Little Attention Has Hitherto Been Given To The Role Of Timber Construction In Sri Lanka S Ancient Architecture, And Its Photo-Coverage Has Not Until Now Appeared In One Place. The Buildings Described Here Are Mostly Close To Folk Architecture But They Comprise An Important Part Of The Ancient Building Tradition Of Monsoon Asia An Immense Area That Includes Parts Of India, Nepal, Burma, Bali, And Japan, As Well As Sri Lanka Itself. Buddhist Monastic Architecture In Sri Lanka Makes A Permanent Contribution To South Asian Studies.The Authors Search Out The Ancient Picturesque Temples In The Central Hills. Guided By The Well-Known Scholar, Professor Seneviratna, The Book Centers On Colour Photographs Taken By Architect Polk During An Eight Month Sojourn In 1980-81. Both Archaeological And Architectural Expertise Thus Combine, And Added To This Is The Research Into The Writings Of Early Travelers, Researched By Emily Polk, Poet And Painter, Who Has Put The Threads Of History Of Those Adventurous Days Into A Dramatic Form.This Collaboration Is The Result Of Their Common Interest In The Ancient Architecture Of South Asia, And Is Written Hoping That Continuities From Past To Future May Be Maintained In These Troubled Present Times.In Sri Lanka There Are Forests Where Modern Ways Have Not Overwhelmed Tradition And Where The Old Wood Buildings Still Flicker In The Magic Of The Trees. Here Is The Drama Of The Land And Its People: The Stream ;Of Pure Notes From An Invisible Flautist, The First Glimpse Of Adam S Peak, The Romantic Narrative Of The Sacred Tooth Kept Secret For 900 Years Before Emerging In Serendib. And Then Kandy, Where High On The Island The Winds From The Bay Of Bengal And The Indian Ocean Are On A Collision Course And The Sensation Of Colours, Movements And Light Is Electrifying. So, We Believe, Is This Book.

This book analyses a group of Buddhist sculptures from ancient Southeast Asia, putting them into their historical, religious, and artistic context and then traces their relationship with art from India and elsewhere in Southeast Asia.

Modernizing and colonizing forces brought nineteenth-century Sri Lankan Buddhists both challenges and opportunities. How did Buddhists deal with social and economic change; new forms of political, religious, and educational discourse; and Christianity? And how did Sri Lankan Buddhists, collaborating with other Asian Buddhists, respond to colonial rule? To answer these questions, Anne M. Blackburn focuses on the life of leading monk and educator Hikkaduve Sumangala (1827–1911) to examine more broadly Buddhist life under foreign rule. In Locations of Buddhism, Blackburn reveals that during Sri Lanka’s crucial decades of deepening colonial control and modernization, there was a surprising stability in the central religious activities of Hikkaduve and the Buddhists among whom he worked. At the same time, they developed new institutions and forms of association, drawing on pre-colonial intellectual heritage as well as colonial-period technologies and discourse. Advocating a new way of studying the impact of colonialism on colonized societies, Blackburn is particularly attuned here to human experience, paying attention to the habits of thought and modes of affiliation that characterized individuals and smaller scale groups. Locations of Buddhism is a wholly original contribution to the study of Sri Lanka and the history of Buddhism more generally.

Blackburn supports this view with fresh readings of Buddhist texts and their links to social life beyond the monastery."--BOOK JACKET.

This travel and pilgrimage guidebook is meant primarily for Buddhists or those interested in Buddhism who wish to explore Sri Lanka’s rich cultural and spiritual heritage. Drawing on his extensive knowledge of the island, the author weaves together archaeological findings, art history and the stories and legends of the Buddhist tradition to bring to life thirty-three places of religious significance.

Buddhist monasteries in medieval China employed a variety of practices to ensure their ascendancy and survival. Most successful was the exchange of material goods for salvation, as in the donation of land, which allowed monks to spread their teachings throughout China. By investigating a variety of socioeconomic spaces produced and perpetuated by Chinese monasteries, Michael J. Walsh reveals the "sacred economies" that shaped early Buddhism and its relationship with consumption and salvation. Centering his study on Tiantong, a Buddhist monastery that has thrived for close to seventeen centuries in southeast China, Walsh follows three main topics: the spaces monks produced, within and around which a community could pursue a meaningful existence; the social and economic avenues through which monasteries provided diverse sacred resources and secured the primacy of Buddhist teachings within an agrarian culture; and the nature of "transactive" participation within monastic spaces, which later became a fundamental component of a broader Chinese religiosity. Unpacking these sacred economies and repositioning them within the history of religion in China, Walsh encourages a different approach to the study of Chinese religion, emphasizing the critical link between religious exchange and the production of material culture.

The Ṭämpiṭavihāras of Sri Lanka focuses on one distinctive Buddhist architectural practice from pre-modern Sri Lanka – the construction of Buddha image-houses on elevated wooden platforms supported by stone pillars. As a centre of Buddhism, Sri Lanka has a rich tradition of erecting Buddha image-houses, the origin of which dates to the fifth century. Yet, the ṭämpiṭavihāra tradition only existed from the thirteenth to the nineteenth centuries. The ṭämpiṭavihāra is an exceptional type of image-house, not only for its specific timeframe and unique construction technology, but also for its complex architectural conception of the Buddhist worldview and soteriology. This book examines the significant aspects of ṭämpiṭavihāra architecture and documents some of the distinctive examples of ṭämpiṭavihāra with an analysis of their architectural design and symbolic content.

The process by which this transformation occurs through chant, sermon, meditation, and the presence of charismatic monks is at the heart of this book."--BOOK JACKET.