Trine Brox
Deputy Head of Department | Research
PhD, Associate Professor, Modern Tibetan Studies
Director, Centre for Contemporary Buddhist Studies
Editor-in-Chief, The Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies
Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies
University of Copenhagen.
Current research projects include
(1) Buddhism, Business and Believers. The project enquires into contemporary relations between business and Buddhism. The aim is to gain novel insights into the manner that Buddhism becomes an agent mediating distinctions between virtue and value, spirituality and materiality, gifts and commodities – and therefore also subscribes meaning to objects, actions and human relations. The Danish Council for Independent Research | Humanities (Feb. 2016 - Aug. 2021) funds this international, collaborative and interdisciplinary research project. Additionally, the Carlsberg Foundation has granted funding towards a post. doc. position for Elizabeth Williams Ørberg (Sept. 2015 - Feb. 2018) that is organised under the BBB-umbrella. See: https://centerforcontemporarybuddhiststudies.wordpress.com and http://ccrs.ku.dk/research/projects/buddhism-business-and-believers/
(2) Prince Peter and the Third Danish Expedition to Central Asia. Collaborative research project with Dr. Miriam Koktvedgaard Zeitzen and the National Museum of Denmark. The focus of this project is Prince Peter’s ethnographic knowledge production during the seven years he spent in the north-east Indian Himalayan town of Kalimpong during 1950-1957. Here, he was part of and later leader of the Third Danish Expedition to Central Asia. The aim of the project is to trace the biographies of Prince Peter and his Tibetan collaborators and the biographies of the Tibetan artefacts, accounts and anthropometry he collected. Research into the Danish archives began in the summer of 2014 and Kalimpong in 2015. Since 2016 research connected to OBJECT LESSONS FROM TIBET AND THE HIMALAYAS (https://objectlessonsfromtibetblog.wordpress.com)
(3) Democracy the ‘Tibetan Way’ is a study of democracy and democratisation among Tibetan exiles living in India since 1959. The project’s point of departure is that democracy is a constructed concept and the project thus questions democracy as a predefined and universally applicable concept. Instead it aims to show how democracy cannot move in time and space without translation, and looks at how democracy is translated by Tibetans in India and how their translations—contained within the framework of the Tibetans’ freedom struggle—manifest in institutions, procedures, political cultures and discourses. Research has been conducted in Tibetan communities in India since 2005.
Staff profile: http://ccrs.ku.dk/staff/?pure=en/persons/136097
CCBS: https://ccrs.ku.dk/research/centres/centre-for-contemporary-buddhist-studies/
CCBS blog: https://centerforcontemporarybuddhiststudies.wordpress.com/
Object Lessons blog: https://objectlessonsfromtibetblog.wordpress.com/
CJAS: https://ccrs.ku.dk/research/copenhagen-journal-of-asian-studies/
ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Trine_Brox
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BroxTrine
Address: Department of Cross-cultural and Regional Studies,
University of Copenhagen
Karen Blixens vej 4, office 10.4.39
DK-2300 Copenhagen S
Denmark
PhD, Associate Professor, Modern Tibetan Studies
Director, Centre for Contemporary Buddhist Studies
Editor-in-Chief, The Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies
Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies
University of Copenhagen.
Current research projects include
(1) Buddhism, Business and Believers. The project enquires into contemporary relations between business and Buddhism. The aim is to gain novel insights into the manner that Buddhism becomes an agent mediating distinctions between virtue and value, spirituality and materiality, gifts and commodities – and therefore also subscribes meaning to objects, actions and human relations. The Danish Council for Independent Research | Humanities (Feb. 2016 - Aug. 2021) funds this international, collaborative and interdisciplinary research project. Additionally, the Carlsberg Foundation has granted funding towards a post. doc. position for Elizabeth Williams Ørberg (Sept. 2015 - Feb. 2018) that is organised under the BBB-umbrella. See: https://centerforcontemporarybuddhiststudies.wordpress.com and http://ccrs.ku.dk/research/projects/buddhism-business-and-believers/
(2) Prince Peter and the Third Danish Expedition to Central Asia. Collaborative research project with Dr. Miriam Koktvedgaard Zeitzen and the National Museum of Denmark. The focus of this project is Prince Peter’s ethnographic knowledge production during the seven years he spent in the north-east Indian Himalayan town of Kalimpong during 1950-1957. Here, he was part of and later leader of the Third Danish Expedition to Central Asia. The aim of the project is to trace the biographies of Prince Peter and his Tibetan collaborators and the biographies of the Tibetan artefacts, accounts and anthropometry he collected. Research into the Danish archives began in the summer of 2014 and Kalimpong in 2015. Since 2016 research connected to OBJECT LESSONS FROM TIBET AND THE HIMALAYAS (https://objectlessonsfromtibetblog.wordpress.com)
(3) Democracy the ‘Tibetan Way’ is a study of democracy and democratisation among Tibetan exiles living in India since 1959. The project’s point of departure is that democracy is a constructed concept and the project thus questions democracy as a predefined and universally applicable concept. Instead it aims to show how democracy cannot move in time and space without translation, and looks at how democracy is translated by Tibetans in India and how their translations—contained within the framework of the Tibetans’ freedom struggle—manifest in institutions, procedures, political cultures and discourses. Research has been conducted in Tibetan communities in India since 2005.
