CCS Faculty
Associate Professor, Department of Religion
Sakamaki Hall A-315; 956-4200
Office: Sakamaki Hall A-311; 956-8299
Email: poul@hawaii.edu

Professor Andersen’s research focuses on Daoist ritual traditions, both from a historical perspective and based on fieldwork among Daoist priests in southern Taiwan. He is the Director of the Daoist Iconography Project (DIP), an international collaborative research project which he has initiated at the Department of Religion in partnership with the Honolulu Academy of Arts. The purpose of this project is to create an electronic resource for research into Daoist images, shared with scholars and students around the world over the Internet. Professor Andersen is currently working on a book with the preliminary title Icon and Deity: The Status and Function of Images in Daoism.

China-Related Courses

• Rel 203: Understanding Chinese Religions
• Rel 476: Daoism in China
• Rel 495: Seminar on Daoist Iconography
• Rel 661B: Seminar on Chinese Religions

Publications

• The Method of Holding the Three Ones: A Taoist Manual of Meditation of the Fourth Century A.D. (Studies on Asian Topics, no. 1). Copenhagen: Curzon Press, 1980 (reprinted 1989).
• “The Practice of Bugang,” Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 5 (1989-1990), pp. 15-53.
• “Talking to the Gods: Visionary Divination in Early Taoism (the Sanhuang Tradition),” Taoist Resources 5, 1 (1994), pp. 1-24.
• “The Transformation of the Body in Taoist Ritual,” in Religious Reflections on the Human Body, ed. by Jane Marie Law, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995, pp. 181-202.
• Daode Jing: The Book of the Way and Its Power: Mysticism and Practical Wisdom in Ancient China (a translation of the Daode Jing into Danish). Copenhagen: Spektrum Forlag, 1999.
• The Demon Chained under Turtle Mountain: The History and Mythology of the Chinese River Spirit Wuzhiqi. Berlin: G H Verlag, 2001.
• “Concepts of Meaning in Chinese Ritual,” Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 12 (2001), pp. 155-183.
• “Taoist Ritual in the Shanghai Area,” in Ethnography in China Today. A Critical Assessment of Methods and Results, ed. by Daniel L. Overmyer, Taibei: Yuan-liou Publishing Co., 2002, pp. 263-283.
• Scriptures, Schools, and Forms of Practice in Daoism. A Berlin Symposium, ed. with Florian C. Reiter. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2005.
• The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang (with other authors), ed. by K. M. Schipper and Franciscus Verellen. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005.