The Historical Context and Characteristics of Theravada Buddhism Cultural Communication Between Yunnan and Southeast Asia

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 93-110
Author(s):  
Xiaofen Liang ◽  
Xing Gao
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Cultural Communication ◽  
Theravada Buddhism

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.

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.

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.

Southeast Asia: Historical Context

2017 ◽  
pp. 17-33
Author(s):  
Alice D. Ba ◽  
Mark Beeson ◽  
Robert Cribb
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Historical Context

Southeast Asian Refugees in North America

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl L. Bankston
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
North America ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Rapid Growth ◽  
Khmer Rouge ◽  
The United States ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Theravada Buddhism ◽  
Southeast Asian Refugees ◽  
American Society

Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia have historically been nations with large Buddhist populations. While Mahāyāna Buddhism predominates in Vietnam, most people in Cambodia and Laos have been dedicated to Theravāda Buddhism. In 1975, these three countries came under the domination of Communist governments, which had earlier been in conflict with factions militarily supported by the United States. This led to the beginnings of the massive movement of refugees from Southeast Asia to North America. An especially radical regime had taken power in Cambodia, and after war broke out between Cambodia and Vietnam the flow of refugees became a flood. All of the new governments of these countries were hostile to independent religious organizations and practices. The Khmer Rouge in power in Cambodia took its antagonism to religion to an extreme, attempting to violently eradicate traditional Buddhist practices and institutions. As refugees settled in ever-greater numbers in North America and other locations, they established Buddhist temples and other organizations in the new homelands. In consequence, Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Lao communities in the United States and Canada have also become sites for the rapid growth of North American Buddhism. Southeast Asian Buddhism has become a part of a pluralistic religious environment, adding new rites, celebrations, and cultural activities to American society. Buddhism has also played a central part in maintaining ethnic identity among refugee populations and their descendants, as well as in helping Buddhists adapt to life under changing circumstances.

Theravada Buddhism and Village Economic Behavior: A Burmese and Thai Comparison

1962 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 341-361 ◽  
Author(s):  
David E. Pfanner ◽  
Jasper Ingersoll
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Social Structure ◽  
Research Design ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Economic Behavior ◽  
Theravada Buddhism ◽  
Comparable Data ◽  
Peasant Communities ◽  
Original Plan

The following two articles constitute the partial results of a project in comparative coordinated research in Southeast Asia. Prior to undertaking field research in Burma and Thailand in 1959–60, the authors developed a research design to ensure the collection of comparable data for description and analysis in the areas of social structure and economics. The original plan was modified in the field during an exchange of visits to the Burmese and Thai peasant communities eventually selected for study.

South Asia and Southeast Asia

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
André Wink
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
Early Modernity ◽  
The World ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Monsoon Winds

For many centuries, South Asia and Southeast Asia did not constitute two distinct regions of the world but one. This one region encompassed the bulk of the landmasses, islands and maritime spaces which were affected by the seasonal monsoon winds. Throughout its fertile and often extensive river plains it adopted recognizably similar patterns of culture and settled organization. Early geographers mostly referred to it as ‘India’. This article describes the expansion of agriculture and settled society; kings and Brahmans; a graveyard of cites in the Mediterranean that were centers of power and civilization geography and the world-historical context; the Indo-Islamic world; pathways to early modernity; and the effects of European imperialism.

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