rel292 assignments

REL292: Weekly Readings and Assignments

1/20: Introductions.

1/22: Representing Buddhism:
Charles Hallisey, "Roads and Taken and Not Taken in the Study of Theravada Buddhism" in Curators of the Buddha: The Study of Buddhism under Colonialism, ed. Donald Lopez (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995): 31-61;
Anne Blackburn, "Serendipity and Sadness" in Excursions and Explorations: Cultural Encounters between Sri Lanka and the United States, ed. Tissa Jayatilaka (Colombo: United States-Sri Lanka Fulbright Foundation Commission, 2002): 185-189.

1/27: Sri Lankan culture from a Fictional Perspective:
Michael Ondaatje, Anil's Ghost (New York: Vintage, 2001): 1-157;
for background on the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict, click here; click on the video links for excerpts from the PBS program.
Supplementary reading report ("SRR"): Introduction to Michael Ondaatje's life and writings; see http://www.randomhouse.com/features/ondaatje/desk.html and Mel Gussow, "Unearthing Secrets, Fictional and Real" (interview with Ondaatje), New York Times (June 22, 2000), sec. E, p. 1, col. 1.

1/29: Michael Ondaatje, Anil's Ghost (New York: Vintage, 2001): 159-307;
SRR: Reviews of Anil's Ghost:
reviews from The Island (Colombo): Shirley de Mel, "Michael Ondaatje: Skeletons in a Writer's Cupboard," letter to The Island (Sept. 21, 2000);
Kirthie Abeyesekera, "Anil's Ghost Begins to Haunt," The Island (Sept. 3, 2000);
Richard Eder, "A House Divided," New York Times (May 14, 2000).

2/3: Historical and Cultural Contexts:
R. Gombrich, Theravada Buddhism ("TB"): 32-59, 137-171;
Rig Veda 10.90;
SRR: Robin Coningham, "The Archaeology of Buddhism" in Archaeology and World Religion, ed. Timothy Insoll (London: Routledge, 2001), pp. 61-95.

2/5: Selections from the Mahavamsa: The Great Chronicle of Sri Lanka, tr. A. Guruge (Colombo: Lake House, 1989), pp. 491-496; 561-567; 585-589; 597-602;
SRR: 3) Steven Kemper, The Presence of the Past (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991), pp. 26-52.

2/8: Outside event: Hiram Woodward, "The Arts of Thailand and Burma: Understanding Doris Duke's Vision," talk and opening reception for "Arts of Asia: Recent Acquisitions from the Nalin, Duke, and Pickens Collections," Fleming Museum, 2 p.m.

2/10: The Buddha:
The Story of Gotama Buddha: Jataka-nidana, tr. N. Jayawickrama (Oxford: Pali Text Society, 1990), pp. 63-101;
"Culla-Dhammapala-Jataka" in The Jataka, ed. E. B. Cowell (London: Pali Text Society by Luzac, 1957), vol. 3, pp. 117-120; video: BBC "Life of the Buddha."

2/12: Selection from the “Mahaparinibbanasutta” (read from beginning of part 5 [“Part Five, At Kusinara”] to the end);
SRR: Gananath Obeyesekere, "The Death of the Buddha: A Restorative Interpretation" in Approaching the Dhamma, ed. Anne E. Blackburn and Jeffrey Samuels (Seattle: BPS Pariyatti Editions, 2003): 17-45.

2/17: The Dhamma:
R. Gombrich, TB, pp. 60-86;
the Buddha's First Sermon in Book of the Discipline, tr. I.B. Horner (London: Pali Text Society, 1951), pt. 4, pp. 13-21.
Research topic statement and bibliography due (this must clearly indicate the title and page numbers of the primary text that you will evaluate next week).

2/19: Selections from the Dhammapada, vss. 1-20; 33-43; 383-423;
Ranjini Obeyesekere, Portraits of Buddhist Women: Stories from the Saddharmaratnavaliya, (Albany: SUNY Press, 2001): 1-20, 126-133 ("The Nun Patacara");
SRR: Kevin Trainor, "Reflections on Textualization and Contextualization: The Dhammapada in the Sri Lankan Sinhala Buddhist Tradition," unpublished seminar paper from the Workshop on Asian Classics in a Multicultural Core Curriculum, East-West Center (December 30, 1994).

2/24: The Sangha:
R. Gombrich, TB, pp. 87-117;
selections from the Book of the Discipline, tr. I. B. Horner (London: Pali Text Society, 1951), pt. 4, pp. 21-30; 71-73; 103-104; 130-133; pt. 5, pp. 352-363;
SRR: Jeffrey Samuels, "Establishing the Basis of the Sasana: Social Service and Ritual Performance in Contemporary Sri Lankan Monastic Training" in Approaching the Dhamma, ed. Anne E. Blackburn and Jeffrey Samuels (Seattle: BPS Pariyatti Editions, 2003): 105-124.
Primary source evaluation due.

3/2: Town Meeting: no class.

3/3: Outside event: John Seyller, "Ancient South Asian Art from the Nalin Collection," Fleming Museum, 12:15 p.m.

