Modernish Theravada History

A discussion on all aspects of Theravāda Buddhism
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Re: Modernish Theravada History

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zavk wrote:HI Mike

As it turns out, I have been reading historical-critical books on modern Buddhism. IMHO, I think it helps our individual practice to have an awareness of how our understanding of Buddhism has been (and continues to be shape by) broader historical forces. I have compiled notes that address the questions you ask in this thread. I'll need to go pick out the salient points. Will post again.
cool, like what books?
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Re: Modernish Theravada History

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Hi JC

I've just finished two books recently: The Making of Buddhist Modernism by David McMahan and Buddhism and Science by Donald S. Lopez Jr.

I've mentioned The Making of Buddhist Modernism in previous posts. Even though it is aimed primarily at academic readers, it is written in a non-jargonistic manner. McMahan narrates a clear overview of the sociocultural history of contemporary Buddhism. I highly recommend this book. You can sample the first chapter or so in Google Books.

Buddhism and Science, despite its title, does not actually examine in detail Buddhist doctrine and scientific theories. Rather, it examines the meanings that have been ascribed to Buddhism and Science and the historical factors that have shaped the relationship between the two. In other words, it examines the history of how the categories of 'Buddhism' and 'Science' have been interpreted and linked together.

Another book is the anthology Curators of the Buddha: The Study of Buddhism Under Colonialism, edited by Donald S. Lopez Jr. The 'Introduction' by Lopez presents an insightful overview of how Orientalist scholarship of the colonial era has shaped some of the defining characteristics of contemporary Buddhism. The chapter 'Roads Taken and Not Taken in The Study of Theravada Buddhism' by Charles Hallisey deals with Theravada. It examines in particular the influence of T.W. Rhys-Davids' work on contemporary understanding of Theravada.

I've also read parts of The British Discovery of Buddhism by Philip Almond. I believe this was the first book to examine how Buddhism was shaped by Victorian modes of understanding to emerge as a rational, pragmatic and ethical system free from myth and ritual.

Curators of the Buddha takes some effort to get through as it is primarily addressing questions about scholarly methodologies, so it's full of academic jargon. I'm engaged in sociocultural research so I guess I'm paid to endure this kind of writing. But if you can get access to and don't mind reading this type of books, you might also find Buddhism Transformed: Religious Change in Sri Lanka by Richard Gombrich and Gananath Obeyesekere, and the journal article 'Buddhist Politics and Their Revolutionary Origins in Thailand' by Charles F. Keyes interesting. I haven't read these two texts but they are often cited, especially Gombrich and Obeyesekere.

I've been looking through the notes I have. Will post some relevant extracts from the books later.
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Re: Modernish Theravada History

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mikenz66 wrote: The third important source is Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is a key connection for English language Dhamma translations. The early English translations by the PTS were a result of Sri Lankan connection by way of T. W. Rhys Davids....

What is totally unclear to me is to what extent Ven Nyanatiloka and his successors (Western and Asian) reinvented the Dhamma and to what extent they drew from current Sri Lankan interpretations. I'm sure that this is explained in various scholarly books, but would anyone care to give an executive summary?
Hi Mike

I have not read any commentary about how Ven. Nyanatiloka and his successors have influenced contemporary understanding of Theravada. However, there is a significant body of work (as indicated above) that have examined the modernizing of Buddhism in Ceylon/Sri Lanka in the nineteenth century. This process--facilitated in no small part by the pioneering work of T.W. Rhys Davids--set the stage for latter figures like Ven. Nyanatiloka et al. to carry out their modern interpretation of Theravada.

