Spirit Healing, Hidden Wives, Monks in Demonstration: Introduction to Buddhism in Society

Spirit Healing, Hidden Wives, Monks in Demonstration: Introduction to Buddhism in Society is a Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies class taught by Ryan Joo and Susan Darlington.

Course Description
This course will examine how the beliefs and practices of Buddhism adapted to and influenced Asian society and their religious cultures. Rather than defining Buddhism strictly as a scriptural religious philosophy, this course will move beyond canonical boundaries and focus on historical and contemporary practices. Possible topics of examination include temple economy, spirit healing, clerical marriage, role of women, Buddhist festival, body immolation, nationalism, practical morality and the relationship between monastic community and laity. Late in the semester, the course will have a module on Tibetan Buddhism and society facilitated by the Ven. Geshe Ngawang Samten of the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies in India.

Learning Goals

 * Reading
 * Writing
 * Project-based
 * Presenting
 * Multi-Cultural