Buddhist Reform Research Articles

Becoming Kannon: Daidō Chōan, Guzeikyō, and Buddhist Reform in Meiji Japan

Becoming Kannon: Daidō Chōan, Guzeikyō, and Buddhist Reform in Meiji Japan

Arboreal Assemblages and Ecologies of Feeling: The Bodhi Tree in the Buddhist Reform Movement in Colonial South Asia

This article centres on the Bodhi tree, aśvattha/pippala or Ficus religiosa, in Bodh Gaya, India. It analyses the tree as an assemblage by combining concepts from the ancient Buddhist Pali literature with recent interventions in new materialism and posthumanism. The text foregrounds the role of emotions in the relational cosmologies of both early South Asian Buddhist texts and contemporary general ecology, tracing how they connect the tree-as-assemblage with other human and nonhuman actors. This allows the article to recover an emergent agency in the assemblage, informing a re-examination of the tree’s role in the Buddhist reform movement in colonial India, specifically in its connections to the Anagarika Dharmapala and the Maha Bodhi Society. Besides its contribution to the history of Buddhism in colonial modernity, the article thus develops theoretical reflections on writing history beyond anthropocentrism by mobilising the potential of South Asian vernacular philosophies to speak to contemporary issues in philosophy and the Anthropocene at large.

The History of the Myeongjin School (1906–1910): A Critical Examination of Korean Buddhism’s First Modern Educational Institution within the Pre-Colonial Context

During the operation of the Myeongjin School, it not only employed many leading Buddhist progressives, but graduated key Buddhist reformers. Overcoming conservative opposition within the Korean Buddhist community, during its brief operation the Myeongjin School would open dozens of branches at temples throughout Korea, prompting a proliferating modern education throughout its Buddhist community. Over the century, the institute founded as the Myeongjin School suffered repeated closures during Korea’s Japanese Annexation only to emerge from the Korean War as Dongguk University Seoul. As Korea’s oldest and largest Buddhist university, Dongguk has produced over 350,000 graduates and, despite transitioning to a more secular approach to education, it remains a leading center for monastic education, Buddhist studies, and intellectual culture. This article examines, in detail, the origins, founding, and operation of the Myeongjin School within the dynamic political and religious context of Korea’s early modern period, in addition to the school’s impact, subsequent history, and legacy.

Communities of Practice and the Buddhist Education Reforms of Early-Twentieth-Century China

Over the course of only a few decades during the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries, part of mainstream Buddhist education underwent a striking shift in China. From being a secluded practice within monastery walls taught by monastics for monastics with a strict focus on Buddhist scripture, it became one where monastics and laypeople study together, guided by teachers, both monastic and lay, studying a curriculum of both Buddhist and secular subjects. Although general reforms within the Buddhist community of the times received considerable scholarly attention, the topic of education development was discussed in only a few instances. Therefore, the present article sets out to explore why this radical methodological shift happened, and more concretely, how the individual learning trajectories of the reforms’ leading actors, and their involvement in specific communities, influenced the way the reforms unfolded. The author analyses the work and life of three generations of Buddhist reformers, namely the layman Yang Wenhui, and the monastic masters Taixu, Hsing Yun and Cheng Yen, employing Étienne Wenger’s social theory of learning. The theory’s main assertion that communities of practice provide the main fora of learning for individuals, and its description of the concrete ways in which this learning takes place can provide new insights regarding the specific unfolding of late-nineteenth to early-twentieth-century Buddhist education reforms in China.

The Life and Legacies of Thích Nhất Hạnh

Thiền sư Thích Nhất Hạnh was one of the most influential Buddhist public figures of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. His name is now synonymous with global mindfulness and engaged Buddhism movements. Yet before achieving international acclaim, Thích Nhất Hạnh was also an active Buddhist reformer and social organizer in his home country, Vietnam. This introduction to the special issue contextualizes Thích Nhất Hạnh as a monastic, poet, activist, scholar, innovator, and beloved community leader for many, tracing his multiple legacies in and beyond Vietnam.