Staff profile: http://ccrs.ku.dk/staff/?pure=en/persons/136097
CCBS: https://ccrs.ku.dk/research/centres/centre-for-contemporary-buddhist-studies/
CCBS blog: https://centerforcontemporarybuddhiststudies.wordpress.com/
Object Lessons blog: https://objectlessonsfromtibetblog.wordpress.com/
CJAS: https://ccrs.ku.dk/research/copenhagen-journal-of-asian-studies/
ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Trine_Brox
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BroxTrine
Address: Department of Cross-cultural and Regional Studies,
University of Copenhagen
Karen Blixens vej 4, office 10.4.39
DK-2300 Copenhagen S
Denmark
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Papers by Trine Brox
The prayer wheel is not only an important object in recitation practices for Tibetan Buddhists, but has also become a key marker of Tibetan identity. Yet its history, culture and practice have received very little scholarly attention. This article attempts to eradicate this blind spot. It endeavors to show how the prayer wheel has earned itself its iconic status by explaining how the prayer wheel is a receptacle of sacred script and a devise for reciting sacred script. The article zooms in on (i) the cult of the book in the Tibetan culture sphere, (ii) the technology of prayer wheels; and (iii) the recurring tropes of the wheel, circumambulation, and rotation in Buddhism, as well as the merit connected with them. In view of this particular constellation of book cult, technology, and dominant trope, it makes sense that, first of all, Tibetan Buddhists have adopted and further developed a technology that optimizes interaction with sacred script; secondly, that rotation is considered an adequate way to interact with Buddha’s doctrine; and third, that this devise has become an icon for the Tibetan civilization. It is especially the sacred text within the wheel, the article argues, that endows the prayer wheel with high status in a hierarchy of Buddhist material objects. Finally, this raises questions about modernised prayer wheels – when technological progress has enabled further development of devises that can contain and spin Buddhist script such as optic discs, prayer wheel apps, and automised praying machines. How does their materiality impact textual engagement?
The article is based upon data produced through (i) ethnographic inquiry, such as interacting with the stakeholders who deal with Buddhist material culture for different reasons, eg. producers, marketers, ritual specialists, practitioners, and consumers, and (ii) textual sources that includes Tibetan and English-language scholarship, catalogues, user’s guides, and marketing material. This multi-modal method has produced knowledge about the prayer wheel as practice, i.e. what we can call popular religion, and as theory, i.e. according to how the prayer wheel is idealised in the writings of Buddhist masters.
This article is the result of the collaboration between a Norwegian university professor, Trine Brox, and an American journalist and documentary filmmaker, Jocelyn Ford. We met in the United States in 2014, brought together by our mutual research interest in the little-studied phenomenon of Tibetan migration to eastern China. In 2017, we met again for the screening of Jocelyn’s documentary about Zanta at the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, where Trine works.
Koktvedgaard Zeitzen, Miriam and Trine Brox 2016 “Strandet i Kalimpong: Prins Peters Tibet-ekspedition 1950-1957.” [Stranded in Kalimpong! Prince Peter’s Tibet-expedition 1950-1957.”] In Nationalmuseets Arbejdsmark 2016: pp. 52-65.
Buddhism, Business, and Economics
Trine Brox and Elizabeth Williams-Oerberg
The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Buddhism
Edited by Michael Jerryson
Print Publication Date: Jan 2017 Subject: Religion, Buddhism Online Publication Date: Dec 2016 DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199362387.013.42
The prayer wheel is not only an important object in recitation practices for Tibetan Buddhists, but has also become a key marker of Tibetan identity. Yet its history, culture and practice have received very little scholarly attention. This article attempts to eradicate this blind spot. It endeavors to show how the prayer wheel has earned itself its iconic status by explaining how the prayer wheel is a receptacle of sacred script and a devise for reciting sacred script. The article zooms in on (i) the cult of the book in the Tibetan culture sphere, (ii) the technology of prayer wheels; and (iii) the recurring tropes of the wheel, circumambulation, and rotation in Buddhism, as well as the merit connected with them. In view of this particular constellation of book cult, technology, and dominant trope, it makes sense that, first of all, Tibetan Buddhists have adopted and further developed a technology that optimizes interaction with sacred script; secondly, that rotation is considered an adequate way to interact with Buddha’s doctrine; and third, that this devise has become an icon for the Tibetan civilization. It is especially the sacred text within the wheel, the article argues, that endows the prayer wheel with high status in a hierarchy of Buddhist material objects. Finally, this raises questions about modernised prayer wheels – when technological progress has enabled further development of devises that can contain and spin Buddhist script such as optic discs, prayer wheel apps, and automised praying machines. How does their materiality impact textual engagement?
