Download or read book Culture of Ceylon in Mediaeval Times written by Wilhelm Geiger and published by . This book was released on 1986 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Relics Ritual and Representation in Buddhism written by Kevin Trainor and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1997-06-13 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Buddhist Precept Practice written by Richard F. Gombrich and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-11-12 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1995. This study is intended as a contribution to the empirical study of religion, and in particular to the study of religious change. Using empirical method of using documents, interviews and experiments the author tests his old hypotheses in order to formulate new ones that my lead him to the truth. He focusses on the distinctions used throughout this book, that are between what people say they believe and say they do, and what they really believe and really do, using his research of the Sinhalese Buddhists in Ceylon

Download or read book The Encyclopedia of the Sri Lankan Diaspora written by Peter Reeves and published by Editions Didier Millet. This book was released on 2013 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Well over a million people of Sri Lankan origin live outside South Asia. The Encyclopedia of the Sri Lanka Diaspora is the first comprehensive study of the lives, culture, beliefs and attitudes of immigrants and refugees from this island. The volume is a joint publication between the Institute of South Asian Studies, NUS, and Editions Didier Millet. It focuses on the relationship between culture and economy in the Sri Lanka diaspora in the context of globalisation, increased transnational culture flows and new communication technologies. In addition to the geographic mapping of the Sri Lanka diaspora in the various continents, thematic chapters include topics on “long distance nationalism”, citizenship, Sinhala, Tamil and Burgher disapora identities, religion and the spread of Buddhism, as well as the Sri Lankan cultural impact on other nations.

Download or read book Formations of Ritual written by David Scott and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 1994 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Formations of Ritual was first published in 1994. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions. Yaktovil is an elaborate healing ceremony employed by Sinhalas in Sri Lanka to dispel the effects of the eyesight of a pantheon of malevolent supernatural figures known as yakku. Anthropology, traditionally, has articulated this ceremony with the concept metaphor of "demonism." Yet, as David Scott demonstrates in this provocative book, this use of "demonism" reveals more about the discourse of anthropology than it does about the ritual itself. His investigation of yaktovil and yakku within the Sinhala cosmology is also an inquiry into the ways in which anthropology, by ignoring the discursive history of the rituals, religions, and relationships it seeks to describe, tends to reproduce ideological-often, specifically colonial-objects. To do this, Scott describes the discursive apparatus through which yakku are positioned in the moral universe of Sinhala, traces the appearance of yakku and yaktovil in Western discourse, evaluates the contribution of these figures and this ceremony in anthropology, and attempts to show how the larger anthropology of Buddhism, in which the anthropology of yaktovil is embedded, might be reconfigured. Finally, he offers a rereading of the ritual in terms of the historically selfconscious approach he proposes.The result points to a major rethinking of the historical nature not only of the objects, but also of the concepts through which they are constructed in anthropological discourse. David Scott teaches in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Chicago.

Download or read book The Buddha in Lanna written by Angela S. Chiu and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2017-03-31 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For centuries, wherever Thai Buddhists have made their homes, statues of the Buddha have provided striking testament to the role of Buddhism in the lives of the people. The Buddha in Lanna offers the first in-depth historical study of the Thai tradition of donation of Buddha statues. Drawing on palm-leaf manuscripts and inscriptions, many never previously translated into English, the book reveals the key roles that Thai Buddha images have played in the social and economic worlds of their makers and devotees from the fifteenth to twentieth centuries. Author Angela Chiu introduces stories from chronicles, histories, and legends written by monks in Lanna, a region centered in today’s northern Thailand. By examining the stories’ themes, structures, and motifs, she illuminates the complex conceptual and material aspects of Buddha images that influenced their functions in Lanna society. Buddha images were depicted as social agents and mediators, the focal points of pan-regional political-religious lineages and rivalries, indeed, as the very generators of history itself. In the chronicles, Buddha images also unified the Buddha with the northern Thai landscape, thereby integrating Buddhist and local conceptions of place. By comparing Thai Buddha statues with other representations of the Buddha, the author underscores the contribution of the Thai evidence to a broader understanding of how different types of Buddha representations were understood to mediate the “presence” of the Buddha. The Buddha in Lanna focuses on the Thai Buddha image as a part of the wider society and history of its creators and worshippers beyond monastery walls, shedding much needed light on the Buddha image in history. With its impressive range of primary sources, this book will appeal to students and scholars of Buddhism and Buddhist art history, Thai studies, and Southeast Asian religious studies.

