Recent scholarship has shown that the term Theravada in the familiar modern sense is a 19-20th c. construct that emerged in response to modern historical conjunctures in South and Southeast Asia. This book explores these historical forces, both external to and within the tradition and analyses in what ways, and in relation to which timescale(s), have modern forms of Buddhist practice emerged in in South and Southeast Asia. Established scholars in Buddhist Studies examine how Theravada civilizations been constructed in the Buddhist encounter with modernity. Chapters in the book address the articulation of recurrent themes comparatively from the vantage point of history, textual studies, art history and ethnography, focusing on case studies from Nepal to Sri Lanka, Burma, Cambodia and Southwest China. Specific case studies contextualize general trends and draw on practices, institutions, and communities that have been identified with this civilizational tradition throughout its extensive history and across a highly diverse cultural geography. The final section of the book explores social formations and institutions that developed in responses to these sweeping historical changes and represent modern Theravada Buddhist practices and writings.
Foregrounding diverse responses among Theravadins to the encroaching challenges of modern life ways, communications, and political organizations, this book will be of interest to scholars of Asian Religion, Buddhism and South and Southeast Asian Studies
