Mary Lewine works on objects deposited into Buddhist statues in East Asia, with a particular focus on stamped and printed replications of Buddha images. She is interested in conceptions of sacred presence, iconicity, ontologies of the relic, and the poetics of the hidden. Her research explores transregional circulations of knowledge and material culture through Buddhist networks; the agency of the seal; and iconographic development. Her dissertation focuses on a particular category of statue deposit prevalent among the deposit assemblages of 13th and 14th century statues from Kansai region statuary workshops and religious contexts, inbutsu kechien kyōmyō. She received her BA in Chinese at Vassar College and an MA at UC Berkeley in the Group of Asian Studies prior to joining the department.
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