great value to students and scholars in East Asian literature,history, Buddhist studies, and art history. A few of the expla-nations on the development of certain iconographies, suchas the Buddhas of the Three Periods and the Spirit Kings,could have delved a bit deeper into donors’ consciouschoices. The work, however, undoubtedly constitutes anextremely useful and comprehensive study of the Longmencave complex.

Sunkyung KimUniversity of Southern California

TEACHING CONFUCIANISM. Edited by Jeffrey L.Richey. Teaching Religious Studies Series, 9. New York:Oxford University Press (The American Academy of Reli-gion), 2008. Pp. ix + 230; bibliographic references andindex. $60, ISBN 978-0-19-531160-0.

This book of essays challenges the commonly hearddictum that Confucianism is not a religion. A distinguishedroster of seasoned professors affirm that Confucianism canbe taught effectively as a religious tradition, even if thecourse on Confucianism that one might be envisioning,or better yet actually teaching, will probably be cross-registered with the philosophy, economics, or even politicalscience departments. The definitional problem surroundingthe question of how to characterize Confucianism is not atrivial one. As J. Berthrong and J. Richey describe in theirintroduction, the “eclectic, pluralistic, and syncretic” quali-ties of Confucianism hardly conform to “the sort of canoni-cal, sectarian orthodoxy usually denoted by religion in theWest.” Indeed, J. Berling’s concluding essay argues thatstudying Confucianism in classrooms outside of East Asiarequires helping students to understand the “genuine other-ness” of Confucianism’s religious dimension. The teachingof it benefits from strategies that make students conscious ofConfucianism’s diffuseness and its primacy of practice overdoctrine, to name but a few of the ways in which Confucian-ism confounds an outsider’s expectations of it. All thevolume’s contributors see grappling with Confucianism’scomplexity as crucial for preparing students to live thought-fully in an increasingly globalized world. For a collegeor high school teacher, or a graduate student, looking toenlarge their sense of what Confucianism can mean, essaysby M. Csikszentmihalyi on ritual training, K. Knapp onpopular legends about filial piety, or J. Adler on divination asreligious practice, among others in the volume, will be readwith great interest.

Shelley Drake HawksBoston University

RECONSTRUCTING CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA:K. H. TING AND THE CHINESE CHURCH. By PhilipL. Wickeri. American Society of Missiologists Series 41.Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2007. Pp. xxv + 516. $50, ISBN1-57075-751-8.

Wickeri, now a missiologist at San Francisco Theologi-cal Seminary, served for many years in China through the

Worldwide Ministries Division of the Presbyterian Church(USA). While this book is informed by his personal relation-ship with the Ting family, it also brings together the wealthof scholarly research, both past and present, on ChineseChristianity in the last one hundred years. With seventypages of endnotes and over forty pages of bibliography, thelife, work, and thought of Bishop K. H. Ting (1915- ) is heredocumented and interpreted against the backdrop of twenti-eth century China, including the Japanese occupation duringthe Second World War, the Communist takeover, the Cul-tural Revolution (1966-76), the events leading up to andemergent from Tiananmen Square (1989), and other devel-opments in the ecumenical movement in Canada, the U.S.,and Europe (where Ting lived and moved about as a mission-ary from 1946 to 1951). Wickeri has provided the authorita-tive scholarly biography of Ting, as well as opened windowsinto the history of Chinese Protestantism, the Three SelfPatriotic Movement, and the China Christian Council. ButReconstructing Christianity in China is also an essential readfor missiologists, postcolonial theologians (Ting beingperhaps the Chinese exemplar here), political theologians(Ting breaks the moulds here), advocates of theologicalsocialism (embraced in various forms by Ting), andresearchers interested in evangelical and Pentecostal Chris-tianity in China (where Ting leaves an ambiguous legacy),among others. In successfully capturing the significance andcontroversial legacy of Ting, this book is a remarkableachievement.

Amos YongRegent University School of Divinity

BuddhismTHE HISTORY OF THE BUDDHA’S RELIC SHRINE:A TRANSLATION OF THE SINHALATHUPAVAMSA. By Stephen C. Berkwitz. Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press, 2007. Pp. xv + 304. $75, ISBN 0-19-530139-0.

