Podcast

The Ecology of Eternity in a Song-Dynasty Buddhist Monastery

The Huntington

Phillip Bloom, The Huntington's new director of the Center for East Asian Garden Studies and curator of the Chinese Garden, examines the history of Shizhuanshan, a hilltop Buddhist sanctuary in southwestern China constructed in the late 11th century. Bloom argues that Shizhuanshan architecture, image, and text work together to transform the natural environment itself into a site for the eternal performance of Buddhist ritual.