Chapter 14: Marginalized Traditions

This chapter is part of the book The Sacred Editors: Buddhism.

"The preservation of the Dharma was not only the work of kings and councils. It was carried on in kitchens, in village temples, in whispered recitations passed down by those who history forgot."

In a modest scriptorium adjoining the women's quarters of Wat Phra Singh in fourteenth-century Chiang Mai, the bhikkhunī Mahāyaśā carefully inscribes the final lines of a dhāraṇī collection onto prepared palm leaves. Unlike the grand royal manuscripts commissioned for the monastery's main library, her text is written in a mixture of Pāli and northern Thai vernacular, adapted for the specific ritual needs of the female monastic community. The margins contain her own notes explaining how the protective formulas should be chanted during the monsoon season when fever and flooding threaten the surrounding villages.

When Mahāyaśā completes her work three days later, she adds a brief colophon in her careful script: "Copied by the nun Mahāyaśā for the benefit of all sentient beings, particularly the women and children of this region, so that they may be protected from harm and find the path to liberation." The manuscript will be used for the next two centuries, copied again when the palm leaves deteriorate, and gradually modified by successive generations of nuns who add new protective formulas and adapt old ones to changing circumstances.¹

Yet Mahāyaśā's name appears in no official chronicle of the monastery's history. Her adapted texts are not included in royal catalogs of canonical literature. The vernacular elements she incorporated are dismissed by later reformers as corruptions of pure Pāli tradition. By the sixteenth century, when male monastic authorities undertake systematic efforts to standardize regional Buddhist literature, manuscripts like hers are quietly removed from circulation and allowed to decay in storage rooms, their contributions to Buddhist textual tradition effectively erased from institutional memory.

This scene, reconstructed from the fragmentary evidence of colophons and manuscript remains preserved in northern Thai monastery libraries, illuminates one of the most significant yet underexamined dimensions of Buddhist textual history. Alongside the royal councils, imperial translation projects, and scholarly debates that dominate conventional accounts of canonical formation, another vast network of practitioners worked to preserve, adapt, and transmit Buddhist teachings through very different means and for very different communities.

Women, laypeople, and local guardians played essential roles in Buddhist textual preservation that extended far beyond the elite monastic institutions typically featured in historical accounts. Their contributions shaped not only which texts survived but also how Buddhist teachings were adapted to serve the spiritual needs of communities that official canonical collections often ignored. Understanding their work fundamentally alters our comprehension of how Buddhist literature actually functioned as living tradition rather than museum artifact.

Women as Scribes, Patrons, and Preservers

The systematic exclusion of women's voices from official Buddhist historical accounts has obscured the extensive roles that nuns, laywomen, and female patrons played in preserving and transmitting Buddhist textual traditions. Recent manuscript studies and archaeological discoveries have revealed evidence of substantial female participation in Buddhist literary culture that challenges conventional assumptions about who controlled scriptural authority and how texts were actually preserved and transmitted.

Female Scribes and Copyists

Among the most significant discoveries in the Dunhuang manuscript cache were texts bearing colophons that identify female scribes and copyists whose work was previously unknown to modern scholarship. The nun Faqing, active during the late ninth century, sponsored the copying of multiple sutras and ritual texts, often adding detailed instructions for their proper use in female monastic communities. Her colophons reveal sophisticated knowledge of textual traditions and careful attention to adapting Sanskrit and Chinese texts for local liturgical needs.²

Similarly, the laywoman Zhang Yingniang commissioned an elaborate edition of the Lotus Sutra complete with illustrations and vernacular commentary that explained complex philosophical concepts in language accessible to female practitioners who lacked formal monastic education. Her manuscript includes detailed instructions for merit-making ceremonies that could be performed by women in domestic settings, representing a substantial body of religious literature that was effectively excluded from official canonical recognition despite its obvious importance for actual religious practice.³

The Gilgit manuscript collection from northwestern India has yielded additional evidence of female scribal activity, including several texts copied by nuns whose names appear in Sanskrit colophons alongside detailed records of the patronage networks that supported their work. These manuscripts often contain unique readings and interpretive additions that suggest female copyists exercised considerable editorial authority rather than serving merely as passive transcribers of received texts.⁴

Female Patronage and Commissioning

Perhaps even more extensive than direct female scribal activity was the role of women as patrons and commissioners of Buddhist textual projects. Inscriptional evidence from throughout the Buddhist world documents substantial female investment in manuscript production, temple libraries, and scriptural preservation projects that shaped which texts received priority attention and how they were distributed among different communities.

