Explore the vast range of titles available.

Indonesia possesses a wealth of cultural assets, encompassing a wide range of traditions and Islamic heritage, which presents a significant opportunity for the development of tourism. This investigation delves into the Wali-Songo pilgrimage, a revered practice centered around nine influential saints who played a crucial role in propagating Islam throughout Java during the 15th and 16th centuries. Combining elements of worship and tourism, this pilgrimage attracts a diverse array of visitors, both local and international. The objective of this research is to examine the growth of Islamic tourism in Indonesia, with a specific focus on the Wali-Songo tradition, by mapping out tourist destinations and evaluating their potential. The findings underscore a burgeoning interest in Islamic tourism, highlighting the necessity for enhanced management and amenities at these sites. The results show that Islamic tourism potential continues to grow and attract Indonesian and society abroad. The increase in visits to this site and improved management and facilities for pilgrims, including information related to Wali-Songo, will further introduce how the saints preached and spread Islam in the archipelago.

Well-being is topic of perennial concern. It has been of significant interest to scholars across disciplines, culture, and time. But like morality, conceptions of well-being are deeply shaped and influenced by one's particular social and cultural context. We ought to pursue, therefore, a cross-cultural understanding of well-being and moral psychology by taking seriously reflections from a variety of moral traditions. This book develops a Confucian account of well-being, considering contemporary accounts of ethics and virtue in light of early Confucian thought and philosophy. Its distinctive approach lies in the integration of Confucian moral philosophy, contemporary empirical psychology, and contemporary philosophical accounts of well-being. Richard Kim organizes the book around four main areas: the conception of virtues in early Confucianism and the way that they advance both individual and communal well-being; the role of Confucian ritual practices in familial and communal ties; the developmental structure of human life and its culmination in the achievement of sagehood; and the sense of joy that the early Confucians believed was central to the virtuous and happy life.

This essay examines the concerns expressed by students when studying a second-year module on Asian religions and how they thought the facilitation of their learning could be most effective. Following research done with three cohorts of second-year students studying Asian religions from 2015 to 2017, this essay argues that both changes in pedagogy and course content are needed to create spaces where learning about these religions can address the concerns raised by students. Students were particularly concerned about how studying Asian religions would prepare them for the world of work and the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The research for this essay is located in a social constructivist pedagogy that forefronts social justice and is grounded in an engaged learning practice. The essay examines why in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, studying Asian religions is important and valuable to students studying for a degree in preparation for entry into the workplace. The essay shows that engagement with different technologies in teaching and learning enables a pedagogy of co-knowledge production and co-sharing of knowledge where students learn technological skills, critical thinking skills, and a deepening awareness of their worldviews and those of other people. In so doing, this module addressed student concerns about their studies and the skills they considered valuable in preparing them for future careers.

More than six decades after his death, Mohandas Gandhi continues to inspire those who seek political and social liberation through nonviolent means. Uniquely, Gandhi placed celibacy and other renunciatory disciplines at the center of his nonviolent political strategy, conducting original experiments with their possibilities to gain practical, moral, and even miraculous powers for social change. Gandhi's abstinence in marriage, eccentric views on sexuality, and odd ways of including his female associates in his practices continue to cause ambivalence among scholars and students. Through a comprehensive study of Gandhi's own words, select Indian religious texts and myths that he used, and the historical and cultural context of his activism, Veena R. Howard shows how Gandhi's ascetic disciplines helped him mobilize millions. She explores Gandhi's creative use of renunciation in challenging established paradigms of confrontational politics, passive asceticism, and oppressive social customs. Howard's book sheds new light on the creative possibilities Gandhi discovered in combining personal renunciation, sacrifice, ritual, and myth for modern day social action.

