New Religions titles received in June

Go to the Library's "New and notable" acquisitions blog to see titles on the Study of Religions received in June.

The link is http://blogs.soas.ac.uk/libraryacquisitions/2012/06/06/religions-june-2012/

Stone-carving in Bamiyan

An article from the Guardian about the Afghan students who are learning the stone-working traditions that made the Bamiyan Valley famous

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE

New web resource: Theological Commons from Princeton Theological Seminary

To celebrate its 200th Anniversary, Princeton Theological Seminary has launched an open-access collection of digital and non-digital material held in the Seminary's Library.
Material in the collection dates from circa 975 to the 20th century and as well as covering Christianity, mission studies and theology, there are also substantial holdings on the Eastern Church, Buddhism, Islam and Judaism.
The collection is in a database format, so searches for particular topics can be refined by date, language and keyword etc.

CLICK HERE TO TRY OUT THIS NEW RESOURCE

A link will shortly be appearing on the Library web subject guide for Religions, under Electronic Publications

Digital Dictionary of Buddhism : new online resource

SOAS Library now has access to this resource, which comprises both the Digital Dictionary of Buddhism (DDB) and the CJKV-English dictionary (CJKV-E) for Sinitic characters and compounds related to East Asian cultural, political and intellectual history.

DDB is a compilation of Buddhist terms, texts, temples, schools and persons etc found in Buddhist canonical resources which began in print form in 1986 and migrated online in 1995. The initial focus was on East Asia, but it grew to include other Buddhist disciplines and texts. The website includes external links to other lexical, textual and bibliographic resources on Buddhism.

The Library’s subscription allows unlimited searches of both resources (DDB and CJKV-English) on-campus. SOAS staff and students are also able to make unlimited searches off-campus using the link below.

http://www.buddhism-dict.net/ddb/ [On-campus]

http://bit.ly/DigitalDB [Off-campus]

Mapping Buddhist monasteries: a work in progress

Mapping Buddhist monasteries : 200 -1200 CE 


** This wiki-site is a "work in progress" and so content is liable to change at short notice for the time being **

The aim of the project is to catalogue and map details of Buddhist monasteries and convents built across South Asia, South East Asia, Central Asia and East Asia between 200 and 1200 CE. Currently, over 500 are entered on the wiki. The content can be searched by region or tag.
As well as viewing location data for each monastery or convent, the wiki also has country / region chronologies and a detailed bibliography section with links to full-text where content is available via open-access. In depth information and pictures of individual monasteries are also available through links to other websites (although these seem to be particularly aimed at tourists and travellers)

Japanese Buddhism: aesthetics of colour lectures

The Embassy of Japan announces a celebration of the 1300th anniversary of Nara Heijo Kyo Capital.
There will be a  series of events in London and Norwich between 15th and 18th November, consisting of lectures on the aesthetics of colours in Buddhism by Sachio Yoshioka, a textile historian, and Shomyo (chanting) by Taiin Murakami, a priest from Yakushi-ji, Nara.
Click here for more details and brief interviews with Yoshioka and Murakami, about the event.