Wikipedia:WikiProject Buddhism/Archive

WikiProject Buddhism is a group of people dedicated to improving Buddhism-related contents in Wikipedia. This page contains only suggestions: things to give you focus and to get you going and you should not feel obligated in the least to follow them. If you don't know what to write or where to begin, following the guidelines below may be helpful. Mainly, we just want you to write articles!

Scope
This WikiProject aims primarily to promote better coordination, content distribution, and cross-referencing between pages dealing with Buddhism and its sects, texts, terms, philosophies, etc.

Current projects
If you don't know where to start, one of these pages or currently active projects within the scope of WikiProject Buddhism will welcome your input:
 * Buddhism and Christianity could use a fair bit of work if anyone's interested. referred by Writtenonsand (talk) 17:18, 11 May 2008 (UTC)
 * David Kalupahana User:Kester ratcliff has started an article on Buddhist writer. Needs work, if anybody's interested. Referred by User:Writtenonsand (talk) 04:19, 28 May 2008
 * Zen Peacemaker Order referred by Dakinijones (talk) 15:47, 23 June 2008 (UTC) New page needs references and copyediting
 * Stupa Could use help to historical part (+refrences!) and layout is terrible Siru108 (talk) 09:35, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Participants
''If you would like to help, feel free to add your name below. Be sure to watch this page for updates!''
 * User:Wingspeed: theravada, Nagarjuna, interfaith dialogue; pic-captioning a speciliaty :D
 * Badabara came across this project in interest of helping with the "stupa" page
 * Ph0kin I specialize in Japanese Buddhism, particularly the Pure Land and Shingon schools.
 * Ehm1883
 * Pratyeka
 * Frank Walsh (1962)
 * KGF0
 * Nat Krause
 * Clay Collier
 * deeptrivia I am managing Portal:Buddhism and would need a lot of support from here.
 * Kripkenstein
 * Antony Woods
 * ­ ॐ Kris (&#9742; talk | contribs)
 * Underneath-it-All
 * Deebkie
 * Ghostexorcist - I tend to edit and create articles in some way associated with buddhism.
 * Richard Buddhist, Writer and Educator
 * User:WoodenbuddhaBuddhist and writer
 * Saposcat
 * Kungming2
 * Eukesh
 * jmlee369
 * Nightngle
 * NinaOdell | Talk 14:54, 17 January 2007 (UTC) Mahayana Buddhism mostly.
 * Brain
 * Blnguyen (bananabucket) 08:05, 30 January 2007 (UTC)
 * rudy
 * Kstigarbha - I'm Ph.D.Candidate of Buddhism.(specialize in Zen Buddhism) and I'm managing Portal Buddhism in Japanese Wikipedia.
 * Jet123 - I'm Buddhist
 * Colincbn
 * Robert Daoust - Buddhism and suffering; I am not a Buddhist but I specialize in the subject of suffering.
 * User:Peter jackson see my user page for information, thoughts & bibliography on Buddhism
 * USer:Sacca
 * Orgyen 1108
 * Arundhati Lejeune
 * John Carter 18:12, 31 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Arrow740
 * Greenwood1010 A member of Risshō Kōsei Kai sect
 * Secretlondon I'm studying Karma Kagyu
 * (Mind meal (talk) 10:46, 6 December 2007 (UTC)) Zen Buddhist who enjoys research.
 * Golgofrinchian Member of Rochester Zen Center.
 * Geronimo20
 * Trulystand700 I am a Buhuddist.
 * Mizu onna sango15 I am a Buddhist mostly specializing in Mahayana, Pure Land and Zen Buddhism.
 * VinodhTa wiki Userpage I have started Wikiproject Buddhism in Tamil Language and I mostly Translate the en wiki Pages to ta wiki. Looking Forward to participate in the Main Project too.
 * Zenwhat, particularly Zen and Vipassana
 * Writtenonsand (talk) 19:48, 10 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Bardock the Mexican
 * Angelo De La Paz
 * Saimdusan Talk|Contribs 06:39, 19 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Vajrayosidbhagesuvijahara Tibetan Buddhism, Tantra, Madhyamaka, Dzogchen
 * cheezisyum21
 * -- Shruti14 t c s
 * Tdudkowski
 * Tyciol
 * Vincent9679 (talk) 17:33, 11 April 2008 (UTC)
 * dchmelik
 * Zen Mind
 * Dakinijones Article Zen Peacemaker Order is currently my main personal project
 * Kester ratcliff (talk) - ex-monk of six years and now lay academic, specialising in early Buddhism, critiquing later developments especially Theravada tradition, Vinaya studies, and history of the early sectarian period
 * PhilKnight
 * Swampfire (talk) 00:26, 2 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Caspian blue, mostly interested in Korean Buddhism, Seon, and related cultures.
 * Esteban Barahona = Bodinagamin
 * Ninly (talk)
 * Passawuth (talk) Theravada Buddhism, and Buddhism in Thailand
 * Siru108
 * Ano-User A member and Dharma instructor of the Nichiren sect Risshō Kōsei Kai
 * Ano-User A member and Dharma instructor of the Nichiren sect Risshō Kōsei Kai

