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Jonathan A. Silk
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LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA, United States

BIOGRAPHY

Professor of Buddhist Studies, Leiden University. Author of Riven by Lust: Incest and Schism in Indian Buddhist Legend and Historiography and Managing Monks: Administrators and Administrative Roles in Indian Buddhist Monasticism; co-editor of Wisdom, Compassion, and the Search for Understanding: The Buddhist Studies Legacy of Gadjin M. Nagao.

Primary Contributions (2)
Avalokiteshvara, the compassionate bodhisattva, shown with 11 heads and 8 arms, symbolic of his ability to sense humankind's needs everywhere in the universe; in the Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde, Leiden, Neth.
Bodhisattva, in Buddhism, one who seeks awakening (bodhi)—hence, an individual on the path to becoming a buddha. In early Indian Buddhism and in some later traditions—including Theravada, at present the major form of Buddhism in Sri Lanka and other parts of Southeast Asia—the term bodhisattva was…
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