Cloned Buddhas: mapping out the DNA of Buddhist heritage preservation.
This article considers how technological innovation transforms the value of religious materiality in Buddhist heritage reproduction projects in Japan. To illustrate the religiously and politically charged landscape of heritage care, I focus on the reproduction technologies developed by the Tokyo Uni...
| Published in: | Cultural Studies Vol. 38; no. 5; pp. 865 - 891 |
|---|---|
| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Published: |
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Sep2024
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=178881269&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 178881269 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 09502386 05G jtl: Cultural Studies issn: 09502386 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Sep2024 vid: 38 iid: 5 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd artinfo: ui: 178881269 10.1080/09502386.2024.2363187 ppf: 865 ppct: 26 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 2.4MB tig: atl: Cloned Buddhas: mapping out the DNA of Buddhist heritage preservation. aug: au: Kolata, Paulina affil: Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen, København, Denmark su: Buddhas Cultural property Buddhists Devotion Socioeconomics sug: subj: Buddhas Cultural property Buddhists Devotion Socioeconomics keyword: 'Super clone cultural properties' Buddhist materiality heritage reproduction heritage scientification Japan the Shaka Triad ab: This article considers how technological innovation transforms the value of religious materiality in Buddhist heritage reproduction projects in Japan. To illustrate the religiously and politically charged landscape of heritage care, I focus on the reproduction technologies developed by the Tokyo University of Arts researchers to create highly precise replicas of Buddhist heritage. One such 'super clone' replica of Japan's National Treasure homed at Hōryūji temple in Nara – a 1400-year-old 'Shaka Triad' sculpture of Shakyamuni, the historical Buddha – was put on display at the Nagano Prefectural Art Museum in Japan in April 2021. The 'cloned' statue is a highly precise copy that goes beyond the practices of exact duplication. With the use of 3D measurement, digital modelling technologies, and advanced casting techniques, this cloned religious heritage object transports the viewer back in time to the aesthetic moment of creation and allows them to experience anew the object's affective presence as crafted centuries ago. In drawing on this example and its potential to intervene in other religious heritage reproduction projects globally, I argue that technology transforms religious heritage to generate alternative socio-economic afterlives of Buddhist objects. By analysing the scientific narratives and processes of heritage care, I show how the religious heritage reproduction is where the aesthetic, political, and economic dimensions of Buddhist material futures are imagined and realized. It is also a space of contestation between devotion, science, and memory-oriented practices of care in transnational heritage preservation. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Cultural Studies is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Cultural Studies holder: Taylor & Francis Ltd dt: @attributes: year: 2024 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
|---|