Exploring the myth and lore of the majestic and mystic serpent

Examining the Tale of Heike

Charting changing attitudes towards animal rights in a Buddhist nation

Artistic expressions of ancient spiritual themes to reflect the human condition

Raymond Lam travels to the windswept steppes of Kalmykia to explore the history of a genuine frontier of Eurasian Buddhism.

An archetypal three-way relationship between a shapeshifting girl and two monks

Whether by the titanic mountains of the Himalayan range or the weird, lonely, lunar expanse of the plateau itself, it is not unusual to feel overwhelmed by the natural landscape of Tibet. It is small

Furu ike ya kawazu tobikomu mizu no oto   The old pond a frog jumps in kerplunk    Matsuo Basho’s (1644–94) haiku—that mind-altering frog vanishing into an ancient pond—has become so deeply sc

Lore, history, and society at the far reaches of the Buddhist world

In late August, the International Association of Buddhist Studies (IABS) held its 17th Congress at the University of Vienna. The event was attended by an international body of scholars with wide-rangi

“Fluttering Merrily” by Otagaki Rengetsu, Japan, 1840s–50s, calligraphy and painting in ink on paper mounted as a hanging scroll; Private Collection, Switzerland             

Editor’s note: Bakaeva Elza Petrovna has a PhD in History and is Deputy Director of the Kalmyk Institute for Humanities of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Russian Federation, Republic of Kalmykia, El

Stūpas began in ancient times as dome-shaped mounds of earth or brick constructed to mark the passing of a great monarch. Stūpas found in the Buddhist tradition are of four types: those buil

“Turn the Wheel of Dharma in all the worlds for the benefit of all living beings, and in the manner congenial to potential converts.” – Kriyāsaṃgraha   I consider myself a fairly skeptical person in