Zerkxis Bhandara

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Upcoming Events

2024

3:39 pm Public lecture series “Buddhist ... @ TBD

Public lecture series “Buddhist ... @ TBD

Oct 1 @ 3:39 pm – Dec 9 @ 4:39 pm

Throughout the fall of 2024, international specialists will present to a broad public audience aspects of the rich cultural heritage of Buddhism (architecture, music, and visual arts) and its impact on contemporary culture in Asia[...]

Oct

Mon

2024

all-day Workshop “Animism Today” @ Rob Gym 1005

Workshop “Animism Today” @ Rob Gym 1005

Oct 21 – Oct 22 all-day

In Japan, the term “animism” is used with positive connotations as a way to describe widespread forms of Japanese religiosity and, to an extent, Japanese cultural identity. In this workshop, scholars from Japan explore some[...]

Mar

Mon

2025

all-day International Conference “The Ma... @ Rob Gym 1005

International Conference “The Ma... @ Rob Gym 1005

Mar 3 – Mar 5 all-day

Organized by Fabio Rambelli and Vesna A. Wallace (UCSB), with the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science. With support from The Robert N.H. Ho Family Foundation Global, the Uberoy Foundation, UCSB Chair in Shinto[...]

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Statement

The Department of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara stands in support of the protests for racial justice and police reform. Black lives matter.

We commonly hear that “The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic.” This sentiment echoes in the national response to the current health crisis, where thousands and thousands have died and continue to die daily.

Our expertise lies in the academic study of the world’s religions. Each emphasizes the sanctity of life. In Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions, human life is holy because God is holy (Lev 19:4; Qur’an 5:32, 6:131; 1 Corinthians 3:16). In the Buddhist tradition, the first and foremost precept is the prohibition against taking life (any life, not only human); at the same time, the human condition is unique and precious because Buddhas can only appear in human form. In religious traditions of the African Diaspora, Black gods and ancestors rise up to defend Black and Latinx lives in historical rebellions and revolutions. The most well-known of these is the Haitian Revolution that began with the invocation Vodou deities in 1791 at Bwa Kayiman.

Racially motivated killings are often processed as a statistic, notwithstanding the well-known killings of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, Sandra Bland, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and Ahmaud Arbery, among many others. In the violent taking of George Floyd’s life, witnessed by the world, we have not a statistic but a tragedy. It is both a reminder of the anti-Blackness embedded in our society and an example of the systemic institutional brutality directed towards minoritized communities.

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