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ASIA 250

Introduction to Buddhism

Syllabus

Time and Location: Winter Term 2, January 9-April 10, 2026; online.

Mixed format: mostly asynchronous (see details below in the Course Description). All the course readings will be posted on Canvas at the beginning of the term. Pre-recorded lectures and other content will be posted on Canvas each Friday (except public holidays) at 6 pm PST.
Optional weekly Q&A sessions held on Fridays, 7:30-8-30 pm (beginning in week 2).
Link:
https://ubc.zoom.us/j/63696417305?pwd=G356GEzFLR5ecQxOI2CkqOT7ZOQFV9.1

(except public holidays). The first optional Q&A session will be held on January 16

However, the course assignments will have fixed deadlines that will be announced via Canvas.
See the weekly schedule below.

Instructor: Samuel Shooklyn (Asian Studies), [email protected]

Office hours: Wednesdays, 3-4 pm
Office Location: Ponderosa Annex F, Room 206.
2008 Lower Mall (2nd floor)
Email me at least 24 hours in advance to secure your spot.

Teaching Assistants:   Sneha Roychoudhury

Office hours by appointment: sneha.roychoudhury@ubc.ca

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course is a survey of Buddhist traditions of Asia, including communities, professions, practices, and beliefs of small-scale and large-scale societies. Approaches and theories drawn from the field of Asian studies. Origins, basic teachings, development of Theravada, Mahayana, and Tantric traditions, historical spread first through Asia and later the world, and Buddhism in contemporary societies.

Prerequisites: none. Co-requisites: none.

Detailed Description:

Focused on major Buddhist traditions that have played an important role in Asia, this course will introduce key aspects of Buddhism as a religion: ritual, philosophy, history, hagiography, views of time and the world, as well as typical features of the texts and social structures associated with a given tradition. We begin with the concept of “religion” and other related key terms. We proceed from the early history of religion in South Asia situating the beginnings, spread, and evolution of Buddhism in India in its proper environment. Then we shift focus to Buddhism’s later spread to medieval South East Asia, East Asia and Tibet. We also briefly discuss the local religious traditions with which Buddhism interacted: Hinduism and Jainism in India, Confucianism and Daoism in China, shamanism in Korea and shamanism-derived religions, i.e., Shinto of Japan and Bon of Tibet. We will consider doctrinal and practical differences between Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana, and Dzogchen Buddhist traditions in greater detail. Since this is an Asian Studies course, we will also be concerned with how Buddhism are represented in contemporary popular cultures and will watch three feature films as well as several documentaries depicting various traditions we focus on.

The primary sources will be religious (scripture, narrative, monastic rules, ritual texts) and popular (feature films and documentaries), while the secondary sources academic (books and articles). Key concepts, arguments, and approaches will be introduced for each topic.

Learning Objectives and Course Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course students will be able to:

1. Identify key concepts in religious studies, such as asceticism, ritual, purification, ecstasy, and so on.

2. Become familiar with key issues in the study Buddhist traditions.

3. Become familiar with religious studies as an interdisciplinary field, that includes sociological, philosophical, ritual, and textual approaches.

4. Analyze primary religious texts.

5. Learn to identify values and rhetorical strategies used by Buddhist traditions to regulate or prescribe an ideal.

6. Articulate the main points of primary and secondary texts through writing assignments.

7. Conduct independent research and synthesize their own interests with required material.

Lectures and Required Readings

The lectures for each Module (11 in total) will be pre-recorded and available asynchronously by the instructor posted on Fridays by 6 pm PST or earlier. The readings for each Module will be made available in advance to allow the students to read ahead. The lecture materials often overlap but do not cover all subjects of the readings. It is crucial that you do the readings consistently and watch the lectures as soon as those become available. Therefore, I will be sending you announcements via Canvas to notify you when each module lecture becomes available.

Independent Research
One of the core objectives of this course is to accommodate students’ diverse interests and to
stimulate independent research. You will have the option to select one source from the two
available alternatives in the “Independent Research” Module on Canvas. In the second week of this course (by 11:59 pm Sunday, January 18) you will need to choose which ONE of the two provided sources you will be reading as a part of your independent research during this term and declare your choice on Canvas. This will be your fist graded assignment worth 1% of your final grade. Brief descriptions of each source are provided in the Independent Research Module. Please download BOTH options from the Module first and do a quick browse of
each of these to decide which one you like the best. Then, declare your choice in the
Module’s Assignment. The two options this term are:

a) Mishima, Yukio. 1959. The Temple of the Golden Pavilion. Translated by Ivan Morris. Singapore: Tuttle Publishing.

b) Ko, Un. 2005. Little Pilgrim. Translated by Brother Anthony of Taize and Young-Moo Kim. Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press.
Once you have made your choice, stick to it throughout the course and make a plan for
yourself allotting about 30-35 pages a week to your independent reading in addition to the
required readings for each module. (Please do not worry, the module readings are not very long!)

Your independent reading is of crucial importance in this course because the final paper questions will be based on it and the final paper is worth 47% of your final grade, so please plan accordingly!

