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Reviews

"Blackburn has conducted extensive scholarship into a wide range of source materials from premodern Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, and Cambodia and then, significantly, shown what can be concluded about textuality and sovereignty in each of these areas. She explores in an original and substantive manner how emerging Buddhist polities centered in Dambadeniya, Ayutthaya, Chiang Mai, and Hamsavati all drew upon elements from Pali texts and Buddhist institutions to express sovereignty in their respective local settings. The detailed, critically informed attention to historical context and difference will make this work valuable for scholars in a number of different fields related to Buddhism and Asian Studies. Blackburn's work is rich with historical material and theoretical reflections.--Stephen C. Berkwitz, Missouri State University The author argues that monolithic understandings of ""Buddhist kingship"" that have emerged from earlier scholarship were based narrowly on relevant portions of early Pali literature, and stand in need of qualification because intellectual and political history belie complex dynamic processes that have conditioned, qualified or transformed articulations of power in specific locales within the larger ""Pali World."" The merit of this thesis is ""portability."" That is, both the argument and the approach can be deployed in many other historical or sociocultural contexts in the Buddhist world. This is a study that is not only germane to understanding the dynamics of power throughout Buddhist South and Southeast Asia, but is provocative theoretically and methodologically in general.--John Clifford Holt, Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine"

"The author argues that monolithic understandings of “Buddhist kingship” that have emerged from earlier scholarship were based narrowly on relevant portions of early Pali literature, and stand in need of qualification because intellectual and political history belie complex dynamic processes that have conditioned, qualified or transformed articulations of power in specific locales within the larger “Pali World.” The merit of this thesis is “portability.” That is, both the argument and the approach can be deployed in many other historical or sociocultural contexts in the Buddhist world. This is a study that is not only germane to understanding the dynamics of power throughout Buddhist South and Southeast Asia, but is provocative theoretically and methodologically in general."" - John Clifford Holt, Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine ""Blackburn has conducted extensive scholarship into a wide range of source materials from premodern Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, and Cambodia and then, significantly, shown what can be concluded about textuality and sovereignty in each of these areas. She explores in an original and substantive manner how emerging Buddhist polities centered in Dambadeniya, Ayutthaya, Chiang Mai, and Hamsavati all drew upon elements from Pali texts and Buddhist institutions to express sovereignty in their respective local settings. The detailed, critically informed attention to historical context and difference will make this work valuable for scholars in a number of different fields related to Buddhism and Asian Studies. Blackburn’s work is rich with historical material and theoretical reflections."" - Stephen C. Berkwitz, Missouri State University"

The author argues that monolithic understandings of “Buddhist kingship” that have emerged from earlier scholarship were based narrowly on relevant portions of early Pali literature, and stand in need of qualification because intellectual and political history belie complex dynamic processes that have conditioned, qualified or transformed articulations of power in specific locales within the larger “Pali World.” The merit of this thesis is “portability.” That is, both the argument and the approach can be deployed in many other historical or sociocultural contexts in the Buddhist world. This is a study that is not only germane to understanding the dynamics of power throughout Buddhist South and Southeast Asia, but is provocative theoretically and methodologically in general."" - John Clifford Holt, Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine ""Blackburn has conducted extensive scholarship into a wide range of source materials from premodern Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, and Cambodia and then, significantly, shown what can be concluded about textuality and sovereignty in each of these areas. She explores in an original and substantive manner how emerging Buddhist polities centered in Dambadeniya, Ayutthaya, Chiang Mai, and Hamsavati all drew upon elements from Pali texts and Buddhist institutions to express sovereignty in their respective local settings. The detailed, critically informed attention to historical context and difference will make this work valuable for scholars in a number of different fields related to Buddhism and Asian Studies. Blackburn’s work is rich with historical material and theoretical reflections."" - Stephen C. Berkwitz, Missouri State University

Author Information

Anne M. Blackburn is professor of South Asia studies and Buddhist studies at Cornell University and director of the Cornell University South Asia Program.

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