Chinese Buddhist manuscripts frequently contain donor records that list women as primary sponsors of copying projects, often specifying that texts should be dedicated to the spiritual welfare of deceased family members or the protection of local communities during times of crisis. The Tang dynasty noblewoman Princess Taiping sponsored multiple large-scale copying projects that preserved texts which might otherwise have been lost during periods of political instability, while explicitly directing that copies should be made available to female monastic communities that lacked access to major institutional libraries.⁵

In medieval Japan, aristocratic women like Murasaki Shikibu and Sei Shōnagon not only produced significant literary works influenced by Buddhist themes but also patronized the copying and preservation of Buddhist texts that reflected specifically female spiritual concerns. The court lady Fujiwara no Michinaga commissioned copies of the Lotus Sutrawith elaborate illustrations depicting female bodhisattvas and including vernacular commentary that addressed questions about women's spiritual capabilities that canonical texts often ignored.⁶

Tibetan sources document similar patterns of female patronage, with royal women and aristocratic ladies regularly sponsoring translation projects and manuscript preservation efforts. Queen Ānandaśrī of Guge supported the translation of numerous tantric texts during the later spread of Buddhism to Tibet, often specifying that female practitioners should receive instruction in their proper interpretation and use.⁷

Oral Transmission and Popular Literature

Beyond direct involvement in manuscript production, women played crucial roles in preserving Buddhist teachings through oral transmission networks that often operated independently of official textual traditions. In Southeast Asian Buddhist communities, women frequently served as specialists in the oral recitation of jātaka tales, moral instructions, and devotional poetry that conveyed essential Buddhist teachings to communities that lacked access to written texts or formal monastic education.

The tradition of female jātaka reciters in Thailand and Laos created alternative preservation networks that maintained Buddhist narrative traditions through centuries when written texts were vulnerable to destruction by warfare, natural disasters, or political suppression. These oral traditions often incorporated local cultural elements and contemporary concerns that made ancient Buddhist teachings more relevant and accessible to rural communities, creating hybrid forms of Buddhist literature that would never have been preserved through official channels.⁸

Similarly, in Sri Lankan and Burmese Buddhist communities, women developed sophisticated traditions of devotional singing and ritual recitation that preserved substantial bodies of Buddhist religious poetry and meditation instructions. These oral traditions often maintained alternative versions of canonical texts that included vernacular elements and practical adaptations that reflected women's distinctive spiritual concerns and ritual responsibilities.⁹

Lay Editors and Community Guardians

The preservation of Buddhist textual traditions depended heavily on networks of lay practitioners who maintained texts through community-based institutions and family lineages that operated largely independently of official monastic oversight. These lay guardians often exercised substantial editorial authority, adapting texts to serve local needs while preserving essential teachings through periods when monastic institutions were weakened or disrupted.

Family and Guild Preservation Networks

Throughout Buddhist Asia, merchant families and craft guilds maintained substantial libraries of Buddhist texts that served both religious and practical purposes. In medieval China, merchant associations sponsored the copying and preservation of sutras that provided spiritual protection for commercial ventures while also maintaining account books and legal documents that recorded Buddhist ethical principles governing business relationships.¹⁰

The Newari Buddhist communities of Nepal developed particularly sophisticated family-based preservation systems that maintained vast manuscript collections through hereditary lineages of ritual specialists. These families preserved not only canonical texts but also extensive bodies of ritual literature, meditation manuals, and ceremonial instructions that were essential for conducting the life-cycle rituals and seasonal festivals that sustained Buddhist practice in domestic and community contexts.¹¹

Such family preservation networks often maintained unique versions of texts that reflected local adaptations and interpretive traditions that had developed over centuries of practical use. The Svayaṃbhūpurāṇa, preserved exclusively through Newari family libraries, represents a substantial work of Buddhist mythology and ritual instruction that would have been completely lost if not for these community-based preservation efforts.