Optional Zoom Q&A sessions (not graded)

Each Friday evening at 7:30 pm PST, we will be holding optional Zoom Q&A sessions. These sessions aim to support progress in the course. You can attend these regardless of whether you have a question in mind or if you simply want to hear what kinds of questions your classmates ask. The sessions will continue for as long as there are questions coming up and will terminate as soon there are no more questions from the students. Therefore, I will ask you to log in to Zoom sessions at 7:30 pm sharp. These sessions will also give you an opportunity to mingle with your fellow students as well as to communicate with the instructor on course-related issues. Please note that these Q&A sessions are not designed to address students’ personal issues because these are accessible to everybody in class. Please come to my office hours if you have any personal questions or private concerns.

Grading and Assignments

1. Declaring your Independent Research Option (1%)

See the explanation above.

2. Mini Quizzes (11 quizzes/22% in total):

At the end of each Module on Canvas there will be a multiple-choice quiz with five questions regarding the lectures and required readings. There will be 11 quizzes in total, each giving you 2% toward the final grade, so together quizzes amount to 22% of your final grade. You will have 7 days after each module is published to complete the quiz, meaning that the quizzes will be due by 6 pm of the following Friday right before the next Module is published. No late submissions for the quizzes will be permitted!

3. Short Written Responses (2 responses/30% in total):

On the Fridays of February 13 and March 13, I will post a question for a short written response (word count between 300-350 words each). Every completed short response will amount to 15%, comprising 30% of your final grade. All the responses should be uploaded to Canvas appropriately as specified in the instructions that will be posted along with the question. Each of the responses will be due 10 days after their publication. Please note that you will have an extra week to do your SWR1 because the Spring Reading Break (Feb 16-20) will be excluded from the 10-day deadline count. The late penalty for the SWRs will be minus 10 points per day of late submission.

4. Final Paper (between 1000 and 1500 words/47% in total):

On March 20, I will post the questions for the final paper. This way you will have enough time to write and submit your paper on Canvas by April 14. The late penalty for the final papers is the same as for SWRs and will be minus 10 points per day of late submission. There will be two options for your final paper topic depending on which one of the two independent readings you chose.

To sum up:
Independent Research Option Declaration = 1%

Mini-Quizzes (11x2%) =22%

Short Written Responses (2x15%) = 30%

Final Paper = 47%

Total =100%

Plus bonus points (please see below)!

Additionally, you have a chance to get an extra 6% in bonuses added to your final grade!

1. An extra 2% by doing the Course Evaluation towards the end of the term. The course evaluations should become available in the later part of the course at seoi.ubc.ca/surveys or directly on Canvas (Course Evaluation Tab on the left-hand menu).

2. Another extra 4% by doing two optional assignments (2% each) during the term. I will announce the details in the following weeks.

Please profit from these opportunities because adding extra percentage to your final grade might even change your letter grade. For example, if your total grade amounts to 84% (A-), having completed at least one bonus assignment (preferably more) will add 2% to it and yield you an A. Simply put, the more bonus points you accrue the better will your grade be!

Grading

This course will assign percentage grades, following the standard UBC grading rubric for undergraduate courses (see “grading practices” at the UBC Academic Calendar):

Percentage (%)	Letter Grade
90-100	A+
85-89	A
80-84	A-
76-79	B+
72-75	B
68-71	B-
64-67	C+
60-63	C
55-59	C-
50-54	D
0-49	F (Fail)

Recommended references for course-related research:

When you search for terms and concepts for this course, please use the following link to Gale E-books collection of encyclopaedias widely used in religious studies and beyond by clicking on the following link:

https://go.gale.com/ps/displayAllBooksForSubject?subject=Religion&userGroupName=ubcolumbia&inPS=true&prodId=GVRL

This should be your first place to search for terms and concepts in this course, before you even ask Dr. Google. I suggest you create a desktop shortcut for this above-listed link and use it every time you search for something in this course. The link expires several minutes after you use it, so you will need to click on it each time after Gale logs you out. You can consult web sources like Wikipedia, but please do not quote Wikipedia in your papers. Look into the sources that Wikipedia lists and cite those.

Lecture content and readings week by week:

The textbook that we will be using throughout this course is:
Harvey, Peter. 2013. An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History, and Practices. Cambridge University Press.

It is available electronically on Canvas and will be referred to below as Harvey (2013).

Week 1 (Jan. 9)

· Syllabus and Course Introduction Video posted

· Make your Independent Research selection by January 18 (see above)
I am giving you the whole week to browse the two options and to begin reading the one you chose.

Week 2 (Jan. 16)

· Lecture 1: How to study Buddhism as a religion?

Readings:

1. Luhrmann, Tania. 2020. How God Becomes Real: Kindling the Presence of Invisible Others. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. Read Chapters 1 and 2 on “Faith Frame” and “Paracosms.”

2. Shooklyn, Samuel. 2023. “Constructing the values of detachment and compassion: an axiological study of Buddhist aesthetic techniques and their ethical implications.” TEAS. Seoul: Korea University.

