Undergraduate Course: Blood, bones, and bodies: Buddhist relics in Asia (HIAR10155)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh College of Art |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | What do bones, mummies, and blood writing all have in common? Why craft an exquisite vessel of the most precious materials just to bury or hide it? We will discover answers to these questions and other intriguing paradoxes at work in Buddhist relics. The principles underlying these objects and issues that seem so distant from us are in fact ubiquitous in our contemporary society. |
| Course description |
This course is designed to introduce the fundamental concerns of appearance, creation, and function of Buddhist relics and reliquaries in Asia. Revealing the subject to be transhistorical and transcultural, this course analyses the veneration of Buddhist relics and reliquaries by focusing on their art, ritual, and devotion in India, China, Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia. Not only are courses devoted to the study of Buddhist relics rare, they seldom present the subject from the viewpoint of visual and material culture. This course approaches the subject from a multidisciplinary perspective, reading primary and secondary source materials that touch on religious rituals, gender, economics, patronage, political history, literature, and iconography to flesh out this neglected and elusive topic.
The course begins with an introduction to contentious debates in the historiography of relics and reliquaries and the fluidity of their definitions to establish the seminar¿s foundation. By focusing on the materiality of relics in the first part of the course, their physicality, and even raw beauty, are shown to be of great significance to their perceived power. The second part of the course examines the multitude of uses and abuses of relics and reliquaries throughout history.
This course is taught in weekly two-hour sessions. The start of each class will be lectures which will draw out certain points from the required readings, provide visual accompaniment, and present additional information to augment the week¿s theme. The second half of the class will be student-led open discussions of the readings and assigned topic as well as ALG activities.
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Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2024/25, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 20,
Feedback/Feedforward Hours 1,
Summative Assessment Hours 4,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
171 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
50 %,
Coursework
50 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
This course has 2 assessment components:
1) 2000-word curatorial exhibition portfolio, 50%, weeks 8-10
2) 3-hour take-home exam, assessment diet
The curatorial exhibition portfolio will consist of a 1000-word rationale for the exhibition, including title, design and layout, target audience, and curatorial narrative, as well as the submission of a PowerPoint of the 8-10 selected objects. In addition, students will write 4 x 250-word catalogue entries for three of the objects. |
| Feedback |
Formative Feedback:
During class in Week 5, students will each offer a 5-minute presentation stating the key theme and objects selected for their curatorial exhibition portfolio. Verbal feedback from the Course Organiser and peer feedback will be provided immediately in class. The feedback students received from the Course Organiser as well as the collective discussion of all the projects allow students to continue building their content and skills-based knowledge.
Summative feedback:
Full written feedback on both assessment components will be provided by the Course Organiser as per university regulations via the LEARN VLE/Turnitin.
The summative feedback on Assessment 1 will help the students to further develop their analytical and critical skills which will be necessary for Assessment 2 preparation.
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| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Analyse ways in which relics and reliquaries have been critical in shaping Buddhist art, ritual, and thought in a Pan-Asian context.
- Critically engage in substantive inquiry and critical analysis on the diverse visuality and many functions of relics and reliquaries.
- Critique the historiography of this subject and locate their own place within the developing field of knowledge.
- Apply developed skills of visual enquiry, analysis, curatorial practice, and communication to a wide range of objects
- Analyse how Buddhist material can be made accessible to a non-academic audience through a curatorial exhibition project.
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Reading List
Faure, Bernard. 'The Buddhist Icon and the Modern Gaze.' Critical Inquiry 24.3 (1998): 768-813.
Fister, Patricia. 'Creating Devotional Art with Body Fragments.' Journal of Japanese Religious Studies 27.3-4 (2000): 213-38.
Li, Yuhang. 'Embroidering Guanyin: Constructions of the Divine through Hair.' East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine 36 (2012): 131-166.
O'Neal, Halle. 'Word Embodied: The Jeweled Pagoda Mandalas in Japanese Buddhist Art.' Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2018.
Sharf, Robert H. 'On the Allure of Buddhist Relics.' Representations 66 (1999): 75-99.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Research and Enquiry:
- Strengthens and broadens students' research and enquiry skills by working with a range of textual and visual sources relating to Japanese religious art
- Analytical and critical thinking skills developed through verbal and written discussions of material culture, Buddhist praxis, primary source texts, and secondary literature
- Development of practical skills relevant to curation
Personal and Intellectual Autonomy:
- Independent seminar preparation and independent researching encourage intellectual autonomy
- Group work and in-class discussions develop confidence in asserting original ideas about advanced research topics
- Open-mindedness fostered through interaction with alternative interpretations
Aspiration and Personal Development:
- Seminars and summative assessments create independent opportunities to self-reflect, develop, and improve
- Organizational and planning skills learned over the course of the semester are taken forward in other facets of life
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| Keywords | Buddhism,Asia,relic,reliquary,art,material culture,body,ritual |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Halle O'Neal
Tel: (0131 6)50 2340
Email: halle.o'neal@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mr Nathan Ross-Hammond
Tel: (0131 6)51 5880
Email: nrossha@exseed.ed.ac.uk |
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