Berkwitz’s work is a translation of the SinhalaThupavamsa , a vernacular chronicle composed in the thir-teenth century by Parakrama Pandita. The work begins witha short but helpful introduction to the text and its author, itsgenre (the vamsa genre of Buddhist historical literature),and the topic that it treats, the Buddhist cult of relics. It alsodiscusses the history of vernacular literature in Sri Lanka.This is followed by the translation, which is very clear andenriched with informative annotations. The text relatesstories that were well known in medieval Sri Lanka, includ-ing the life story of Sakyamuni Buddha, with particularemphasis placed on the dispensation of his relics. It narratesin rich detail the relic shrine built by the victorious Sinhalaking Dutugamunu�� . The text serves the important role oflegitimating contemporary Buddhist practices of relic ven-eration in Sri Lanka. The translation could be criticized ontechnical grounds for its reliance on a noncritical edition,

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and its failure to take into account extant manuscripts forthis text. However, given the paucity of English translationsof medieval Sinhala religious texts, Berkwitz, with this oth-erwise very sound translation, makes an important contri-bution to the field of Buddhist studies.

David B. GraySanta Clara University

THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF THE TIBETAN BOOK OFTHE DEAD. By Bryan J. Cuevas. New York: Oxford Univer-sity Press, 2003. Pp. xi + 328. Cloth, $50, ISBN 0-19-515413-4; paper, $25, ISBN 978-0-19-530652-1.

The literature of the Liberation on Hearing (bar-do thos-grol), which achieved extraordinary fame as The Tibetan Bookof the Dead, is well known in the West. Previous studies havefocused on the religious and symbolic content of this litera-ture, often neglecting its crucial Tibetan context. In thisvolume, Cuevas attends to the origins of the Liberation onHearing, examining it as a fourteenth-century productionvery much situated within Tibetan tantric Buddhist tradition.Although this genre tends to be regarded as anonymous,Cuevas’ achievement lies in his association of a time, place,and likely author(s) with the earliest works, a major stepforward in our understanding of this genre. The presentationof the sophisticated religious milieu of the text’s “revealers” islucid, grounded as it is in a strong command of the literature.Historical developments relating to hagiography, textualtransmission, funeral liturgy, and other matters are treatedwith similar ease. Although specialists might have welcomeda more explicit handling of the sources, in many ways, thisconstitutes a model contribution to Tibetan studies.

Iain SinclairHamburg University

BEING BENEVOLENCE: THE SOCIAL ETHICS OFENGAGED BUDDHISM. By Sallie B. King. Honolulu: Uni-versity of Hawai’i Press, 2005. Pp. 312. $50, ISBN 0-8248-2864-X.

What is the character of Engaged Buddhism? What arethe strengths and implications of its ethical theory, and howdoes it contribute to “global ethical thought and to the prac-tice of social activism”? Sallie B. King’s Being Benevolence isthe latest contribution to a growing scholarly corpus onEngaged Buddhism, a “modern reformist movement foundthroughout the Buddhist world.” King focuses solely on thewritings of Asian representatives, including A. S. S. Kyi, theDalai Lama, T. N. Hanh, and S. Sivaraksa. Her introductoryportrayals of each, embedded in a lucid overview of basicBuddhist concepts, are actively moving if markedly uncriti-cal; undergraduates would be well served by bringing acritical orientation to her laudatory descriptions. BeingBenevolence continues by identifying and unpacking keydimensions of “Engaged Buddhist Ethical Theory” in light ofWestern ethical traditions. King’s Dewey-inflected identifi-cation of Buddhist precepts as moral principles is especiallysuccessful. Her subsequent chapters on “Human Rights” and

“Non-Violence and Its Limits” as conceptualized by EngagedBuddhist thinkers are thought provoking in their own rightand excellent case studies of cross-cultural philosophicalanalyses. King closes with an assessment of “Issues inEngaged Buddhism That Require Further Thought,” includ-ing the failure by Engaged Buddhists to consider issues ofcriminal justice. While the critical reader may be unim-pressed by her closing argument, Being Benevolence is arecommended addition to undergraduate courses in Bud-dhism and ethics, and to the bookshelf of anybody interestedin theorizing contemporary social issues through a Buddhistlens.

Laura HarringtonWesleyan University

CHATRAL RINPOCHE: COMPASSIONATE ACTION.Edited, introduced, and annotated by Zach Larson. Ithaca,NY and Boulder, CO: Snow Lion Publications. Pp. 124; plates.$14.95, ISBN 978-1-55939-271-6.

