2020 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Buddhism and Law in South-Eastern Himalaya: An analysis of the conceptions of law, fairness, and legitimacy in medieval and pre-modern Bhutan, Sikkim, and related areas
| Project/Area Number |
20K22056
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| Research Institution | Kyoto University |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Project Period (FY) |
2020-09-11 – 2022-03-31
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| Keywords | Buddhism / Himalaya / Law & Politics / Bhutan / Sikkim |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
The aim of the project related to the reconstruction of the legal and socio-political concepts developed in the Buddhist Himalayan areas, namely in the South Eastern enclaves. In this regard, in-field work was essential not only in order to achieve anthropological data, but also to have access to written sources only present in the region. Unfortunately, the international crisis provoked by the corona-virus has made impossible to conduct in-field research, and so I have focused on sources available in Japan or accessible online.
In this regard, I conducted a research on the the socio-political meaning of the reaction of Tibetan lamas with an international influence, based on a comparison between Buddhist sources and the advice and guidelines provided by Tibetan lamas mainly in social media. The results were published in collective volume in Germany.
I also had the chance to locate a very important contemporary text on the Union of Politics and Buddhist Dharma by Tibet-based lama Khenpo Tsultrim Lodro. I have been able to translate the text into English and I am currently working on a critical study of its sources and socio-political meaning and impact.
Finally, aware of the importance of Japanese scholarship on Buddhism in general, and the legal and political dimensions of Tibetan Buddhism in particular, I have undertaken the location of relevant sources and commissioned its translation in order to eventually publish a collective volume. The first introductory work by Yamaguchi on Tibetan Law has already been translated.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
As already stated above, the project related to the reconstruction of the legal and socio-political concepts developed in the Buddhist Himalayan areas, namely in the South Eastern enclaves. Since in-field work was essential for anthropological information and text location, the coronavirus crisis has impeded such collection. Should circumstances allow it, in-field research will take place year. In any case, the presence of online and onsite (Japan) sources has allowed and rather smooth progress of the project.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
When circumstances allow, I plan on travelling to the South East Himalayas in order to gather the necessary information (original texts dealing with political and legal affairs) and conduct qualitative sociological research with scholars, lamas, politicians and lawyers of the region.
In the meantime, I plan on polishing my translation of Khenpo Tsultrim Lodro's the Unity of Buddhist Dharma and Politics and write a critical introductory study. Hopefully, it will eventually be published as a monograph.
In parallel, I plan on continue to locate Japanese scholarly sources on Tibetan Buddhist visions of law and politics and have them translated into English. It is my intention to bing such works together in a collective volume preceded by an introductory study. I hope that will access to Japanese scholarly sources to a wider international audience.
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| Causes of Carryover |
The coronavirus has prevented researches in Japan to go abroad in order to conduct in-field research, which was a year element in the research project. Hence, funding that was supposed to be spent travelling abroad could not be used last fiscal year but would hopefully be used next fiscal year.
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Research Products
(1 results)