Thích Nhất Hạnh’s Early Critiques of Enlightenment Rationality and Academic Buddhism, 1956–1961

This article examines Thích Nhất Hạnh’s articles published in the journals Phật-Giáo Việt-Nam [Vietnamese Buddhism] and Liên-Hoa Nguyệt-San [Lotus Monthly] between 1956 and 1961. These articles reveal how Thích Nhất Hạnh developed a critique of the excess rationality of Western civilization through a reading of criticisms of the Enlightenment from philosophical and new-age Buddhist sources that were themselves European. When writing to an exclusively Buddhist audience, Thích Nhất Hạnh emphasizes the need for rational, ecumenical, and empirical discourse on Buddhism, whereas when writing to a non-Buddhist audience, he stresses the insufficiency of rational calculations and the need for a proper understanding of Buddhism to be derived from personal experience. These articles show the deep early influence of the Buddhist reform movement, international Buddhist political developments, and contemporary European philosophy on Thích Nhất Hạnh’s thinking.

Meditation matters: The politics and networks of yoga and spiritual reform between Indonesia, India and the West, 1900s–1970s

ABSTRACTStarting from sites of yogic and Buddhist learning connecting Indonesia and India this article explores the politics, practices, transformation, dissemination and uses of knowledge on yoga and meditation in late colonial and postcolonial Indonesia, and their relation to moral geographies of Greater India. It follows, across (violent) regime changes, the trajectories of learning of a number of self-made experts and entrepreneurs in this field who were also involved in the postcolonial Buddhist reform movement in Indonesia: the Chinese Indonesians Souw Tjiang Poh (b.1929), better known, also as yoga guru, under his Buddhist name Yogamurti; and his meditation teacher, Tee Boan An (1923–2002), who, as Ashin Jinarakkhita, is more famous as motor behind the Buddhist reform movement in Indonesia from the 1950s onwards. Yogamurti's and Tee Boan An's histories of ‘yogic’ transformation reach back to ‘alternative’ spiritual reform trajectories of the Theosophical Society of late colonial times, and continue, across decolonization and the violent regime change of 1965, to those of the hippie trail of the 1970s. These spiritual and ‘Indic’ religious revivalist entrepreneurs provide alternative perspectives to the grand narratives of political history, yoga, ‘Indian religion’ or ‘Greater India’. Across regime changes, their paths crossed and they exchanged knowledge, thereby changing and reshaping social hierarchies as they moved within an ‘alternative present’ in which spirituality seemed a way to move forward to ‘alternative futures’.

근·현대 동아시아의 재가불교사상과 운동

Rhi Ki-Young's Buddhist thought is to gain an insight into the world through the fundamental spirit of Mahāyāna Buddhism and constantly reproduce it in reality. He sees the starting point of Lay Buddhism in Korea as Wonhyo who realized Minjung Buddhism. He also thinks that the origin of Lay Buddhism lies in Jinsokbuli(眞俗不二) based on prajñā(般若), the ideological backbone of Mahāyāna Buddhism. It aims to transcend the limits of the system and realize Buddha Dharma in reality. In addition, it is in the spirit of Mahāyāna Bodhisattva who brought about a great transformation beyond early Buddhism. This allows all thoughts and practices in Mahāyāna Sūtras to lead up to the virtues of bodhisattvas. He insists on building true saṃgha(僧伽) that becomes one through Buddha Dharma, going beyond all sectarian ceremonies. Furthermore, he makes social practice a top priority, as seen from the fact that Rhi Ki-Young founded the Korean Institute for Buddhist Studies regarding Lay Buddhism Movement. He emphasizes that members of society become bodhisattvas and create Buddha Land in every corner of society. Also, his goal is to establish the real Pure Land through Bodhisattvas’ Way. The ultimate goal of Bodhisattva is peace. It is said that it was Wonhyo who wanted to realize peace that would remove the sufferings of the world. In the end, the ultimate aim of Lay Buddhism is to realize the Pure Land in this land where we live. Rhi Ki-Young's Lay Buddhist Movement is in line with East Asian modern and contemporary Lay Buddhist Movement. In order to demonstrate this, this study aims to examine the enlightenment movement of Lay Buddhists and the establishment of lay Buddhist groups or organizations. As for the former, it suggests Chinese Yang Wen-hui, Japanese Inoue Enryō, and Korean Han Yong-Un. As for the latter, representative examples include the Buddhist reform through Taixu's theory of Human Buddhism, Korean Lay Buddhist organizations including Won Buddhism, and Japanese Lay Buddhist organizations including the Newly Young Buddhist Alliance led by Senō Giro(妹尾義郎). Most of all, the Lay Buddhist movement awakens the importance of the role of Lay Bodhisattva in modern society. This is because it is the subject that embodies the virtues of a bodhisattva led by six paramitas. Besides, it needs to go one step further into reality and implement Engaged Buddhism. Mahāyāna Buddhism is the movement of Buddha Dharma, and the key today is Engaged Buddhism. In conclusion, this study has found that Rhi Ki-Young's Lay Buddhist thought can be a way to save us in the face of the crisis of mankind.

