History of Theravāda Buddhism in South-East Asia
History of Theravāda Buddhism in South-East Asia

Author: Kanai Lal Hazra

Publisher: Coronet Books

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 254

ISBN-13:

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Illustrations: 1 Map Description: Theravada Buddhism exists in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Burma, Siam (Thailand), Cambodia and in Laos. This form of Buddhism is the tie that binds Ceylon with all these countries of Couth-east Asia. The present book tries to show that Ceylon had strong cultural links with her neighbours in South-east Asia. From the eleventh century onwards the Sihala Sangha and Sihala Buddhism constitute a strong and vitalising force in the religious history of South-east Asia, and the Buddhist countries in South-east Asia looked on Ceylon as the fountainhead of Theravada Buddhism. This book also deals with the introduction and development of Buddhism in India. The chief aim of this book is to examine carefully and to evaluate historically the evidence in the primary sources relating to the religious ties that existed along the Theravada countries. This book will no doubt be helpful to those interested in the study of Buddhism and Buddhist culture in India as well as in South and South-east Asia.

The Ascendancy of Theravāda Buddhism in Southeast Asia
The Ascendancy of Theravāda Buddhism in Southeast Asia

Author: Praphōt ʻAtsawawirunhakān

Publisher: University of Washington Press

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13:

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This wide-ranging account of early Buddhism in Southeast Asia overthrows dominant theories among both Western and Asian Scholars. The author argues that Pali-based Buddhism was brought from India and Sri Lanka by merchants, monks, and pilgrims by the fourth century. Several schools flourished alongside Brahmanism, Mahayanism, and local spirit beliefs--in coexistence rather than conflict. There was no "conversion" to Theravada in the eleventh century as the school was already well established. Prapod draws on a broad range of source material including inscriptions, texts, archaeology, iconography, architecture, and anthropology from India, Sri Lanka, China, and the region itself. He highlights the lived tradition of religious practice rather than scriptural sources.

Esoteric Theravada
Esoteric Theravada

Author: Kate Crosby

Publisher: Shambhala Publications

Published: 2020-12-22

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 1611807948

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A groundbreaking exploration of a practice tradition that was nearly lost to history. Theravada Buddhism, often understood as the school that most carefully preserved the practices taught by the Buddha, has undergone tremendous change over time. Prior to Western colonialism in Asia—which brought Western and modernist intellectual concerns, such as the separation of science and religion, to bear on Buddhism—there existed a tradition of embodied, esoteric, and culturally regional Theravada meditation practices. This once-dominant traditional meditation system, known as borān kammatthāna, is related to—yet remarkably distinct from—Vipassana and other Buddhist and secular mindfulness practices that would become the hallmark of Theravada Buddhism in the twentieth century. Drawing on a quarter century of research, scholar Kate Crosby offers the first holistic discussion of borān kammatthāna, illuminating the historical events and cultural processes by which the practice has been marginalized in the modern era.

Buddhism Illuminated
Buddhism Illuminated

Author: San San May

Publisher: University of Washington Press

Published: 2018-05-01

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 0295744499

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Buddhist temples in Southeast Asia are centers for the preservation of local artistic traditions. Chief among these are manuscripts, a vital source for our understanding of Buddhist ideas and practices in the region. They are also a beautiful art form, too little understood in the West. The British Library has one of the richest collections of Southeast Asian manuscripts, principally from Thailand and Burma, anywhere in the world. It includes finely painted copies of Buddhist scriptures, literary works, historical narratives, and works on traditional medicine, law, cosmology, and fortune-telling. Buddhism Illuminated includes over one hundred examples of Buddhist art from the Library’s collection, relating each manuscript to Theravada tradition and beliefs, and introducing the historical, artistic, and religious contexts of their production. It is the first book in English to showcase the beauty and variety of Buddhist manuscript art and reproduces many works that have never before been photographed.

The Buddhist World of Southeast Asia
The Buddhist World of Southeast Asia

Author: Donald K. Swearer

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2012-02-01

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 1438432526

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An unparalleled portrait, Donald K. Swearer's Buddhist World of Southeast Asia has been a key source for all those interested in the Theravada homelands since the work's publication in 1995. Expanded and updated, the second edition offers this wide ranging account for readers at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Swearer shows Theravada Buddhism in Southeast Asia to be a dynamic, complex system of thought and practice embedded in the cultures, societies, and histories of Thailand, Myanmar (Burma), Laos, Cambodia, and Sri Lanka. The work focuses on three distinct yet interrelated aspects of this milieu. The first is the popular tradition of life models personified in myths and legends, rites of passage, festival celebrations, and ritual occasions. The second deals with Buddhism and the state, illustrating how King Asoka serves as the paradigmatic Buddhist monarch, discussing the relationship of cosmology and kingship, and detailing the rise of charismatic Buddhist political leaders in the postcolonial period. The third is the modern transformation of Buddhism: the changing roles of monks and laity, modern reform movements, the role of women, and Buddhism in the West.

Constituting Communities
Constituting Communities

Author: John Clifford Holt

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2012-02-01

Total Pages: 233

ISBN-13: 0791487059

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Constituting Communities explores how community functions within Theravāda Buddhist culture. Although the dominant focus of Buddhist studies for the past century has been on doctrinal and philosophical issues, this volume concentrates on discourses that produced them, and why and how these discourses and practices shaped Theravāda communities in South and Southeast Asia. From a variety of perspectives, including historical, literary, doctrinal and philosophical, and social and anthropological, the contributors explore the issues that have proven important and definitive for identifying what it has meant, individually and socially, to be Buddhist in this particular region. The book focuses on textual discourse, how communities are formed and maintained within pluralistic contexts, and the formation of community both within and between the monastic and lay settings.

