Theravada Buddhism in Colonial Contexts

The chapters in this book examine the many different colonial contexts and regimes that Theravada Buddhists experienced, not just those of European powers such as the British, French, but also the internal colonialism of China and Thailand.

Thomas Borchert is an Associate Professor of Religion at the University of Vermont. His research is focused on religion and politics in Theravada Buddhist communities in Thailand, Southwest China and Singapore. He is the author of Educating Monks: Minority Buddhism on China's Southwest Border (2017).

1. Introduction, Thomas Borchert Part I: Colony/Nation 2. To be Burmese is to be Buddhist: Formations of Buddhist Modernity in Colonial Burma, Juliane Schober 3. Interactions between Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism in Colonial Singapore, Wenxue Zhang 4. A Tale of Two Colonialisms: K. Sri Dhammananda and the Making of a Missionary Monk, Jeffrey Samuels Part II: Centralization in Internal Colonies 5. Lanna Buddhism and Bangkok Centralization in Late Nineteenth to Early Twentieth Century, Ratanaporn Sethakul 6. Shifts in Buddhist Authority in Sipsongpanna under Chinese Colonialism, Thomas Borchert Part III: Managing and Governing Theravada Buddhists 7. 'Colonial Governmentality': Legal and Administrative Technologies of the Governance of Sri Pada Temple in Sri Lanka, Premakumara de Silva 8. The Thathanabaing Project: Monastic Hierarchies and Colonialism in Burma, Alexey Kirichenko 9. The Institut bouddhique in Laos: Ambivalent Dynamics of a Colonial Project, Gregory Kourilsky Part IV: Students of the Empire 10. Beni Madhab Barua and the Study of Buddhism in Calcutta c 1918 to 1948, Gitanjali Surendran 11. Buddhist Republicanism in Cambodia: a Colonialist Legacy, Ian Harris