The article is based upon data produced through (i) ethnographic inquiry, such as interacting with the stakeholders who deal with Buddhist material culture for different reasons, eg. producers, marketers, ritual specialists, practitioners, and consumers, and (ii) textual sources that includes Tibetan and English-language scholarship, catalogues, user’s guides, and marketing material. This multi-modal method has produced knowledge about the prayer wheel as practice, i.e. what we can call popular religion, and as theory, i.e. according to how the prayer wheel is idealised in the writings of Buddhist masters.
This article is the result of the collaboration between a Norwegian university professor, Trine Brox, and an American journalist and documentary filmmaker, Jocelyn Ford. We met in the United States in 2014, brought together by our mutual research interest in the little-studied phenomenon of Tibetan migration to eastern China. In 2017, we met again for the screening of Jocelyn’s documentary about Zanta at the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, where Trine works.
Koktvedgaard Zeitzen, Miriam and Trine Brox 2016 “Strandet i Kalimpong: Prins Peters Tibet-ekspedition 1950-1957.” [Stranded in Kalimpong! Prince Peter’s Tibet-expedition 1950-1957.”] In Nationalmuseets Arbejdsmark 2016: pp. 52-65.
Buddhism, Business, and Economics
Trine Brox and Elizabeth Williams-Oerberg
The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Buddhism
Edited by Michael Jerryson
Print Publication Date: Jan 2017 Subject: Religion, Buddhism Online Publication Date: Dec 2016 DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199362387.013.42
Call for papers! We want to add one or two papers to our great workshop program for TIBETAN LANDSCAPES, November 16 at the CCBS, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Send your abstract, short bio and a few words about your motivation for participating to ccbs@hum.ku.dk by September 24, 2018.
The workshop Tibetan landscapes privileges the concept of landscape, i.e. the material traces of human activity, which can help us understand the histories, communities, politics, cultures, religious practices, and economies of Tibetan people and places.
We will launch the network with a one-day seminar on the 9th June at the University of Manchester, UK. The seminar brings together researchers working with the visual and material culture of Tibet and the Himalayas. In particular, we will think about the roles of things in the production, loss and recovery of knowledge, both in the colonial past and the present.
Historically, trade routes served as transmission belts for Buddhist theology. The nexus between trade and Buddhism is most commonly understood in the spread of Buddhist theology and art across Asia. Today, this practice continues to grow and diversify. The spread of Buddhism has contributed to the development of new markets and a growing industry in Buddhist objects, artefacts, paraphernalia, and merchandise. Moreover, Buddhism is also a value that is traded. This traded value includes statues and scriptures, but also comes in the form of immaterial value; namely in the promises or potential that are ascribed to objects, artefacts and paraphernalia that are considered or are branded as Buddhist.
This panel calls for papers dealing with the translations and transformations of Buddhism in relation to the trade in Buddhist things. Such objects can be Buddhist because they represent commodified Buddhism, are objects needed for Buddhist practice, or products marketed as Buddhist. By engaging in discussions regarding the trade and translation of Buddhist material culture we want to develop new analytical approaches and ask how trade practices translate and transform objects related to Buddhism. We aim to build a broad geographical understanding of practice. Therefore, possible subjects might include the trade in amulets in Thailand, Japan, and Vietnam, or the global trade in Tibetan painted scrolls produced in Nepal, India and China. We are also interested in other Buddhist objects that are traded, including offerings for the Buddhist altar, religious images and statues, prayer beads, charms, monastic paraphernalia, and so forth. A further area for discussion relates to the people who need such objects for their Buddhist practice, for the Buddhist temple, or for inserting the spiritual in an otherwise secular, modern world. How are these Buddhist things translated and transformed as they change hands from the artisan in the workshop, to the petty merchant, the art dealer, the tourist, the Buddhist practitioner, the ritual specialist and so forth? How do these things become Buddhist?
Deadline for submitting abstracts to Marie Yoshida (marie.yoshida@nias.ku.dk) is 1 March 2017.
Please include in your submission: • Name, institutional affiliation, short bio • Abstract that clearly lays out the title, argument and methodology (approx 250 words) • Intended panel (Trade and translation of Buddhist material culture across Asia)
Conveners and organizing committee will assess the submitted abstracts and inform you of the decision soon hereafter.
For more information, visit: http://asiandynamics.ku.dk/english/adi-conference-2017/panels/trade-and-translation-of-buddhist-material-culture-across-asia/
The panel is organized by the BBB-project: https://centerforcontemporarybuddhiststudies.wordpress.com/bbb-project/