Download or read book The City As a Sacred Center written by Bardwell L. Smith and published by BRILL. This book was released on 1987-01-01 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Dis connected Empires written by Zoltán Biedermann and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2018 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: (Dis)connected Empires takes the reader on a global journey to explore the triangle formed during the sixteenth century between the Portuguese empire, the empire of Kotte in Sri Lanka, and the Catholic Monarchy of the Spanish Habsburgs. It explores nine decades of connections, cross-cultural diplomacy, and dialogue, to answer one troubling question: why, in the end, did one side decide to conquer the other? To find the answer, Biedermann explores the imperial ideas that shaped the politics of Renaissance Iberia and sixteenth-century Sri Lanka. (Dis)connected Empires argues that, whilst some of these ideas and the political idioms built around them were perceived as commensurate by the various parties involved, differences also emerged early on. This prepared the ground for a new kind of conquest politics, which changed the inter-imperial game at the end of the sixteenth century. The transition from suzerainty-driven to sovereignty-fixated empire-building changed the face of Lankan and Iberian politics forever, and is of relevance to global historians at large. Through its scrutiny of diplomacy, political letter-writing, translation practices, warfare, and art, (Dis)connected Empires paints a troubling panorama of connections breeding divergence and leading to communicational collapse. It examines a key chapter in the pre-history of British imperialism in Asia, highlighting how diplomacy and mutual understandings can, under certain conditions, produce conquest.

Download or read book Buddhist Spirituality Vol 1 Indian Southeast Asian Tibetan Early Chinese written by Takeuchi Yoshinori and published by Motilal Banarsidass Publishe. This book was released on 1994-12-31 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The present volume is part of a series entitled World Spirituality: An Encyclopedic History of the Religious Quest, which seeks to present the spiritual wisdom of the human race in its historical unfolding. The volume presents the richness of the spiritual heritage of the human race and designed to reflect the autonomy of the traditional in its historical development.

Download or read book The Work of Kings written by H. L. Seneviratne and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Work of Kings is a stunning new look at the turbulent modern history and sociology of the Sri Lankan Buddhist Monkhood and its effects upon contemporary society. Using never-before translated Sinhalese documents and extensive interviews with monks, Sri Lankan anthropologist H.L. Seneviratne unravels the inner workings of this New Buddhism and the ideology on which it is based. Beginning with Anagarika Dharmapala's "rationalization" of Buddhism in the early twentieth century, which called for monks to take on a more activist role in the community, Seneviratne shows how the monks have gradually revised their role to include involvement in political and economic spheres. The altruistic, morally pure monks of Dharamapala's dreams have become, Seneviratne trenchantly argues, self-centered and arrogant, concealing self-aggrandizement behind a façade of "social service." A compelling call for reform and a forceful analysis, The Work of Kings is essential to anthropologists, historians of religion, and those interested in colonialism, nationalism, and postcolonial politics.

