Intended as a methodological and theoretical contribution to the study of religion and society
this book examines Buddhist monasticism in Myanmar. The book focuses on the Shwegyin one of
the most important but least understood monastic groups in the country. Analyzing the group as
a tradition constructed around ideas of continuity and disruption rupture the study
illuminates key aspects of monastic and wider Burmese Buddhist thought and practice and
ultimately argues for the distinctiveness of elements of that thought and practice in
comparison to the Buddhist cultures of Sri Lanka and Laos.After situating the Shwegyin within
the history of Buddhist monasticism more generally and within the vicissitudes of modern
Burmese political history the book proceeds along two scholarly avenues. It adopts an
interdisciplinary method with attention to biographical administrative doctrinal and
ethnographic evidence. Theoretically the book engages scholarly discussion about traditions
and their traditionalisms and advances a specific type of interpretive approach built on
bringing the viewpoints and practices of the Shwegyin into conversation with the enterprise of
understanding larger historical and cultural patterns in the Buddhist societies of South and
Southeast Asia.