Parallel lives or interconnected histories? Anagarika Dharmapala and Muhammad Barkatullah's ‘world religioning’ in Japan

AbstractThis article compares the ideas, connections, and projects of two South Asian figures who are generally studied separately: the Indian pan-Islamist Muhammad Barkatullah (1864–1927) and the Sinhalese Buddhist reformer Anagarika Dharmapala (1864–1934). In doing so, I argue that we can understand these two figures in a new light, by recognizing their mutual connections as well as the structural similarities in their thought. By focusing on their encounters and work in Japan, this article demonstrates how Japan—particularly after defeating Russia in the Russo-Japanese War in 1905—had become a significant site for inter-Asian conversations about world religions. Importantly, exploring the projects of Barkatullah and Dharmapala makes visible the fact that, from the late nineteenth century until the outbreak of the First World War, religion played a central role—alongside nationalism, race, and empire—in conversations about the possible futures of the international order.

Seeking Śākyamuni: South Asia in the Formation of Modern Japanese Buddhism by Richard M. Jaffe

Reviewed by: Seeking Śākyamuni: South Asia in the Formation of Modern Japanese Buddhism by Richard M. Jaffe Judith Snodgrass (bio) Seeking Śākyamuni: South Asia in the Formation of Modern Japanese Buddhism. By Richard M. Jaffe. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2019. xvi, 309 pages. $97.50, cloth; $32.50, paper; $32.50, E-book. Richard Jaffe's new book is a brilliant addition to the series Buddhism and Modernity, adding a crucial dimension to our knowledge of the formation of Buddhism in modern Japan and, by extension, to the history of modern global Buddhism. It builds on and contributes substantially to earlier work documenting the domestic and East-West imperatives in that formation. While these tended to focus on the journeys to the West undertaken by Japanese Buddhist reformers, Jaffe instead focuses on those who traveled to India, arguing convincingly that the "road to conceptualizing Japanese Buddhism for the twentieth century ran through Colombo, Madras, Calcutta and Bombay as much as it did through Oxford, Cambridge, Paris and Heidelberg" (p. 238). Indeed, for some of the pioneering Japanese scholar priests such as Nanjō Bun'yū and Takakusu Junjirō, travel between Oxford and Japan took them through India, where the facility with Indic languages gained in Europe enabled them to study texts and work with South Asian scholars directly. And, it should not be forgotten, many of the Indian pandits with whom Japanese scholars studied, Indian scholars who would lead the Buddhist revival in South Asia, had previously worked with and been trained by British scholars. They studied in British colonial institutions. The Buddhist pilgrimage sites they visited had been reinserted into Indian memory and heritage by the colonial archaeological surveys. The Western factor is not denied, just resituated and complimented by Jaffe's Asia-centric perspective. Most of the Japanese Buddhists in this study, however, traveled directly to South Asia. Among the earliest of these was Zen Abbot Shaku Sōen, more familiar in Western scholarship for the time he would later spend in the United States. While much has been written of him, Jaffe's account, based on Sōen's diary of his journey to Ceylon and resulting publication on Southern Buddhism, greatly expands English-language knowledge of his life and work. Sōen studied Pāli, working with Theravāda scholars—Asian and European—including leaders of the Buddhist reform movement taking place in Ceylon and Siam at the time, the activity documented in Anne Blackburn's Locations of Buddhism: Colonialism and Modernity in Sri Lanka (Princeton University Press, 2001). A major contribution of the book is the way it links with earlier studies and fills gaps between them. Jaffe's Asia-centric focus also contributes significantly to research on modern Japanese Buddhism, introducing a number of important figures previously [End Page 132] unknown to English-language readers, people who should be more widely known. Among these are Kawaguchi Ekai, Akegarasu Haya, and Kimura Ryūkan. Their stories add much to our knowledge of twentiethcentury Japanese Buddhism and to intra-Asian relations in the early twentieth century. The chapters covering their journeys range from the early twentieth century to the 1930s, several decades of rapid and tumultuous change in both countries and in the relationship between them. But more of this below. The book is clearly the culmination of years of research. The diaries and personal publications of more than 20 Japanese Buddhist priests who spent substantial periods in South Asia provide a core archive (see list on p. 115). As well as revealing their observations and responses to South Asian and Southeast Asian Buddhism (Jaffe translates extensive passages on this material), the author identifies the places they visited and the people they met, studied with, and learned from. This evidence is contextualized and expanded on with reference to a comprehensive array of additional primary and secondary sources (including temple records, private papers, photographs, interviews, and a note on a business card) to reveal the networks and the historical contexts that conditioned their experiences. The result is an impressive compendium of erudite research. As the records show, the factors motivating and enabling the journeys varied greatly, but the travelers were united in seeking knowledge of the origins...

