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. |
From inside the book
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... Chilaw, a town renowned as the symbolic centre for Suniyam in Sri Lanka – Kabälläva (Kapferer 1997a: 240). By 1999 the Manuweriya temple had been renovated and restored under the guidance of an increasingly prominent Indian Tamil ...
... Chilaw served as a secondary access after the ports of Kalpitiya and Mannar, though there is evidence that the Chilaw pearl banks were important before the eleventh century when coins were minted at the Munnesvaram temple (Codrington ...
... Chilaw town. Many Chilaw Karava migrated in the late nineteenth century from Negombo (Stirrat 1974, 1988) which, with Mannar, appears to have been a sixteenth century entry point from India for different fishing castes who subsequently ...
... Chilaw port, Munnesvaram occupies a place in a regional agricultural system. The Munnesvaram settlement is surrounded on three sides by paddy fields and coconut land, and on the fourth by the Munnesvaram tank which feeds these fields ...
... Chilaw, which was the regional centre from which a vassal of the Sinhalese king (based at Kotte near Colombo) ruled the Chilaw and Munnesvaram area from at least the fifteenth century. The last and most famous of these was Prince ...
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 |
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The Domain of Constant Excess: Plural Worship at the Munnesvaram Temples in ... Rohan Bastin No preview available - 2002 |