Introduction

Of the top thirty tallest statues in the world, 26 are either Buddhas or Bodhisattvas. Buddhists, especially in the 20th century, have been built some of the largest spectacle attractions in global history. The history of these sites in Japan, China, Thailand, Burma, and other places are briefly described followed by the introduction to the contents and the arguments of the book. The book examines the very idea of Buddhist public culture, spectacle culture, and leisure culture, as well as argues that these sites reflect a growing Buddhist ecumenism and the power of affective encounters in teaching Buddhism. It asks the reader to question the very category of “religious” architecture and instead think of the Japanese category of misemono (spectacle attractions) as an unexplored Buddhist category. The theoretical work of Daniel Miller, Miriam Hansen, Johan Huizinga, Michael Taussig, Scott Page, Lauren Rabinovitz, Witold Rybczynski, E.H. Gombrich, Jürgen Habermas, Gregory Seigworth, Eve Sedgwick, Melissa Gregg, Gregory Levine, and others are consulted in developing a material culture approach to the study of modern Buddhist architecture.