Introduction to the treatise “Ocean of Reasoning: a Great Commentary on the Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā” by Je Tsongkhapa

The subject of this research is the content of the Tibetan text –  famous commentary work of the prominent Buddhist reformer and founder of the Gelugpa School Je Tsongkhapa (1357-1419) – “Ocean of Reasoning: a Great Commentary on the Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā” known as "Wisdom"." (“dBu-ma-rtsa-ba’i-tshig-leur-byas-pa-shes-rab-ces-bya-ba’i-rnam-bshad-rigs-pa’i-rgya-mtsho-zhes-bya-ba-bzhugs-so”). It analyzes the content of the chapter of preliminary guidelines Tsongkhapa's writing, and preambular part of Tsongkhapa's authorial commentary to “Mūlamadhyamakakārikā”, referred to as the “introductory part” of the “Ocean of Reasoning”. The research is based on the materials translated by the author from the Tibetan language, which is the first ever translation of the original text into the Russian language. Analysis of the works of  Tsongkhapa allows concluding that it is the fundamental logical-analytical research of the “Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā” carried out in Indo-Tibetan scholastic tradition, with attraction of multiple Buddhist primary sources – Sutras and Shastras, including basic Indian commentaries to Nāgārjuna's thesis, written by the ancient Indian philosophers Buddhapalita, Bhāviveka, and Candrakīrti. This text is an important source for introducing into the modern philosophical discourse of the doctrine of Madhyamaka School, represented particularly by the Tibetan Prāsaṅgika interpreters through Je Tsongkhapa.

불교개혁운동과 숲속수행 전통:12세기 승가정화에서부터 두 개혁 종단의 설립까지

불교개혁운동과 숲속수행 전통:12세기 승가정화에서부터 두 개혁 종단의 설립까지

An analysis of Yongseong Jinjong’s attempt to modernize Buddhism and its limitations