I happen to have a scanned document of the introductory chapter from The Making of Buddhist Modernism. The following paragraph, which cites Gombrich and Obeyesekere's work, gives a nice summary of the circumstances surrounding the modernizing of Theravada in Ceylon in the mid to late nineteenth century:
Richard Gombrich and Gananath Obeyesekere have mapped similar trends specifically in Sinhalese Buddhism in Sri Lanka. Emphasizing the Christian influence on modernizing forms of Sinhalese Buddhism in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as well as those of Victorian English culture, they use the term "Protestant Buddhism" to suggest that modernizing Buddhism both protested against ‘European colonization and Christian missionization and adopted elements of Protestantism. These included rejection of the clerical links between individuals and the religious goal, emphasis on the “individual’s seeking his or her ultimate goal without intermediaries," “spiritual egalitarianism," individual responsibility, and self-scrutiny. The importance placed on the sangha (the community of monastics) was diminished as the laity became more important. Under the influence of Protestantism, Gombrich and Obeyesekere assert, "religion is privatized and internalized: the truly significant is not what takes place at a public celebration or in ritual, but what happens inside one’s own mind or soul" (1988: 216). The rise of Protestant Buddhism was also connected with urbanization and the rise of the bourgeoisie in Ceylon, as well as other Asian nations, and mingled traditional Buddhist ethics with Victorian social mores (Gombrich 1988: I72—97). It also replicated orientalist scholars’ location of “true Buddhism" in canonical texts, while often dismissing local or village iterations as degenerate and superstitious. (emphasis added; McMahan 7)
There's also a section in Hallisey's article (mentioned above) that summarizes the modernizing of Buddhism in Thailand--will post it soon. It charts in Thailand the same trends that I've highlighted in bold above. I think it is obvious how these trends have become the defining characteristics of Theravada today, characteristics that we by and large accept as a given. However, these characteristics are not intrinsic to Theravada (and Buddhism more generally) but were rather produced by the interplay of various historical factors.

There is a fascinating history behind these characteristics that define contemporary Buddhism. I'll post relevant excerpts when I have the time.
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Re: Modernish Theravada History

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thanks so much!
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Re: Modernish Theravada History

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Thanks zavk!

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Re: Modernish Theravada History

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OK, thanks to OCR software, here's the bit where Hallisey discusses the development of Buddhist modernism in Siam/Thailand from the late eighteenth century through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Developments quite similar to those which shaped modern Sinhala Buddhism also transformed Thai Buddhism, but without the element of colonial domination or a sharp confrontation between Buddhists and Christian missionaries so visible in Sri Lanka ...This reformation began after the fall of Ayutthaya [the Siamese kingdom that existed from 1351-1867 until it was invaded by the Burmese] as part of the restructuring of Thai society by King Rama I in what Wyatt has called a "subtle revolution":
  • All of Rama I's innovations ... involved a change in focus that brought rational man clearly to the center of the stage of history, mentally in control of his own world through the exercise of his critical faculties. Though it was more a shift in degree than an absolute change, man began increasingly to self-consciously and critically examine the rules by which he lived and constantly gauge them against his improving understanding of the external truths of Buddhism [this bit by Wyatt was quoted in Keyes' article I mentioned above].
This process of reinterpretation included a reform of the Buddhist monastic order, an insistence on strict ritual, canonical fundamentalism, and purity of ordination, and unlike in Sri Lanka, it seemed only coincident with the arrival of Westerners in Thailand. The whole process crystallized in religious reforms instituted by King Mongkut who sought to eliminate many traditional practices in Thai Buddhism as "accretions obscuring the true message of Buddhism." Mongkut's vision of "true Buddhism" "entailed a shift from viewing the world in cosmological terms to viewing it psychologically" and he also effected a "shift from practice centered on communal rituals to practice centred on self cultivation." The representations of Buddhism articulated by Rama I and Mongkut are in many remarkable ways identical to the representation of early Buddhism constructed by Rhys Davids, especially with respect to their common neglect of cosmology and ritual in favor of individuality and morality (emphasis added, Hallisey 48).
The highlighted bits above demonstrate how the trends of Protestant Buddhism in Sri Lanka also occurred throughout other Theravada nations. Although as noted above, there wasn't overt Western colonization or Christian missionization in Siam--unlike the other nations in Southeast Asia, Siam was never a European colony. However, the Siamese royalty (particular King Mongkut) had a Western education. Hence, it is not surprising that he embraced modern (Western) views of the time, inviting both Western mercenaries to train Siamese troops and American and English missionaries to teach English. Interestingly, according to Wikipedia, he purportedly remarked to a missionary, "What you teach us to do is admirable, but what you teach us to believe is foolish."

With the shift of emphasis from clerical authority to the individual experiences of the laity, as well as the shift from a cosmological worldview to a psychological one--both of which served to pathologize traditional religious celebration and rituals as 'degenerate' practices--a space was open up for meditation practice to assume a central place in Buddhism. Meditation practice became 'democratized: it became a practice that was accessible to all, despite the fact that historically it had been the exclusive domain of a minority of highly trained monastics.