The volume collects a series of contributions that help reconstruct the recent history of the Nath tradition, highlighting important moments of self.reinterpretation in the sampradaya’s interaction with different social milieus. The leitmotif tying together the selection of articles is the authors’ explorations of the overlap between religious authority and political power. For example, in which ways do the Naths’ hagiographical claim of possessing yogic charisma (often construed as supernatural powers, siddhis) translate into mundane expressions of socio.political power? And how does it morph into the authority to reinterpret and recreate particular traditions? The articles approach different aspects of the recent history of the Nath sampradaya, spanning from stories of yogis guiding kings in the petty principalities of the eighteenth century to gurus who sought prominence in the transnational environments of the twentieth century; examining some Nath lineages and institutions under the British Raj, in the history of Nepal, and in contemporary India.

Subtle-body practices are found particularly in Indian, Indo-Tibetan and East Asian societies, but have become increasingly familiar in Western societies, especially through the various healing and yogic techniques and exercises associated with them. This book explores subtle-body practices from a variety of perspectives, and includes both studies of these practices in Asian and Western contexts. The book discusses how subtle-body practices assume a quasi-material level of human existence that is intermediate between conventional concepts of body and mind. Often, this level is conceived of in terms of an invisible structure of channels, associated with the human body, through which flows of quasi-material substance take place. Contributors look at how subtle-body concepts form the basic explanatory structure for a wide range of practices. These include forms of healing, modes of exercise and martial arts as well as religious practices aimed at the refinement and transformation of the human mindbody complex. By highlighting how subtle-body practices of many kinds have been introduced into Western societies in recent years, the book explores the possibilities for new models of understanding which these concepts open up. It is a useful contribution to studies on Asian Religion and Philosophy. Geoffrey Samuel is Professor of Anthropology in the School of History, Archaeology and Religion at Cardiff University, UK, and Honorary Associate in the Department of Indian and Subcontinental Studies, University of Sydney, Australia. Jay Johnston is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Studies in Religion at the University of Sydney, Australia, and Senior Lecturer in the School of Art History and Art Education, College of Fine Arts at the University of New South Wales, Australia. \"This collection of consistently excellent essays is the first academic study of the concept of the subtle body across many cultures, in pre-modern and contemporary societies, and in elite and vernacular traditions...The book has four parts, each with a helpful introduction by one of the editors...Summing up: Highly recommended.\" - J. Bussanich, University of New Mexico, CHOICE General Introduction Geoffrey Samuel and Jay Johnston Part 1: Subtle Bodies in China and India Introduction to Part One Geoffrey Samuel 1. The Daoist Body of Qi. Livia Kohn 2. The Subtle Body in India and Beyond Geoffrey Samuel 3. Subtle-Body Concepts in the Work of Indian Dais. Janet Chawla Part 2: Subtle Bodies in Tibet Introduction to Part Two Geoffrey Samuel 4. Of Souls and Subtle Bodies: A Shamanic Perspective Angela Sumegi 5. On the 'subtle body' and 'circulation' in Tibetan medicine Barbara Gerke 6. Magical Movements: Ancient Yogic Practices in the Bon Religion and Contemporary Medical Perspectives M. Alejandro Chaoul Part 3: Subtle Bodies in Europe and Islam Introduction to Part Three Jay Johnston 7. Sex, Athleticism and the Soul: Physical Philosophy in the Ancient Mediterranean and South Asia. Joseph S. Alter 8. In the Light of the Sphere: The Vehicle of the Soul and Subtle Body Practices in Neoplatonism. Crystal Addey 9. The Subtle Body in Sufism. Milad Milani Part 4: Subtle Bodies and Modernity Introduction to Part Four Jay Johnston 10. Subtle Reality in Early Modernism and the Occult Revival. John Bramble 11. Magical Consciousness: Relationships with the Natural World, Animals and Ancestors Susan Greenwood 12. Invisible, Dispersed and Connected: The Cultural Plausibility of Subtle Body Models in the Contemporary West Ruth Barcan 13. Subtle Subjects and Ethics: The Subtle Bodies of Western Post-Structuralist and Feminist Philosophy Jay Johnston 14. Subtle-Body Processes: Towards a Non-Reductionist Understanding. Geoffrey Samuel

