The Domain of Constant Excess: Plural Worship at the Munnesvaram Temples in Sri LankaThe Sri Lankan ethnic conflict that has occurred largely between Sinhala Buddhists and Tamil Hindus is marked by a degree of religious tolerance that sees both communities worshiping together. This study describes one important site of such worship, the ancient Hindu temple complex of Munnesvaram. Standing adjacent to one of Sri Lanka's historical western ports, the fortunes of the Munnesvaram temples have waxed and waned through the years of turbulence, violence and social change that have been the country's lot since the advent of European colonialism in the Indian Ocean. Bastin recounts the story of these temples and analyses how the Hindu temple is reproduced as a center of worship amidst conflict and competition. |
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... process affecting the Munnesvaram temples as a whole: a process shaping religious practice and ritual aesthetics that become instrumental themselves in furthering the process of change.10 Haskam or Marvellous Potentiality When asked ...
It underpins the legal status of the temple and also that of its priests, and thus has a profound bearing on what kind of temple the Munnesvaram temple has become, and with that its place in contemporary Sri Lankan religious life.
... predominate in Sri Lanka as the main style of temple management, have become, in many instances, sites for the articulation of caste, class and ethnic cleavages that have profoundly influenced the religious field (Whitaker 1999).
What Munnesvaram reveals through its unique configuration, though, is a capacity of the temple to create the conditions of cosmic possibility through which the temple becomes many things to many people and becomes, as a result, ...
Ideas of religious practice, ethnic boundaries and identity, and the sacred or numinous as the critical feature of all religions, become problematic when applied to the Sri Lankan context. Where is the 'single moral community' that ...
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Contents
1 | |
15 | |
Chapter 3 Myths and Marginality | 43 |
Chapter 4 Ritual Practices and Religious Identity | 59 |
Chapter 5 The Saivite Temple as a Monumental Architecture | 89 |
Puja and Arccanai | 117 |
Chapter 7 The Presence of Sakti | 133 |
Chapter 8 Guardians Games and the Formation of Power | 145 |
Chapter 9 The World Inside Out | 163 |
Chapter 10 The Domain of Excess | 183 |
Divine Kings and Regal Gods Temples in Society and History | 195 |
References | 213 |
Index | 227 |
Other editions - View all
The Domain of Constant Excess: Plural Worship at the Munnesvaram Temples in ... Rohan Bastin No preview available - 2002 |