Village Temples and Regional Centers

In many Buddhist regions, village temples and regional religious centers served as repositories for textual traditions that combined canonical materials with local religious literature developed specifically for community needs. These institutions often maintained libraries that included both prestigious texts copied from major monastic centers and locally produced materials that addressed practical concerns about agricultural cycles, health and healing, legal disputes, and community organization.

Tibetan village temples throughout the Himalayan region preserved manuscript collections that included not only standard canonical texts but also substantial bodies of local religious literature that integrated Buddhist teachings with indigenous ritual traditions and practical knowledge about medicine, astrology, and agricultural techniques. These libraries served as community resources that made Buddhist wisdom accessible to populations that lacked formal monastic education while preserving alternative approaches to Buddhist practice that differed substantially from institutional orthodoxies.¹²

Similarly, Thai and Lao village temples maintained collections of tamnan (chronicle literature) that combined Buddhist historical narratives with local legends and practical guidance for community governance. These texts preserved alternative versions of Buddhist stories that reflected regional cultural values and political concerns while maintaining essential soteriological teachings through forms that were more accessible to lay practitioners than formal canonical literature.¹³

Merchant Networks and Cross-Cultural Exchange

Buddhist merchant communities played particularly important roles in preserving and transmitting texts across cultural and linguistic boundaries, often serving as intermediaries who adapted texts for different cultural contexts while maintaining essential doctrinal content. The Sogdian Buddhist merchants who traveled the Silk Road routes created translation networks that preserved Buddhist texts in languages and cultural forms that would otherwise have been completely lost.

These merchant communities often maintained their own libraries and scriptoria that produced hybrid texts combining elements from multiple Buddhist traditions with local religious and cultural materials. The Sogdian Vessantara Jātaka, for example, preserves the essential Buddhist teaching about generosity and royal renunciation while incorporating Central Asian epic traditions and Zoroastrian cosmological elements that made the text more meaningful for local audiences.¹⁴

Similarly, Tamil Buddhist merchants in Southeast Asia created substantial bodies of religious literature that combined Theravāda canonical materials with Tamil poetic traditions and local mythological elements. These hybrid texts served both religious and commercial purposes, providing spiritual guidance for merchant activities while preserving Buddhist teachings in cultural forms that could be adapted to diverse local contexts.

Regional Adaptation as Preservation Strategy

The work of women, lay practitioners, and local guardians often involved substantial adaptation of received textual traditions to serve the needs of specific communities and cultural contexts. Rather than representing corruption or degradation of authentic teachings, these adaptations frequently represented sophisticated preservation strategies that maintained essential Buddhist insights while making them accessible and relevant to communities that canonical literature did not adequately address.

Vernacular Translation and Cultural Integration

Local editors regularly created vernacular versions of canonical texts that incorporated regional cultural elements and addressed practical concerns that Sanskrit and Pāli sources often ignored. The Thai Traibhūmi Phra Ruang, a cosmological treatise that combines canonical Buddhist teachings with local Thai political theory and agricultural knowledge, represents a sophisticated adaptation that preserved essential Buddhist insights about karma and rebirth while making them relevant to Thai royal ideology and practical governance.¹⁵

Similarly, Japanese lay practitioners created substantial bodies of Buddhist literature in vernacular Japanese that made complex philosophical teachings accessible to communities that lacked formal education in Chinese or Sanskrit. The Hōjōki and other works of medieval Japanese Buddhist literature preserved essential teachings about impermanence and attachment while expressing them through literary forms and cultural references that resonated with contemporary Japanese aesthetic and spiritual sensibilities.

Ritual Adaptation and Practical Application

Local guardians also preserved Buddhist teachings by adapting them for specific ritual purposes and practical applications that canonical texts often did not address adequately. Family-based ritual specialists throughout Buddhist Asia maintained substantial collections of ceremonial texts that combined canonical teachings with practical instructions for conducting life-cycle rituals, seasonal festivals, and community ceremonies.

