Credit: Dan Marschka, LNP
They come from places such as China, India, Japan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Thailand, Indonesia and Turkey. There are bells, scrolls, items used in fortune-telling. There are prayer wheels and beads used for meditation.
Many of the items are estimated to be 30 to 50 years old.
Dr. Bill Puffenberger, professor of religion emeritus, has graciously donated more than 180 Asian religious artifacts to Elizabethtown College. He has been collecting them throughout his global travels. Brought to the College this winter, the artifacts are to be displayed in the fall of 2016.
Dr. Jeffery Long, professor of religion and Asian studies, hopes they can be used to teach students about Asian religious customs.
His generosity is very much in the spirit of the traditions that these items illustrate.”
“Religious traditions are not simply sets of abstract ideas,” said Long, “but are exceedingly rich in cultural and artistic expression. It helps bring the traditions alive if the students can see these things firsthand.”
Puffenberger, who retired from teaching at Elizabethtown College in the late 1990s, and his wife, Kitty, are planning to move and wanted to pass on his collection to the College before doing so.
Long, who has been the liaison for the move, has brought some of his own items into the College. Puffenberger’s collection, however, is much more extensive, as he has spent many years developing it.
Caryn Zwart, senior at Elizabethtown College, is thrilled by the donations. She is a religious studies major with a concentration in Asian studies. Thought she has mostly taken classes that revolve around Hinduism, she has studied all the religions of China and Japan, as well.
Currently, Zwart is working with Long on a summer project to research the history and religious and cultural significance of all of the donated items. “Most of them have been compiled from travels in Asia which is right in my specialty,” she said. “I personally am most excited to see the differences between some of the artifacts. From what I’ve seen on the catalog of the artifacts there are many of the same figures but made of different materials and gathered from different places in Asia.” She plans to categorize the items into groups that make it easier for researchers to find and examine them.
Many E-town students, including those taking classes in Dharma traditions or studying Islam, said Long, will see the implantation of the artifacts in class. “We hope to have a dedicated classroom where the artifacts are kept and stored in a way that allows them to be displayed and for me to remove them from time to time to use in teaching” said Long.
Long said he is thankful for Puffenberger’s pioneering spirit in the teaching of Asian spiritual traditions at Elizabethtown College. He is also grateful for “his generosity in passing on his collection to the College so future generations of students can benefit from it.
“His generosity is very much in the spirit of the traditions that these items illustrate.”