I have not read any commentary on the developments in Burma. But given the presence of British colonizers there, I assume that similar process happened there. In a footnote, Hallisey notes:
In this regard, we would have to mention the vipassana movements as participating in the same general trends. See Gustaaf Houtman, "Traditions of Buddhist Practice in Burma" (unpublished PhD thesis, University of London, 1990).
I did a search on Google and found a copy of Houtman's book, Mental Culture in Burmese Crisis Politics: Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy. The book examines the relationship between 'mental culture' (i.e. bhavana or meditation) and wider Buddhist practice, and the relationship between mental culture and wider Burmese society and politics--I think it examines the opposing views about samatha and vipassana in Burma and how they are tied to politics. Seems like an interesting read but also somewhat heavy going.

---------------

The brief summary about the developments in Siam raises an important point: It indicates that while European colonialism was a major influence in the reconfiguration of Buddhism, it would be wrong to simply think of Asian Buddhists in those colonized lands as hapless victims of historical circumstances. The actions of King Mongkut suggests that Asian Buddhists nevertheless had the agency to strategically respond to the challenges brought on by modernity, even if those challenges favoured European powers.

Anyway, I have more interesting material on the influence of colonialism on the development of what we now take as 'orthodox' Buddhism. I also have interesting material on how Anagarika Dharmapala, the preeminent spokesperson for Theravada of the time, appropriated European interpretations of Buddhism and used them to counter the influence of colonization and missionization. Will post again once I pick out the relevant bits from my notes.
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Re: Modernish Theravada History

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Hi zavk,
zavk wrote: The brief summary about the developments in Siam raises an important point: It indicates that while European colonialism was a major influence in the reconfiguration of Buddhism, it would be wrong to simply think of Asian Buddhists in those colonized lands as hapless victims of historical circumstances. The actions of King Mongkut suggests that Asian Buddhists nevertheless had the agency to strategically respond to the challenges brought on by modernity, even if those challenges favoured European powers.
Thanks for the interesting points you bring up. It's important to remember that there were many dynamics and changes in Asia over the last few hundred (or few thousand...) years, and that while some of them were precipitated by interactions with the West, it was not just a one-way thing of the West having all the new technology, or the upper hand... (e.g. consider Genghis Khan, the history of Porcelain, etc, etc...).

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Re: Modernish Theravada History

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It was a good article by Ven. Sujato, left me wanting more - Especially w/re to Sri Lankan developments, which seem to have missed the cut, for whatever reasons.

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'The Blessed One is the Teacher, I am a disciple. He is the one who knows, not I." - MN. 70 Kitagiri Sutta

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Re: Modernish Theravada History

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BlackBird wrote:It was a good article by Ven. Sujato, left me wanting more - Especially w/re to Sri Lankan developments, which seem to have missed the cut, for whatever reasons.
Yes, I think Ven. Sujato's post does a great job in mapping the broad contours of how Theravada Buddhism negotiated the challenges of modernity and colonialism in the nineteenth century. There's a remark he made that I'd like to pick up on. He wrote:
While I believe his reforms were generally positive, and helped Thailand to survive in good shape through the colonial era, there is always a shadow to these things.
He is referring specifically to Thailand here, but I would say that there was a shadowy side to the modernising or 'reformation' of Buddhism more generally. IMO, it is helpful for us contemporary Buddhists to be mindful of whether these developments still cast a shadow over us or not. The excerpts above hint at some aspects of this shadow. Will try to post more relevant bits.
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Re: Modernish Theravada History