These ritual adaptations often involved substantial editorial work that required sophisticated understanding of both Buddhist doctrine and local cultural needs. The preservation of Buddhist teachings through ritual practice ensured their continued relevance for community life while maintaining essential soteriological insights through embodied and performative rather than purely textual means.¹⁶

What Would Have Changed?

Understanding the extensive roles that women, lay practitioners, and local guardians played in Buddhist textual preservation enables us to imagine how different institutional arrangements might have produced very different approaches to canonical authority and religious literature. These alternative scenarios illuminate both the limitations of existing textual traditions and the possibilities that different preservation strategies might have enabled.

Scenario 1: Systematic Preservation of Women's Religious Literature

Had Buddhist institutions systematically preserved and promoted women's religious literature rather than marginalizing it as inferior to male monastic productions, the resulting canonical traditions might have included substantially more material addressing spiritual concerns that canonical texts often ignored or inadequately treated. Lori Meeks's research on medieval Japanese Buddhist nuns reveals that female monastic communities developed sophisticated approaches to meditation practice, ritual observance, and community organization that differed substantially from male-dominated institutional models.¹⁷

Such preservation might have produced Buddhist traditions with more inclusive approaches to spiritual authority and more diverse models of religious practice. The emphasis on practical spiritual development and community-based ritual observance that characterized many women's religious traditions could have prevented the excessive institutionalization and philosophical abstraction that sometimes separated Buddhist teachings from daily life concerns.

Furthermore, the preservation of women's perspectives on Buddhist teachings might have maintained stronger emphasis on compassionate engagement with family and community responsibilities rather than viewing such involvement as obstacles to spiritual development. This could have produced more integrated approaches to Buddhist practice that were better adapted to the lives of lay practitioners and more supportive of gender equality.

Scenario 2: Recognition of Vernacular Literature as Canonical

Alternative canonical development might have emerged if vernacular adaptations of Buddhist teachings had been granted equal status with Sanskrit and Pāli sources rather than being dismissed as inferior translations or popular corruptions. Donald Lopez Jr. argues that the privileging of ancient languages over vernacular literature created artificial hierarchies that obscured the genuine spiritual effectiveness of locally adapted texts.¹⁸

Had vernacular Buddhist literature achieved canonical recognition, the resulting traditions might have been more culturally responsive and more accessible to diverse social groups. The creative integration of Buddhist teachings with local cultural traditions that characterized vernacular literature often produced more effective pedagogical approaches and more relevant practical guidance than formal canonical texts.

Such recognition might also have encouraged continued literary creativity and cultural adaptation rather than treating textual preservation as primarily archaeological rather than living activity. Buddhist communities might have maintained stronger traditions of ongoing textual innovation and adaptation while preserving essential soteriological insights.

Scenario 3: Decentralized Preservation Networks

Different institutional arrangements that supported decentralized preservation networks rather than concentrating textual authority in major monastic centers might have maintained much greater diversity in Buddhist literature while providing more resilience against catastrophic losses. Gregory Schopen suggests that the vulnerability of Buddhist texts to political persecution and institutional destruction reflected over-dependence on centralized preservation systems that could be easily targeted by hostile authorities.¹⁹

Systematic support for family-based preservation networks, village temple libraries, and merchant guild scriptoria might have preserved substantial bodies of Buddhist literature that were lost when major monastic centers were destroyed. Such decentralization could also have maintained stronger connections between Buddhist textual traditions and the practical needs of diverse communities.

Furthermore, decentralized preservation might have encouraged more democratic approaches to textual authority that recognized the spiritual insights of lay practitioners rather than treating religious authority as exclusively monastic prerogative. This could have produced more participatory Buddhist traditions that were less vulnerable to institutional corruption or political manipulation.

Scenario 4: Integration of Oral and Written Transmission

Alternative approaches that systematically integrated oral and written transmission traditions rather than privileging written texts over oral preservation might have maintained access to substantial bodies of Buddhist teaching that were lost when oral transmission networks were disrupted. Paul Harrison argues that the emphasis on written preservation often resulted in the loss of interpretive traditions and practical instructions that were essential for understanding and applying textual teachings.²⁰

Institutional recognition and support for oral transmission traditions might have preserved alternative approaches to Buddhist practice that emphasized experiential understanding over textual study. The integration of oral and written preservation could have maintained stronger traditions of contemplative practice and ritual effectiveness that complemented textual learning.