3. Harvey (2013, 1-8) Introduction.
Week 3 (Jan. 23)

· Lecture 2: The religious milieu in South Asia before and during the time of the Buddha

Readings:

1. Trautmann, Thomas R. 2011. India: Brief History of a Civilization. Oxford University Press.

Read Chapters 3 and 4 (pages 32-61)

2. Luhrmann (2020, 58-78) - Read Chapter 3, “Talent and training.”

Week 4 (January 30)

· Lecture 3: The Buddha and his “lives.”

Readings:

1. Harvey (2013, 8-31) – Read Chapter 1
2. Watch Vessantara Jataka in 4 parts on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edHbN9yoKaE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsgmDZw2lP4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwdlVKSGLj0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y09-XGMPu1E
3. Primary source reading: Lalitavistara (The Play in Full/Extensive Sport), Chapter 14 – “Dreams”
https://84000.co/translation/toh95#UT22084-046-001-chapter-14
Week 5 (Feb. 6)

· Lecture 4: Early Buddhist teachings

Readings:

1. Harvey (2013, 32-87) – Read Chapters 2 and 3.

2. Watch: Lekker 32. 2020. “Life of the Buddha Full Movie.” YouTube Video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGZ2jyf_Twc

Week 6 (Feb 13)

· Lecture 5: Early Buddhist Communities and Theravada

Readings:

1. Harvey (2013) - Chapter 4 (pages 88-113) and the first part of Chapter 11 (318-340).
2. Viewing:
BBC (1977) – 2 YouTube Videos:
I. The Mindful Way. (Documentary on Theravada Buddhism and Ajahn Chah), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H_2WfGKURg
II. Footprint of the Buddha. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd8RnhPIrbE (Theravada in Sri Lanka).

Short Written Response 1 question posted.

Week 7: Spring Reading Break Feb 16-20 – no lecture and no Q&A session

· Do SWR 1 and catch up on your readings!

Week 8 (Feb. 27)

· Lecture 6: Mahayana Buddhism (India and East Asia).

Readings:

Harvey (2013) - Chapter 5 (pages 114-150) and the first part of Chapter 6 (151-179).

Week 9 (Mar. 6)

· Lecture 7: Buddhism meets Confucianism and Daoism (China). Readings:

1. Confucius. 2003. Confucius Analects: With Selection from Traditional Commentaries. Edited by Edward Slingerland. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Pub. Co. Read Book 2 (pages 8-16)

2. Laozi. 2023. The Annotated Laozi: A New Translation of the Daodejing. Translated by Paul Fischer. Albany: State University of New York Press. Read Chapter 1 (pages 39-43).

3. Poceski, Mario. 2009. Chinese Religions: The eBook. Providence, Utah: Journal of Buddhist Ethics Online Books. Read Chapter 5 (pages 103-129)

Week 10: (Mar. 13)

· Lecture 8: Pure Land and Chan (Zen) assert their dominance across East Asia

Readings:

1. Poceski, Mario. 2009. Chinese Religions: The eBook. Providence, Utah: Journal of Buddhist Ethics Online Books. Read Chapter 6 (pages 131-155)

2. Harvey (2013) – Selections from Chapter 11 (pages 340-347 excluding “Tantric Visualizations”; 361-375 begin with “Zen Meditation”).

Watch one of the following:
Option A (Those reading The Temple of the Golden Pavilion):

Suo, Masayuki, dir. 1989. Fancy Dance. Daiei Studios.

Option B (Those reading Little Pilgrim):

Im, Kwon-taek, dir. 1981. Mandala. Hwa Chun Trading Co.

SWR2 questions posted

Week 11: (Mar. 20)

· Lecture 9: Tantra in Hinduism (India) and Buddhism (Tibet and East Asia).

Readings:

1. Rawson, Philip. 1973. Tantra: the Indian Cult of Ecstasy. London: Thames and Hudson. Read the Introduction (pages 7-33) and browse through the illustrations.

Watch:
Herzog, Werner. 2003. Wheel of Time. YouTube Video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DewTzOeKH00

Final Paper Questions Posted

Week 12 (Mar. 27)

· Lecture 10: Tibetan Buddhism and Bon

Readings:
1. Powers, John. 2007. Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism. Boulder: Snow Lion Publications. Read Ch. 5 “Tibetan Religious History” (pages 137-180).

2. Harvey (2013) – Selections from Chapter 11 (pages 347–361 beginning with “Tantric Visualizations” until “Zen Meditation”).

Week 13: (Apr. 1, Wednesday)!

-due to Easter Holidays the last module will be published ahead of time.

· Lecture 11: Dzogchen: “Viewing the world from the top of Mount Meru.”

Readings:
1. Germano, David. 2005. "Dzogchen." In Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd ed., edited by Lindsay Jones, 2545-2550. Vol. 4. Detroit, MI: Macmillan Reference
2. Norbu, Namkhai. 2000. The Crystal and the Way of Light. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications. Read Chapter 6 “The Base” (pages 89-107).

Week 14: (April 10)
Optional Zoom Q&A only

Final paper due April 14.

Enjoy your term and stay focused!