[Buddha-l] New Book on Popularizing Buddhism

[Mahinda Deegalle]

Dear Buddha-L readers:
I am just writing this to let you know the release of
my new book. Details of the book are below.
Sincerely
Mahinda Deegalle

Mahinda Deegalle, Popularizing Buddhism: Preaching as
Performance in Sri Lanka (State University of New York
Press, 2006), pp. 241; ISBN10: 0-7914-6897-6; ISBN13:
978-0-7914-6897-5

The first book to focus on the ritual practice of
Buddhist preaching in Asia, Popularizing Buddhism
examines the role of preaching in Buddhist devotional
life and its relationship to the vernacular Sinhala
literature of late medieval Sri Lanka. Blending
ethnography, textual and doctrinal studies, and an
analysis of untranslated Sinhala vernacular Buddhist
texts, Mahinda Deegalle traces the development of
Buddhist preaching within the Sri Lankan Theravada
Buddhist tradition. He explains the preaching ceremony
popularly known as bana and offers a rich depiction of
preaching styles, events, and specific preachers. The
book delves into the debates surrounding the preaching
ritual’s origin and its potential beginning and
continuity within the bhanaka (reciter) tradition, and
explores the interactions between vernacular religious
traditions of Sri Lanka with cosmopolitan Buddhism.
Deegalle advances previous research on the
transmission of Buddhist teachings by constructing a
vivid picture of the way Sri Lankan Buddhist
traditions have shaped the nature of Theravada
Buddhism.

“In his research Deegalle has examined the most
important and relevant sources and has demonstrated a
sense of priority in recognizing the most pertinent
discussions within them. I applaud his sense of
historical perspective, his acute sensitivity to the
Sri Lankan Buddhist religious and cultural context,
and his willingness to make critical assessments of
previous scholarship when needed. His book fills a
vacuum.” — John Clifford Holt, coeditor of
Constituting Communities: Theravada Buddhism and the
Religious Cultures of South and Southeast Asia

Mahinda Deegalle is Senior Lecturer in the Study of
Religions at Bath Spa University in England. He is the
editor of Buddhism, Conflict, and Violence in Modern
Sri Lanka and coeditor (with Frank J. Hoffman) of Pali
Buddhism.


Table Of Contents

Acknowledgments
Abbreviations

1. Preaching in the Context of Popular Religion

2. Buddha as the Best Preacher

3. Bana as an Emerging Tradition

4. Banapot as Innovation

5. Marathon Preachers

6. Preaching Performance in the Nineteenth Century

7. Twentieth-century Innovations

8. Preacher as Poet

9. Further Reflections

Notes
Bibliography
Index


Dr. Mahinda Deegalle
Senior Lecturer in the Study of Religions
School of Historical and Cultural Studies
Bath Spa University
Newton Park
Bath BA2 9BN, United Kingdom
Phone: 44+(0)1225-875429(W); Fax:   44+(0)1225-875605(W)


 
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