comings and goings.

We say good bye to SCBS/ARC fellows Lori Meeks, who will be taking up a new position at USC; and Meir Shahar, who will be returning to Tel Aviv.

Congratulations to doctoral students Elizabeth Morrison (Middlebury), for successfully defended her dissertation, and George Clonos, for passing his general exams; and to alumna Irene Lin (and husband Paul Harrison) for producing John Baoru Harrison-Lin. A bon voyage to John Pang, who left during spring term for a stay in Kuala Lumpur.

At Berkeley, the Group in Buddhist Studies will have visiting professors Griff Foulk (Sarah Lawrence), Christian Luczanits (Vienna), and Michael Hahn (Marburg) next year. The group has put up a new web site, at http://buddhiststudies.berkeley.edu.

Carl will be on sabbatical next year, with Bernard and Michael Zimmermann taking over the center.

Watch our home and calendar pages for updates on news and events throughout the year, and feel free to contact us if you have questions or suggestions for us.

Carl Bielefeldt
Bernard Faure

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