This book is a serious study of relic veneration among South Asian Buddhists. Drawing on textual sources and archaeological evidence from India and Sri Lanka, including material rarely examined in the West, it looks specifically at the practice of relic veneration in the Sri Lankan Theravada Buddhist tradition. The author portrays relic veneration as a technology of remembrance and representation which makes present the Buddha of the past for living Buddhists. By analysing the abstract ideas, emotional orientation and ritual behaviour centred on the Buddha's material remains, he contributes to the 'rematerializing' of Buddhism which is currently under way among Western scholars. This book is an excellent introduction to Buddhist relics. It is well written and accessible and will be read by scholars and serious students of Buddhism and religious studies for years to come.
目次
Acknowledgments x List of abbreviations xii 1. Orientations 1 2. Buddhist relic veneration in India 32 3. Relics and the establishment of the Buddhist sasana in Sri Lanka 66 4. Paradigms of presence 96 5. Ritual and the presence of the Buddha 136 Epilogue 189 Bibliography 198 Index 219
