Research guides: Buddhist Studies: Secondary resources

Encyclopedias

Brill’s Encyclopedia of Buddhism Online
Brill’s Encyclopedia of Buddhism is the first comprehensive academic reference work devoted to the plurality of Buddhist traditions across Asia, offering readers a balanced and detailed treatment of this complex phenomenon in six thematically arranged volumes: literature and languages (I, publ. 2015), lives (II, publ. 2019), thought (III, forthcoming 2022), history (IV, forthcoming 2023), life and practice (V, forthcoming 2025), index and remaining issues (VI, forthcoming 2026).
Each volume contains substantial original essays by many of the world’s foremost scholars, essays which not only cover basic information and well-known issues but which also venture into areas as yet untouched by modern scholarship. An essential tool for anyone interested in Buddhism.
An online resource will provide easy access to the encyclopedia’s ever-growing corpus of information.

Guides and Readings

Institute for South Asia Studies UC Berkeley
A veritable treasure of videos and podcasts and articles under the section of "Viewpoint--Voices About South Asia From South Asia".
The Buddhist Bas-Reliefs of Borobudur
A walk-through of the Borobudur temple carvings that depict the lives of the Buddha as told in the Jataka tales and Avadana.
Buddhism and Buddhist Art · MET
Overview of Buddhist art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Includes links to primary essays (featuring and explaining Buddhist artworks) and secondary essays on related topics, using certain artworks as examples. Also includes links to regional chronologies and maps, and to other online features. These include narrated slideshows with curators and an artist reflecting on encounters with artworks in the Met galleries.
Digital Humanities
An introductory guide to Digital Humanities. Includes basic intro to the subject and a wealth of digital resources: links to journals, databases and e-books; text visualization tools; tools for text analysis; visualization apps and tools; grant writing resources; tools for sharing, publishing, & displaying scholarly research; oral histories and podcasts; project management and webdesign; coding resources; etc.
Events · The Lakshimi Mittal and Family South Aisa Institute
Events, Webinars and blogs on current events in South Asia
The development of the Buddhist canon
The Buddhist 'canon' is vast, complex and difficult to define. Here Professor Tim Barrett outlines some of the key works for the different branches of Buddhism.
video...close...
The article comes with several image galleries of different manuscripts, kept by the British Library.
Life of the Buddha
A brief essay with images by Kathryn Selig Brown (featured on the Metropolitan Museum of Art NYC page) on the life of the Buddha. The text of the essay includes direct links to images depicting episodes in the life of the Buddha (e.g. birth, first teachings, etc.).
Climate, Corona, and Collapse
Article by Karin Meyers addressing current issues including coronavirus, race, and climate change from a Buddhist Critical Constructive perspective.
From statues to toothpaste
Short article on village in Myanmar whose livelihood is based around mining marble and carving it into Buddha statues. At the end touches on the struggles due to the pandemic. Has some nice pictures.
Article on Buddhist art and the pandemic
The Buddha and his natural environment in Thai manuscript art
Blog post
Up to date news, interviews and articles in English, Nepali, Newar and Tibetan right from the heart of Lumbini, Nepal
The development of the Buddhist 'canon'
"The Buddhist ‘canon’ is vast, complex and difficult to define. Here Professor Tim Barrett outlines some of the key works for the different branches of Buddhism." The article comes with several image galleries of different manuscripts, kept by the British Library.
Why Richard Gere (actor) became a Buddhist
A bit of fun pop culture about why Richard Gere (actor) became a Buddhist
Buddhism in the Age of #BlackLivesMatter
"Buddhism in the Age of #BlackLivesMatter," an article by Pamela Ayo Yetunde of the Insight Meditation community. The article suggests that the way the life of the Buddha is usually taught needs to be revisited, and that emphasizing other aspects of the Buddha's life and teachings would offer new insights and support for Black experience today.
How do Buddhists handle coronavirus? The answer is not just meditation
Article by Pierce Salguero on Buddhist healing practices in light of COVID-19
The Sakyadhita Movement
Article about the contemporary Sakyadhita movement (international association of Buddhist women) and their annual meetings.
OBJECT LESSONS FROM TIBET & THE HIMALAYAS
Blog run by four scholars focusing on Tibetan and Himalayan objects and materiality. Their goal is to to think about the roles of objects and images in knowledge production, loss and recovery. Focus on the value of objects beyond their religious significance.

Book reviews

Talk about the book "Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love, and Liberation"
Talk given in 2018 by Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams about the book "Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love, and Liberation" (2016, co-authored by Rev. angel Kyodo williams, Lama Rod Owens, and Jasmine Syedullah).
Book Review of "Buddhism and Whiteness"
Video of Tibetan woodblock printing process

Videos

Discovering Sacred Texts: Buddhism
Short introduction to Buddhist texts (more than 10 different speakers & texts from different Buddhist traditions).
Clip from Simpsons Episode "She of Little Faith" (Season 13, Episode 6) where Lisa Simpson becomes a Buddhist.
The Wisdom Podcast
"The Wisdom Podcast is a Buddhist podcast that features interviews with leading thinkers from the Buddhist world. Each episode takes you on a fascinating exploration of Buddhism and meditation as our guests share stories and discuss life-changing practices, timeless philosophies, and new ways to think and live. This website will help you find and engage with the teachers, teachings, and practices for developing a deeper, wiser relationship with your mind, your life, and the world. "
Himalayan Art Resources: Youtube Channel
HAR recently launched a YouTube channel, at present with 20+ videos available. For the most part these are short (roughly 3–4 minute) videos with curator Jeff Watt answering questions about the collection (e.g. on the depiction of women, mahāsiddhas, use of color, use of the swastika, use of wrathful imagery, etc.).
video...close...
The videos include images from the collection and video of Watt speaking. The audio and video are clear and well-edited, and the tone of explanation is straightforward, with some specialized vocabulary but in a very conversational tone. These seem like an excellent accessible introduction to the content on HAR. In a course setting (Intro to Buddhism or art history course with related content), one or more of these videos could be shown as a way to personalize entry into the database. For example, students could watch a Q&A video (e.g. depiction of eyes) and then do their own survey in the collection to find more details and examples related to Watt's explanation.
Video of Tibetan woodblock printing process
Introductory videos produced by Dr. Todd Lewis
།འཕགས་པ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་བརྒྱད་པའི་ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ་བཞུགས་སོ། ། The Verses of the Eight Noble Auspicious Ones by Mipham Rinpoche
A nice folk-inspired version of the prayer. The Tibetan lyrics are in the description box below the Youtube video. A translation is available here: https://lhaseylotsawa.org/library/verses-of-the-eight-noble-auspicious-ones
The young priest of Bu Bahal
A short video about Bibindra Bajracharya assuming his priestly duties at a Newar vihāra for the duration of 15 days (Nepali with English subtitles).
Watch monks from Drepung Loseling Monastery make the sand mandala of Avalokiteśvara from millions of grains of colored sand
Short documentation of a sand maṇḍala construction and its dissolution. Includes photos, short texts, and a video (2:07 mins) as well as a mandala image with clickable hotspots that describe its details.

To access the sand mandala documentation you need to scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on “here” in the last paragraph. The page has the same URL as the other site and cannot be linked separately.
Himalayan Art Resources
Over 60,000 images of art works, mainly religious, from Tibet, Nepal, Kashmir and adjacent regions. Includes painting, sculpture and textiles. PNG image files are large. Can be converted to tiff format. Obtain permission for publishing and using in thesis.
Thai Buddhist monks give lucky charms to devotees to protect them from Covid-19
Short video of Thai monks offering protective items to devotees to counter spread of COVID-19.

Research Guides

Buddhist Studies

Encyclopedias

Guides and Readings

Book reviews

Videos

Library links

Libraries

Contact

Connect with us