Theravada Traditions

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Clifford Holt
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Religious Culture ◽  
Theravada Buddhism ◽  
Ethical Practice ◽  
Basic Premise ◽  
Religious Cultures

This is a study of very popular ritual celebrations observed by Buddhist monks and laity in each of the predominantly Theravada Buddhist cultures in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia (Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia.) The theoretical approach deployed and guides the reader through the distinctiveness of each culture is comparative in nature, and the basic premise that angles the inquiry is that widely observed public rites common to each religious culture reflect the nature of social, economic and political change occurring more broadly in society. Instead of ascertaining how religious ideas have impacted the ideals of government or ethical practice, this study focuses on how important changes, or shifts in the trajectories of society impact the character of religious cultures. In each of the five chapters that focus specifically on a given rite of great public importance, an historical, political or social context is provided in some detail. As such, this volume can be read effectively as one volume introduction to the practice of Theravada Buddhism and the nature of social change in contemporary Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. L. Cassaniti
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Psychiatric Hospital ◽  
Therapeutic Interventions ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Cultural Environment ◽  
Theravada Buddhism ◽  
South And Southeast Asia ◽  
Mindfulness Practices ◽  
Theoretical Project

This chapter introduces the landscape of mindfulness practices in the regions of South and Southeast Asia, where people overwhelmingly follow the kind of Theravāda Buddhism from which the modern mindfulness movement emerged. The chapter begins with a question: what kind of mindfulness-based therapeutic interventions are and could be used in a Thai psychiatric hospital, as part of a broader Buddhist cultural environment? It answers this question by introducing the methodological and theoretical project of Remembering the Present, including an overview of the interview and survey-based ethnographic research into sati with over 600 psychiatrists, monks, students, and villagers in Thailand, Burma, and Sri Lanka. It also previews some of the central findings of the book, in relation to what the author calls the TAPES of mindfulness: the ways that people frame mindfulness culturally around issues of Temporality, Affect, Power, Ethics, and Selfhood.

Educating Monks

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas A. Borchert
Keyword(s):  
High Schools ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
Junior High Schools ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
The Political ◽  
Theravada Buddhism ◽  
National Politics ◽  
Reform Era ◽  
And Training

Educating Monks examines the education and training of novices and young Buddhist monks of a Tai minority group on China’s Southwest border. The Buddhists of this region, the Dai-lue, are Chinese citizens but practice Theravada Buddhism and have long-standing ties to the Theravāda communities of Southeast Asia. The book shows how Dai-lue Buddhists train their young men in village temples, monastic junior high schools and in transnational monastic educational institutions, as well as the political context of redeveloping Buddhism during the Reform era in China. While the book focuses on the educational settings in which these young boys are trained, it also argues that in order to understand how a monk is made, it is necessary to examine local agenda, national politics and transnational Buddhist networks.

The phylogenetic position of the enigmatic Assam day gecko Cnemaspis cf. assamensis (Squamata: Gekkonidae) demonstrates a novel biogeographic connection between Northeast India and south India-Sri Lanka

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Ishan Agarwal ◽  
Rachunliu G. Kamei ◽  
Stephen Mahony
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
South Asian ◽  
South India ◽  
Northeast India ◽  
Phylogenetic Position ◽  
Phylogenetic Studies ◽  
Molecular Phylogenetic ◽  
Nd2 Gene ◽  
Isolated Species

Abstract Northeast Indian biodiversity has long been considered to have a stronger affinity to Southeast Asian rather than Peninsular Indian fauna, however, few molecular phylogenetic studies have explored this hypothesis. In Asia, the polyphyletic gekkonid genus Cnemaspis sensu lato is comprised of two distantly related groups; one primarily from South Asia with some members in Southeast Asia, and the other exclusively from Southeast Asia. Cnemaspis assamensis is a systematically obscure and geographically isolated species (>1400 km from its nearest congeners) from the Brahmaputra River Valley in Northeast India. We provide the first molecular phylogenetic assessment of this species based on a partial ND2 gene fragment. Cnemaspis assamensis is determined to be a deeply divergent (Oligocene) member of the South Asian radiation and is sister to the podihuna clade which is endemic to Sri Lanka. The biogeographic implications of this find are discussed and this is suspected to represent a rare example of true disjunction between the wet zones of Northeast India and southern India/Sri Lanka. These results further emphasise the importance of Northeast India as a refuge for unique ancient faunal lineages.