Inactive
Members with no edits in the past 3 months. If your name has been put here by mistake - or you're back from a Wikibreak - please feel free to move your name back onto the main list:
 * User:Emishi I am most concerned with mantras, meditiation, bodhisattvas and tibetan deities. I am also helping to clean up and add to the Portal:Buddhism
 * &#2325;&#2369;&#2325;&#2381;&#2325;&#2369;&#2352;&#2379;&#2357;&#2366;&#2330;
 * Jel
 * Godric
 * Eequor
 * Linda Walters (Tâm Bi Nguy&#7879;n)
 * Bob Gould
 * Charlene Not Buddhist, but I meditate, have adapted the Four Truths and Eighfold Path, and live the Middle Way.
 * Buddhosavaka Theravadian, Kammathana Practisioner. I am most concern with accuracy of info on Dhamma: Awakening to the Dhamma over perception based knowledge.
 * &mdash; (ex-)Christians, meditation
 * User:Gunnerdevil I take interest in Buddhism history
 * NinaEliza 03:58, 28 November 2006 (UTC)
 * Badbilltucker
 * Phil179
 * PY Lt
 * Theli 93
 * João Correia
 * Rentwa
 * Sdorrance (interested mostly in Buddhist philosophy)
 * User:ChadtheBuddhist
 * Michael Campbell - I take a general interest in the subject.
 * Poppyling - MA - Buddhist Studies
 * Brian Dandy Australian Buddhist with interest in Sri Lankan Buddhism
 * James Myoe I follow Shingonshu, and am mostly interested in Shingon-shu,Kegon-shu Buddhism, Tendai-shu and mikkyô related pages.
 * Larry Rosenfeld - Theravada practice; contributions based on English-translations of Pali texts.

Departments

 * Assessment - the assessment unit.
 * Deletions- xfd discussions

To do

 * Place the WikiProject Buddhism banner on the talk pages of all of the articles within the scope of this project.
 * Add all new articles within the scope of the project to the list at WikiProject Buddhism/Articles.
 * Check the recent changes page for improvements, other changes, and vandalism to these articles.
 * Check the Category:Buddhism articles needing attention for any articles requiring immediate attention.
 * Help to expand the article: Timeline of Zen Buddhism in the United States

Requested articles
Please add articles you would like others to create at: WikiProject Buddhism/Requested articles

Organizing pages:
Current:


 * Buddhism provides an overview of the topic, with short descriptions of all the major subtopics.


 * Buddhist terms and concepts is a rough glossary of terms, needing considerable work to bring it up to date.


 * Timeline of Buddhism collects events in Buddhist history


 * List of Buddhists lists all people notable enough for inclusion in Wikipedia who happen to be Buddhist


 * Buddhist texts discusses Buddhist texts, divided by tradition...


 * Recent non-minor changes to Buddhism-related pages


 * Schools of Buddhism gives various trees of Buddhist sects


 * cultural elements of Buddhism


 * Buddhism regions

Categories
We have the following categories currently:


 * Category:Buddhism
 * Category:Branches of Buddhism
 * Category:Buddhist philosophers
 * Category:Buddhist mythology
 * Category:Buddhist temples
 * Category:Buddhist texts
 * Category:Tripitaka

...plus 30 odd more for a total of 40 subcategories and 87 loose pages in the "Buddhism" category... anybody fancy having a go at tidying up our subcategories? Dakinijones (talk) 15:08, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Article Construction
''Discuss the format for each article based on the WikiProject. Include various categories applicable to the topic.''

