Relics, Ritual, and Representation in Buddhism
Rematerializing the Sri Lankan Theravada Tradition

This study examines the place of relic veneration in the history of South Asian Buddhism.

Kevin Trainor (Author)

9780521582803, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 13 June 1997

240 pages
23.6 x 16 x 1.9 cm, 0.46 kg

"...Trainor's study includes careful translations from the original P^D-ali and does a good job of researching a wide variety of selective sources." Nirmala Salgado, Journal of the American Oriental Society

This book is a serious study of relic veneration among South Asian Buddhists. Drawing on textual sources and archaeological evidence from India and Sri Lanka, including material rarely examined in the West, it looks specifically at the practice of relic veneration in the Sri Lankan Theravada Buddhist tradition. The author portrays relic veneration as a technology of remembrance and representation which makes present the Buddha of the past for living Buddhists. By analysing the abstract ideas, emotional orientation and ritual behaviour centred on the Buddha's material remains, he contributes to the 'rematerializing' of Buddhism which is currently under way among Western scholars. This book is an excellent introduction to Buddhist relics. It is well written and accessible and will be read by scholars and serious students of Buddhism and religious studies for years to come.

Acknowledgments
List of abbreviations
1. Orientations
2. Buddhist relic veneration in India
3. Relics and the establishment of the Buddhist sasana in Sri Lanka
4. Paradigms of presence
5. Ritual and the presence of the Buddha
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Buddhism [HRE]