EAST 264: World Religions: Wisdom and Compassion: EAST 264: Buddhism

Dictionaries, Encyclopedias & Atlases

General information is a good place to start your research because it can help you to narrow a too broad topic or broaden a too narrow one. Reading an encyclopedia article can give you insight into an area within the broader topic that will be suitable for your research and give you enough knowledge about that topic to begin researching it intelligently. Articles in these pieces are usually written by experts in the field and will include bibliographic references which will lead you to other books and journal articles on the same topic. Keep in mind, however, that this is not where most of the research for your paper should come from!

• Critical Terms for the Study of Buddhism BQ4040 .C75 2005 (Also, electronic access)
• Adams, Charles J.  Readers Guide to the Great Religions  BL 80.2 .A35 1977
• Bowker, John, ed.  The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions  BL 31 .H37 1995
• Buswell, Robert E. Jr.  Encyclopedia of Buddhism  BQ128 .E62 2004
• Doniger, Wendy, ed.  Encyclopedia of World Religions  BL 31 .M47 1999
• Eliade, Mircea.  Encyclopedia of Religion  BL 31 .E46 1986
•   (in stacks: 6th floor)
• Embree, Ainslie.  Encyclopaedia of Asian History  DS 31 .E53 1987
• Jones, Lindsay, ed.  Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd ed.  BL31 .E46 2005
• Keown, Damien  A Dictionary of Buddhism BQ 130 .K46 2003
• Malalasekera, G.P.  Encyclopaedia of Buddhism  [1961-]  BL 1403 E5
• Mills, M. A., Claus, P. J. and Diamond, S., eds.  South Asian Folklore:An Encyclopedia  GR302 .S68 2003
• Prebish, Charles S.  Historical Dictionary of Buddhism  BQ 130 .P74 1993
• Powers, John  A Concise Encyclopedia of Buddhism  BQ 128 .P69 2000
• Joseph Schwartzberg, ed.  A Historical Atlas of South Asia

Once you have a well defined topic and a good basic sense of what your topic is "about" a bibliography will lead you to more books, and in some cases journal articles, on your topic. Most of the items below are shelved in Reference; some may be found in the circulating collection.

• Patterson, Maureen  South Asian Civilizations  DS 339 .P37 1981
• Bibliographic Guide to the Comparative Study of Ethics  BJ 1.5 .B48 1991
• Bibliography of Asian Studies DS501 .F274
• Thompson, Laurence G.  Chinese Religion in Western Languages  BL 1802 .T556 1993
• Bibliography of the History of Art
• Bibliography of South and Southeast Asian Art and Archeology  N7300 .A128   (7 vols.)
• Reynolds, Frank E.  Guide to Buddhist Religion  BQ 4012 .R48
• Yu, David C.  Guide to Chinese Religion  BL 1802 .Y8 1985

Review essays are good sources for both an overview of some of the important questions within the field and a survey of recent scholarship. Examples of such essays are:

• Eckel, Malcolm David "The Ghost at the Table: On the study of Buddhism and the Study of Religion," in Journal of the American Academy of Religion 62 (1994), 1085-1110.   BV1460 .N23
• Griffiths, Paul J. "Recent Work on Classical Indian Buddhism," in Critical Review of Books on Religion 1993, 41-76.   BL 1 .C75
• Hallisey, Charles. "Recent Work on Buddhist Ethics," in Religious Studies Review 18:4 (October 1992), 276-285.   BL1 .R44

• Global Resources for Buddhist Studies (from the Jnl. of Buddhist Ethics)
• Asia Digital Library
• South and Southeast Asian Art and Archaeology Index
• The Virtual Library South Asia
• Digital South Asia Library
• The Archives & Special Collections section {School of Oriental and African Studies Library}