{"id":1212,"date":"2012-04-17T13:30:41","date_gmt":"2012-04-17T12:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/?p=1212"},"modified":"2012-04-17T13:30:41","modified_gmt":"2012-04-17T12:30:41","slug":"buddha-imagery-meets-the-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2012\/04\/buddha-imagery-meets-the-west.html","title":{"rendered":"Buddha imagery meets the West"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Dave Webster, who teaches\u00a0Religion, Philosophy & Ethics\u00a0at the University of Gloucestershire<\/a> is at it again with a new tumblr (interactive-blog-type-thing) dedicated to the often odd (some would say \u201cwrong\u201d or offensive<\/a>) use of Buddhist images in the West.<\/p>\n

Below is my submission (at\u00a0http:\/\/dispirited-dave.tumblr.com<\/a>\/)<\/p>\n

I know it\u2019s not exactly from \u201cthe West,\u201d but it was the first image that came to my mind, and it seems to follow the spirit of Dave\u2019s tumblr, if not the letter. And perhaps it might disabuse some people of the myth that Asian Buddhists are universally respectful and reverent, etc etc etc*, while modern Western folks are irreverent, disrespectful, syncretic, and so on. But then again, we don\u2019t know enough about it to draw any grand narrative. It\u2019s just a picture. It comes from a\u00a0souvenir\u00a0or curio shop (if memory serves me) in a touristy\/shopping area north of Taipei, 2010.<\/p>\n

\"maitreya<\/a>
Maitreya enjoying a cigarette in Taiwan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From the looks of it, it seemed that a worker or owner had put the cigarette in Maitreya\u2019s mouth. Why? Disrespect? Just having a bit of fun? To attract attention from tourists? I\u2019m not sure.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

As I wrote a few months back in \u201cTantric sex and kissing nuns (Video)<\/a>,\u201d\u00a0the commodification of Buddhist images is neither terribly new nor restricted to Buddhism<\/a>, but:<\/p>\n

Buddhists,\u00a0as anyone who reads\u00a0theworsthorse<\/a> knows, tend to get portrayed in a positive light in ad campaigns. But, as a small minority religion, Edwards noted, Buddhism gets a\u00a0disproportionate\u00a0amount of advertising attention. Buddhism is\u00a0highly commodified<\/em> in the West.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