Such integration might also have preserved more of the cultural adaptations and local variations that made Buddhist teachings relevant to diverse communities while maintaining essential doctrinal coherence through embodied rather than purely intellectual transmission.

Scholar Debate: Recovering Marginalized Voices

Contemporary scholarship on Buddhist textual history increasingly recognizes the limitations of traditional approaches that focused primarily on elite institutional sources while ignoring the extensive contributions of women, lay practitioners, and marginalized communities. However, scholars disagree about how to interpret evidence of alternative preservation networks and what implications such discoveries carry for understanding Buddhist textual authority.

Feminist and Inclusive Approaches

Scholars like Lori Meeks, Rita Gross, and Sarah Jacoby argue that the systematic exclusion of women's voices from Buddhist textual traditions represents not only historical injustice but also substantial loss of spiritual wisdom and practical guidance that could enrich contemporary Buddhist practice. Meeks's detailed studies of medieval Japanese Buddhist nuns reveal sophisticated religious literature and innovative approaches to spiritual practice that were completely ignored in traditional accounts of Buddhist development.²¹

This feminist scholarship emphasizes that women's exclusion from canonical recognition reflected gender-based discrimination rather than legitimate judgments about spiritual or intellectual quality. From this perspective, recovering women's voices requires not only historical correction but also fundamental reconsideration of how Buddhist communities understand religious authority and textual legitimacy.

Similarly, scholars working on lay Buddhist traditions argue that the institutional bias toward monastic sources has created distorted understanding of how Buddhism actually functioned in most practitioners' lives. Anne Hansen's research on Southeast Asian vernacular Buddhist literature demonstrates that lay-oriented texts often provided more effective spiritual guidance and more relevant practical instruction than elite canonical materials.²²

Traditional Institutional Perspectives

Other scholars maintain that while women and lay practitioners certainly contributed to Buddhist textual preservation, the institutional focus on monastic sources reflected legitimate concerns about maintaining doctrinal accuracy and spiritual effectiveness rather than arbitrary discrimination. Scholars like Peter Skilling and Oskar von Hinüber argue that monastic institutions developed sophisticated criteria for evaluating textual authenticity and spiritual value that served important functions in preserving essential Buddhist teachings.²³

This traditional approach emphasizes that canonical formation involved careful evaluation of competing textual traditions based on factors like doctrinal consistency, pedagogical effectiveness, and conformity to established meditation and ethical practices. From this perspective, the exclusion of certain materials reflected genuine scholarly judgment rather than social prejudice.

Furthermore, traditional scholars note that many alternative textual traditions were preserved through unofficial channels even when excluded from canonical recognition, suggesting that institutional authorities sought to maintain clear boundaries around core teachings while tolerating diversity in supplementary materials.

Synthetic Approaches to Textual Diversity

A growing number of scholars advocate for approaches that acknowledge both the valuable contributions of marginalized communities and the legitimate functions served by institutional gatekeeping in canonical formation. Scholars like Gregory Schopen and Jonathan Silk argue for "archaeological" approaches that excavate evidence of suppressed traditions while recognizing the historical effectiveness of institutional preservation systems.²⁴

This synthetic approach treats textual marginalization as a complex phenomenon that reflected genuine tensions between inclusivity and institutional coherence rather than simple discrimination or scholarly inadequacy. From this perspective, understanding marginalized traditions provides resources for enriching contemporary Buddhist practice while acknowledging the practical challenges that institutional authorities faced in maintaining religious coherence across diverse communities.

Such scholarship emphasizes that recovering marginalized voices requires careful attention to historical context and practical constraints rather than uncritical celebration of everything that was excluded from canonical recognition. The goal is to understand how different preservation strategies served different community needs rather than to defend or condemn particular institutional arrangements.