We should probably discuss article types, which may have different parameters. Example types might be:

Texts
Articles on texts should include:


 * Authorship, if known. If the supposed authorship of a text is not established by scholarship, list it as an attribution: "The text is attributed to such-and-such."


 * Date


 * Place of origin (if known)


 * A rough overview of the contents of the text


 * Separate sections for particularly important ideas in the text. Alternatively, short descriptions and links to articles on said ideas.


 * Whatever caveats regarding disputes over readings of the text, etc.


 * Associated sect(s) (Indicate, where appropriate, whether the text originated within the sect or was adopted by it after the fact.)


 * A table of translations, like this one:


 * A "See also" section for internal links.


 * An "External links" section for articles about the text, electronic versions of the text. (Separate sections for this?)

Monastic Article Naming Conventions?
I recently created and edited some articles about Thai Forest Tradition Theravadin Buddhist monastics. And User:Nat_Krause was kind enough to clean up behind me a bit (redundant cats and redir Ayya Tataaloka Bhikkhuni=> Tataaloka after rm a title). I didn't realize that honorific titles are not used when naming an article about a monastic until I looked up Naming conventions (names and titles). I had followed the naming of the many other articles on Theravadin monastics... which were mis-named. To prevent future confusion and re-work, I'd like to propose that we:
 * 1) Create and post article naming conventions for Buddhist monastics (I see that Tibetan titles have been discussed)
 * 2) Post the conventions on the Naming conventions (names and titles) page.
 * 3) Clean up the existing Theravadin Buddhist monastics monastic article titles (e.g.: Bhikkhu Bodhi) to be consistent with Nat's edit the convention we choose.    --- Deebki 09:32, 30 August 2006 (UTC)  (strikeout done 21:46, 23 September 2006 (UTC) Deebki)

Naming WITH Titles for Now: Following a discussion amongst several editors, the Thai Forest Tradition articles were named WITH the titles (e.g.: Bhikkhu Bodhi and Ayya Tathaaloka). It was decided that not using titles was simply insulting and culturally inpappropriate. For now, that is the convention our small group will use. I would like that to be consistent with other editors. Anyone interested in helping us shape a convention, perhaps for specific traditions (to remain culturally appropriate)? --Deebki 21:53, 23 September 2006 (UTC)
 * I note that Naming conventions (names and titles) seems to be based on Western Clergy. I'm trying to work out how to deal with the names of Tulkus. It could be seen as POV to give each incarnation a separate article - but a separate article and a succession box seems to be the sanest way of doing it. No-one knows them by their birth names - I think only the clerical name with a number will work. Secretlondon 22:43, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

About titles: I would recommend using 'bhikkhu/bhiksu', 'bhikkhuni/ bhiksuni', samanera/i /sramanera/i' as these are the basic, original classifications of monastics, and are not 'honorific' titles. If anyone wants to use Chinese and Tibetan equivalents with these terms in brackets, that would also be fine. I assume the discussion is just about whether to include titles in the names of articles, not whether to include them in the body of an article, since in that case it seems obviously reasonable to use whatever title(s) they're conventionally known by in their own tradition? I used to be a monk too, and then I'd just use 'Bhikkhu Santi' as my name in general, because I wouldn't include 'Ven' or 'Bhante' when speaking with other monks, and since I couldn't vary my user name on inet forums etc I prefered to leave out the 'bhante'. And although this isn't NPOV, I think any monks or nuns who themselves get offended about having their title missed out are just bad monks and nuns! Kester ratcliff (talk) 07:38, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

Ideas
For concepts, special terms, and doctrines (e.g., "nirv&#257;&#7751;a"):


 * Ideally, the name of the article should correspond to the primary version of the term (i.e., anatta for anātman]]), with redirects sending commonly used alternatives the page.


 * The first paragraph should name the term, provide variants in different languages, identify in what sect or sects it has currency, and briefly describe it.
 * But: What should the format for specifying languages be?
 * Anatta (Pāli; Sanskrit: anātman) is a doctrine yadda yadda...
 * But one could also use abbreviations: "Anatta (P&#257;l. (or whatever the real abbreviation for P&#257;li is; Skt: an&#257;tman) is a doctrine yadda yadda..."
 * or even link off-page to a glossary (most likely Buddhist terms and concepts) that stores the language information.
 * Also, once the various terms have been defined, is it still necessary to use whatever the canonical term, or can they be regarded as interchangeable?


