Site mapAbout usConsultative CommitteeAsk LibrarianContributionCopyrightCitation GuidelineDonationHome        

CatalogAuthor AuthorityGoogle
Search engineFulltextScripturesLanguage LessonsLinks
 


Extra service
Tools
Export
Buddhist Learning and Textual Practice in Eighteenth-Century Lankan Monastic Culture
Author Blackburn, Anne M.
Date2001.06.01; 2003.01.17
Pages256
PublisherPrinceton University Press
Publisher Url http://pup.princeton.edu/
LocationPrinceton, NJ, US [普林斯顿, 紐澤西州, 美國]
Content type書籍=Book
Language英文=English
Note-; Series:Buddhisms.
KeywordHistory of Buddhism in Sri Lanka, 18th Century; History of Buddhist Monasticism and Orders in Sri Lanka, 18th Century;
AbstractAnne Blackburn explores the emergence of a predominant Buddhist monastic culture in eighteenth-century Sri Lanka, while asking larger questions about the place of monasticism and education in the creation of religious and national traditions. Her historical analysis of the Siyam Nikaya, a monastic order responsible for innovations in Buddhist learning, challenges the conventional view that a stable and monolithic Buddhism existed in South and Southeast Asia prior to the advent of British colonialism in the nineteenth century. The rise of the Siyam Nikaya and the social reorganization that accompanied it offer important evidence of dynamic local traditions. Blackburn supports this view with fresh readings of Buddhist texts and their links to social life beyond the monastery.
Comparing eighteenth-century Sri Lankan Buddhist monastic education to medieval Christian and other contexts, the author examines such issues as bilingual commentarial practice, the relationship between clerical and "popular" religious cultures, the place of preaching in the constitution of "textual communities," and the importance of public displays of learning to social prestige. Blackburn draws upon indigenous historical narratives, which she reads as rhetorical texts important to monastic politics and to the naturalization of particular attitudes toward kingship and monasticism. Moreover, she questions both conventional views on "traditional" Theravadin Buddhism and the "Buddhist modernism" / "Protestant Buddhism" said to characterize nineteenth-century Sri Lanka. This book provides not only a pioneering critique of post-Orientalist scholarship on South Asia, but also a resolution to the historiographic impasse created by post-Orientalist readings of South Asian history.

Table of contents
Chapter One. "Destroying the Thick Darkness of Wrong Beliefs"
Chapter Two. Contextualizing Monasticism
Chapter Three. Marks of Distinction
Chapter Four. "They Were Scholars and Contemplative"
Chapter Five. "He Benefited the World and the Sasana"
Chapter Six. Readers, Preachers, and Listeners
Chapter Seven. "Let Us Serve Wisdom"
Appendix A. Contents of the Monastic Handbook Attributed to Saranamkara
Appendix B. Level Four Subject Areas and Texts
Appendix C. Siyam Nikaya Temple Manuscript Collections
Appendix D. List of Manuscripts Brought from Siam in 1756
ISBN069107044X (hc)
Hits318
Created date2001.11.04; 2003.01.17



Best viewed with Chrome, Firefox, Safari(Mac) but not supported IE

Notice

You are leaving our website for The full text resources provided by the above database or electronic journals may not be displayed due to the domain restrictions or fee-charging download problems.

Record correction

Please delete and correct directly in the form below, and click "Apply" at the bottom.
(When receiving your information, we will check and correct the mistake as soon as possible.)

Serial No.
344441

Search History (Only show 10 bibliography limited)
Search Criteria Field Codes
Search CriteriaBrowse