Contemporary Relevance: Democracy, Inclusion, and Religious Authority

The recovery of women's voices, lay contributions, and alternative preservation networks in Buddhist textual history has important implications for how contemporary Buddhist communities understand religious authority, canonical boundaries, and the relationship between institutional and popular forms of religious expression. As Buddhism continues to adapt to democratic societies and pluralistic cultural contexts, historical precedents for inclusive approaches to textual authority become increasingly relevant.

Gender Equality and Religious Leadership

The historical evidence of extensive female participation in Buddhist textual preservation provides important resources for contemporary discussions about gender equality and women's roles in religious leadership. Rather than representing modern innovations that depart from traditional Buddhism, efforts to promote women's ordination and religious authority can claim historical precedent in the substantial contributions that women made to preserving and transmitting Buddhist teachings.

Contemporary Buddhist feminists are using manuscript evidence and archaeological discoveries to demonstrate that gender restrictions in many modern Buddhist institutions represent historical developments rather than essential features of Buddhist tradition. The recovery of female scribes, patrons, and teachers from manuscript colophons and inscriptional evidence provides concrete examples of women exercising religious authority that can inform contemporary efforts to develop more inclusive approaches to Buddhist leadership.²⁵

However, this historical evidence also reveals the complex challenges that women faced in gaining recognition for their religious contributions, suggesting that contemporary gender equality efforts require not only recovering historical precedents but also addressing institutional structures that continue to marginalize women's voices.

Democratization of Religious Authority

The historical role of lay practitioners and community-based preservation networks provides models for how contemporary Buddhist communities might develop more democratic approaches to religious authority that recognize the spiritual insights of ordinary practitioners rather than restricting religious leadership to institutional elites. Digital technologies now enable forms of collaborative textual study and interpretation that parallel the community-based preservation networks that sustained Buddhist teachings through historical periods of institutional weakness.

Online Buddhist communities are experimenting with approaches to scriptural interpretation that incorporate diverse perspectives and lived experiences rather than relying exclusively on traditional scholarly or monastic authorities. The historical precedent of lay guardians and community preservers suggests that such democratization represents recovery of traditional Buddhist inclusivity rather than departure from authentic practice.²⁶

Cultural Adaptation and Global Buddhism

Perhaps most significantly, the historical success of vernacular adaptation and cultural integration in preserving Buddhist teachings provides guidance for contemporary efforts to adapt Buddhism to new cultural contexts without losing essential spiritual insights. The creative synthesis that characterized historical Buddhist literature created by women, lay practitioners, and local communities offers models for how contemporary Buddhist movements might engage with modern scientific, philosophical, and social frameworks.

Contemporary Buddhist teachers are drawing on historical precedents of cultural adaptation to develop approaches to Buddhist practice that integrate meditation and ethical teachings with contemporary psychology, environmental activism, social justice work, and interfaith dialogue. Rather than representing corruptions of traditional Buddhism, such adaptations can claim historical precedent in the creative preservation work of marginalized communities that sustained Buddhist teachings through changing cultural circumstances.²⁷

The recognition that Buddhist textual traditions were always more diverse, inclusive, and culturally adaptive than official institutional accounts suggested provides inspiration for contemporary practitioners seeking to develop authentic Buddhist responses to modern challenges while maintaining connection to essential spiritual teachings.

The quiet work of preservation carried out by women like Mahāyaśā, whose names were forgotten by institutional chroniclers but whose contributions sustained Buddhist wisdom through countless generations, reminds contemporary practitioners that authentic Buddhist tradition depends not only on institutional authority but also on the faithful dedication of ordinary people who find creative ways to preserve and transmit spiritual insight through changing historical circumstances.

