Review: Buddhist Funeral Cultures of Southeast Asia and China, ed. by Paul Williams and Patrice Ladwig

Résumé En

This rich volume of essays is a product of the University of Bristol's Centre for Buddhist Studies research project Buddhist Death Rituals in Southeast Asia and China (2007-2011), directed by Paul Williams. The editors' introduction is followed by eleven contributions that focus on the presentation and analysis of empirical material. In general methodological terms, the volume's center of gravity lies clearly within the realm of ethnographically-based studies--roughly half of the contributors are anthropologists. These are complemented by three or four contributions of a more strictly art-historical, historical, or textual character, all of which however address issues of religious change/continuity or diffusion/adaptation that are quite close to similar issues addressed in some of the more ethnographic pieces. This general orientation is one of the present volume's points of originality, which sets it apart from previous publications, such as the volumes edited by Cuevas and Stone, or Stone and Walter, that are based more centrally on methodological approaches from the history of religions.