* I\u2019ll write more about this down the road, but I worry that there may be a certain amount of what I\u2019ll call ne0-Orientalism in the notion of Buddhist Modernism<\/a>. This comes in the attempt to portray a clear juxtaposition of \u2018traditional\u2019 (Asian) practice and belief and ideas and practices that (must) have been influenced by Western\/modern society. Creating this \u2018traditional\u2019 image of Buddhism tends to mean overlooking the amazing variety of practices and beliefs in both the history of Buddhism and what might look like a \u2018single\u2019 tradition and point in time such as Japanese Zen in the 1980s.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dave Webster, who teaches\u00a0Religion, Philosophy & Ethics\u00a0at the University of Gloucestershire is at it again with a new tumblr (interactive-blog-type-thing) dedicated to the often odd (some would say \u201cwrong\u201d or offensive) use of Buddhist images in the West. Below is my submission (at\u00a0http:\/\/dispirited-dave.tumblr.com\/) I know it\u2019s not exactly from \u201cthe West,\u201d but it was the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,15,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-buddhism","category-buddhism","category-travels"],"yoast_head":"\nBuddha imagery meets the West<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dave Webster, who teaches\u00a0Religion, Philosophy & Ethics\u00a0at the University of Gloucestershire is at it again with a new tumblr\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2012\/04\/buddha-imagery-meets-the-west.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Buddha imagery meets the West\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dave Webster, who teaches\u00a0Religion, Philosophy & Ethics\u00a0at the University of Gloucestershire is at it again with a new tumblr\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2012\/04\/buddha-imagery-meets-the-west.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Buddhist Perspectives\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-04-17T12:30:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/files\/2012\/04\/maitreya-smoking-300x211.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Justin Whitaker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Justin Whitaker\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2012\/04\/buddha-imagery-meets-the-west.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2012\/04\/buddha-imagery-meets-the-west.html\",\"name\":\"Buddha imagery meets the West\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-04-17T12:30:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-04-17T12:30:41+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/abfb8f851f671638c4c7536b963f9da9\"},\"description\":\"Dave Webster, who teaches\u00a0Religion, Philosophy & Ethics\u00a0at the University of Gloucestershire is at it again with a new tumblr\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2012\/04\/buddha-imagery-meets-the-west.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2012\/04\/buddha-imagery-meets-the-west.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2012\/04\/buddha-imagery-meets-the-west.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Buddha imagery meets the West\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/\",\"name\":\"American Buddhist Perspectives\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/abfb8f851f671638c4c7536b963f9da9\",\"name\":\"Justin Whitaker\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/817b6fba8ae056aaff4f9bdc84347d72?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/817b6fba8ae056aaff4f9bdc84347d72?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Justin Whitaker\"},\"description\":\"I am an almost-life-long Montanan; a baptized Catholic; an ardent Atheist; a practicing Buddhist; a lover of Wisdom. I have a BA and almost an MA in (Western) Philosophy from the University of Montana-Missoula, an MA in Buddhist Studies from Bristol University, UK, and I am currently working on a Ph.D. in Buddhist Ethics at the U of London. My main academic foci are early Buddhist ethics and Kant (odd combination, I know). I also study Western ethics, Tibetan Buddhism, Theravada, Comparative philosophy, and Environmental ethics. I also like photography, running, drinking wine, and eating peanut butter (often in that order).\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/author\/justinwhitaker\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Buddha imagery meets the West","description":"Dave Webster, who teaches\u00a0Religion, Philosophy & Ethics\u00a0at the University of Gloucestershire is at it again with a new tumblr","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2012\/04\/buddha-imagery-meets-the-west.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Buddha imagery meets the West","og_description":"Dave Webster, who teaches\u00a0Religion, Philosophy & Ethics\u00a0at the University of Gloucestershire is at it again with a new tumblr","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2012\/04\/buddha-imagery-meets-the-west.html","og_site_name":"American Buddhist Perspectives","article_published_time":"2012-04-17T12:30:41+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/files\/2012\/04\/maitreya-smoking-300x211.jpg"}],"author":"Justin Whitaker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Justin Whitaker","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2012\/04\/buddha-imagery-meets-the-west.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2012\/04\/buddha-imagery-meets-the-west.html","name":"Buddha imagery meets the West","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-04-17T12:30:41+00:00","dateModified":"2012-04-17T12:30:41+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/abfb8f851f671638c4c7536b963f9da9"},"description":"Dave Webster, who teaches\u00a0Religion, Philosophy & Ethics\u00a0at the University of Gloucestershire is at it again with a new tumblr","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2012\/04\/buddha-imagery-meets-the-west.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2012\/04\/buddha-imagery-meets-the-west.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2012\/04\/buddha-imagery-meets-the-west.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Buddha imagery meets the West"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/","name":"American Buddhist Perspectives","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/abfb8f851f671638c4c7536b963f9da9","name":"Justin Whitaker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/817b6fba8ae056aaff4f9bdc84347d72?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/817b6fba8ae056aaff4f9bdc84347d72?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","caption":"Justin Whitaker"},"description":"I am an almost-life-long Montanan; a baptized Catholic; an ardent Atheist; a practicing Buddhist; a lover of Wisdom. I have a BA and almost an MA in (Western) Philosophy from the University of Montana-Missoula, an MA in Buddhist Studies from Bristol University, UK, and I am currently working on a Ph.D. in Buddhist Ethics at the U of London. My main academic foci are early Buddhist ethics and Kant (odd combination, I know). I also study Western ethics, Tibetan Buddhism, Theravada, Comparative philosophy, and Environmental ethics. I also like photography, running, drinking wine, and eating peanut butter (often in that order).","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/author\/justinwhitaker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1212\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}