Of Ancestors and Ghosts

In Buddhist cosmology, pretas make up one of several categories of rebirth. They are best known as "e;hungry ghosts,"e; pitiful beings with miniscule mouths and bloated stomachs whose state of extreme starvation is a result of stinginess and immorality in a former life. But they were not always portrayed in this way. Of Ancestors and Ghosts traces the construction of the Buddhist realm of the pret...