Download or read book From Majapahit and Sukuh to Megawati Sukarnoputri written by Victor M. Fic and published by Abhinav Publications. This book was released on 2003 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Central Thesis Of This Book Maintains That The Need To Preserve Pluralism In Indonesia, And The High Price Paid By Its People Anytime Pluralism Had Been Trampled Upon In The Past, Are The Two Essential Aspects Of Their Historical Experience. This Thesis Is Particularly Relevant For The People Of Indonesia Today As They Are Grappling With The Problems Of National Unity And Transition To A Modem Pluralistic Democracy. Two Parts Of This Book Articulate This Thesis. Part I Explains The Origin Of The Hindu-Buddhist Dualism During The Srivijaya And Sailendra Periods In The Viii- Ix Centuries Ad. The Process Of Javanization Then Extended This Dualism By Incorporating Into The New Synthesis The Indigenous Ancestral And The Rsi Cults During The Majapahit Period, Particularly Under King Wuruki'Ls Rule From 1350 To 1389. This New Pluralism Was Further Extended By Absorbing Elements Of The Kalang/Palang Culture And The Bhima Cult, Culminating In The Grand Synthesis Of The Core Values Of The Hindu-Javanese Culture As Expressed By The Iconography Of Candi Sukuh Erected In 1437. Two Factors Are Identified As Contributing To The Decline And Then Demise Of Majapahit In 1527. First, Attempts By China To Build Its Own System Of Dependencies In Southeast Asia By Detaching From Majapahit Its Overseas Territories, And Then Its Intervention In The Dynastic Rivalries In Java During The Paregreg Civil War From 1400 To 1406. Second, The Penetration Of Islam From The Coastal Areas Of Majapahit Into Its Heartland, And The Gradual Establishment Of Its Hegemony Over The Core Values Of The Hindu-Javanese Civilization. Part Ii Of The Book Explores The Interaction Of Islam With The Deeply Rooted Substratum Of The Hindu-Javanese Values, And Then The Absorption Of Islam Into A New Synthesis And A Higher Form Of Pluralism Forged During The Long Process Of The Islamization Of Java And The Javanization Of Islam. This New Pluralism Was Further Enriched By Incorporating Various Strands Of Christianity During The Colonial Period. In Its Fmal Form This Pluralism Provided The Social Cohesion And The National Ethos And Consciousness Which Propelled Indonesia Towards Its Statehood And Independence In 1945, Leading To The Establish- Ment Of A Secular State To Accommodate The Imperatives Of This Higher Pluralism Under The State Doctrine Of The Pancasila. The Book Then Surveys The Post-Independence Period To Show How This Pluralism Fared Under The Successive Regimes Of Sukamo, Suharto, Habibie, Abdurrahman Wahid, And How It Fares Under Megawati Sukamoputri Today. The Survey Con- Cludes On A Sobering Note That Most Of The Problems Experi- Enced By These Regimes Had Their Roots In The Violation Of The Pluralistic Nature Of The Indonesian Society. In This Context There Is Little Doubt That The Continued Attempts Of Some Islamic Groups, Mostly Incited From Abroad, To Wage A Jihad For The Replacement Of The Existing Secular State By An Islamic One, Would Plunge The Country Into A Civil War Of The Paregreg Type. These Attempts Might Not Succeed Given The Rnilitaryns Staunch Commitment To The Pancasila And The Secular State. However The Cost Of Thwarting Them Would Be Very High.

Download or read book The Spread of Buddhism written by Ann Heirman and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2007-05-11 with total page 485 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book unravels some of the complex factors that allowed or hampered the presence of (certain aspects of) Buddhism in the regions to the north and the east of India, such as Central Asia, China, Tibet, Mongolia, or Korea.

Download or read book Buddhist Inflected Sovereignties across the Indian Ocean written by Anne M. Blackburn and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2024-01-31 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Buddhist-Inflected Sovereignties across the Indian Ocean draws attention to the varied, historically contingent, and sometimes competing, arguments for and about sovereignty that operated in the Pali arena during the first half of the second millennium AD. It was a time of expanding interaction within the Indian Ocean just prior to Portuguese colonial presence in Southern Asia. Developing a linked series of case studies and examining territories now subsumed within the nation-states of Sri Lanka, Burma/Myanmar, and Thailand, Blackburn examines sovereign arguments expressed textually, as well as in the built environment, by persons with an interest in the teachings and institutions associated with Gotama Buddha. These cases show that no single model of Buddhist-inflected sovereignty dominated the Pali arena during this time, and that there was no stable vision of “Buddhist kingship.” Rather, over time, there was an accrual of possible models and pathways for argumentation about how sovereigns could and should relate to buddha-sāsana. Taking inspiration from diverse sources transmitted through multiple forms and media, arguments for and about sovereignty in the Pali arena were contested and rapidly changing. As the Indian Ocean increasingly shaped the flow of people, objects, and ideas, more peoples and territories participated in the Pali arena, attracted by its intellectual and aesthetic resources. Drawing on extensive scholarship and a wide range of multilingual source materials from premodern Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, and Cambodia, Anne M. Blackburn develops innovative conclusions about the relationships between textuality, sovereignty, maritime connectivity, and material culture in each of these areas. The book contributes simultaneously to several fields of study: the intellectual history of Southern Asia, literary and historical scholarship on Buddhism, and historical studies of the Indian Ocean. By offering accessible yet in-depth analysis, Buddhist-Inflected Sovereignties across the Indian Ocean connects research fields and introduces new interpretive possibilities for the study of sovereignty, politics, premodern textual cultures, and Buddhism.

