Reiko Ohnuma

Reiko Ohnuma is a specialist in the Buddhist traditions of South Asia, with a particular focus on narrative literature, hagiography, and the role and imagery of women, but also teaches courses on Hinduism. Ohnuma’s research uses Sanskrit and Pali narrative literature to explore themes of the body, motherhood, self-sacrifice, and human and animal nature in the Buddhist traditions of South Asia.

She is the author of three books, including, most recently, Unfortunate Destiny: Animals in the Indian Buddhist Imagination, published in 2017, which shows how premodern Buddhist literature uses nonhuman creatures to understand the nature of humanity. Her 2012 book, Ties That Bind: Maternal Imagery and Discourse in Indian Buddhism, looks at Buddhist literary depictions of motherhood and their relationship to the lived experience of mothers in premodern India. Head, Eyes, Flesh, Blood: Giving Away the Body in Indian Buddhist Literature, published in 2007, looks at the cultural impact of narratives of the Buddha’s self-sacrifice.

Ohnuma earned her BA from the University of California at Berkeley and went on to earn her MA and PhD from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.