This dissertation deals with the theme of social and historical continuity among a representative group of Burmese monks, the Shwegyin. The objective is to explain the dynamics through which Shwegyin monks, as both representative of and distinctive within the Theravada (Way of the Elders) Buddhist tradition, participate in the working out of Sasana (Dispensation)-oriented ideas, interpretations, and practices in communal interaction over sustained periods of time. To achieve that objective, the dissertation focuses on four topics: monastic administration and regulation; historical and biographical narratives; the legal ritual of ordination; and teaching the Abhidhamma (Fundamental Law). In addressing these topics, each chapter of the dissertation describes and analyzes images and practices of continuity among Shwegyin monks, with a view towards articulating, in detail, both Shwegyin and wider-Theravada understandings of that continuity. In the process, the dissertation illuminates the world of Burmese and Theravada Buddhism in new ways, while making an argument for an understanding of Buddhist ethics in terms of history and practice.