For the first time, this influential study by Ludwig Alsdorf is made available to an English speaking audience, translated by Bal Patil. It focuses on two of the most pertinent issues in Indian religion, the history of vegetarianism and cow-veneration, and its historical approach remains relevant to this day. With reference to significant brahminical texts, such as key chapters of the Book of Manu, the book centres on the author’s analysis of the role of Jinism in the history of vegetarianism. The author explores the history of meat-eating in India and its relationship to religious thought and custom, and searches for solutions to the problem of cattle veneration. Besides a comprehensive translation of the original German manuscript \"Beiträge zur Geschichte von Vegetarismus und Rinderverehrung in Indien\", four important articles directly related to Alsdorf’s work by Kapadia, Heesterman and Schmidt are made available in this new edition. These additional contributions and careful notes by the editor Willem Bollée add a modern perspective to a study that remains a key reference for students and scholars of Religious Studies, Asian Studies and History. Ludwig Alsdorf (1904 – 1978) was one of the most influential Indologists of his generation. He had wide range of interests and worked on Prakrit, Apabrahmsa and Pali literature, in particular on Jaina universal history and prosody. His pioneering metrical analyses of ancient Indian literature prepared the ground for great advances in the dating of texts and the reconstruction of the history of Indian philosophy. One of his most influential studies is the present work. Willem Bollée is Professor Emeritus at the University of Heidelberg, Germany. Bal Patil is an independent researcher, journalist and Chairman of the Jain Minority Status Committee, Dakshin Bharat Jain Sabha, a century old Jain organization in India. He is the co-Author of Jainism (1974, with Colette Caillat and A.N. Upadhye), and his English translation of Ludwig Alsdorf’s Les Etudes Jaina, Etat Present et Taches Futures , edited by Willem Bollée was published in 2006. His translation of Hiralal Jain’s Jainism Through the Ages from Hindi into English is due for publication. Introduction. Abbreviations 1. Contributions to the History of Vegetarianism and Cow Veneration in India 2. Bibliography. Appendix I: Review of Alsdorf by Jan Heesterman. Appendix II: Classical follow-up article by H.-P. Schmidt, ‘The Origin of Ahimsà. Appendix III: do, Ahimsà and Rebirth. Appendix IV: H.R. Kapadia’s Critical Review of Western Interpretations of Early Jaina Vegetarianism: ‘Prohibition of Flesh Eating in Jainism’

Northeast India has witnessed several nationality movements during the 20th century. The oldest and one of the most formidable has been that of the Nagas - inhabiting the hill tracts between the Brahmaputra river in India and the Chindwin river in Burma (now Myanmar). Rallying behind the slogan, 'Nagaland for Christ', this movement has been the site of an ambiguous relation between a particular understanding of Christianity and nation-making. This book, based on meticulous archival research, traces the making of this relation and offers fresh perspectives on the workings of religion in the formation of political and cultural identities among the Nagas. It tracks the transmutations of Protestantism from the United States to the hill tracts of Northeast India, and its impact on the form and content of the nation that was imagined and longed for by the Nagas. The volume also examines the role of missionaries, local church leaders, and colonial and post-colonial states in facilitating this process. Lucidly written and rigorous in its analyses, this book will be of interest to scholars and researchers of South Asian history, religion, political science, sociology and social anthropology, and particularly those concerned with Northeast India.

Since the Buddha did not fully explain the theory of persons that underlies his teaching, in later centuries a number of different interpretations were developed. This book presents the interpretation by the celebrated Indian Buddhist philosopher, Candrakirti (ca. 570-650 C.E.). Candrakirti's fullest statement of the theory is included in his Autocommentary on the Introduction to the Middle Way (Madhyamakavatarabhasya), which is, along with his Introduction to the Middle Way (Madhyamakavatara ), among the central treatises that present the Prasavgika account of the Madhyamaka (Middle Way) philosophy. In this book, Candrakirti's most complete statement of his theory of persons is translated and provided with an introduction and commentary that present a careful philosophical analysis of Candrakirti's account of the selflessness of persons. This analysis is both philologically precise and analytically sophisticated. The book is of interest to scholars of Buddhism generally and especially to scholars of Indian Buddhist philosophy.