Since the earliest encounters between tantric traditions and Western scholars of religion, tantra has posed a challenge. The representation of tantra, whether in Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Tibet, or Japan, has tended to emphasize the antinomian, decadent aspects, which, as attention-grabbing as they were for audiences in the West, created a one-dimensional understanding, and hampered the academic study of the field for more than a century. Additionally, the Western perspective on religion has been dominated by doctrinal studies. As a result, sectarian boundaries between different tantric traditions are frequently replicated in the scholarship, and research tends to be sequestered according to different schools of South Asian, Central Asian, Southeast Asian, and East Asian tantric traditions.
The Oxford Handbook of Tantric Studies is intended to overcome these obstacles, facilitating collaboration between scholars working on different forms of tantra. The Introduction provides an overview of major issues confronting the field today, including debates regarding the definition and category of "tantra" historical origins, recent developments in gender studies and tantra, ethnography and "lived tantra" and cognitive approaches to tantra. Using a topical framework, the opening section explores the concept of action, one of the most prominent features of tantra, which includes performing rituals, practicing meditation, chanting, embarking on a pilgrimage, or re-enacting moments from a sacred text. From there, the sections cover broad topics such as transformation, gender and embodiment, "extraordinary" beings (such as deities and saints), art and visual expressions, language and literature, social organizations, and the history and historiography of tantra. With co-editors in chief who specialize in the Hindu and Buddhist perspectives, a global pool of contributors, and over 40 chapters, the Handbook aims to provide the definitive reference work in this dynamic field.
Richard K. Payne is Professor Emeritus at the Institute of Buddhist Studies. He is founding Editor-in-Chief of Oxford Bibliographies: Buddhism. He also established the Pure Land Buddhist Studies Series, University of Hawai'i Press; the Contemporary Issues in Buddhist Studies Series, Institute of Buddhist Studies; and is Senior Editor for Pacific World: Journal of the Institute of Buddhist Studies. His blog is "Buddhist Thought and Practice".
Glen A. Hayes is Professor Emeritus at Bloomfield College. He co-founded the Society for Tantric Studies (STS) in 1986, and the Tantric Studies unit of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) in 2002. He also served on the steering committee of the Cognitive Science of Religion unit of the AAR. He in an editor at Religions online, where he has edited issues with papers from STS meetings, as well as on uses of cognitive science in tantric studies. His research areas include the translation and study of medieval Bengali Hindu tantric texts and the uses of conceptual metaphor theory.
