Mapping Buddhist Monasteries 200-1200 CE Project

http://monastic-asia.wikidot.com/

18 Jan 2011

monastic-asia.wikidot.com, Ann Arbor: Center for South Asian Studies, University of Michigan, USA; Canberra: www.ciolek.com - Asia Pacific Research Online, Australia; & Newton, MA: Lasell College, USA.

Self-description:
"GORDON, Stewart, T. Matthew Ciolek & Lizabeth H. Piel, Work in progress, 2009-present, Mapping Buddhist Monasteries 200-1200 CE Project. [...]

The Project aims to:
* catalogue,
* crosscheck, verify and interrelate the collected data,
* georeference and, finally,
* map online (using KML markup & Google Maps technology)
details of communication, contacts and affinities between as many as possible of the Buddhist monasteries and convents known to have operated in South Asia, SE Asia, Central Asia, and East Asia from approx. 200 CE till approx. 1200 CE.

[...] From its North Indian origins Buddhism expanded across much of Asia, including Southern India, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Central Asia and Tibet, Southeast Asia, China, Korea and Japan. In contrast to studies of 'Chinese' Buddhism or 'Vietnamese' Buddhism, this project focuses on the early medieaval monastic institutions across the entire Buddhist world.
During the first 18 months of work conducted via the Internet from three different time-zones in the USA and Australia, we have constructed a freely accessible online database of easily correctable information on over 500 Asian monastic institutions. The data include their: (1) exact geographical coordinates; (2) official and variant names; (3) probable doctrinal affiliations; (4) architectural form; (5) probable organizational characteristics; (6) probable chronology and dating. Each monastery is linked directly to its position in GoogleEarth, allowing an overall or close up view of the site. Many sites have embedded photos of architectural features.
In September 2010 we have now begun the second phase of the project: recording evidence of bilateral connections between monasteries, such as the longstanding links between Sri Lankan monasteries and Nalanda.
What, however, were the overall Asian patterns? How did long-distance flows of students, teachers, relics, books, sculpture, paintings and donations influence intellectual, religious, artistic, even economic and political developments? What were the main types and styles of inter-monastic Buddhist communications [= exchanges of information, in oral and written formats], contacts [= flows of personnel] and affinities [= political, doctrinal, intellectual and artistic links and parallels]? Did they significantly vary with changes to their geographical, cultural, political, or temporal contexts?
In other words, the project systematically documents, maps and explores the intimate contours of a closely interlinked and mutually influential Buddhist world.
We invite interested scholars to critique our efforts so-far, to contribute new data or refinements, and to join our online team."

