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Buddha in the Crown

Avalokiteśvara in the Buddhist Traditions of Sri Lanka

John Clifford Holt author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Oxford University Press Inc

Published:11th Apr '91

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Buddha in the Crown cover

This book offers a case study in religious and cultural change. Sri Lanka is the home of one of Asia's most pluralistic religious cultures; four major religions - Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity - have found a permanent home within its boundaries. This makes it an ideal laboratory for the study of how religious traditions mix. John Holt here examines the career of a single deity, who began as the Indian Mahayana Buddhist bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, was assimilated to the indigenous Sinhala god Natha, and ultimately became identified with the bodhisattva Maitreya - the next Buddha of the future, expected by virtually all Buddhist traditions of Asia.

Holt beautifully articulates the assimilation and transformation of Avalokitesvara in Sri Lanka by weaving together evidence drawn from historical and religious treatises, stone inscriptions, oral traditions, and icons. * Journal of Asian Studies *

ISBN: 9780195064186

Dimensions: 217mm x 148mm x 25mm

Weight: 579g

304 pages