Science and Development in Thai and South Asian Buddhism
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd
Published:2nd Dec '19
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This hardback is available in another edition too:
- Paperback£39.99(9781032084602)
Becoming a Buddhist monk in Thailand has for a long time provided the opportunity for access to a good education and to social advancement, both to bright, poor rural youths and to members of the urban elite whose youth often become monks for a few months as a rite of passage into adulthood. Moreover, although women are not allowed to become fully fledged monks, recent developments have encouraged a special status akin to nuns for many devout Thai Buddhist women. All this has resulted in large numbers of well-educated, well-motivated Buddhist religious people, keen both to engage in religious contemplation and also determined to contribute to this-worldly social, economic, educational and medical development goals. This book, by a leading authority on the subject, considers the role of Thai Buddhist religious people in development within Thailand. It discusses how Thai Buddhism has evolved philosophically and in its organisation to allow this, examines various examples of Buddhist people's engagement in development projects, and assesses how the situation is likely to unfold going forward. In addition, the book considers the relationship between science and religion in Thai Buddhism and also some aspects of the parallel situation in Sri Lanka.
"David Gosling's Science and Development in Thai and South Asian Buddhism is a fundamental contribution to the scholarly understanding of patterns of Buddhist thinking and living across Southeast Asian locations, and especially in Thailand. Drawing on his immersive knowledge of Thai Buddhism and his scientific backgrounds, he sketches various vignettes of Buddhist life relating to the roles of lay nuns, lay women, and monks in programmes which skillfully interweave meditative practice with social engagement." - Ankur Barua, University of Cambridge
"David Gosling has already established a leading reputation as a scholar of the way South East Asian, especially Thai, Buddhist beliefs and values interact with everyday life in both rural and urban contexts. This book consolidates and enhances that reputation. His remarkable expertise, which uses both quantitative and qualitative criteria, takes in approaches from social anthropology, sociology, feminism, the history of ideas and religious studies to present a picture of Buddhism in transition over the last fifty years or so. Gosling’s work adds great significance to our understanding of Buddhism in the regions he studies." - Julius Lipner, Professor Emeritus in Hinduism and the Comparative Study of Religion, University of Cambridge, Fellow of the British Academy
"This is a notably sophisticated and wide-ranging study. It provides exemplary documentation about the various ways in which South Asian Buddhism has interacted with social change and aspects of modernity, providing some invaluable documentation about attitudes to the relation between religious and scientific language primarily in the context of Thailand, and tracing the contributions of Buddhist practitioners to issues in development and medical care. In its careful tracing of the complex encounters between traditional practice and different kinds of modernity, Dr Gosling's study raises questions whose interest and application extend far beyond one local context. This is a monograph of real significance for the general debate about religious identity, social change and the pressures of scientific world views." - Dr Rowan Williams, Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge and former Archbishop of Canterbury
ISBN: 9780367145859
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 566g
292 pages