Buddhist Magic

Welcome to Buddhist Magic!

Created by the students of Religious Studies 259 (Spring 2022) at Stanford University, this website showcases our exploration of the categories of "Buddhism" and "magic" through the lens of a manuscript from Southeast Asia currently held at Stanford. Taught by Trent Walker, Postdoctoral Fellow of the Ho Center for Buddhist Studies at Stanford, and TA'ed by Religious Studies PhD student Julia Hirsch, the ten intrepid students in the course worked their way through the unstudied grimoire, making a range of discoveries.

Among the students' findings were the date and location of a late addition to the manuscript (1949 in Luang Prabang, Laos); the identification of three separate languages added by several different scribes (Lao, Dai Lue, and Pali), and the decoding of a number of spells, diagrams, annotations, and medicinal recipes (including those for prolonging life and treating various cancers). We discussed these dimensions of the manuscript and much more in conversation with foundational works in the field of Buddhist magic, revealing the broader relevance of the unique document at the center of the class.

For a curated look at student writing throughout the course , visit Reflections.

For an analytical presentation of the manuscript itself, see Annotations.

For more on the class, check out the syllabus.