Buddhist healing liturgies - Prof. Stephen Teiser

This is a conversation I had with Prof. Stephen Teiser while we were teaching at the Internsive Buddhist Program at Khotan (Hetian, Xinjiang). I asked him about his current research and so he talked about his book project on healing liturgies from 9th- and 10th-century Dunhuang. He explained that these were a hybrid phenomenon, borrowing elements from both Indic and Chinese cultures. Similarly, they also spread to other East Asian regions, including Japan and Korea, where they then saw some local development. In China, the liturgies were written in parallel prose, which was also the language used in non-Buddhist rituals of similar kind. Interestingly, most of these texts invoke not the Medicine Buddha (Bhaishajyaguru; Ch. Yaoshifo) but a host of lower level beings, who were presumably more attentive or more available to help people in need. --Video's Table of Contents-- 00:00 Intro 01:59 Curing illness 06:37 The manuscripts 10:22 Continuation of the practice into later times 13:04 Across languages and cultures 16:57 East Asia