The Religious World of Kirti Sri: Buddhism, Art, and Politics of Late Medieval Sri LankaIn this interdisciplinary inquiry, John Clifford Holt seeks to uncover how Buddhism was understood and expressed during the waning years of indigenous political power in Asia's oldest continuing Buddhist culture. Holt focusses on King Kirti Sri Rajasinha and how, despite powerful and persistent Dutch colonial threats and a deeply suspicious Kandyan Buddhist Sinhalese aristocracy, he successfully revived Sinhalese Theravada Buddhism. As Holt demonstrates, Kirti Sri succeeded in formulating his vision of an orthodox Buddhism in a number of ways: through the patronage of monastic sanha and re-establishing traditional lines of ordination, translating the Pali suttas into Sinhala, sponsoring public Buddhist religious rites, and refurbishing almost all Buddhist temples in the Kandyan culture region. The ultimate aim of Holt's study is to describe and interpret Kirti Sri's articulation of a normative Buddhist world, the essentials of which remain normative for many Buddhists in the Kandyan region of Sri Lanka today. Scholars and students will find The Religious World of Kirti Sri is an indispensable resource for the understanding of orthodox Buddhism at this important historical juncture, as well as the present day. |
Contents
3 | |
2 Discourses of a Buddhist King | 15 |
3 A Visual Liturgy | 41 |
Details of the Liturgy | 43 |
4 Royalty Reborn | 73 |
5 Implications for Theory and Method | 91 |
Ethnic Identity and Ethnic Alienation | 97 |
The Religious Works of K299rti 346r299 at Gang257r257ma and Rid299 Vihar257 | 109 |
Notes | 115 |
135 | |
141 | |
Other editions - View all
The Religious World of Kīrti Śrī: Buddhism, Art, and Politics in Late ... John Holt Limited preview - 1996 |
Common terms and phrases
alienation Anuradhapura appeal artistic Asian Aśokan discourse Bandaranayake and Jayasinghe Benares bhikkhu bodhi tree bodhisatta Brahman Buddha Buddhist king Buddhist kingship Buddhist tradition Buddhist world view buduge wall canonical Ceylon chapter classical Colombo context Coomaraswamy Culavamsa culture Dambulla depicted Dewaraja dhamma dhist Dutch economic enlightenment expressed gods Gombrich Hindu illustrate image house India Jātaka jātaka stories Jūjaka Kälaniya Kandy Kandyan kingdom Kandyan school Kandyan temple Kirti Kīrti Śrī late eighteenth century late medieval Mädavela Maddī Mahāvamsa Mahāyāna Mahiyangana Malalgoda Māra monastic monks mythic nāgas Narendra Sinha Nayakkar noted Pali Pali Canon pilgrimage Plate political preaching prince Rājasinha rebirth regarded religion Ridī Vihāra ritual Śaivite sangha sannasa Saranamkara sat sati Sinhala Buddhist Sinhalese Sinhalese and Tamils sixteen sacred places social solosmasthāna South Sri Lanka Śrī's Śrī's reign stūpas Sutasoma symbolic temple wall paintings texts Theravada Buddhist throne tion upasampadā Vessantara Jātaka vihāraya visual liturgy yakkhas
Popular passages
Page viii - This research was assisted by a grant from the Joint Committee on South Asia of the Social Science Research Council and the American Council of Learned Societies with funds provided by the Andrew W.