Speaker: Prof. Albert Welter, Head, Department of East Asian Studies, University of Arizona
Abstract: The Hangzhou region, centered in the city of Hangzhou, has long been one of the most important cultural hubs in China, and has had a wide-ranging impact on Chinese culture and Buddhism. The study of Buddhism, however, has been conducted from Indo-centric agendas that have long served to marginalize East Asian Buddhism, including the Hangzhou regions contributions. Seen from the vantage point of Hangzhou, East Asian Buddhism assumes a central role in the interregional spread of religion and culture. The advent and dissemination of indigenous forms of Buddhism conceived in the Hangzhou region precipitated cultural advances that have resonated down to the present.