 * Following sections should include information like:
 * A fuller description of the idea
 * Its relation to previous ideas in and out of Buddhism. (e.g., "The doctrine of an&#257;tman is a rejection of the concept of the &#257;tman, 'self,' or 'soul,' that is vital in several mainstream Indian philosophies. It also has implications that challenge the concept of Bra&#7717;man or Param&#257;tman (as Bra&#7717;man), which are essential to Indian monism.")
 * Disputes or schisms involving the idea
 * Connections to common user practices
 * Discussions of important texts for understanding the idea
 * Quotes (preferably with full attribution)
 * See also
 * External links

Transliteration

 * Naming conventions (Dharmic)

Transliterated terms from Sanskrit and Pāli should take advantage of Unicode diacritics; for example, "Nirv&#257;&#7751;a". These may be input either directly into the edit menu, as Unicode text, or as HTML character references such as &amp;#257;. A list of relevant characters is currently available at IAST. Several template-based shortcuts also exist for transliterations, but these are strongly deprecated.
 * This works well for one-off mentions... but with terms that are beginning to enter the English language and thus appear frequently in some articles it is making the text very difficult for the viewer to read (and it has the feel of an academic textbook rather than an encyclopedia). Also, since many editors find using diacritics problematic this is leading to very uneven usuage throughout an article. In Vajrayana for example the diacritics appeared heavily in the intro but rarely in the sub-sections. It would make more sense to me to have a policy of only using diacritics on the first mention of a term if it is frequently repeated. Dakinijones (talk) 12:16, 21 June 2008 (UTC)

Transliterations from Chinese should be in Pinyin, not Wade-Giles.

Of related concern: how to express terms in origin language. (I.e., is it "Skt" or "Sanskrit", etc.)? Priority of languages? (See Talk:Buddhism)

Terminology
We aim to build up a coherent and inclusive list of Buddhist terms at Buddhist terms and concepts, but that may be a while yet. In the mean time, there are certain tricky words or clusters of words about which we may need some degree of standardization. For example


 * Buddhism is a (blank)
 * Some concern has been raised that Buddhism should not be called "a faith"; this seems reasonable. But Buddhism is probably not a "philosophy" either. "Religion" seems the safest term...right?


 * Reincarnation vs. Rebirth
 * Discussion ongiong. See talk:reincarnation

Featured articles

 * Angkor Wat
 * History of Buddhism
 * Swastika

A articles

 * Buddhism in the United States
 * Nhat Hanh

Good articles

 * Borobudur
 * East Asian religions
 * Kaundinya
 * L. Ron Hubbard
 * Matsuo Bashō
 * Seung Sahn

DYK (Did You Know)s

 * Amitabha Buddhist Centre - 17 August 2007.
 * The Buddhist Library - 11 August 2007
 * Anuruddha - 6 April 2007.
 * Assaji - 6 April 2007.
 * Bhadda Kapilani - 16 April 2007.
 * Burmese Buddhist Temple - 30 July 2007.
 * Channa (Buddhist) - 6 November 2006.
 * Dahui Zonggao - 12 April 2007.
 * Dashi-Dorzho Itigilov - 20 February 2006.
 * Hong San See - 19 October 2006.
 * Hue Vesak shootings - 30 August 2007.
 * Ignaz Trebitsch-Lincoln - 13 July 2007.
 * Indo-Corinthian capital - 9 March 2006.
 * Jambuka - 31 August 2006.
 * Jizang - 1 December 2006.
 * Katsu (Zen) - 22 October 2006.
 * Kaundinya - 30 November 2006.
 * Kosambi - 2 April 2007.
 * Layman Pang - 7 October 2006.
 * Lillian Too - 9 February 2006.
 * Mahinda - 4 September 2006.
 * Miran (China) - 28 August 2007.
 * Moggaliputta-Tissa - 7 September 2006.
 * Mount Ōmine - 2 March 2007.
 * Nagarjunakonda - 10 November 2006.
 * Noapara-Ishanchandranagar - 28 August 2006.
 * Patacara - 4 April 2007.
 * Poh Ern Shih Temple - 9 June 2007.
 * Puning Temple - 21 May 2007.
 * Relics of Sariputra and Mahamoggallana - 2 April 2007.
 * Rewalsar (town) - 4 September 2006.
 * Shambala (song) - 7 January 2007.
 * Shenxiu - 18 March 2007.
 * Somapura Mahavihara - 12 August 2007.
 * Sutra of Forty-Two Chapters - 26 March 2007.
 * Tetsugen - 7 November 2006.
 * Thich Quang Duc - 20 August 2007.
 * Thich Tri Quang - 30 May 2007.
 * Tori Busshi - 8 November 2006.
 * Vihara (monastery) - 22 March 2007.
 * Xa Loi Pagoda raids - 23 August 2007.
 * Yasa - 14 April 2007.
 * Youguo Temple - 6 September 2007.
 * Yueh Hai Ching Temple - 17 April 2006.
 * Zayat - 7 June 2006.