Religion and Commerce in Southeast Asia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Watson Andaya
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Comparative Approach ◽  
Religious Change ◽  
Theravada Buddhism ◽  
13Th Century ◽  
Late 20Th Century ◽  
Timor Leste

Southeast Asia includes eleven countries, although this contemporary configuration disguises significant differences, especially in regard to religion and economic status. Theravada Buddhism is dominant in the “mainland” countries of Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos, while Vietnam is influenced by the religious and intellectual traditions of China, including Mahayana Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism. In the “island” areas (Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia, and Timor Leste/Timor Lorosae), the dominant faiths are Islam and Christianity (the latter a majority in the Philippines, Timor Leste, and parts of the eastern Indonesian archipelago), with Bali retaining a localized form of Hinduism. There are also marked economic differences. Singapore and Brunei are among the world’s richest countries, with Laos and Timor Leste among the poorest. Despite this diversity, a regional theme concerns the interaction between religious change and commerce. A chronological and comparative approach that moves from early times to the present day shows that ideas about relationships to the cosmos have developed in tandem with expanding commerce. Although this relationship has never been static, the aim of establishing a beneficial interaction with the supranatural world remains a basic human goal. During the 1st millennium ce the rise of new polities, combined with increasing overland and maritime trade, encouraged the adoption and adaption of incoming religions, notably Hinduism and Buddhism. The 13th century marks the beginning of a new phase with the spread of Theravada Buddhism on the mainland and Islam and subsequently Christianity in the island world. The commerce-religion nexus, though still present, is less evident from the mid-19th century to World War II, when all of Southeast Asia except for Thailand was under colonial control. From the late 20th century transnational trade has allied with religious resurgence, generating new and dynamic forms of engaging with nonhuman forces.

Taking Dumont to Southeast Asia

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ward Keeler
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
The Other ◽  
Insight Into

Louis Dumont’s analysis of hierarchy in South Asia provides insight into how hierarchical assumptions inform social relations in Burma. Although Burmese society lacks caste, it still organizes everyone’s social relations on the principle that individuals enter into relationships because of their differences, and every relationship will place one person in a position of superiority, the other as subordinate. Benedict Anderson’s work on charisma in Java complements Dumont’s work by showing how assuming that power comes from above encourages people to subordinate themselves to concentrations of power. Marina Warner’s analysis of tales makes it clear that people who are structurally weak have no choice but to try to establish themselves as dependents of powerful others. Kapferer’s work in Sri Lanka provides further guidance for adapting Dumont’s analysis of hierarchy to other contexts outside India.

Electronic Highways in Southeast Asia

2011 ◽  
pp. 57-80
Author(s):  
Loong Wong
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Public Confidence ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
New Information ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Face ◽  
Crony Capitalism ◽  
Information And Communication

New information and communication technologies (ICTs), it is argued is transformative, and governments all over the world have sought to incorporate it into their development desideratum. It is clear that ICTs have transformed social, economic, and political practices and this certainly is true for Southeast Asia. In the context of Southeast Asia, it is particularly salient for it provided avenues for new political movements and expressions in the face of predominantly authoritarian regimes. Via the new ICTs, people were able to communicate freely and oppositional forces could be readily mobilized. This assertion of political rights threatened the status quo and the ruling political elites’ hold on power. This was compounded by a crisis in public confidence as Southeast Asian economies found themselves caught in the maelstrom of a financial crisis precipitated by the loss of investment confidence and crony capitalism. As the crisis intensified and spread, its political fallout became clear. Governments have to accommodate and make way for social, economic, and political changes. In this chapter, the author seeks to examine

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