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New Podcast Episode! Book Notes: Meir Shahar, "Kings of Oxen and Horses"
Meir Shahar talks about the cult worship of the “Ox King” and the “Horse King” in China. Working at the intersection of scriptural studies and field research, Shahar connects the two animal gods back to Sākyamuni and Avalokiteśvara through locally transmitted manuscripts and their Indic sources, and he describes the unorthodox Buddhist priests in Guizhou Province who perform rituals for draft animals using these textual manuals.
Kings of Oxen and Horses: Draft Animals, Buddhism, and Chinese Rural Religion (Columbia University Press, 2025). Interview by Miles Osgood.