Former featured articles

 * Buddhism
 * Buddhist art
 * End times
 * Greco-Buddhism
 * Uma Thurman

Former good articles

 * Chinese New Year
 * Kalachakra
 * Shentong
 * Tibetan Buddhist canon

Version 1.0 Editorial Team release version selections
The following articles have all been selected for one or more release versions of wikipedia. Please help ensure that they remain of the highest possible quality.
 * Angkor Wat
 * Buddha
 * Buddhism
 * Buddhist art
 * Gautama Buddha
 * Greco-Buddhism
 * History of Buddhism
 * Jack Kerouac
 * Kabul
 * Mahayana
 * Matsuo Bashō
 * Michael Everson
 * Soul
 * Swastika
 * Tenzing Norgay
 * Theravada
 * Tiger Woods
 * Vajrayana

Bounties
$10.00 have been pledged to the Wikimedia Foundation for bringing Panini (grammarian) to FA status.

Awards


The Wheel of Dhamma The Wheel of Dhamma, introduced by User:Srkris is a special award, and unlike Barnstars, is granted through nomination and acclamation by the participants of this project.

Attention Wikiproject Buddhism participants: to nominate, or vote upon the nomination of another participant of this project who you feel has contributed in an extraordinary way to the improvement of Wikipedia's Buddhism articles, click here.

Current Nominees: Mind_meal

Hall of Fame
In special recognition by their fellow participants, for exemplary contributions to the presentation of Buddhism on Wikipedia which go above and beyond all expectations, the following extraordinary Wikipedians have been presented the Wikiproject Buddhism's highest award, the Wheel of Dhamma:

Userbox
Contributors can put this User WikiProject Buddhism to show that they are members of this project.

WikiProject Buddhism notice
Place this WikiProject notice WikiProject Buddhism at the top of an article's Talk page to direct editors to the WikiProject Buddhism for guidelines.

Discussion

 * Talk:Buddhism

Templates for Articles
...Forthcoming, hopefully/

Infobox:Buddhist teachers
I gave creating this template a shot (it's my first!) Template:Infobox Buddhist teacher - see what you think, and to see it in action, check out Thich Nhat Hanhs article. Please let me know if changes should be made. Nightngle 02:48, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

I also created an infobox for Buddhists, teachers or otherwise, at Template:Infobox Buddhist biography. (Mind meal (talk) 22:05, 25 January 2008 (UTC))

Some general examples:

 * Buddhism

Specific features and issues

 * Zen has an internal glossary. Should this feature be spread to other articles, or should there be a central glossary, or both?


 * Nagarjuna and Prajnaparamita feature tables comparing translations of texts. Does this feature seem sufficently valuable for us to make a standard of it?

Link to Dictionary of Pali Proper Names
An example for Jetavana:

Links to outside resources

 * Pāli Text Society Dictionary (Commonly and delightfully abbreviated "PTSD", or more commonly "PED")


 * Monier Monier-Williams's Sanskrit-English dictionary


 * Online interface to itrans. Choose "roman" for your language, and "html" for your output.


 * For Windows users who deal in devanagari and/or romanization on a regular basis, try Itranslator


 * RangjungYesheWiki


 * the Pali Dictionary of Proper Names is in the Public Domain (can be copied into Wikipedia) and has a lot of usefull material on the people and places that were around at the time of Buddha (according to Pali tradition).