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OK.... so I guess it is clear from Ven. Sujato's post and the excerpts from the books above that modern Buddhism emerged in a time when European empires dominated most of Asia. This was a time when European scholars were fervently studying 'the Orient'. There was, in particular, a deep fascination with the languages of India. However, this wasn't simply an innocent 'objective' quest for knowledge--even if this was what the scholar thought, the cultural and environment they were in proved otherwise.This is what Lopez writes:
The nineteenth century was a period of significant advances in the science of philology with the discovery of language families and ancient connections between the classical Indian language of Sanskrit and the classical European languages of Greek and Latin, as well as modern German, French, and English. These were called the Indo-European or Aryan languages; Aryan is a Sanskrit term meaning “noble” or “superior”, and was the name that ancient peoples of northern India used to refer to themselves ... Through a complicated process, theories of language groups gave rise to theories of racial groups; and the kinship between the people of ancient India and the people of ancient Greece and hence (through a certain leap of faith) those of modern Europe was not simply a matter of verb roots but of bloodlines [NOTE: The interest in the relationship between language and race did wane in the later part of the nineteenth century except amongst German scholars who maintained a keen interest in it. As we all know, this would culminate in devastating effects in the twentieth century for the entire world and especially some 11-17 million Jews in WWII. Sigh....] (Buddhism and Science, p. 7).
This obsession with tracing the Aryan roots of European civilization tied in with the quest for 'origins' in much of nineteenth century European historical scholarship. Orientalist scholars were fixated with writing the origins, the classical periods, and the decline of Asian civilizations. It was the view that Asian civilisations have long passed their classical period and that the modern period (i.e. the nineteenth century) was the period of decline for them. Lopez writes:
The last of these (also known as the "modern period"), was marked by decay and impotence and inevitably occurred contemporaneously with, and hence was used to justify, European colonialism, one of whose product was knowledge. The Orientalist spoke for the Orient through a lineage of scholarship whose task it was to represent the Orient because the Orient was incapable of representing itself (Curators of the Buddha, p. 13). [NOTE: The term Orientalism is used in scholarly circles to refer to the modes of understanding that perpetuate negative stereotypes that serve to either exoticise or demonise 'the Orient'. The flipside of that would be Occidentalism which is the negative stereotyping of 'the Occident' or 'the West'.]
So while it might have been the case that the European 'discovery' (and I would use this word lightly) of Buddhism in Asian colonies led to a rapid growth of knowledge, there was also a long shadow cast by the illuminating light of Enlightenment Reason--a shadow that shaded entrenched attitudes about racial superiority and political domination.

This is not to point a finger at any one. It wasn't as if there was a secret mastermind orchestrating these turn of events. It was simply the historical conditions of the time. And these conditions had a real bearing on how Buddhism evolved.
[The] scholars who undertook the quest for the historical Buddha were not products of a Buddhist culture. They were instead from what seemed another world, or so they perceived themselves, writing in the context of colonialism. In 1844 Eugene Burnouf [a figure whose efforts at disseminating Buddhist texts in Europe cannot be understated] argued convincingly that Buddhism is an Indian religion and that it must be understood first through texts in Indian languages. For the remainder of the nineteenth century India became the primary focus of Buddhist studies in Europe, and Sanskrit (together with Pali) became the lingua franca of the field. These were indeed the classical languages of Buddhism. They were also Aryan languages, related to Greek and Latin, the classical languages of Europe. 'The Buddha of India was thus doubly important, as both founder and forefather. Much of the early scholarship focused on the life of the Buddha and on the early history of Buddhism in India, prior to its demise there, referred to by such terms original Buddhism, primitive Buddhism, sometimes pure Buddhism. This austere system of ethics and philosophy stood in sharp contrast to what was perceived as the spiritual and sensuous exoticism of colonial India, where Buddhism was long dead. This ancient Buddhism, derived from the textual studies of scholars of Europe, could be regarded as the authentic form of this great religion, against which the various Buddhisms of nineteenth century Asia could be measured, and generally found to be both derivative and adulterated, Buddhism thus came to be regarded as a tradition that resided most authentically in its texts, such that it could be effectively studied from the libraries of Europe; many of the most important scholars of the nineteenth century never traveled to Asia. Relatively little attention was paid to the ways in which the Buddha was understood by the Buddhists of Asia, both past and present.

But this Buddha, created in Europe, did not remain there. As in the classical colonial economy raw materials—in this case, Buddhist texts in Sanskrit and Pali—were extracted from the colony and shipped to Europe, where they were refined to produce a new Buddha, one that had not existed before. To complete the colonial circuit, that Buddha was then exported back to Asia, where he was sold to Asian Buddhists at a high price. This is the Buddha who would be hailed by Japanese defenders of Buddhism against the Meiji government, which regarded Buddhism as a foreign superstition. This was the Buddha who was hailed by Sinhalese reformers, like Anagarika Dharmapala, as superior to Jesus.'This was the Buddha of Buddhism in the phrase “Buddhism and Science (Buddhism and Science, p. 9-10).
OK, I should stop here. But these excerpts raise a few points worth reflecting on:
  • - Texts were given high importance as it was seen as the way to truly master Buddhism. But the importance given to texts was also intertwined with various political processes involving notions or racial superiority and political domination.

