Rebecca Redwood French

Buddhism and Law: An Introduction

Introducing Buddhism and law Rebecca Redwood French and Mark A. Nathan Part I. The Roots of Buddhism and Law in India: 1. Society at the time of the Buddha Kumkum Roy 2. What the Vinayas can tell us about law Petra Kieffer-Pulz 3. Keeping the Buddhas rules: the view from the Sutra Piaka Rupert Gethin 4. Proper possessions: Buddhist attitudes toward material property Jacob N. Kinnard 5. On the legal and economic activities of Buddhist nuns: two examples from early India Gregory Schopen Part II. Buddhism and Law in South and Southeast Asia: 6. Buddhism and law in Sri Lanka Sunil Goonasekera 7. Flanked by images of our Buddha: community, law, and religion in a premodern Buddhist context Jonathan S. Walters 8. The legal regulation of Buddhism in contemporary Sri Lanka Benjamin Schonthal 9. Pali Buddhist law in Southeast Asia Andrew Huxley 10. Genres and jurisdictions: laws governing monastic inheritance in seventeenth-century Burma Christian Lammerts Part III. Buddhism and Law in East Asia: 11. Buddhism and law in China: the emergence of distinctive patterns in Chinese history T. H. Barrett 12. The ownership and theft of monastic land in Ming China Timothy Brook 13. Buddhism and law in China: Qing Dynasty to the present Anthony Dicks 14. Buddhism and law in Korean history: from parallel transmission to institutional divergence Mark A. Nathan 15. Buddhism and law in Japan Brian Ruppert 16. Relic theft in medieval Japan Bernard Faure Part IV. Buddhism and Law in North Asia and the Himalayan Region: 17. Buddhism and law in Tibet Rebecca Redwood French 18. Buddhist laws in Mongolia Vesna A. Wallace 19. Karma, monastic law, and gender justice Karma Lekshe Tsomo 20. Buddhism and constitutions in Bhutan Richard W. Whitecross.

What the Vinayas Can Tell Us about Law

“Whatever Dhamma and Vinaya has been taught, made known by me to you, Ānanda, will, with my passing, be your Teacher.” Introduction When the Buddha entered Nirvāṇa, he is said to have left his adherents with what he had taught, that is, with dharma (Pāli dhamma ) and Vinaya . No central body headed the Buddhist community. As the highest legal authority, the Buddhist monastic legal code, Vinaya, served as a guide for the daily life of monastics of the Buddhist community ( saṅgha ): Buddhist monks and nuns and, to a lesser degree, male and female novices as well as female probationers. The Vinaya forms the first part of the Buddhist canon, the so-called tripiṭaka – the authoritative Buddhist writings believed to be the “Word of the Buddha.” It contains the rules and regulations that govern the life of monastics both as individuals and as a community. Unlike the discourses, sūtra , which are directed toward lay people and ordained alike, the Vinaya is an internal document meant for monastics. Since the community of the Buddhists split into two branches – Mahāsāṃghikas and Sthaviravādins, which subsequently split into further schools, all transmitting the word of the Buddha – we have not one, but several canons and, consequently, several Vinayas . The Vinayas are not systematically planned and arranged law books. Rather, they are based on case law. They constitute one of the oldest self-contained legal systems, of which the Buddha is thought to be the lawgiver. Unlike the primarily prescriptive Brahmanical law codes, the Vinayas contain narrative portions, commentaries, and casuistries, albeit to different degrees. These additional portions shed some light on the historical realities of the religious communities in which they were authored and subsequently redacted.

Introducing Buddhism and Law

Some edited volumes are self-explanatory and others need a substantial introduction to the material; the latter is the case with this volume. While the title is intriguing, many readers will need a guidebook to explain much of what they are encountering here. And it is well worth the effort as the material is some of the most exciting and unorthodox both on legal systems and in Buddhist Studies. Therefore, the task of this introduction to the volume is to provide readers with a road map to define the object of study, and to offer ways to think about the field of Buddhism and Law. This introduction is divided into three main sections: Buddhism, Law, and Buddhism and Law. The first, Buddhism, presents a brief account of the life of the Buddha before turning to an examination of dharma , a fundamental term in Buddhism that has long been translated as law. A discussion of Buddhist monasticism and some of the misconceptions that have surrounded the place of the monastic community in society comes next, followed by a consideration of the Vinaya , the canonical Buddhist law codes that have served to regulate the religious life of Buddhist monasteries. Buddhist traditions also possess a wealth of other legal texts and materials, most of which reflect attempts to devise supplementary rules and regulations that fit local conditions, and these are introduced last.