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The Politics of Buddhist Revival: U Dhammaloka as Social Movement Organiser |
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| Author |
Cox, Laurence
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| Source |
Contemporary Buddhism: An Interdisciplinary Journal
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| Volume | v.11 n.2 |
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| Date | 2010.11 |
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| Pages | 173 - 227 |
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| Publisher | Routledge |
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| Publisher Url |
https://www.routledge.com/
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| Location | Abingdon, UK [阿賓登, 英國] |
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| Content type | 期刊論文=Journal Article |
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| Language | 英文=English |
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| Keyword | Buddhism & Politics; Social Movements; Atheism; Buddhism -- Customs & Practices |
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| Abstract | This article explores some important aspects of U Dhammaloka's Buddhism, drawing in particular on the work of his Rangoon-based Buddhist Tract Society between 1907 and 1910. It explores his work—in the Society and more generally—as in effect a social movement organiser within the Buddhist Revival, looking at his funders, publishers, printers, translators and distributors as well as those who wrote about him, laid down their hair for him to walk on, covered his train or boat fares, put up his friends in monasteries or let them cross borders, and so forth. It also looks at what we know about his organisations and involvement in other people's organisations, asking who he intended to mobilise and who his audience was, how his use of confrontation and polemic fitted into this, and how successful he was. Following this, it goes on to discuss the intellectual sources of the free-thinking (atheist) positions espoused in the Society's publications, and asks more generally how his posture can be located in relation to the politics of plebeian freethought in Ireland, Britain, the USA and Asia. These questions arose out of an attempt to shed some light on the missing half-century before Dhammaloka became a public Buddhist figure; while the article can give no definite answers in terms of organising experience, intellectual inheritance or formative backgrounds, it suggests an alternative perspective that highlights a substantial, internationally connected 'Workers' University', grounded in the freethinking cultures of self-taught plebeian radicals, at the roots of western Buddhism. |
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| Table of contents | Introduction: the search for Dhammaloka 173
Who was Dhammaloka? 173
Scholarly questions and hobo answers 175
(I) Dhammaloka as social movement organiser 177
Dhammaloka as publisher: the Buddhist Tract Society and before 177
Warning to Buddhists 178
Foundation of the Buddhist Tract Society 179
Organisational implications of Dhammaloka’s publishing 182
Building the Buddhist revival 183
Organisational strengths and weaknesses 184
The Novice’s Prayer 187
Dhammaloka’s organising style 189
(II) Dhammaloka and plebeian freethought 190
Freethought connections 193
1. Thomas Paine (1908 –1909) 194
2. Anonymous (1909) 195
3. Sophie/Sophia Egoroff (1909) 195
4. George W Brown (1910) 196
5. Anon. The Famous Decree (1910) 197
6. Wm Emmette Coleman (by 1910) 197
7. Robert Blatchford [‘Nunquam’ of The Clarion] (pre-1914) 198
8. John Remsburg (no date) 199
(III) The cultures of plebeian freethought: where did Dhammaloka learn his trade? 200
Mainland Britain 203
Freethought and working-class clubs 205
Ireland and England 206
Spiritualism and plebeian radicalism 207
The United States 208
Freethought in Asia 209
The search continues 210
Conclusion: the great unwashed and the many-headed hydra 211
The view from above 213
The last word to Dhammaloka 214
Acknowledgements 220
Notes 220
References 224 |
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| ISSN | 14639947 (P); 14767953 (E) |
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| DOI | 10.1080/14639947.2010.530071 |
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| Hits | 342 |
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| Created date | 2011.03.17 |
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| Modified date | 2017.06.30 |
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