A major collection of important essays by many of the leading scholars in the field of Buddhism, including Phyllis Granoff from Yale University, T.H.Barrett from the University of London, Raoul Birnbaum from University of California, Toru Funayama from Kyoto University, Eugene Wang from Harvard University and others.
The spread of Buddhism in Asia may be viewed from one perspective as a protracted and complex process in which numerous sacred sites were continually created and recreated in different parts of Asia. The story of Buddhism increasinly penetrating into all levels of society in Asia is mirrored by another narrative in which some of the most sacred sites in India were reproduced in other parts of the world. This reproduction or doubling was, however, never a simple matter of transplantation; rather it involved complex cultural adjustments and inventions. The study of Buddhist sacred sites in South and East Asia, therefore, yields some revealing new perspectives on the cross-cultural issues created by the “Buddhist conquest of Asia.”
The volume sheds new light on issues such as pilgrimage; the development of Buddhist monasticism; the remembrance of Buddhist saints and patriarchs; Buddhist sacred sites and more, and deepens our understanding of the Buddhist tradition.
The volume contains thirteen original articles plus a preface and full biblography. The volume is a Festschrift in honour of Professor Koichi Shinohara of Yale University.

Burning for the Buddha is the first book-length study of the theory and practice of "abandoning the body"(self-immolation) in Chinese Buddhism. It examines the hagiographical accounts of all those who made offerings of their own bodies and places them in historical, social, cultural, and doctrinal context. Rather than privilege the doctrinal and exegetical interpretations of the tradition, which assume the central importance of the mind and its cultivation, James Benn focuses on the ways in which the heroic ideals of the bodhisattva present in scriptural materials such as the Lotus Sutra played out in the realm of religious practice on the ground.