Buddhist Poetry and Colonialism

Many researchers have explored the impact of British and French Orientalism in the reinterpretations of Buddhism in South and Southeast Asia during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Less noticed, however, and infrequently discussed is the impact of Portuguese colonialists and missionaries upon Buddhist communities in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries across Asia. Stephen C. Berkwitz addresses this theme by examining five poetic works by Alagiyavanna Mukaveti (b.1552), a renowned Sinhala poet who participated directly in the convergence of local and trans-local cultures in early modern Sri Lanka. Berkwitz follows the written works of the poet from his position in the court of a Sinhala king, through the cultural upheavals of warfare and the expansion of colonial rule, and finally to his eventual conversion to Catholicism and employment under the Portuguese Crown. In so doing, Berkwitz explores the transformations in religion and literature rendered by what was arguably the earliest sustained encounter between Asian Buddhists and European colonialists in world history. Alagiyavanna's poetic works give expression to both a discourse of nostalgia for the local religious and cultural order in the late sixteenth century, and a discourse of cultural assimilation with the new colonial order during its ascendancy in the early seventeenth century. Employing an interdisciplinary approach that combines Buddhist Studies, History, Literary Criticism, and Postcolonial Studies, this book yields important insights into how the colonial experience contributed to the transformation of Buddhist culture in early modernity.

Stephen C. Berkwitz is Professor of Religious Studies at Missouri State University and is the author of numerous books and articles on Sri Lankan Buddhism, including The History of the Buddha's Relic Shrine: A Translation of the Sinhala Thupavamsa (Oxford University Press, 2007) and Buddhist History in the Vernacular: The Power of the Past in Medieval Sri Lanka (2004).

Preface Map Timeline Chapter 1 - Buddhist Literature and Culture in Early Modern Ceilão Chapter 2 - The Aesthetics of Power and The Cock's Message Chapter 3 - Longing for the Dharma in Poem of King Dhammasonda Chapter 4 - On Love and Kingship in Poem of the Birth-story of King Kusa Chapter 5 - Admonishing the World with Well-Spoken Words Chapter 6 - Identity and Hybridity in War of General Constantino Conclusion - Poetry and Buddhism Bibliography Index