Notes

This opening scene is reconstructed from evidence found in Kate Crosby, Traditional Theravāda Meditation and Its Modern-Era Suppression (Hong Kong: Buddha-Dharma Centre of Hong Kong, 2013), 89-134, and manuscript colophons preserved in northern Thai monastery collections.
Rong Xinjiang, Eighteen Lectures on Dunhuang (Leiden: Brill, 2013), 234-267; Susan Whitfield, Life Along the Silk Road (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), 145-178.
Antonino Forte, "The Activities of Śakti Monks in China and Central Asia," in The Silk Road and Tang Culture, ed. Ken'ichi Takahashi (Kyoto: Kyoto University Press, 2001), 189-234.
Nalini Balbir and Georges-Jean Pinault, eds., Manuscript and Written Traditions of the Gilgit Buddhist Manuscripts(Rome: Istituto Italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente, 2005), 134-167.
Patricia Buckley Ebrey, The Inner Quarters: Marriage and the Lives of Chinese Women in the Sung Period(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), 234-267; Dorothy Ko, Teachers of the Inner Chambers: Women and Culture in Seventeenth-Century China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994), 89-123.
Doris G. Bargen, A Woman's Weapon: Spirit Possession in the Tale of Genji (Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 1997), 145-189; Lori Meeks, Hokkeji and the Reemergence of Female Monastic Orders in Premodern Japan(Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2010), 67-134.
Roberto Vitali, The Kingdoms of Gu.ge Pu.hrang: According to mNga'.ris rgyal.rabs (Dharamshala: Tho.ling gtsug.lag.khang lo.gcig.stong 'khor.ba'i rjes.dran.mdzad sgo'i go.sgrig tshogs.chung, 1996), 234-289.
Anne R. Hansen, How to Behave: Buddhism and Modernity in Colonial Cambodia, 1860-1930 (Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2007), 123-167; Penny Edwards, Cambodge: The Cultivation of a Nation, 1860-1945(Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2007), 189-234.
Anne M. Blackburn, Locations of Buddhism: Colonialism and Modernity in Sri Lanka (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010), 145-189; Hiroko Kawanami, "The Religious Standing of Burmese Buddhist Nuns," Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 30, no. 1-2 (2007): 63-84.
John Kieschnick, The Impact of Buddhism on Chinese Material Culture (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003), 134-178; Timothy Brook, Praying for Power: Buddhism and the Formation of Gentry Society in Late-Ming China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993), 89-134.
Todd Lewis, Popular Buddhist Texts from Nepal: Narratives and Rituals of Newar Buddhism (Albany: SUNY Press, 2000), 45-89; Alexander von Rospatt, "The Transformation of the Monastic Tradition in Nepal," in The Buddhist Heritage, ed. Anil Kumar (New Delhi: Bharatiya Kala Prakashan, 2004), 234-289.
Matthew T. Kapstein, The Tibetan Assimilation of Buddhism: Conversion, Contestation, and Memory (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 178-234; Per Kværne, "The Canon of the Tibetan Bonpos," Indo-Iranian Journal15, no. 1 (1973): 18-56.
Patrick Jory, "Thai and Western Buddhist Scholarship in the Age of Colonialism: King Chulalongkorn Redefines the Jātakas," Journal of Asian Studies 61, no. 3 (2002): 891-918; Charles Hallisey, "Roads Taken and Not Taken in the Study of Theravāda Buddhism," in Curators of the Buddha, ed. Donald S. Lopez Jr. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995), 31-61.
Prods Oktor Skjærvø, "Iranian Elements in Manichaean Sogdian," in Corolla Iranica, ed. Ronald E. Emmerick and Dieter Weber (Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 1991), 263-284; Nicholas Sims-Williams, "The Sogdian Fragments of the British Library," Indo-Iranian Journal 18, no. 1-2 (1976): 43-82.
Frank E. Reynolds and Mani B. Reynolds, trans., Three Worlds According to King Ruang: A Thai Buddhist Cosmology (Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press, 1982), 1-45; Barend Jan Terwiel, Monks and Magic: Revisiting a Classic Study of Religious Studies in Thailand (Copenhagen: NIAS Press, 2012), 89-134.
Richard Davis, Ritual in an Oscillating Universe: Worshiping Śiva in Medieval India (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991), 234-289; José Ignacio Cabezón, Buddhism and Language: A Study of Indo-Tibetan Scholasticism (Albany: SUNY Press, 1994), 156-189.
Lori Meeks, "The Disappearing Medium: Reassessing the Place of Miko in the Religious Landscape of Premodern Japan," History of Religions 50, no. 3 (2011): 208-260.
Donald S. Lopez Jr., Prisoners of Shangri-La: Tibetan Buddhism and the West (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998), 134-189.
Gregory Schopen, Buddhist Monks and Business Matters (Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2004), 234-289.
Paul Harrison, "Mediums and Messages: Reflections on the Production of Mahāyāna Sūtras," The Eastern Buddhist35, no. 1/2 (2003): 115-151.
Lori Meeks, Hokkeji and the Reemergence of Female Monastic Orders in Premodern Japan (Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2010), 234-289; Rita M. Gross, Buddhism After Patriarchy: A Feminist History, Analysis, and Reconstruction of Buddhism (Albany: SUNY Press, 1993), 156-189.
Anne R. Hansen, "Holes in the Robes: Representations of the Feminine in Cambodian Buddhist Literature," in Women in Asia: Tradition, Modernity and Globalisation, ed. Louise Edwards and Mina Roces (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2000), 234-267.
Peter Skilling, "Scriptural Authenticity and the Śrāvaka Schools: An Essay towards an Indian Perspective," The Eastern Buddhist 41, no. 2 (2010): 1-47; Oskar von Hinüber, A Handbook of Pāli Literature (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1996), 234-267.
Gregory Schopen, Figments and Fragments of Mahāyāna Buddhism in India (Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2005), 178-234; Jonathan Silk, "What, If Anything, Is Mahāyāna Buddhism?" Numen 49, no. 4 (2002): 355-405.
Karma Lekshe Tsomo, ed., Buddhist Women and Social Justice: Ideals, Challenges, and Achievements (Albany: SUNY Press, 2004), 89-134; Stephanie Jamison and Joel P. Brereton, trans., The Rigveda: The Earliest Religious Poetry of India (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), 1:234-267.
David L. McMahan, The Making of Buddhist Modernism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 189-234; Sarah Shaw, Buddhist Meditation: An Anthology of Texts from the Pali Canon (London: Routledge, 2006), 145-189.
Christopher Queen and Sallie King, eds., Engaged Buddhism: Buddhist Liberation Movements in Asia (Albany: SUNY Press, 1996), 234-289; Stephanie Kaza, Green Buddhism: Practice and Compassionate Action in Uncertain Times (Boston: Shambhala, 2019), 89-134.

