(Download) "Rewriting Buddhism" by Alastair Gornall * eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Rewriting Buddhism
- Author : Alastair Gornall
- Release Date : January 17, 2020
- Genre: Asia,Books,History,Religion & Spirituality,Buddhism,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 8338 KB
Description
Rewriting Buddhism is the first intellectual history of
premodern Sri Lanka’s most culturally productive period. This era of reform
(1157–1270) shaped the nature of Theravada Buddhism both in Sri Lanka and
also Southeast Asia and even today continues to define monastic intellectual
life in the region.
Alastair Gornall argues
that the long century’s literary productivity was not born of political
stability, as is often thought, but rather of the social, economic and
political chaos brought about by invasions and civil wars. Faced with unprecedented
uncertainty, the monastic community sought greater political autonomy, styled
itself as royal court, and undertook a series of reforms, most notably, a
purification and unification in 1165 during the reign of Parakramabahu I. He
describes how central to the process of reform was the production of new
forms of Pali literature, which helped create a new conceptual and social
coherence within the reformed community; one that served to preserve and
protect their religious tradition while also expanding its reach among the
more fragmented and localized elites of the period.
‘This
original and learned work not only constitutes a major intervention in Buddhist
studies but also “rewrites” the history of Sri Lanka, offering a major rethink
of a pivotal period in the island’s history and of the Theravada tradition more
generally. It deserves to be widely read.’ – Alan Strathern, University of Oxford
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