10am – Noon – Saturday Zen Seminar – Joe Marino – Ancient Gandharan Buddhist texts

Please join us as we welcome Joe Marino, Associate Professor at the University of Washington, for a Saturday Zen Seminar.

Register here.

Joe will speak about the Gandhara region and its significance to Buddhism. He will also share translations and images of Gandharan Buddhist texts.

These texts, written near the turn of the common era on birch bark scrolls, are approximately 2000 years old.

Seminar format:
10:00-10:50: The history of the Gandhara region and its importance in Buddhist history, with time for questions.
Break
11:00-11:50: a look on-screen at  Gandharan Buddhist texts

Information on Gandharan Buddhist texts:
“As the Dead Sea scrolls have changed our understanding of Judaism and early Christianity, so a set of scrolls discovered recently promise to provide a window into a crucial phase of the history of Buddhism in India. The fragmentary birch bark scrolls, which were found inside one of a set of inscribed clay pots, are written in the Gandhari Prakrit language and in Kharosthi script. Dating from around the beginning of the Christian era, the scrolls are probably the oldest Buddhist manuscripts ever discovered.

The manuscripts and pots come from a region known in ancient times as Gandhara, corresponding to modern northern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan. At the peak of its influence, Gandhara was the capital of a series of wealthy and powerful dynasties and became one of the world’s most important centers of Buddhism and the gateway through which Buddhism was transmitted from India to China and other parts of Asia. Gandhara was also a principal point of contact between India and the Western world. Despite abundant archeological evidence of Gandhara’s thriving culture, until now there has been virtually no documentary evidence of its literary and religious canon.”

A book published by the University of Washington Press, Ancient Buddhist Scrolls from Gandhara, provides more details.