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Instructors: Dr. Alexander Horstmann
Event type:
Seminar
Displayed in timetable as:
Buddhism
Hours per week:
2
Credits:
6,0
Language of instruction:
English
Min. | Max. participants:
- | -
Comments/contents:
All three countries are known as having Theravada Buddhist majorities. Theravada Buddhism is essential for the construction of cultural and national identity in these countries and the authority of Buddhist monks is uncontested. The course offers an introduction to the debate on the political role of Buddhism, Buddhist institutions and Buddhist monks in politics and a discussion of the revitalization of Buddhist political thought and Buddhist movements in a time of secularization and globalization. Although Theravada Buddhism is not a state religion, Buddhism takes a firm place in the political landscape. This course offers insights into the political ideas and political philosophy of Buddhist monks and nuns, the relationship of Buddhism to the state and to democracy, the perspective of Buddhist majorities on religious minorities, such as Christianity and Islam, the role of Buddhist mission and missionization and the place of Buddhism in the economy and in the marketplace.
Requirements:
Students should regularly attend, participate actively in the discussions, attend to the readings (PDF to be provided by the instructor), to give a presentation from the course literature (in small groups), to be willing to participate in practical exercises and tutorials, and to prepare a concise essay to be uploaded on the virtual platform. The instructor will provide precise guidelines for course presentation, and for the organization and structure of the essay. The grade will be based on the quality of participation, oral presentation, and the completed essay
Schedule and Literature:
Day 1
Crosby, Kate 2013. Theravada Buddhism: Continuity, Diversity, and Identity. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell.
Gombrich, Richard F. 2006. Theravada Buddhism. A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo. London and New York: Routledge.
Day 2
Holt, John Clifford et al. (eds.) 2003. Constituting Communities. Theravada Buddhism and the Religious Cultures of South- and Southeast Asia. New York: SUNNY Press.
Day 3
Schober, Elizabeth 2011. Modern Buddhist Conjunctures in Myanmar: Cultural Narratives, Colonial Legacies, and Civil Society. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Turner, Alicia. 2014. Saving Buddhism. The Impermanence of Religion in Colonial Burma. Honululu: University of Hawaii Press
Day 4
Larsson, Thomas 2015. Monkish Politics in Southeast Asia. Religious disenfranchisement in comparative and theoretical perspective. Modern Asian Studies, 49, 01: 40-82.
Day 5
Kawanami, Hiroko 2013. Renunciation and Empowerment of Buddhist Nuns in Myanmar. Building a Community of Female Faithful. Leiden: Brill.
Day 6
Walton, Matthew J. 2017. Buddhism, Politics, and Political Thought in Myanmar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Day 7
Lubina, Michal 2018. The political thought of Aung San Suu Kyi. Scholar Publishing House: Warsaw.
Day 8
Learman, Linda. 2005. Buddhist Missionaries in the era of Globalization. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Day 9
Foxeus, Niklas 2019. The Buddha was a Devoted Nationalist. Buddhist nationalism, ressentiment, and defending Buddhism in Myanmar. Religion, 49, 4: 661-690.
Lehr, Peter 2019. Militant Buddhism. The Rise of Religious Violence in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Thailand. New York: Palgrave.
Day 10
Holt, John Clifford. 2016. Buddhist Extremists and Muslim Minorities. Religious Conflict in Contemporary Sri Lanka. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Spencer, Jonathan, et al. 2014. Checkpoint, Temple, Church and Mosque. A collaborative ethnography of war and peace. London: Pluto.
Day 11
Frydenlund, Iselin. 2017. "Religious Liberty for Whom? The Buddhist Politics of Religious Freedom During Myanmar’s Transition to Democracy." Nordic Journal of Human Rights 35 (1): 55–73.
Walton, Matthew J. and Susan Hayward 2014. Democratization, Nationalism, and Communal Violence in Myanmar. Honolulu: East-West-Center. Policy Studies, 71.
Day 12
Horstmann, Alexander 2020. Buddhist Protectionism, Political Imaginaries of belonging, and Prospects for Covenantal Pluralism in Myanmar. International Review of Faith and International Affairs, 18, 4: 86-98. Schober, Juliane. 2008. "Communities of Interpretation in the Study of Religion in Burma." Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 39, 2: 255–267.
Schober, Juliane. 2017. "Belonging in a new Myanmar. Identity, Law, and Gender in the Anthropology of Contemporary Buddhism." Religion and Society 8: 158–172
Day 13
Orjuela, Camilla 2020. Countering Buddhist radicalization: Emerging Peace Movements in Myanmar and Sri Lanka. Third World Quarterly, 41, 1: 133-150.
Day 14
Cohen, Paul T. 2017. Charismatic Monks of Lanna Buddhism. Copenhagen: NIAS press.
Brumann, Christoph, Saskia Abrahms-Kavunenko, and Beata Switek 2021 (eds.). Monks, Money, and Morality. The Balancing Act of Contemporary Buddhism. London: Bloomsbury.
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