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Introduction

Welcome to Sculpting Humanity! I’ll be using this as a space to voice my understanding of topics covered in my East Asian Humanities course in the Fall of 2021. This is my first blog so this will be a journey in many ways. 

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Perspective and Learning about the Indus Valley Civilization

Perspective is a funny thing. Consider a scenario where you have two sources of historical information covering the same topic. What information do they have in common? What information does one source choose to omit or condense that the other source focuses on? Why would there be significant differences between sources? This is what ran through my mind as I discovered more about the incredible Indus Valley Civilization using two main sources: chapter one of  Awakening: An Introduction to the History of Eastern Thought  by Patrick S. Bresnan and the video  Indus: The Unvoiced Civilization.  In this post I’ll briefly compare and contrast how Bresnan and  Indus  explored the Indus Valley people and consider why the two sources would vary. The achievements of the Indus Valley Civilization are astounding. Both Bresnan and Indus outlined the sophisticated and complex structures of the cities built by the Indus Valley people. These cities were built using a gri...
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Zen Buddhism in Japan: A Tale of Two Schools

Zen Buddhism is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China, as Chan Buddhism. Zen focuses on spiritual practice and the use of self-discipline, mindfulness, meditation ( zazen ), and dedication to understanding one's own "Buddha nature", in the hopes of attaining enlightenment. In the thirteenth century Zen Buddhism became deeply rooted in Japan and, as with Chan Buddhism, would develop into two main schools: Rinzai and Soto. Despite being distinct schools "Rinzai and Soto were not so much antagonistic rivals as they were different alternatives." (Bresnan 497) Springing from the same root stock these branches of Zen differ in ways that would appeal to different audiences in thirteenth century Japan, perhaps explaining the lack of antagonism. The fundamental differences between Rinzai and Soto includes the social class they appealed to when they became established in Japan and; more importantly, their specific meditative practices and how these practi...
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The Legacy of Tara - Goddess of Compassion

 As a part of my Humanities journey, I found myself combing through the virtual galleries of a number of museums, searching for a piece of art that piqued my curiosity. My search ended in The British Library with the picture of a bronze and gold statue of Tara, Goddess of Mercy and Compassion.  Figure of the goddess Tara found in The British Museum While the artist is unknown, the statue was found on the east coast of Sri Lanka and dates back to 700-750 CE. At 143 centimeters (4 feet, 7 inches) the statue is nearly life-size and is cast in one piece of solid bronze and gilded in gold. It's also believed that the eyes and hair were once inlaid with gems.  This piece struck me since I had never heard of the goddess Tara (who appears in the Buddhism and Hinduism) and I haven't spent much time learning about female bodhisattvas, which some believe Tara to be. So, I decided to do some research about this piece to understand what the piece represents, how it reflects the time/l...
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