This dissertation examines the lives and experiences of Theravāda Buddhist novice monks on the eve of the twenty-first century. Based on ethnographic research conducted in Sri Lanka from 1998–2000, this dissertation explores Buddhist education, the processes by which monastic identity is formed, and understandings of social service amongst monks associated with a new monastic training institution established in the mid-1990s: the sāmanera training center.
By investigating conceptions of ideal monastic behavior and practice, this dissertation argues that the training centers' focus on pleasing the laity plays a primary role in shaping the novices' monastic identity. Moreover, for the head monks and founders of the centers, social engagement becomes reinterpreted as one of the principal factors contributing to the continuation of the Buddhist religion in Sri Lanka. In exploring the processes by which young boys enter the sangha and follow the training curriculum, this dissertation considers the pedagogical role that doing temple activities, performing rituals, and maintaining correct deportment play in the training of young boys as monastics. Through a close examination of two case studies of sāmanera training center graduates, this dissertation looks at how the novices' close ties with the laity ensure the novices' long-term commitment to the sangha . Finally, by considering the reasons behind the establishment of these new training centers and the ways in which the head monks and founders situate the centers within ongoing discourses of ideal monastic service, this dissertation assesses the effects of modernity on Sri Lankan religiosity and how shifting understandings of social service and notions of decline and revival play an important role in shaping the monks' vision of their role in society.