Download or read book Recueil Des Cours Collected Courses 1967 written by Académie de Droit International de la Haye and published by Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. This book was released on 1968 with total page 740 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Academy is a prestigious international institution for the study and teaching of Public and Private International Law and related subjects. The work of the Hague Academy receives the support and recognition of the UN. Its purpose is to encourage a thorough and impartial examination of the problems arising from international relations in the field of law. The courses deal with the theoretical and practical aspects of the subject, including legislation and case law. All courses at the Academy are, in principle, published in the language in which they were delivered in the "Collected Courses of the Hague Academy of International Law .

Download or read book Reading the Mah vamsa written by Kristin Scheible and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2016-11-08 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Vamsa is a dynamic genre of Buddhist history filled with otherworldly characters and the exploits of real-life heroes. These narratives collapse the temporal distance between Buddha and the reader, building an emotionally resonant connection with an outsized religious figure and a longed-for past. The fifth-century Pali text Mahavamsa is a particularly effective example, using metaphor and other rhetorical devices to ethically transform readers, to stimulate and then to calm them. Reading the Mahavamsa advocates a new, literary approach to this text by revealing its embedded reading advice (to experience samvega and pasada) and affective work of metaphors (the Buddha's dharma as light) and salient characters (nagas). Kristin Scheible argues that the Mahavamsa requires a particular kind of reading. In the text's proem, special instructions draw readers to the metaphor of light and the nagas, or salient snake-beings, of the first chapter. Nagas are both model worshippers and unworthy hoarders of Buddha's relics. As nonhuman agents, they challenge political and historicist readings of the text. Scheible sees these slippery characters and the narrative's potent and playful metaphors as techniques for refocusing the reader's attention on the text's emotional aims. Her work explains the Mahavamsa's central motivational role in contemporary Sri Lankan Buddhist and nationalist circles. It also speaks broadly to strategies of reading religious texts and to the internal and external cues that give such works lives beyond the page.

Download or read book Facets of Buddhist Thought written by K.N. Jayatilleke and published by Buddhist Publication Society. This book was released on 2009-01-01 with total page 509 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a brilliant account of of Theravada Buddhism and embraces a wide variety of themes ranging from the birth of Buddhism to the Buddha’s prophetic teachings regarding the future of mankind. Topics covered include, among many others, the background of early Buddhism; the significance of the Buddha’s birthday; the Buddhist doctrines of karma and reincarnation; the Buddhist conception of truth, good and evil, Nirvana, the individual, the universe and the material world; the Buddhist view of nature and destiny; Buddhism and the caste system; Buddhism and international law; and the contemporary relevance of the Buddha’s teachings to the modern world. Professor Jayatilleke always writes with both the scholar and the lay reader in mind. As a result, this is a highly readable and extremely penetrating book—and one that explores the roots and nature of the Buddha’s teachings and examines them in the light of contemporary knowledge. The present collection contains all essays earlier published in the book The Message of the Buddha, edited by Ninian Smart, as well as essays that were published the Wheel Publication series. Contents 1. Buddhism and the Scientific Revolution 2. The Historical Context of the Rise of Buddhism 3. The Buddhist Conception of Truth 4. The Buddhist Attitude to Revelation 5. The Buddhist Conception of Matter and the Material World 6. The Buddhist Analysis of Mind 7. The Buddhist Conception of the Universe 8. The Buddhist Attitude to God 9. Nibbana 10. The Buddhist View of Survival 11. The Buddhist Doctrine of Kamma 12. The Case for the Buddhist Theory of Karma and Survival 13. The Conditioned Genesis of the Individual 14. The Buddhist Ethical Ideal of the Ultimate Good 15. The Basis of Buddhist Ethics 16. The Buddhist Conception of Evil 17. The Criteria of Right and Wrong 18. The Ethical Theory of Buddhism 19. Some Aspects of the Bhagavad Gita and Buddhist Ethics 20. Toynbee’s Criticism of Buddhism 21. The Buddhist Attitude to Other Religions 22. Buddhism and Peace 23. The Significance of Vesakha 24. Buddhism and the Race Question 25. The Principles of International Law in Buddhist Doctrine

Download or read book Ceylon Journal of Historical and Social Studies written by and published by . This book was released on 1978 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: