John Clifford Holt's Books

Spirits of the Place

Buddhism and Lao Religious Culture

By: John Clifford Holt

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Spirits of the Place

Buddhism and Lao Religious Culture

By: John Clifford Holt

Spirits of the Place is a rare and timely contribution to our understanding of religious culture in Laos and Southeast Asia. Most often studied as a part of Thai, Vietnamese, or Khmer history, Laos remains a terra incognita to most Westerners—and to many of the people living throughout Asia as well. John Holt’s new book brings this fascinating nation into focus. With its overview of Lao Buddhism and analysis of how shifting political power—from royalty to democracy to communism—has impacted Lao religious culture, the book offers an integrated account of the entwined political and religious history of Laos from the fourteenth century to the contemporary era. Holt advances the provocative argument that common Lao knowledge of important aspects of Theravada Buddhist thought and practice has been heavily conditioned by an indigenous religious culture dominated by the veneration of phi, spirits whose powers are thought to prevail over and within specific social and geographical domains. The enduring influence of traditional spirit cults in Lao culture and society has brought about major changes in how the figure of the Buddha and the powers associated with Buddhist temples and reliquaries—indeed how all ritual spaces and times—have been understood by the Lao. Despite vigorous attempts by Buddhist royalty, French rationalists, and most recently by communist ideologues to eliminate the worship of phi, spirit cults have not been displaced; they continue to persist and show no signs of abating. Not only have the spirits resisted eradication, but they have withstood synthesis, subordination, and transformation by Buddhist political and ecclesiastical powers. Rather than reduce Buddhist religious culture to a set of simple commonalities, Holt takes a comparative approach, using his nearly thirty years’ experience with Sri Lanka to elucidate what is unique about Lao Buddhism. This stimulating book invites students in the fields of the history of religion and Buddhist and Southeast Asian studies to take a fresh look at prevailing assumptions and perhaps reconsider the place of Buddhism in Laos and Southeast Asia.

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Page Count

370

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University of Hawaii Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0824837088

ISBN 13

9780824837082

Myanmar’s Buddhist-Muslim Crisis

Rohingya, Arakanese, and Burmese Narratives of Siege and Fear

By: John Clifford Holt

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Myanmar’s Buddhist-Muslim Crisis

Rohingya, Arakanese, and Burmese Narratives of Siege and Fear

By: John Clifford Holt

Myanmar’s Buddhist-Muslim Crisis is a probing search into the reasons and rationalizations behind the violence occurring in Myanmar, especially the oppressive military campaigns waged against Rohingya Muslims by the army in 2016 and 2017. Over more than three years John Holt traveled around Myanmar engaging in sustained conversations with prominent and articulate participants and observers. What emerges from his peregrinations is a series of compelling portraits revealing both deep insights and entrenched misunderstandings. To understand the conflict, Holt must first accurately capture the viewpoints of his different conversation partners, who include Buddhists and Muslims, men and women, monks and laypeople, activists and scholars. Conversations range widely over issues such as the rise of Buddhist nationalism; the sometimes enigmatic and unexpected positions taken by Aung San Suu Kyii; use of the controversial term “Rohingya”; the impact of state-sponsored propaganda on the Burmese public; resistance to narratives emanating from international media, the United Nations, and the international diplomatic community; the frustrations of local political leaders who have felt left out of the policy-making process in the Rakhine State; and the constructive hopes and efforts still being made by forward-looking activists in Yangon. Three main perspectives emerge from the voices he listens to, those of Arakanese Buddhists who are native to Rakhine (once called Arakan), where much of the conflict has taken place; Burmese Buddhists (or Bamars), who make up the vast majority of Myanmar’s population; and the Rohingya Muslims, whose tragic story has been widely disseminated by the international media. What surfaces in conversation after conversation among all three groups is a narrative of siege: all see themselves as the aggrieved party, and all recount a history of being under siege. John Holt gives voice to these different perspectives as an engaged and concerned participant, offering both a critical and empathetic account of Myanmar’s tragic predicament. Readers follow the hopes and dismay of this seasoned scholar of Theravada Buddhism as he seeks his own understanding of the variously impassioned forces in play in this still unfolding drama.

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329

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University of Hawaii Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0824881796

ISBN 13

9780824881795

The Buddhist Viṣṇu

Religious Transformation, Politics, and Culture

By: John Clifford Holt

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The Buddhist Viṣṇu

Religious Transformation, Politics, and Culture

By: John Clifford Holt

John Holt's groundbreaking study examines the assimilation, transformation, and subordination of the Hindu deity Visnu within the contexts of Sri Lankan history and Sinhala Buddhist religious culture. Holt argues that political agendas and social forces, as much as doctrinal concerns, have shaped the shifting patterns of the veneration of Visnu in Sri Lanka. Holt begins with a comparative look at the assimilation of the Buddha in Hinduism. He then explores the role and rationale of medieval Sinhala kings in assimilating Visnu into Sinhala Buddhism. Offering analyses of texts, many of which have never before been translated into English, Holt considers the development of Visnu in Buddhist literature and the changing practices of deity veneration. Shifting to the present, Holt describes the efforts of contemporary Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka to discourage the veneration of Visnu, suggesting that many are motivated by a reactionary fear that their culture and society will soon be overrun by the influences and practices of Hindus, Muslims, and Christians.

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460

Publisher

Motilal Banarsidass Publishe

Published Date

ISBN 10

8120832698

ISBN 13

9788120832695

Buddha in the Crown

Avalokitesvara in the Buddhist Traditions of Sri Lanka

By: John Clifford Holt

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Buddha in the Crown

Avalokitesvara in the Buddhist Traditions of Sri Lanka

By: John Clifford Holt

Historical, anthropological, and philosophical in approach, Buddha in the Crown is a case study in religious and cultural change. It examines the various ways in which Avalokitesvara, the most well known and proliferated bodhisattva of Mahayana Buddhism throughout south, southeast, and east Asia, was assimilated into the transforming religious culture of Sri Lanka, one of the most pluralistic in Asia. Exploring the expressions of the bodhisattva's cult in Sanskrit and Sinhala literature, in iconography, epigraphy, ritual, symbol, and myth, the author develops a provocative thesis regarding the dynamics of religious change. Interdisciplinary in scope, addressing a wide variety of issues relating to Buddhist thought and practice, and providing new and original information on the rich cultural history of Sri Lanka, this book will interest students of Buddhism and South Asia.

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306

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0195362462

ISBN 13

9780195362466

Theravada Traditions

Buddhist Ritual Cultures in Contemporary Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka

By: John Clifford Holt

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Theravada Traditions

Buddhist Ritual Cultures in Contemporary Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka

By: John Clifford Holt

Theravada Traditions offers a unique comparative approach to understanding Buddhism: it examines popular rituals of central importance in the predominantly Theravada Buddhist cultures of Laos, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, and Cambodia. Instead of focusing on how religious ideas have impacted the ideals of government or ethical practice, author John Holt tries to ascertain how important changes, or shifts, in the trajectories of the political economies of societies have impacted the character of religious cultures. Each of the five chapters focuses on a particular rite and provides detailed historical, political, or social context: Holt shows how worship of the Phra Bang Buddha image in the annual pi mai or New Year’s rites in Luang Phrabang, Laos, has changed dramatically since the 1975 communist revolution and the subsequent opening up of the country to tourism; he describes how, in the face of insurrections and a prolonged civil war, the annual asala perahara processions in Kandy, Sri Lanka, have come to reflect a robust assertion of a Sinhala Buddhist nationalist identity; how ordination rites among Thai Buddhists reflect the manner in which Thai culture has been ever more “commodified” in the context of its dramatically developing economy; and how in tightly controlled Myanmar the kathina rite, the act of giving new robes to members of the sangha after the completion of the rain-retreat season, transformed into a season of campaigning for gift-giving and merit-making; finally, he demonstrates how, in light of the devastating losses inflicted by the Khmer Rouge, pchum ben, the annual rite of caring ritually for one’s deceased kin, became the most popular and perhaps most emotionally observed of all rites in the Khmer calendar year. In short, Theravada Traditions illustrates how popular, public ritual performance, far from being static, clearly indexes patterns of social and political change. Broad but deep, rigorous yet accessible, this rich, innovative volume provides a provocative introduction to the practice of Theravada Buddhism and the nature of social change in contemporary Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia.

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Page Count

409

Publisher

University of Hawaii Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0824872452

ISBN 13

9780824872458

The Sri Lanka Reader

History, Culture, Politics

By: John Holt

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The Sri Lanka Reader

History, Culture, Politics

By: John Holt

Fifty-four images and more than ninety classic and contemporary texts introduce Sri Lankas recorded history of more than two and a half millennia.

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791

Publisher

Duke University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0822349825

ISBN 13

9780822349822

The Legend of King Aśoka

A Study and Translation of the Aśokāvadāna

By: John S. Strong

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The Legend of King Aśoka

A Study and Translation of the Aśokāvadāna

By: John S. Strong

This first English translation of the Asokavadana text, the Sanskrit version of the legend of King Asoka, first written in the second century A.D. Emperor of India during the third century B.C. and one of the most important rulers in the history of Buddhism. Asoka has hitherto been studied in the West primarily from his edicts and rock inscriptions in many parts of the Indian subcontinent. Through an extensive critical essay and a fluid translation, John Strong examines the importance of the Asoka of the legends for our overall understanding of Buddhism. Professor Strong contrasts the text with the Pali traditions about Kind Asoka and discusses the Buddhist view of kingship, the relationship of the state and the Buddhist community, the king s role in relating his kingdom to the person of the Buddha, and the connection between merit making, cosmology, and Buddhist doctrine. An appendix provides summaries of other stories about Asoka.

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Page Count

362

Publisher

Motilal Banarsidass Publ.

Published Date

ISBN 10

8120806166

ISBN 13

9788120806160

Hermeneutics and Tradition in the Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra

By: John Powers

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Hermeneutics and Tradition in the Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra

By: John Powers

Hermeneutics & tradition in the Samdhinirmocana-sutra deals with the complex interrelatioship between theories of scriptural interpretation and buddhist notions of tradition and authority with respect to the Samdhinirmocana-sutra, the main scriptural source of the yogacara school of Indian Buddhism.This study looks at the text from a number of perspectives including several current methodological models, philological analyses, and historical consideration. The purpose of this approach is to provide a multi-faceted analysis of this complex work.

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216

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Motilal Banarsidass Publ.

Published Date

ISBN 10

8120819268

ISBN 13

9788120819269

The Religious World of Kirti Sri

Buddhism, Art, and Politics of Late Medieval Sri Lanka

By: John Clifford Holt

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The Religious World of Kirti Sri

Buddhism, Art, and Politics of Late Medieval Sri Lanka

By: John Clifford Holt

In this interdisciplinary inquiry, John Clifford Holt seeks to uncover how Buddhism was understood and expressed during the waning years of indigenous political power in Asia's oldest continuing Buddhist culture. Holt focusses on King Kirti Sri Rajasinha and how, despite powerful and persistent Dutch colonial threats and a deeply suspicious Kandyan Buddhist Sinhalese aristocracy, he successfully revived Sinhalese Theravada Buddhism. As Holt demonstrates, Kirti Sri succeeded in formulating his vision of an orthodox Buddhism in a number of ways: through the patronage of monastic sanha and re-establishing traditional lines of ordination, translating the Pali suttas into Sinhala, sponsoring public Buddhist religious rites, and refurbishing almost all Buddhist temples in the Kandyan culture region. The ultimate aim of Holt's study is to describe and interpret Kirti Sri's articulation of a normative Buddhist world, the essentials of which remain normative for many Buddhists in the Kandyan region of Sri Lanka today. Scholars and students will find The Religious World of Kirti Sri is an indispensable resource for the understanding of orthodox Buddhism at this important historical juncture, as well as the present day.

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188

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0195355423

ISBN 13

9780195355420

Discipline

The Canonical Buddhism of the Vinayapiṭaka

By: John Clifford Holt,John Holt

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Discipline

The Canonical Buddhism of the Vinayapiṭaka

By: John Clifford Holt,John Holt

Discipline: The Canonical Buddhism of the Vinayapitaka is a penetrating analysis of a heretofore neglected, yet centrally important portion of the Pali Canon. In identifying the pivotal role of discipline in the bhikkhu quest for nibbana Professor Holt finds that Vinaya rules represent a practical implementation of the Budha's Dhamma. Specifically, adherence to this monastic code theoretically facilitates an overcoming of asavas, mental dispositions that foster attachment to the self and thus perpetuate the process of samsaric kammic retribution. The formulation of Buddhist monastic law, therefore, need not be seen as the result of casuistry; rather, it is the consequence of a conscious attempt on the part of the early Buddhist tradition to identify behavioral expressions that at once generate and reflect a calmed, detached and disciplined mental and spiritual state. The author has also examined the significance of the principal rituals of Buddhist monasticism as they are prescribed within the Vinaya text. He interprets these rites as cultic celebrations of discipline which, in turn, legitimate the Sangha's claim to be the embodiment and reservoir of the Buddha's teachings. The claim supported the Sangha's role of occupying a mediating position between the spiritual needs of the laity and the authority and the spiritual exemplar of Buddhism, the Buddha. In short, Discipline, written from the perspective of the history of religious approach, contributed significantly to the increased understanding of the dynamics of the Buddhist religion in its formulative stages.

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176

Publisher

Motilal Banarsidass Publishe

Published Date

ISBN 10

8120810511

ISBN 13

9788120810518

Relics of the Buddha

By: John S. Strong

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Relics of the Buddha

By: John S. Strong

Buddhism is popularly seen as a religion stressing the truth of impermanence. How, then, to account for the long-standing veneration, in Asian Buddhist communities, of bone fragments, hair, teeth, and other bodily bits said to come from the historic Buddha? Early European and American scholars of religion, influenced by a characteristic Protestant bias against relic worship, declared such practices to be superstitious and fraudulent, and far from the true essence of Buddhism. John Strong's book, by contrast, argues that relic veneration has played a serious and integral role in Buddhist traditions in South and Southeast Asia-and that it is in no way foreign to Buddhism. The book is structured around the life story of the Buddha, starting with traditions about relics of previous buddhas and relics from the past lives of the Buddha Sakyamuni. It then considers the death of the Buddha, the collection of his bodily relics after his cremation, and stories of their spread to different parts of Asia. The book ends with a consideration of the legend of the future parinirvana (extinction) of the relics prior to the advent of the next Buddha, Maitreya. Throughout, the author does not hesitate to explore the many versions of these legends and to relate them to their ritual, doctrinal, artistic, and social contexts.

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Page Count

316

Publisher

Princeton University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0691188114

ISBN 13

9780691188119

Tree and Serpent: Early Buddhist Art in India

By: John Guy,Vincent Tournier

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Tree and Serpent: Early Buddhist Art in India

By: John Guy,Vincent Tournier

A pioneering study of the emergence of Buddhist art in southern India, featuring vibrant photography of rare works, many published here for the first time Named for two primary motifs in Buddhist art, the sacred bodhi tree and the protective snake, Tree & Serpent: Early Buddhist Art in India is the first publication to foreground devotional works produced in the Deccan from 200 BCE to 400 CE. Unlike traditional narratives, which focus on northern India (where the Buddha was born, taught, and died), this groundbreaking book presents Buddhist art from monastic sites in the south. Long neglected, this is among the earliest surviving bodies of Buddhist art, and among the most sublimely beautiful. An international team of researchers contributes new scholarship on the sculptural and devotional art associated with Buddhism, and masterpieces from recently excavated Buddhist sites are published here for the first time—including Kanaganahalli and Phanigiri, the most important new discoveries in a generation. With its exploration of Buddhism’s emergence in southern India, as well as of India’s deep commercial and cultural engagement with the Hellenized and Roman worlds, this definitive study expands our understanding of the origins of Buddhist art itself.

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348

Publisher

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Published Date

ISBN 10

1588396932

ISBN 13

9781588396938

The Sri Lanka Reader

History, Culture, Politics

By: John Holt

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The Sri Lanka Reader

History, Culture, Politics

By: John Holt

Fifty-four images and more than ninety classic and contemporary texts introduce Sri Lankas recorded history of more than two and a half millennia.

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Page Count

791

Publisher

Duke University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0822349825

ISBN 13

9780822349822

Book's by John Clifford Holt

Spirits of the Place

Spirits of the Place

Myanmar’s Buddhist-Muslim Crisis

Myanmar’s Buddhist-Muslim Crisis

The Buddhist Viṣṇu

The Buddhist Viṣṇu

Buddha in the Crown

Buddha in the Crown

Theravada Traditions

Theravada Traditions

The Sri Lanka Reader

The Sri Lanka Reader

The Legend of King Aśoka

The Legend of King Aśoka

Hermeneutics and Tradition in the Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra

Hermeneutics and Tradition in the Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra

The Religious World of Kirti Sri

The Religious World of Kirti Sri

Discipline

Discipline

Relics of the Buddha

Relics of the Buddha

Tree and Serpent: Early Buddhist Art in India

Tree and Serpent: Early Buddhist Art in India

The Sri Lanka Reader

The Sri Lanka Reader

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