Larson is an animal rights activist and a practitioner ofthe Longchen Nyingthig tradition of the Nyingma School ofTibetan Buddhism. His interest in vegetarianism broughthim to the subject of this book, Chatral Rinpoche, a highlyregarded Tibetan teacher, and one of only a few who does noteat meat. Chapter one presents a glowing sketch of ChatralRinpoche’s life. Chapter two is an edited transcript of aninterview by Larson. Subsequent chapters include essays,prayers, and poems composed by Chatral. The flow of topicsis somewhat uneven. For example, a summary of “the ben-efits of building, circumambulating, prostrating to, andmaking aspiration prayers at a Stupa” is followed by a prayerto avert nuclear war. It then moves to a chapter on the sacredgeography of the Yolmo Valley of the Himalayas and theMaratika cave in Eastern Nepal. Larson’s intention seems tobe to faithfully present and preserve the teachings of aTibetan master. Chatral is revered throughout the book with,for example, picture captions such as, “Chatral Rinpoche, ayogi without peer.” Although Larson says he traveled exten-sively and interviewed many Tibetan refugees, the bookcontains mostly the words of Chatral. The topic will be ofinterest to students of Tibetan Buddhism, particularly thoseinterested in vegetarianism as an expression of Buddhistethics.

Lola WilliamsonMillsaps College

ZEN AND BRAZIL: THE QUEST FOR COSMOPOLI-TAN MODERNITY. By Cristina Rocha. Topics in Contem-porary Buddhism, 4. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press,2006. Pp. xii + 256; plates, maps, tables. $37, ISBN 978-0-8248-2976-6.

Rocha’s vital work contributes provocatively to thestudy of Buddhism, Brazil, and contemporary religion.It places Zen in Brazil’s exceptionally diverse religiouscontext, examining dynamics of modernity and creolization,shaping its Brazilian adoption and adaptation. Rocha widens

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her scope to show how Brazil’s modernity cannibalizes Euro-American modernity, incorporating Zen emphatically notfrom Japanese-Brazilian Zen traditions, but from Western,“modern” Zen. Rocha simultaneously illuminates the inde-pendence and the historical and continuing cross-pollenization of these forms of Zen in Brazil. She alsoexamines cultural industries that disseminate “Zen,” theimplications of these Brazilian cultural flows for global reli-gion, and, more emically, individual stories of her infor-mants. Plainly, the book consistently bridges many fields,making this reader wish at times for further explanation andevidence. But if we are left wanting more, this is surely atestament to Rocha’s scholarly breadth and a result of thebook’s brevity, in turn resulting from Hawai’i’s commend-able decision to sell it at a price individuals can actuallyafford. Rocha’s work is as diverse and forward-thinking asits subjects; of course I recommend it not only to scholars ofBuddhism, but also to all scholars of Latin American culturesand of contemporary religion.

Franz MetcalfThe Forge Institute

THE ORIGINS OF HIMALAYAN STUDIES: BRIANHOUGHTON HODGSON IN NEPAL AND DARJEEL-ING 1820-1858. Edited by David M. Waterhouse. NewYork: RoutledgeCurzon, 2004. Pp. xxiv + 280; figures, dia-grams, color plates. Cloth, $170, ISBN 0-415-31215-9.

This volume is the outcome of a conference held in 2002at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University

of London, devoted to exploring the life and scholarly con-tributions of B. H. Hodgson, British resident in Nepal inthe early-mid nineteenth century. It contains twelvechapters—including essays by D. Waterhouse, J. Whelpton,H. R. Joshi, D. S. Lopez, Jr., J.P. Losty, A. Datta, C. Inskipp, D.Arnold, M Gaenszle, and G. van Driem. The various chapterscover topics ranging from Hodgson’s life (including sala-cious new perspectives on the fate of his Nepali wife andchildren), his political career, and his contributions to thestudy of the religions, architecture, flora, fauna, languages,ethnology, geography, and linguistics of the Himalayanregion. While Hodgson is most famous in religious studiescircles for having sent manuscripts of Sanskrit Buddhistliterature to Europe, this volume nicely illustrates the wide-ranging nature of his studies and writings and helpfullysituates his inquiries into Buddhism within the broadercontext of contemporaneous Oriental and Himalayan schol-arship. This is a beautifully illustrated and produced volumethat enriches and nuances our understanding of this cru-cially important colonial administrator and amateur scholarand the lasting impact he has had on knowledge about theHimalayan region, its religions and its cultures.

Christian K. WedemeyerUniversity of Chicago

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