Scholars in the humanities have seen an “Animal Turn” in contemporary Western-language scholarship in the past two decades. In particular, there has been a boom in the study of the relationship between animals and religions, mostly with regard to the Abrahamic religions. However, for a comprehensive understanding of the sophisticated relationships between animals and religions, more studies of this topic are needed in the so-called Global South. Reiko Ohnuma's new book, Unfortunate Destiny, makes a crucial contribution to current discussion on animals in religions, particularly Buddhism.

Ohnuma demonstrates how a close reading of Buddhist narratives as a method of traditional textual study can reveal the complexity of animals’ participation in human religious life. She successfully introduces some new issues from the perspectives of material culture and effect studies, discussing the roles the description of colors and sounds of animals have in Buddhist narratives for invoking religious feelings and emotions. The book's three parts are divided into seven chapters, with an appendix listing animal rebirths.

Part one has two chapters. Drawing mostly upon various Buddhist sutras, chapter 1 demonstrates that the Buddhist view of animals does not differ from that of the West. In the Buddhist doctrinal and cosmological framework, animals are ontologically inferior to humans in terms of their mental faculties, moral agency, and spiritual potential, lacking language, reason, intelligence, wisdom, and insight. Chapter 2 analyzes stories about the spiritual life of several animals in Buddhist texts and argues that some animals, as Buddhist converts in Buddhist discourses, are capable of catapulting up the karmic hierarchy to be reborn into the highest heavenly realm; however, the animals’ abilities of moral agency, self-cultivation, and enlightenment can only be gained by a denial of their animality.

Part two turns to the Jātaka stories to discuss the animality of animals in the complexity of Buddhist discourses, while also attending to the rhetorical and didactic functions of animals as allegorical human beings in the early Buddhist imaginary. In this section, Ohnuma is primarily concerned about how, in the stories, animals are given voices to speak about the suffering of animals and humans. Chapter 3 explores themes of the cruel and abusive treatment of animals by humans, who cook, eat, hunt, sacrifice, punish, and execute them. By comparing the Buddhist case with the execution of animals in the early modern West, Ohnuma reveals that, in Buddhist rhetoric, dogs were sometimes given powers of speech, rational argument, and legal reasoning to advocate their case in order to preserve Buddhist justice. She highlights an important distinction between the individual and whole species of animals as revealed in Buddhist discourse, and reminds us that one narrative could translate ordinary animal sound into human language to illuminate the Buddhist morality of defending animals. Chapter 4 examines the Bodhisattva as an animal to illustrate his virtues of wisdom, compassion, and generosity as a savior. This is a departure from the human-centered perspective, and Ohnuma argues that, in some stories, the animal was depicted in Buddhist narratives as a thinking, speaking, and rational being in order to condemn the wickedness of human beings.

The three chapters in part three are case studies of the unique roles of animals as the animal doubles of the Buddha. For Ohnuma, these animals are named and individualized, and therefore cannot be viewed as generic representatives of the animal species. Furthermore, these animals played unique roles in the life-story of the Buddha, which marked some turning points in his spiritual journey. Chapter 5 offers a detailed discussion on the role of the horse Kanthaka, based on many different versions of the Buddha's life-stories. Ohnuma argues that Kanthaka plays multiple roles in the Buddha's renunciation experience; Kanthaka not only served as the symbol of the Buddha's final link with this worldly life as he rode him for his great departure and left him for an ascetic life in the forest, he also served as a sacralized sacrificial animal upon the Buddha's going-forth, as well as a scapegoat when the horse returned to the city. Chapter 6 deals with the parallelism between the Buddha and the elephant Pārileyyaka and argues that the latter was portrayed as the mirror of the former, who appeared as consummate renouncer and teacher in contrast to the monastic assembly. However, Ohnuma suggests that the elephant was still submissive to humans in the Buddhist discourse. The Buddha still maintained his dominance over animals, the world of nature, and even the cosmic world. In the last chapter, Ohnuma presents the story of the Buddha's taming of the maddened elephant Nālāgiri and argues that this animal served as a billboard for the Buddha's power, charisma, and masculinity. Finally, she analyzes the complicated relationships among the lion, elephant, and jackal in the stories of the Buddha by suggesting that the lion is associated with the Buddha's preaching of the dharma, the elephant is associated with the Buddha's awakening, and the jackal refers to miserable, lower sentient beings.

Unfortunate Destiny is admirably lucid in its writing style, and should become an ideal and popular choice for teaching courses on the relationships between animals and religions.