Site contents:
* Bibliography page [in mid-Jan 2011 it listed over 180 printed and/or electronic publications];
* Chronologies page (Arabian Peninsula, Burma, Byzantium, Cambodia, Central Asia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Persia, Afghanistan and Transoxiana, Vietnam [Annam, Nam Viet, Dai Viet], Vietnam [Champa]);
* Map scales [from 1:22M to 1:15K] & amp; measurements page;
* Methodology page [under construction];
* Sanskrit fonts (cut & paste);
* Monasteries A to Z [In mid-Jan 2011 the site recorded details of over 510 individual monasteries and monastic clusters. Data format: # Raw data, # Final data (and their sources): A. Lat/Long coordinates' accuracy [to the nearest 200m, 2km, 20km], B. General location of the monastery in question, C. Google Map link, 1. Monastery's name, 2. Monastery's modern country & province, 3. Monastery's alternative/historical names, 4. Monastery's lat/long coordinates [in decimal degrees], 5. Other known nearby Buddhist monasteries, 6. Modern name of the known nearest city, town, or village, 7. The settlement's alternative/historical names, 8. The settlement's coordinates [in decimal degrees], 9. Monastery's major Buddhist tradition, 10. Monastery's Buddhist sub-tradition, 11. Date-early, 12. Date-intermediate, 13. Date-late, 14. Details of contacts with other monasteries, 15. Type of evidence regarding the monastery, 16. Additional notes [missing data (incl. details of the size of the monastic population)], 17. Corrections & addenda to this page were kindly provided by ..., #Page tags.];
* Electronic Atlas [http://www.ciolek.com/GEO-MONASTIC/geo-monasteries-home.html, using GoogleEarth and the KML files]
(Map A. Monasteries North-West (= areas between Lat 39.0 - 60.0 N and Long 55.0 - 99.9 E),
Map B. Monasteries North-East (= areas between Lat 39.0 - 60.0 N and Long 100.0 - 150.0 E, incl. today's Korea & Japan),
Map C. Monasteries Central-West (= areas between Lat 26.0 - 38.99 N and Long 55.0 - 99.9 E),
Map D. Monasteries Central-East (= areas between Lat 26.0 - 38.99 N and Long 100.0 - 150.0 E),
Map E. Monasteries South-West (= areas between 10.0 S - 25.99 N and Long 55.0 - 99.9 E),
Map F. Monasteries South-East (= areas between 10.0 S - 25.99 N and Long 100.0 - 150.0 E));
* Unidentified Places [a list of highly problematic sites];
* How to edit pages?;
* Recent changes;
* Raw & temporary data;
* Access pages by tags: (200m, 20km, 2km, a, afghanistan, apparatus, b, bangladesh, c, cave, central-asia, chan/zen, charted, china, cluster, d, e, east-asia, f, fahien, g, h, hoko, hosso, hua-yen, huichao, i, india, indonesia, j, japan, k, kashmir, kegon, korea, kyrgyzstan, l, lokottaravada, m, mahasanghika, mahayana, mahayana?, mapped, monastery, monastery?, mt., muro-ha, myanmar, myogen, n, nanzan, nepal, nunnery, o, p, pagoda, pakistan, q, r, redirect, ritsu, s, sammitiya, sanron, sarvastivada, shingon, shokannon, shotoku, south-asia, south-east-asia, spot, sri-lanka, stupa, sungyun, swat-valley, t, tajikistan, tantra, template, tendai, thailand, theravada, theravada?, tibet, tradition?, turkmenistan, u, uncharted, university, unmapped, uzbekistan, v, vajrayana, vajrayana?, vietnam, vinaya, w, western-china, x, xuanzang, y, yijing, z);
* Recent posts & comments [under construction];
* 20 most recently created pages [incl.: # Sensoji monastery, (in) Tokyo, Tokyo Prefecture, JP; # Kitain monastery, (in) Kawagoe, Saitama Prefecture, JP; # Hwangnyongsa monastery, (in) Kyongju, Gyeongsanguk-do, KR; # Kizil monastery, (near) Kizil, Xinjiang, CN; # Qumtura monastery, (towards) Kuqa, Xinjiang, CN; # Singim monastery, (near) Singim, Xinjiang, CN; # Yulin monastery?, (near) Guazhou, Gansu, CN];
* Central Asia (Central Asia - all, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Western China);
* East Asia (East Asia - all, China, Japan, Korea);
* South Asia (South Asia - all, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan [under construction], India, Kashmir, Nepal, Pakistan, Sikkim [under construction], Sri Lanka, Swat, Tibet);
* South-East Asia (SEAsia - all, Cambodia [under construction], Indonesia, Laos [under construction], Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam);
* Aspects of data (Monastic clusters, Cave sites, Pagoda sites, Stupa sites, University sites);
* Abstract;
* Citation format;
* Contact;
* Search this site.

URL http://monastic-asia.wikidot.com/

Internet Archive (web.archive.org) [the site is not archived by web.archive.org]

Link reported by: T. Matthew Ciolek (tmciolek--at--coombs.anu.edu.au)

* Resource type [news - documents - study - corporate info. - online guide]:
Study
* Publisher [academic - business - govt. - library/museum - NGO - other]:
Academic
* Scholarly usefulness [essential - v.useful - useful - interesting - marginal]:
rating not available

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Please note that the above details were correct on the day of their publication. To suggest an update, please email the site's editor at tmciolek@ciolek.com

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