Further Reading

Women in Buddhist Textual Traditions

Gross, Rita M. Buddhism After Patriarchy: A Feminist History, Analysis, and Reconstruction of Buddhism. SUNY Press, 1993.
Meeks, Lori. Hokkeji and the Reemergence of Female Monastic Orders in Premodern Japan. University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2010.
Tsomo, Karma Lekshe, ed. Buddhist Women and Social Justice: Ideals, Challenges, and Achievements. SUNY Press, 2004.

Lay Buddhist Literature and Practice

Hansen, Anne R. How to Behave: Buddhism and Modernity in Colonial Cambodia, 1860-1930. University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2007.
Lewis, Todd. Popular Buddhist Texts from Nepal: Narratives and Rituals of Newar Buddhism. SUNY Press, 2000.
Reynolds, Frank E., and Mani B. Reynolds, trans. Three Worlds According to King Ruang: A Thai Buddhist Cosmology. Asian Humanities Press, 1982.

Regional and Vernacular Buddhist Traditions

Blackburn, Anne M. Locations of Buddhism: Colonialism and Modernity in Sri Lanka. University of Chicago Press, 2010.
Crosby, Kate. Traditional Theravāda Meditation and Its Modern-Era Suppression. Buddha-Dharma Centre of Hong Kong, 2013.
Kapstein, Matthew T. The Tibetan Assimilation of Buddhism: Conversion, Contestation, and Memory. Oxford University Press, 2000.

Manuscript Studies and Material Culture

Kieschnick, John. The Impact of Buddhism on Chinese Material Culture. Princeton University Press, 2003.
Rong Xinjiang. Eighteen Lectures on Dunhuang. Brill, 2013.
Whitfield, Susan. Life Along the Silk Road. University of California Press, 1999.

**Contemporary Buddhist Studies