Abstract: The early second millennium was a pivotal moment in the history of Theravāda Buddhism. Religious reforms carried out at Poḷonnaruva, then-capital of Sri Lanka, shaped the latter course of Buddhism across South and Southeast Asia. However, our understanding of these reforms has been over-determined by retrospective accounts written by male monastics, who focused on the heroic deeds of male monarchs.
This talk offers a radical revision of this narrative, based on my recent monograph. I argue for the methodological primary of evidence--textual, inscriptional, numismatic, and material--from within the period itself, which reveals how the intellectual and social histories of Buddhism, politics, and gender were inextricably intertwined in Poḷonnaruva. In particular, I show that debates over what it meant to be a “good Buddhist king” were intrinsically debates about Buddhist masculinity and about the proper relationship of gender to power.
About the speaker: Bruno M. Shirley is a historian of religion in medieval Sri Lanka, with a particular interest in the intersection of Buddhism, power, and gender. He holds a PhD from Cornell University in the USA, and is currently an adjunct lecturer at Heidelberg University.