| Unit name | The Practice of Theravada Buddhism in Asia |
|---|---|
| Unit code | THRSM0018 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | M/7 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Dr. Langer |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department | Department of Religion and Theology |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
This unit aims to provide students with an overview of the history and development of Theravada Buddhism in practice in Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia as well as in depth knowledge of several important topics. The unit focuses on a number of significant topics: the practice of monasticism, lay practice, the relationship between the monk and the laity, the position of women and Buddhist nuns, forest monks, magic and protection, protestant Buddhism and Buddhism and conflict in Sri Lanka. These themes will be investigated by utilizing various kinds of sources; primary textual sources, epigraphical sources in translation, the writings of historians and social anthropologists in order to illustrate a more general issue in the contemporary study of religion, namely the study of texts and doctrine versus the study of people and practice.
To develop an overall sense of of the actuality of Theravada Buddhism in Asia.
To gain an in-depth knowledge of certain significant topics in the history of the practice of Theravada Buddhism in Asia.
To encourage reflection on the nature of the relationship between religion's theory and practice.
To develop skills in the researching, reading and presentation of complex material.
10 x 2 hour seminars
5000 word essay
T.Bartholomeusz, Women under the Bo Tree (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994)
R.F. Gombrich, Buddhist Precept and Practice: Traditional Buddhism in the Rural Highlands of Ceylon (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1991)
S.J. Tambiah, Buddhism and the Spirit Cults in North-East Thailand (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970)
Melford E. Spiro, Buddhism and Society: A Great Tradition and its Burmese Vicissitudes (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982)
Donald K. Swearer,The Buddhist World of Southeast Asia (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995)
