Contents -- Acknowledgments -- 1. Introduction: Family and the Construction of Religious Communities -- 1. Renunciation as the Creation of a New Family -- 2. Renunciation for the Sake of Family -- 3. Renunciation Together with Family -- Historical Families, Imagined Families -- Parents and Children -- Wives and Husbands -- Notes -- Bibliography -- PART I: Historical Families, Imagined Families -- 2. Serving the Emperor by Serving the Buddha: Imperial Buddhist Monks and Nuns as Abbots, Abbesses, and Adoptees in Early Modern Japan -- Introduction -- The Imperial Family -- The Imperial Family and Buddhism -- Imperial Temples and Convents -- Imperial Convents and Temples in the Tokugawa Period -- Imperial Temples, Imperial Convents, and Imperial Rituals -- Adoption and Imperial Monastic Institutions -- Conclusion: Courtly, Familial Monastic Practice -- Notes -- Bibliography -- 3. The Tantric Family Romance: Sex and the Construction of Social Identity in Tantric Buddhist Ritual -- Introduction -- The South Asian Family and Buddhism -- Lineage and Tantric Buddhism -- Ritual Transactions: Entering the Family of the Guru -- Notes -- Bibliography -- 4. Bone and Heart Sons: Biological and Imagined Kin in the Creation of Family Lineage in Tibetan Buddhism -- Introduction -- Background -- Introduction to Family Lineage in Tibetan Buddhism -- Introduction to Shakya Shri's Family -- Incarnation Lineages in Shakya Shri's Family -- Dual Lineages: Phagchog Dorje as a Khyentse -- Bone and Blood: Biological and Imagined Familial Ties -- Celibacy, Lifespan, and Ethics -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- 5. Families Matter: Ambiguous Attitudes toward Child Ordination in Contemporary Sri Lanka -- Narada -- Narada's Father: Reflections and Resolutions -- Narada's Mother: Grief, Loss, and Attempted Resolutions -- Mangala.

Upali: The Ordination of an Only Son -- Visakha: Thoughts about Old Age and Death -- Tensions and Conflicts: Giving, Merit, and Meaning -- Notes -- Bibliography -- PART II: Parents and Children -- 6. The Passion of Mulian's Mother: Narrative Blood and Maternal Sacrifices in Chinese Buddhism -- Overview: Salvation ad nauseum -- A Preview: Mulian's Evil Mother-The Sacrificer to Be Sacrificed? -- Dead-end Options -- A Penchant for Sacrifice -- Bad Sacrifice -- The Conservation of Sacrifice -- Mother as Sexual Deviant: Nancy Jay Part II -- Conclusion: The Tofu Option -- Notes -- Bibliography -- 7. Māyā's Disappearing Act: Motherhood in Early Buddhist Literature -- Māyā in the Jātakas -- Māyā's Passivity -- Death and Sex -- The Disappearing Act -- Concluding Remarks -- Notes -- Bibliography -- 8. Mother as Character Coach: Maternal Agency in the Birth of Sīvali -- Introduction -- Embryological Theories in the South Asian Context -- The Birth of Sīvali -- Sīvali as a Special Child -- Birth Trauma and Insight -- Negative Karma and the Birth of Sīvali -- Giving and Receiving Alms -- The Mother-Son Dyad -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- PART III Wives and Husbands -- 9. Yasodharā in the Buddhist Imagination: Three Portraits Spanning the Centuries -- Yasodharā in the Yasodharāpadāna and the Pūjāvaliya -- Yasodharā's Lament in Sinhala Folk Poetry -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- 10. Evangelizing the Happily Married Man through Low Talk: On Sexual and Scatological Language in the Buddhist Tale of Nanda -- The Social Context of the Nanda Narrative in Sanskrit -- Converting a Happy Man -- Scatology among the Mūlasarvāstivādins -- The Question of Audience -- Kṣemendra's Nanda -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- 11. Runaway Brides: Tensions Surrounding Marital Expectations in the Avadānaśataka.

General Patterns and Stereotypes -- The Pressure to Marry -- Suprabhā -- Kāśisundarī -- Muktā -- Stratagems -- Final Remarks -- Notes -- Bibliography -- 12. The Priesthood as a Family Trade: Reconsidering Monastic Marriage in Premodern Japan -- Attitudes toward Monastic Discipline -- Living Arrangements, Inheritance, and the Priesthood as a Family Trade -- Kamakura-Period Critiques of Monastic Marriage -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Contributors -- Index.