3/4: Mental Cultivation:
"Satipatthana-sutta" ("Discourse on the Foundations of Mindfulness"); see: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/sutta/majjhima/mn010.html;
selections from Venerable Henepola Gunaratana Mahathera, Mindfulness in Plain English; see: http://www.realization.org/page/namedoc0/mipe/mipe_aa.htm,
http://www.realization.org/page/namedoc0/mipe/mipe_i.htm,
http://www.realization.org/page/namedoc0/mipe/mipe_1.htm;
Richard Gombrich, "From Monastery to Meditation Centre: Lay Meditation in Modern Sri Lanka" in Buddhist Studies: Ancient and Modern, ed. P. Denwood and A. Piatigorsky (London: Curzon, 1983), pp. 20-34;
SRR: George Bond, The Buddhist Revival in Sri Lanka (Columbia, SC: South Carolina University Press, 1988), pp. 130-176.

3/9: Relic Veneration:
Kevin Trainor, Relics, Ritual and Representation in Buddhism: Rematerializing the Sri Lankan Theravada Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997): 136-188;
selection from the Dhatuvamsa (Chronicle of the Relics), tr. Kevin Trainor;
SRR: S. Kemper, The Presence of the Past (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991), pp. 135-160.

3/11: Deva Worship:
Richard Gombrich, TB, pp. 118-136;
A. G. S. Kariyavasam, Buddhist Ceremonies and Rituals of Sri Lanka; see: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/bps/wheels/wheel402.html#ch8;
SRR: Jason Carbine, "Cosmology and Healing (Sri Lanka)" in The Life of Buddhism, ed. Frank Reynolds and Jason Carbine (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000), pp. 161-176.
Secondary source evaluation due.

3/15-19: Spring recess: no class.

3/23: Kataragama:
Richard Gombrich and Gananath Obeyesekere, Buddhism Transformed (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988), pp. 163-199;
Gananath Obeyesekere, Medusa's Hair (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981), pp. 142-149;
read one article from the Kataragama web site; see: http://kataragama.org/;
SRR: Richard Gombrich and Gananath Obeyesekere, Buddhism Transformed (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988), pp. 411-444.

3/25: Visiting scholar: Steve Berkwitz.

3/30: Video: "Kataragama."

4/1: Pirit:
A. Kariyawasam, Buddhist Ceremonies and Rituals of Sri Lanka, see: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/bps/wheels/wheel402.html#ch4,
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/bps/wheels/wheel402.html#ch1;
selections from the Book of Protection, tr. Piyadasi Thera; see:
http://www.buddhanet.net/bp_parit.htm, http://www.buddhanet.net/bp_invit.htm,
http://www.buddhanet.net/bp_sut02.htm, http://www.buddhanet.net/bp_sut03.htm,
http://www.buddhanet.net/bp_sut04.htm, http://www.buddhanet.net/bp_apend.htm.
First draft of research paper due.

4/6: Fullmoon Festivals:
J. Disanayaka, The Vesak Fullmoon Festival (London: Pioneer Lanka Pub., 1993), pp. 1-26;
A. Kariyawasam, Buddhist Ceremonies and Rituals of Sri Lanka; see: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/bps/wheels/wheel402.html#ch3;
SRR: Elizabeth Nissan, "History in the Making: Anuradhapura and the Sinhala Buddhist Nation" in Identity, Consciousness and the Past, ed. H. L. Seneviratne (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1997), pp. 23-41.

4/8: Pilgrimage:
J. Disanayaka, The Monk and the Peasant (Colombo: State Printing Corp., 1993), pp. 91-100;
"Pilgrim Songs (and Verses) of the Sixteen Places of Worship," tr. Sunil Kariyakarawana, unpublished typescript [1997];
Consult material on Sri Pada Web site: http://sripada.org.

4/13: Sri Lankan Buddhism in the Modern Age:
R. Gombrich, TB, pp. 172-197;
Anagarika Dharmapala, "Message of the Buddha" and "A Message to the Young Men of Ceylon" in Return to Righteousness, ed. A. Guruge (Colombo: Ceylon Government Press, 1965), pp. 23-34, 501-518;
H. S. Olcott, Buddhist Catechism (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Pub. House, 1970), pp. ii-xv, 42-71;
SRR: SRR: Anne Blackburn, "Buddhism, Colonialism and Modernism: A View from Sri Lanka," Nethra 5 (2002): 7-25.

4/15: Sri Lankan Buddhism and the Ethnic Conflict:
Stanley J. Tambiah, "Buddhism, Politics, and Violence in Sri Lanka" in Fundamentalisms and the State, ed. Martin E. Marty and R. Scott Appleby (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993), vol. 3, pp. 589-619;
Walpola Rahula, The Heritage of the Bhikkhu, tr. K. Wijayasurendra (New York: Grove Press, 1974 [Sinhala original published in 1946]), pp. 90-119, 131-136;
SRR: Elizabeth Harris, "Buddhism in War: A Study of Cause and Effect from Sri Lanka," Culture and Religion 2 (2001): 197-222.

4/20: H. L. Seneviratne, Work of Kings: The New Buddhism in Sri Lanka (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1999): 333-348;
H. L. Seneviratne, "Buddhist Monks and Ethnic Politics: A War Zone in an Island Paradise," Anthropology Today 17 (April, 2001), pp. 15-21;
SRR: Ananda Wickremeratne, Buddhism and Ethnicity in Sri Lanka (Colombo: International Centre for Ethnic Studies, Kandy: 1995), pp. 283-306.

4/22: Oral presentations.
Final version of research paper due.

4/27: Oral presentations.

4/29: Oral presentations.

5/4: Concluding Reflections:
Stephen Berkwitz, "Recent Trends in Sri Lankan Buddhism," Religion 33 (2003): 57-71.