Barabuḍar: History and Significance of a Buddhist Monument by Luis Gomez; Hiram W.Woodward,Review by: James P. McDermottJournal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 103, No. 2 (Apr. - Jun., 1983), p. 442Published by: American Oriental SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/601475 .

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442 Journal of the American Oriental Society 103.2 (1983)

classification locates 48 rules related to pdrdjika one, 52 to plrd/ika two, 20 to pdraiika three, and 18 to plrd/ika four. Thus, Holt is able to relate the vast majority of the 227 Pdtimokkha rules to the concerns covered by the four pdrdjika dhammas.

The primary (and, to this reviewer, only) limiting factor in the study is its consideration of only the Theravada tradition. Nonetheless, it does provide a model which might readily be applied to other sects in the HTnayana historical development. In any case, this volume greatly enhances the area of Vinaya studies, and will be a valuable addition to any library, personal or institutional. It should remain a valuable research tool for years to come.

CHARLES S. PREBISH

PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY

Barabudar: History and Significance of a Buddhist Monu- ment. Edited by Luis GOMEZ and HIRAM W. WOODWARD,

JR., Pp. xvii + 253 + 32 plates. (Berkeley Buddhist Studies Series, No. 2.) Berkeley: BERKELEY BUDDHIST STUDIES

SERIES, 1981. Distributed by ASIAN HUMANITIES PRESS.

$20.00.

On May 16 and 17, 1974 an "International Conference on Borobudur" was held at the University of Michigan. This volume collects nine papers from that conference. The editors have added an historical introduction that traces the develop- ment of modern knowledge and theories of Barabudur. The volume is completed with a bibliography of textual sources for the Barabudur reliefs, a bibliography of the most impor- tant materials for the study of the complex, a glossary, index, and collection of black and white plates.

Two of the papers included are concerned with dating Barabudur. J. E. van Lohuizen-de Leeuw seeks "new evidence for the date of the foundation of the monument" (p. 15) from a consideration of the Barabudur dvdrapdla. Her approach is to compare stylistic characteristics of this dvdrapdla with others of Central Javanese provenance. On this basis she concludes the monument should be dated ca. 775-825 C.E.

Joanna Williams also attempts to date the stCupa in relation to other monuments of Central Java. Her method involves comparative analysis of a number of architectural motifs. She places the start of Barabudur toward the end of the eighth century, and its final completion in the second half of the ninth.

The remaining papers in the volume are concerned in various ways with the nature, meaning, and literary sources for the design of Barabudur. Thus, for example, while Hiram Woodward, Jr. focuses on Barabudur as a stapa, Alex Wayman reflects on its nature as a mandala, and J. G. de

Casparis, in perhaps the least successful paper in the volume, notes its dual nature as stuipa and prasdda.

A more general paper by A. J. Bernet Kempers, based on his earlier Ageless Borobudur, seeks to interpret the monu- ment in terms of Rudolf Otto's category "the mysterium."

Luis Gomez discusses the role of the Gandavyiha SUtra in the design of Barabudur. While in a careful and most fascinating study, Jan Fontein discusses its sources in the JMtakas and Avaddnas. Lewis Lancaster concludes with a more wide-ranging discussion of textual sources of possible value in understanding the monument.

Overall the discussion is a scholarly and stimulating contri- bution to the study of Barabudur. Yet for all its scholarship, it remains too often at the level of mere speculation. Luis Gomez's warning is well taken when he notes: "Perhaps our efforts are misdirected when we assume that the artists must have followed one predetermined Buddhological schema in preference to others, or in preference to aesthetic and tech- nical considerations. In attempting to discover a conceptual framework that will explain the monument we must not forget that, after all, these magnificent artisans deserve our admiration whether or not the monument is meant to be deciphered in a particular way" (pp. 186-187). One wonders, finally, whether in the attempt to unravel the secrets of Barabudur we have not become entangled in Indra's net, which, as Luis Gomez notes, confuses his enemies "by cover- ing their field of vision with a veil of illusory appearances" (p. 179).

JAMES P. MCDERMOTT

CANISIUS COLLEGE

Le Sihalavatthuppakarana: Texte PM/i et Traduction. By JACQUELINE VER EECKE. Pp. xxxv + 158 + 193. (Publica- tions de ltcole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient, Volume CXXXIII.) Paris: tCOLE FRANCAISE D'EXTREME-ORIENT.

1980.

The STha.lavatthuppakarana is a popular Theravada Bud- dhist manual of instruction for the faithful. Sermonic in tone, it consists of a miscellaneous collection of brief narratives, often written in outline. Without question, the dominant theme of these narratives is the Buddhist ideal of charity. Over half the accounts contained in the text glorify charity. How- ever modest the donation, it is seen to generate beneficial fruits, occasionally immediately, but assuredly in some future existence. The theory and practice of merit making is thus central to the text.

Ver Eecke notes that this does not seem to be the same work as the SRhalavatthu mentioned in G. P. Malalasekera's

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