Winner of the Henry J. Benda Prize sponsored by the Association for Asian Studies
Gathering Leaves and Lifting Words examines modern and premodern Buddhist monastic education traditions in Laos and Thailand. Through five centuries of adaptation and reinterpretation of sacred texts and commentaries, Justin McDaniel traces curricular variations in Buddhist oral and written education that reflect a wide array of community goals and values. He depicts Buddhism as a series of overlapping processes, bringing fresh attention to the continuities of Theravada monastic communities that have endured despite regional and linguistic variations. Incorporating both primary and secondary sources from Thailand and Laos, he examines premodern inscriptional, codicological, anthropological, art historical, ecclesiastical, royal, and French colonial records. By looking at modern sermons, and even television programs and websites, he traces how pedagogical techniques found in premodern palm-leaf manuscripts are pervasive in modern education.
As the first comprehensive study of monastic education in Thailand and Laos, Gathering Leaves and Lifting Words will appeal to a wide audience of scholars and students interested in religious studies, anthropology, social and intellectual history, and pedagogy.
By:
Justin Thomas McDaniel
Imprint: University of Washington Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 152mm,
Spine: 25mm
Weight: 544g
ISBN: 9780295988498
ISBN 10: 0295988495
Series: Critical Dialogues in Southeast Asian Studies
Pages: 384
Publication Date: 16 October 2008
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Further / Higher Education
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
AcknowledgmentsNote on TranscriptionIntroduction PART I. Structural Mechanisms: The Institutional History of Monastic Education 1. From the Sala Vat to the Institut Bouddhique 2. Wandering Librarians 3. Kings and Universities PART II. Proximate Mechanisms: Toward a Curricular History of Monastic Education 4. Genres, Modes, and Idiosyncratic Articulations 5. The Culture of Translation 6. Canons and Curricula PART III. Vernacular Landscapes: Teaching Buddhism in Laos and Thailand 7. From Manuscript to Television 8. Philosophical Embryology ConclusionNotesNote on Manuscripts, Archives, Monastic Libraries, and CatalogsBibliographyIndex
Justin McDaniel is associate professor of religious studies at the University of California, Riverside.
Reviews for Gathering Leaves and Lifting Words: Histories of Buddhist Monastic Education in Laos and Thailand
The book reads very fluidly as McDaniel writes in an unusually clear and straightforward manner... The book will no doubt become essential reading for anyone studying the social history of Thailand and Laos or Theravada Buddhism. -- Daniel Veidlinger History of Religions Gathering Leaves and Lifting Words is a rich and often fascinating treatment of Buddhist monastic textual culture and bilingual commentary in the Siamese/Thai/Lao region, reflecting the author's long personal acquaintance with Lao/Thai monastic institutions and educational practices. H-ASIA With this book, McDaniel, a gifted textual scholar, has produced the first systemic study of how monks have been educated in Southeast Asia over the last five hundred years. Buddhadharma