용성에 대한 기존 연구는 민족불교론에서 접근한 성과가 대부분이지만, 그의 생애 후반기는 오히려 불교 근대화를 추진하였던 면모가 두드러지게 드러난다. 이러한 경향은 선을 여성에게 개방한 것과 불전 번역에서 잘 드러난다. 용성은 대각교에서 부인선원을 개설하고 여성에게 선을 개방하였다. 다만 용성이 전통적인 선을 지향하였던 만큼 근대 여성이 각성하는 지도원리로서 선이 작용한 것이 아니라는 한계를 갖고 있다. 한편, 용성의 불전 번역은 근대 계몽기 지식인들이 번역과 출판 사업을 문명화의 과제로 공유하던 문제인식이나 기독교에 대한 대응에서 자극을 받아 이루어졌다. 특히 용성의 번역은 1920년대 전반기에서 국한문체 위주의 번역에서 1920년대 후반 이후에는 순한글로 문체가 변화하였다. 용성은 불교 잡지를 통해 이러한 글쓰기의 변화를 이해하고 수용한 것으로 추측된다. 다만 그의 번역은 조선시대 이래 성행된 전통적인 불전을 대상으로 한 것이고, 근대학문적인 방법론이나 근대적인 재해석을 거친 것이 아니라는 한계가 있다. 용성이 불교의 근대화를 모색하면서 보인 한계는 이른바 ‘대처’ 문제에 대한 현실인식에서 드러난다. 승려의 결혼이 확산된 현상은 일본에서 근대 국민국가의 수립과 관련된 정책에서 비롯된 것이며, 재가주의 불교를 중심으로 한 불교의 근대화를 모색하는 과정과 관련된다. 나아가 식민지조선에서 지식인승려들의 결혼은 불교의 사회적 실천과 관련된 문제인식과 관련된다. 이러한 문제와 현실인식을 배제하고 승려의 결혼이라는 현상을 단순히 계율의 문제로 환원하거나 일본불교의 영향이라고 단순화시켜 이해하는 것은 당대 역사상과 거리가 있다.Considering Yongseong is a traditional Zen Master, it is notable that he presented various directions for Buddhist reform and made an effort to materialize those ideas. In particular, Yongseong’s achievement is representative of the practices in pursuit of the modernization of Buddhism, such as opening up of Zen to women and the translation of various Buddhist scripture, which have remained relatively unnoticed. Yongseong opened the Zen Center for Women in Daegakgyo[大覺敎] which he founded. In the Zen Center, women not only practiced Zen but also held leadership positions. Given the exclusion of women from Zen centers as customary practice, Yongseong’s decision to get women engaged with practicing Zen in the center can be viewed as a sign of modernization of Buddhism. However, there are limitations in that Zen did not function as a guiding principle for women to be awakened, as well as to act as an individual subject. Yongseong is a representative figure who translated the Buddhist sacred text during the Japanese occupation of Korea. The way in which he translated Buddhist text changed from a mixed style of writing Korean with Chinese characters, in it in the early 1920s, to that of only Han-geul in the late 1920s. This stylistic change reflected the establishment of the Korean language, especially the formation of unity of speech and writing in the 1910s, which has been pursued since the late Chosûn Dynasty. However, Yongseong s translation of Buddhist scriptures showed some limitations. For example, most of the Buddhist texts translated by Yongseong were valued in the Buddhism of the Chosûn Dynasty, and they did not go beyond the structure of pre-modern Buddhist thought. Furthermore, his translation has some shortcomings in that it was neither informed by the methodology of the modern disciplinary approach nor by a renewal of given interpretations of the text. The limitations of Yongseong’s pursuit of the modernization of Buddhism can be exemplified in his opposition to marriage for monks. Yongseong criticized marriage for monks from the perspective of seeing the issue as a matter of discipline. However, the prevalence of monk marriage can not be regarded as a traditional discipline issue nor as a unilateral influence of Japanese Buddhism. The practice of marriage for monks became prevalent in modern Japan as a result of the government s policy of reclassifying being a monk to a vocation, rather than being one of status, which was promoted as part of modernization of Japanese Buddhism. In addition to this, emphasis needs to be put on the fact that the formation of modern Buddhism in East Asia was dominated by the Buddhist circles who led the ascetic life of Buddhism in their own homes.

