New PDF release: The History of the Buddha's Relic Shrine: A Translation of

By Stephen C. Berkwitz

ISBN-10: 0195301390

ISBN-13: 9780195301397

ISBN-10: 1435620054

ISBN-13: 9781435620056

Buddhist chronicles have lengthy been had a significant position within the research of Buddhism. students, despite the fact that, have relied virtually solely on Pali works that have been composed by means of elites for discovered audiences, to the overlook of a giant variety of Buddhist histories written in neighborhood languages for well known intake. The Sinhala Th=upavamsa, composed via Parakama Pandita in thirteenth-century Sri Lanka, is a crucial instance of a Buddhist chronicle written within the vernacular Sinhala language. moreover, it's between these works that tell public dialogue and debate over where of Buddhism within the Sri Lankan kingdom country and the position of Buddhist priests in modern politics. during this publication Stephen Berkwitz deals the 1st whole English translation of the Sinhala Th=upavamsa. Composed in a literary dialect of Sinhala, it encompasses a richly descriptive account of ways Buddhism unfold outdoor of India, replete with poetic elaborations and interpolations no longer present in different bills of these occasions. apart from being an enormous literary paintings, the Sinhala Th=upavamsa. is a textual content of substantial ancient and spiritual value. It contains a number of narrative strands that relate the existence tale of the Buddha and the way within which Buddhist teachings and associations have been demonstrated at the island of Sri Lanka in precedent days. The imperative concentration of this paintings issues the range of relics linked to the old Buddha, relatively how the relics have been obtained and the presumed advantages of venerating them. The textual content additionally relates the mythological background of the Buddha's earlier lives as a bodhisattva and concludes with a prediction in regards to the destiny Buddha Maitreya. mirrored image on Buddhist ethics and guideline at the Dharma, or the Buddha's instructing, are discovered in the course of the paintings, indicating that this historic narrative was once intended either to bear in mind the previous and provides upward thrust to non secular perform between modern readers and listeners. This new translation makes an important paintings extra greatly available within the West and provides to our wisdom of the way neighborhood Buddhist groups imagined and represented their spiritual and cultural heritages in written works.

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Extra resources for The History of the Buddha's Relic Shrine: A Translation of the Sinhala Thupavamsa (Aar Texts and Translations)

Example text

Like the characters mentioned in the narrative who feel joy in encounters with relics of the Buddha and pious confidence in the prospect of benefiting from what other virtuous agents have done previously, readers and listeners of the Sinhala Thu¯pavamsa are expected to celebrate their good fortune for _ having learned how they stand to benefit from what the Buddha and others once did for them. Para¯krama’s accounts of how the Bodhisattva suffered innumerable sacrifices in order to become Gautama Buddha in the present age illustrate a means in which ethically productive emotions may be generated by a text.

Virtuous persons are said to give rise to morally beneficial emotions while performing even the simplest acts of merit. Accordingly, whenever the Sinhala Thu¯pavamsa inserts brief remarks on the emotional _ it indicates that a person’s feelings can states of characters from the past, determine the moral quality of his or her deeds. haga¯manı¯) _ _ are routinely portrayed as feeling ‘‘happy’’ or ‘‘serenely joyful’’ as they set about to perform acts of merit. In this sense, the Sinhala Thu¯pavamsa _ suggests that the ideal Buddhist devotees delight in honoring the Buddha and adhering to his teachings.

At many points the text explicitly spells out the benefits of venerating relics of the Buddha, making it nearly impossible for a reader or listener of the text to overlook the merit gained from doing so. 26 Although it remains to be seen whether the Buddha’s passing away in nirvana actually constitutes a ‘‘problem’’ for Buddhists that is overcome through the presence of his relics, as some have claimed, the Sinhala Thu¯pavamsa ascribes to relics miraculous _ equates relics to the living powers to take the form of the Buddha and, Buddha in other ways.

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The History of the Buddha's Relic Shrine: A Translation of the Sinhala Thupavamsa (Aar Texts and Translations) by Stephen C. Berkwitz


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