The Ecology of Eternity in a Song-Dynasty Buddhist Monastery

Posted on Tue., Nov. 21, 2017

In his inaugural Huntington lecture, Phillip Bloom, The Huntington's new director of the Center for East Asian Garden Studies and curator of the Chinese Garden, examines the history of Shizhuanshan, a hilltop Buddhist sanctuary in southwestern China constructed in the late 11th century. Bloom argues that, at Shizhuanshan, architecture, image, and text work together to transform the natural environment itself into a site for the eternal performance of Buddhist ritual.