Early Theravadin Cambodia
Early Theravadin Cambodia

Author: Ashley Thompson

Publisher: National University of Singapore Press

Published: 2022-02-28

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 9789813251496

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A crucial reference for historians of Southeast Asia and those with a serious interest in the Buddhism and Buddhist art of Southeast Asia. What explains the spread of Theravada Buddhism? And how is it entangled with the identity shifts that over the next four hundred years gave rise to the Buddhist state now called Cambodia? Early Theravadin Cambodia sheds light on one of the outstanding questions of Southeast Asian history: the nature and timing of major cultural and political shifts in the territory that was to become Cambodia, starting in the 13th century. This important collection challenges the conventional picture of Theravada as taking root in the void left by the collapse of Angkor and its Hindu-Buddhist power structure. Written by a diverse group of scholars from Cambodia, Thailand, the United States, France, Australia, and Japan, this volume is a sustained, collaborative discussion of evidence from art and archaeology, and how it relates to questions of Buddhist history, regional exchange networks, and ethnopolitical identities. Accessibly written and vividly illustrated, the book will be a crucial reference for historians of Southeast Asia and scholars of Buddhism.

Theravada Buddhism
Theravada Buddhism

Author: Asanga Tilakaratne

Publisher: University of Hawaii Press

Published: 2012-09-30

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 0824837290

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This book brings to life the age-old religious tradition of Theravada (literally, “view of the elders”) Buddhism as it is found in ancient texts and understood and practiced today in South and Southeast Asia. Following a brief introduction to the life of the historical Buddha and the beginning of his mission, the book examines the Triple Gem (the Buddha, his teachings, and the community of monastic followers) and the basic teachings of the Buddha in the earliest available Pali sources. Basic Buddhist concepts such as dependent co-origination, the four noble truths, the three trainings, and karma and its result are discussed in non-technical language, along with the Buddha’s message on social wellbeing. The author goes on to chronicle his own involvement as an observer-participant in “the Theravada world,” where he was born and raised. His is a rare first-hand account of living Theravada Buddhism not only in its traditional habitats, but also in the world at large at the dawn of the twenty-first century. He concludes with a discussion on what is happening to Theravada today across the globe, covering issues such as diaspora Buddhism, women’s Buddhism, and engaged Buddhism. The book’s accessible language and clear explication of Theravada doctrine and texts make this an ideal introduction for the student and general reader.

Theravada Buddhism in Colonial Contexts
Theravada Buddhism in Colonial Contexts

Author: Thomas Borchert

Publisher: Routledge Critical Studies in Buddhism

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 476

ISBN-13: 9781138084278

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Over the course of the nineteenth century, most of the Theravada world of Southeast Asia came under the colonial domination of European powers. While this has long been seen as a central event in the development of modern forms of Theravada Buddhism, most discussions have focused on specific Buddhist communities or nations, and particularly their resistance to colonialism. The chapters in this book examine the many different colonial contexts and regimes that Theravada Buddhists experienced, not just those of European powers such as the British, French, but also the internal colonialism of China and Thailand. They show that while many Buddhists resisted colonialism, other Buddhists shared agendas with colonial powers, such as for the reform of the monastic community. They also show that in some places, such as Singapore and Malaysia, colonialism enabled the creation of Theravada Buddhist communities. The book demonstrates the importance of thinking about colonialism both locally and regionally. Providing a new understanding of the breadth of experiences of Theravada and colonialism across Asia., this book will be of interest to scholars in the field of Buddhist Studies, Asian History, Comparative World History, Southeast Asian Studies and Religious Studies.

Theravada Traditions
Theravada Traditions

Author: John Clifford Holt

Publisher: University of Hawaii Press

Published: 2017-03-31

Total Pages: 409

ISBN-13: 0824872452

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Theravada Traditions offers a unique comparative approach to understanding Buddhism: it examines popular rituals of central importance in the predominantly Theravada Buddhist cultures of Laos, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, and Cambodia. Instead of focusing on how religious ideas have impacted the ideals of government or ethical practice, author John Holt tries to ascertain how important changes, or shifts, in the trajectories of the political economies of societies have impacted the character of religious cultures. Each of the five chapters focuses on a particular rite and provides detailed historical, political, or social context: Holt shows how worship of the Phra Bang Buddha image in the annual pi mai or New Year’s rites in Luang Phrabang, Laos, has changed dramatically since the 1975 communist revolution and the subsequent opening up of the country to tourism; he describes how, in the face of insurrections and a prolonged civil war, the annual asala perahara processions in Kandy, Sri Lanka, have come to reflect a robust assertion of a Sinhala Buddhist nationalist identity; how ordination rites among Thai Buddhists reflect the manner in which Thai culture has been ever more “commodified” in the context of its dramatically developing economy; and how in tightly controlled Myanmar the kathina rite, the act of giving new robes to members of the sangha after the completion of the rain-retreat season, transformed into a season of campaigning for gift-giving and merit-making; finally, he demonstrates how, in light of the devastating losses inflicted by the Khmer Rouge, pchum ben, the annual rite of caring ritually for one’s deceased kin, became the most popular and perhaps most emotionally observed of all rites in the Khmer calendar year. In short, Theravada Traditions illustrates how popular, public ritual performance, far from being static, clearly indexes patterns of social and political change. Broad but deep, rigorous yet accessible, this rich, innovative volume provides a provocative introduction to the practice of Theravada Buddhism and the nature of social change in contemporary Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia.