Papers Presented

INVITED

2010

"Yin, Buddhism, and Medicine: Multiple Aspects of Tea in Eisai's Kissa Yōjōk,i"
Imagining the Feminine in East Asian Religions and Medicine
University of Heidelberg, November 5-7, 2010

"Buddhist Episodes from the Prehistory of Tea in China"
UBC Kameyama Lecture Series on Buddhist Studies
University of British Columbia, Thursday October 7, 2010.

“A Chinese apocryphal sutra in its eighth-century context.” United Kingdom Association of Buddhist Studies Conference: Historiography, Adaptation and Contemporary Practice, University of Leeds, July 6th and 7th, 2010.

"Tea as Beverage and Ritual Offering in Medieval Chinese Buddhist Monasteries." Department of East Asian Studies, University of Toronto, January 29th 2010.

2009

“The Buddhist Arts of Tea in Medieval China.”  The 22nd Sammy Yukuan Lee Lecture on Chinese Archaeology and Art, University of California, Los Angeles, November 7th 2009.

Invited discussant for two panels, “Preparation for Death: Practice at the End of Life” and “Thinking about the Dead,” at multidisciplinary symposium on Buddhists at the End of Life, University of California, Santa Cruz, May 1st–3rd 2009.

Invited participant, Numata Chair in Buddhist Studies inaugural symposium, University of Calgary, April 4th 2009.

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2008

Invited discussant for panel “Enlivenment of Religious Images” at symposium on The Chinese Art of Enlivenment, Harvard University, October 24th—25th 2008.

“The Chinese Sources of an Apocryphal Sutra: Another Look at the Pseudo-Śūramgama sūtra,” invited lecture, sponsored by the Harvard Buddhist Studies Forum, Harvard University, May 5th 2008.

“‘Do not point to any shape and call it the Dao:' Heterodoxy and Images in Medieval China,” presented at conference on Images in Motion: New Perspectives on Buddhist Arts, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, February 9th–10th 2008.

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2007

“Hybrid Cosmologies in the Śūramgama Sūtra,” presented at conference on Text, Translation, and Transmission, University of California, Berkeley, October 18th–20th 2007.

“Buddhist Laymen and Tea during the Tang Dynasty,” invited lecture, sponsored by the Buddhist Studies Seminar, Columbia University, April 12th 2007.

“Buddhist Laymen and Tea during the Tang Dynasty,” invited lecture, sponsored by East Asian Studies and the Buddhist Studies Workshop, Princeton University, April 11th 2007.

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2006

“The Sense of Smell in Medieval China: Some Preliminary Remarks,” presented at conference on The Senses of Religion: Knowledge, Miracles, Worship and Sensory Experience in the World's Religions, Yale University, October 27th-29th 2006.

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2005

“Mr. Tea versus Mr. Alcohol: Battling Commodities in Medieval China,” Second Annual Alumni Lecture, Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, University of California Los Angeles, May 3rd 2005.

Invited discussant for two papers at annual Buddhist Studies Graduate Student Conference, Princeton University, April 22nd-24th 2005.

“Magic and the Military in Medieval China,” presented at Yale University Council on East Asian Studies Workshop on Manipulating Magic: Sages, Sorcerers and Scholars, Yale University, April 15th-17th 2005.

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2004

“One Mountain, Two Traditions: Zhongnan shan in Sui and Tang Times,” presented at International Symposium on Images, Relics and Legends: Formation and Transformation of Buddhist Sacred Sites in China, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, 15-16th October 2004.

“Chinese Buddhist Martyrs? Some Reflections on Typologies of Self-immolation,” presented at conference on Imagined Worlds of Martyrdom, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, April 29th 2004.

“Buddhism, Alcohol and Tea in Medieval China,” presented at conference on Food and Religion in Traditional China, University of Cambridge, April 2nd 2004.

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2003

“Burning Buddhist Monks: Some Reflections on Self-immolation and Conflict,” invited lecture, University of Washington, December 17th 2003.

“‘On Drinking Tea and Nourishing Life,’ Kissa Yōjōki by the Japanese monk Eisai (1141-1215),” Text Reading Seminar presented at the Needham Research Institute, Cambridge, June 13th 2003.

“The Silent Samgha: Some Observations on Mute Sheep Monks,” presented at conference on Monasticism in Asian Perspectives, University of British Columbia, February 21st-22nd 2003.

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2002

“Self-immolation and Peace? Some Examples from the History of Chinese Buddhism,” presented at conference on “Buddhism and Peace,” University of British Columbia, May 25th-26th 2002.

“Fire and the Sword: Some Connections between Self-immolation and Religious Persecution in the History of Chinese Buddhism,” presented at conference on “Death and Dying in Buddhist Cultures,” Princeton University, May 17th-19th 2002.

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2001

“Spontaneous Human Combustion: Some Remarks on a Phenomenon in Chinese Religion,” presented at conference on “The Moment of Death: Cross Cultural Perspectives,” McMaster University and University of Toronto, October 12th 2001.

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1999

“Self-immolation, Religious Persecution, and the Founding of the Tang Dynasty,” invited lecture, Italian School of East Asian Studies, Kyoto, November 12th 1999.

“Deliverance by Fire? Some Observations on Taoist Auto-cremation,” invited lecture, Stanford University, May 10th 1999, and Stanford Japan Center, Kyoto, September 27th 1999.

“Written in Flames: Self-immolation in Sixth-century Sichuan,” presented at conference on “Body, Form and Practice in East Asian Buddhism,” Lewis and Clark College, Portland, Oregon, April 24th 1999.

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1998

“Written in Flames: Self-immolation in Sixth-century Sichuan,” presented at UCLA China Studies Workshop, May 27th 1998.

“The Biography of a Sixth-century Self-immolator,” Text Reading Seminar, presented at the Needham Research Institute, Cambridge, May 15th 1998.

“Where Text Meets Flesh: Burning the Body as an ‘Apocryphal Practice’ in Chinese Buddhism,” versions presented at UCLA China Studies Workshop, May 1997, and at the Needham Research Institute, Cambridge, September 1997.

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CONTRIBUTED

Discussant, Session 465 "Approaches to Legitimacy in Early Medieval China," Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, Honolulu HI, April 2nd 2011.

Discussant for panel on “The Lotus in the Sea of Fire: The Burning Monk Thich Quang Duc,” Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, Chicago, IL, March 26th 2009.

“The Influence of Buddhist Literature on Medieval Chinese Concepts of Wit and Humour,” presented at the XVth Congress of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, Atlanta, GA, June 27th 2008.

“Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks: Hagiographic Collection or Monastic Manifesto?” presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, Philadelphia, PA, November 21st 2005.

“Buddhist and Taoist Attitudes to Food in Medieval China,” presented at 11th Annual Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies Conference, “Feast, Famine, and Fasting: Food and Material Consumption in Medieval and Renaissance Culture,” Tempe, AZ, February 19th 2005.

“The Silent Samgha: Some Observations on Mute Sheep Monks,” presented at the Annual Meeting of the Western Conference of the Association for Asian Studies, Tempe, AZ, October 11th 2003.

“Self-cultivation and Self-immolation: Preparing the Body for Auto-cremation in Chinese Buddhism,” presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, San Diego, CA, March 9th 2000.

“Is Self-Immolation a ‘Good Practice?’ Yongming Yanshou’s Endorsement of Relinquishing the Body in his Wanshan Tonggui ji,” presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, San Francisco, CA, November 25th 1997.

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CONFERENCES AND PANELS ORGANISED

Buddhism's Occult Technologies, McMaster University, April 11-13, 2008, sponsored by the University of Toronto/McMaster University Yehan Numata Buddhist Studies Program.

[In collaboration with University of Toronto] Whither Buddhist Studies? A Workshop on Buddhist Studies Doctoral Education in North America, Toronto, Ontario, April 6th–7th 2007.

Panel on “New Directions in the Study of East Asian Buddhism,” Annual Meeting of Western Conference of the Association for Asian Studies, Tempe, Arizona, October 11th 2003.

One-day symposium on “Absence made Tangible: The Relics of the Buddha in India, China and Japan,” held at UCLA, January 27th 2001. Sponsored by UCLA Center for Buddhist Studies.

One-day conference on “Body, Form and Practice in East Asian Buddhism,” held at Lewis and Clark College, Portland, Oregon, April 24th 1999.

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CONFERENCE PARTICIPATION

Chair, Panel 5 “Diaspora and Reconfiguration: New forms of Religiosity emerging from Contact and Exchange,” Tung Lin Kok Yuen Conference on Buddhism and Diaspora, University of Toronto, Scarborough Campus, May 14th–16th 2010.

Chair and discussant, “Spirituality and the Evolution of Rituals in Asia,” Annual Meeting of Western Conference of the Association for Asian Studies, October 9th 2003.

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