BOOK REVIEWS Georgios T. Halkias and Richard K. Payne, editors. Pure Lands in Asian Texts and Contexts: An Anthology

is anthology presents a vast array of Asian Buddhist texts translated into English, each of which is preceded by a succinct introduction by its translator.As the title indicates, the common feature running through the selected sources is that all of them speak of a pure land, or pure lands, in their respective contexts.It must be emphasized that, throughout this volume, the worship of the Buddha Amitbha/Amityus and his Land of Bliss (Sukhvat) are treated as one variation, not as the standard, of what is called "Pure Land Buddhism."e two editors, Georgios T. Halkias and Richard K. Payne, claim that the de nitive quali cation of Pure Land Buddhism is "the shared idea of a spatially located land, often identi ed as a postmortem goal of practice, and which is the special domain of a buddha or other similar gure" (p.14).On this basis, this work is carefully designed to cover a rich variety of pure lands including, but importantly not limited to that of Amitbha.One of the primary objectives of this self-conscious e ort is to demonstrate the diversity, ubiquity, and signi cance of Pure Land Buddhism which could otherwise be easily underestimated or even disregarded.Accordingly, this huge anthology opens with a methodologically critical introduction by the editors, followed by the individual sources taken up in the subsequent twenty-six chapters.Another notable feature of the editorial strategies employed in this collection is that the sources are organized not on a geopolitical basis but instead under six thematic categories that form the six-fold structure of the book: I. "Ritual Practices," II."Contemplative Visualizations," III."Doctrinal Expositions," IV. "Life-Writing and Poetry," V. "Ethical and Aesthetic Explications," and VI."Worlds beyond Sukhvat."By locating issues of doctrine on the same level as those of other kinds of categories such as practices and beliefs, this con guration by itself plays a vital role in challenging the assumed privileged position of the intellectual aspects of Buddhism in academia.e editors also attach an overview that encapsulates the theme and content of each of the six parts.