Fabienne Jagou 谷嵐
Exploring the Preservation of Holy Bodies: A New Research Perspective on Buddhist Death
探討聖體的保存: 關於佛教死亡的新研究視角
探討聖體的保存: 關於佛教死亡的新研究視角
Between Paul Demiéville’s article on Far Eastern mummies in the medieval period (1965) and Castiglioni’s contribution on the perpetuation of the charisma of Buddhist masters after their death via the preservation of their bodies at Mount Yudono in Japan (2019), researches on Buddhist masters’ mummies have been focused on an attempt to explain the phenomenon in medieval China (Robert H. Sharf, 1992) and its contemporary revival in Taiwan (Gildow, 2005). In recent years, various European collective projects have resulted in the emergence of new research orientations that are an outgrowth of these previous studies. It is the analysis of the social and contemporary dynamics that are created around the confection, the consecration and the usages of the religious mummy that has attracted our attention and that I will expose. It is thus a question of understanding the links between the production and the reception of the preserved body while wondering if the techniques of mummification are similar to funerary practices.