    - The quest for the origins of Buddhism India was important because it was a means for the European colonisers to recover a pristine more classical past that the Indian themselves have long abandoned and which they were deemed incapable of recovering--not to mention that these more pristine past was a noble past that Europeans could claim as their own via the Greeks, and this nobility is something that the European empires now embodied.
Given that modern Buddhism was shaped by the (Western) cultural attitudes and practices of a particular place and time, what then are we to make of the pervasive attitude that 'suttas alone' are the best way to understand the Dhamma free from 'cultural accretions'? What are we to make of the idea that the Theravada with have today is an original or pure form of Buddhism--and consequently, what might we make of the the 'It's Theravada or nothing else for me' attitude?

OK.... time for bed...... I hope this is of interest to at least some people. Now, where did T.W. Rhys Davids fit in all this? More to follow if anyone is interested. Will stop if you are finding this a bore.....

Good night (or day for some of you).

:anjali:

EDIT: Corrected some typos.... not a good idea to write late at night and under the influence of medication.
Last edited by zavk on Wed Dec 02, 2009 4:22 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Modernish Theravada History

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definitely not a bore
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the mountain may be heavy in and of itself, but if you're not trying to carry it it's not heavy to you- Ajaan Suwat
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Re: Modernish Theravada History

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Hi zavk,
zavk wrote:
Buddhism thus came to be regarded as a tradition that resided most authentically in its texts, such that it could be effectively studied from the libraries of Europe; many of the most important scholars of the nineteenth century never travelled to Asia. Relatively little attention was paid to the ways in which the Buddha was understood by the Buddhists of Asia, both past and present.[/b]
Thanks for the thought-provoking quotations...

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Re: Modernish Theravada History

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Glad to see that you find something useful in these excerpts, jc and mike.

While many scholars were studying Buddhism from the libraries of Europe without ever stepping foot in Asia, we shouldn't overlook the work of key figures such as T.W. Rhys Davids who was stationed in Ceylon. Rhys Davids is, of course, a very important figure in the history of modern Theravada. As Gombrich writes, he was the 'great orientalist' who 'did more than anyone else to introduce [Buddhism] to the English-speaking public, influencing even English-speaking Sinhalese Buddhists,' and thus 'serious students of Buddhism will never allow [his] name to die' (quoted in Hallisey 34).

It is not my intention here to diminish the importance of Rhys Davids work. My practice would not be possible today if not for his pioneering work. However, I think it is worth our while to consider how his approach to the study of Buddhism has been influenced by those historical-political conditions described in my previous posts.

Lopez notes that from the earliest stages of the encounter between Buddhism and the West, there existed an 'ambivalence of trust and suspicion of the native that would come to characterize the study of Buddhism in the west.' The European scholar would typically be 'reluctant to place his trust in the authority of the native scholar, yet he cannot read the text without him. The native is thus portrayed as merely a supplement to the text whose answers must be checked against the original, access to which is provided initially by the native' (Curators of the Buddha, p. 4).

This attitude was repeated by Rhys Davids. Hallisey writes in 'Roads Taken and Not Taken in the Study of Theravada Buddhism' [phew, good thing there is such a thing as OCR software!]:
Originally, and of necessity, European pioneers in the field had imitated traditional Buddhist pedagogical patterns in their investigations, and used vernacular commentarial literature as an aid and guide to the meanings of the more authoritative canonical texts. For example, Eugene Burnouf, "the brilliant founder of the study of Buddhism," left at his death a number of massive studies of Burmese commentarial texts (nissaya) which he had used as aids in his researches on Pali material. In this he was not unusual. The use of vernacular commentarial material was routine for the first generations of students of Buddhism. This included Rhys Davids, who used the knowledge of Sinhala which he gained as a colonial civil servant in Sri Lanka throughout his career in his translations from Pali. For instance, in the footnotes to his translations of the Questions of King Milinda and the Dialogues of the Buddha, we see evidence of his use of Sinhala translation for assistance in deciphering a difficult passage in Pali. But, perhaps most importantly, the self-presentation of these commentaries and translations, in which attention is drawn away from the present to the past, encourages their users to approach them as provisional entrees to the "more authoritative" texts of the Pali canon (Hallisey 43-44).
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Re: Modernish Theravada History

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Some more quotes....


