Images, Relics, and Legends: The Formation and Transformation of Buddhist Sacred Sites (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780889629097)

James Benn is a scholar of medieval Chinese religions (Buddhism and Taoism). His three major areas of research are bodily practice in Chinese religions, the ways in which people create and transmit new religious practices and doctrines, and the religious dimensions of commodity culture. He has published numerous articles in journals such as the Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies. Jinhua Chen studied at Beijing University and the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences before coming to Canada in 1992 for further education. After receiving his PhD from McMaster University in 1997 with a dissertation on the formation of Tendai Esoteric Buddhism in Japan, he conducted his postdoctoral research at Kyoto University, Japan. Since 2001, he has been a member in the Department of Asian Studies at UBC, where he was also appointed by the federal government of Canada as the Canada Research Chair in East Asian Buddhism.