Kiyozawa Manshi and the Spirit of the Meiji

AbstractSeishinshugi 精神主義, a term associated with the work of Meiji Buddhist reformer Kiyozawa Manshi 清沢満之 (1863–1903), is often read as exemplifying a spiritual turn in mid-Meiji Japan, centering an inner realm of private experience in a reaction against the rationalization of the early Meiji period. This paper considers the use of the term seishin in Kiyozawa’s early work. It finds him treating seishin in two distinct but connected contexts: as a psychological term, influenced particularly by his reading of English physician William Benjamin Carpenter (1813–1885), and as a philosophical term, in conversation with Hegel’s philosophy of spirit. It suggests that an understanding of seishin as developing progressively toward more and more complex forms of consciousness or self-awareness found in both Kiyozawa’s psychological and philosophical writing sheds new light on other aspects of Kiyozawa’s early career.

태고보우의 양평 용문산 불교와 불교개혁

태고보우의 양평 용문산 불교와 불교개혁

From the Faith of Lamas to Global Buddhism: The Construction of Buddhist Tradition in Russian Trans-Baikal from the Eighteenth to the Early Twentieth Century

The article invites readers to reconsider the history of Buddhism in Russian Trans-Baikal as a gradual process of negotiation and redefinition that involved different actors: lamas, Russian imperial officials of various levels, Orthodox missionaries, Buriat national activists, Saint Petersburg Orientologists, modern Buddhist reformers and conservatives. The process involved the construction of the centralized and subordinated confessional group out of scattered communities of lamas in the course of the nineteenth century, Irkutsk Orthodox Diocese’s attempts first to downgrade the faith of lamas to idol-worship and then to normalize ‘corrupted Buddhism’, and the 'discovery' of the larger Buddhist world by some Buriat lamas and their attempts to bring it back to ‘authentic forms’. The article shows what exactly had brought Russian officials and then Buriat Buddhists themselves to the idea that their religious tradition, which historically was labeled merely as Lamaistvo, is a part of the emerging conception of global Buddhism.

From the Mountains to the Cities: A History of Buddhist Propagation in Modern Korea by Mark A. Nathan

Reviewed by: From the Mountains to the Cities: A History of Buddhist Propagation in Modern Korea by Mark A. Nathan Florence Galmiche, Associate Professor From the Mountains to the Cities: A History of Buddhist Propagation in Modern Korea by Mark A. Nathan. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2018. xii, 196 pp. This book is a useful contribution to several fields of research. It adds to current research on the relationship between the state and Buddhism and also offers a global vision of the history of mainstream Korean Buddhism since the end of the nineteenth century. This ambition—to present the contemporary history of Korean Buddhism in an accessible and concise volume in English—is extremely helpful. Despite the magnitude of the task, Mark Nathan manages to give a coherent account by following a specific approach: the development of propagation (p'ogyo) within Buddhism. This clear angle leaves some themes aside, but Nathan presents this focus on propagation in a very convincing way and shows the relevance of this issue for understanding the contemporary history of Buddhism in Korea. The development of Buddhist propagation [End Page 351] strategies in the twentieth century is the opposite of an epiphenomenon. As this book demonstrates, they have not only strengthened the role and status of Buddhism in society but also contributed to its profound reform. The merits of this approach are twofold: it makes it possible to draw lines of continuity in the contemporary history of Korean Buddhism that contribute greatly to the understanding of its evolutions and it also makes it possible to address less investigated aspects of Buddhism such as the evolution of its legal framework or its media. The book is organized chronologically. The introductory chapter situates the concept of propagation within Buddhist traditions in Asia. It describes how the place of propagation within the history of Buddhism has been debated and provides useful conceptual clarifications (for example, on the difference between dissemination and conversion). After this introduction, chapter 2 discusses the end of Chosŏn and highlights the relation between the concept of modernity, the normative framework for what constitutes a religion, and the valorization of propagation. It sheds light on the many factors that contributed to the lifting of the ban on Buddhist nuns and monks entering major cities. It also explores the meaning and influence of the "mountain Buddhism" trope. Nathan shows how the relation between the principle of religious liberty and the freedom to propagate one's religion was established at the end of the nineteenth century. Clarifying the relation between these two notions as well as the consequences of this connection is an important contribution of this book. Like Vincent Goossaert in the case of China, Nathan disentangles the relationship between different legal frameworks, a normative definition of religion, and the evolution of religious practices. Chapter 3 furthers this reflection on Buddhism in the context of Japanese colonization. It shows how the anchorage of propagation within the normative and legal framework of recognized religions allowed monastics to legitimately engage in this activity but also allowed the colonial government to ensure control over these issues. Nathan thus contributes to the debate about the influence of colonization on the evolution of Buddhism in Korea and shows how the new legal context surrounding temples and their activities has served both as leverage for the spread of Buddhism and as an instrument of control and domination for the colonial government. Chapter 4 discusses the period from 1945 to the end of the 1970s. It describes how divisions ignited by colonial rule were complicated by government intrusion—both by the US Army Military government and the South Korean government—into monastic affairs, facilitated by the legal framework resulting from colonization. Nathan points out that despite all the major crises and [End Page 352] difficulties, propagation has continued to be a major reference for Buddhist reformers and the main guideline for the monastic community's engagement with society. Moreover, he also analyses how the transformation of the political and legal framework surrounding Buddhism in the 1960s and 1970s contributed to renewing its propagation strategies. In particular, he emphasizes the development, from the 1970s onward, of individual propagation initiatives and sheds light...