Rhys Davids is also well known for his portrayal of early Buddhism as being largely free of ritual. It is thus no surprise that Rhys Davids did not mention in his encyclopedia entries the translations of Buddhist ritual works available to him and his readers at the time. The first Theravadin works to become known in Europe, however, were from various "paracanonical" anthologies of ordination texts (kammavaca). These were translated into Italian as early as 1776 and subsequently into Latin, French, German, and English. But after this initial interest in the ordination texts, which intriguingly are an example of a genre of authoritative literature without clear canonical status, very little attention has been paid to the kammavaca texts.....

... as Richard Gombrich has said, even though "Rhys Davids was an excellent scholar ... he naturally stressed the rationalist elements in Buddhism, because they formed the most striking contrast both to Christian, and ... to other Indian traditions [and perhaps because] he found them the most sympathetic."

Gombrich's reference to other Indian traditions invites a more specifically Orientalist explanation of the exclusion of ritual from early Buddhism. The contrast between Buddhism and Hinduism on the basis of the relative prominence of ritual mirrored an Orientalist contempt for Hindu religiousness, in which Hindu social activity was belittled as inherently irrational and politically ineffective. Moreover, Orientalist claims of having recovered a rational and practical aspect of India’s past, but one which was now absent from the present, served to justify the paternalistic imagery through which colonial rule was presented and understood.

The exclusion of ritual from early Buddhism ... from the very nature of Buddhism, was also key to Orientalist claims regarding their ability to recover the Buddha’s true message. The first texts which Europeans were given in their encounter with the Buddhist world, ritual texts for the ordination of monks, however, indicate that whoever gave those texts thought that ritual was key for understanding the Buddha’s message. The very capacity for knowledge depended on ritual preparation, and in Theravada Buddhist communities this generally presupposed ordination. Before modern times, some of the most distinctive ideas of Buddhist thought, such as the denial of an enduring self to an individual, were not usually seen as relevant to the lives of laypeople. The Orientalist understanding of truth rested, of course, on completely different criteria. lt was based on the premise that objectivity was both possible and desirable: who it was that knew something did not matter, only what was known. By emphasizing those aspects of Buddhist ideology, especially those which were polemically directed against Hindus, it was possible for Orientalists like Rhys Davids to make it appear that this rationalism was uncovered in Buddhism, rather than projected onto it. The appearances of uncovering the rationalist core of Buddhism were strategically supported by comparisons to Protestant and Catholic Christianity, always of course from the perspective of a Protestant representation of Catholicism as a degenerate form of Christianity.
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Re: Modernish Theravada History

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Hi all

I think it is important to not over stress the fact that the European scholars' aim in reconfiguring Buddhism along rationalist lines was only to justify colonialism. As Gombrich's comments about Rhys Davids in the previous post suggest, Rhys Davids was also reacting against Christianity. Nineteenth century Europe was a time in which modern science was on the ascendancy and in which religious authority was on the wane. Rhys Davids was also working in a context in which many Europeans were seeking an alternative model of morality to Christian morality.

Also, as I have previously suggested, it wasn't as if native Buddhists--like the Sinhalese for example--were simply hapless victims of those historical-political circumstances. We can see examples of this in the figure of Anagarika Dharmapala, a key figure in the reformation of Buddhism in Ceylon and popularisation of 'modern Buddhism' in the West at the time. Dharmapala was able to adopt Orientalist criticisms of Buddhism and used it to strategically resist colonialisation and Christian missionization in Ceylon, and also to reconfigure Sinhalese Buddhism and restore pride to the Sinhalese people.

In my previous posts, I outlined how Orientalist scholarship believed that the people of South India had long lost their great Aryan past. Through their understanding of the Aryan languages--which they linked to Europe via the Ancient Greeks--Orientalist scholars saw Euorpeans as the modern embodiment of Aryan nobility that South Asians could now no longer embody. An example of the typical Victorian characterization of the 'Oriental mind' was, as McMahan writes in The Making of Buddhist Modernism, that 'it lacked intellectual ability, was plagued by an excess of imagination, and was indolent and childlike' (94).

Philip Almond quotes, in The British Discovery of Buddhism, a John Davy who said of the Sinhalese: 'in intellectual acquirements, and proficiency in arts and sciences, they are not advanced beyond the darkest period of the middle ages. Their character, I believe, on the whole, is low, tame, and undecided: with few strong lights or shades in it, with few prominent virtues or vices' (43).

[I don't know about you, but this kind of rhetoric about anyone today would be highly offensive, to say the least!]

Now, how did the Sinhalese react to this sort of criticism? More in the next post........
Last edited by zavk on Sun Dec 06, 2009 1:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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