The Direction of Activities of the Period of 1920's Gongju Buddhist Missionary Center : In Context of Han Yong Un and Lee Young Jae's the Argument of Buddhist Reform.

The Direction of Activities of the Period of 1920's Gongju Buddhist Missionary Center : In Context of Han Yong Un and Lee Young Jae's the Argument of Buddhist Reform.

Pali Scholarship “in Its Truest Sense” in Burma: The Multiple Trajectories in Colonial Deployments of Religion

Why are histories of colonialism and religious transformation in Southeast Asia so often told as inextricably interrelated? Why were Buddhist movements identified as both the locus for resistance to colonialism and the central means of constructing colonial modernity? Part of the reason lies in how religion served as both a European technique of colonial governmentality and a local repository of techniques for comprehending and responding to change. More than this, religion seems to have offered a multivalent medium for a variety of innovations. Pali examinations were central to Buddhist reform in colonial Burma at the turn of the twentieth century but also fomented conflicts between the colonial state and monastic factions over the purpose of language study. However, beyond such conflicts, Pali examinations proved fertile grounds for Buddhist laypeople to experiment with multiple interpretations of what Buddhist modernity might mean in Burma.

From sovereignty to modernity: revisiting the Colebrooke-Cameron Reforms – transforming the Buddhist and colonial imaginary in nineteenth-century Ceylon

The Colebrooke-Cameron Reforms (1831) have been characterised by David Scott (1995) as marking the transformation of colonial Sri Lanka from one kind of political rationality – that of mercantile sovereignty – to another – that of colonial governmentality. Whilst consonant with the view that the Commission marked a moment when the colonial administration moved away from a strategic reliance on Asokan or Buddhist forms of authority in the earliest phase of British rule, we argue that there is a more nuanced genealogy to this transition. The Reforms, while directed to the administration, judicial and political institutions of the colony, also contemplated extensive commercial restructuring that inculcated a self- improvement mode into ‘everyday life’. Drawing on colonial archives, we show how elements of a logic of governmentality, such as educational, land, and fiscal reform, were utilised at different times by the colonial administration to commence the modernisation of the colony well before 1832. It is also evident that the transformation was partial, and at points strongly resisted by local Buddhist communities. Instead of marking a clear point of transformation, the Colebrooke-Cameron Reforms gave legibility and a national imprimatur to a process already in train, while providing further impetus to a socio-political rationality that had begun to shift decades prior. The secular logic of the colonial State, however, was later to unleash a movement of Sinhalese Buddhist reform and cultural re-valuation that generated, ‘a more modernised Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism to create expanding areas of social, cultural and religious life for the nationalist cause.’