Locations of Buddhism: Colonialism and Modernity in Sri Lanka. By Anne M. Blackburn

摘要

The focus of this excellent book, Locations of Buddhism: Colonialism andnModernity in Sri Lanka, is Ven Hikkad . uwē Suman ˙gala (1827–1911), a scholarnmonk, who lived in Ceylon (or to use Anne Blackburn’s term, Lan ˙kā)atthenheight of British imperial power. It is more than a biography. Blackburn’saimisnto present a “methodological example” (203) of the scholarship she believes tonbe necessary if the impact of colonialism on Buddhist communities is to benassessed with precision. Through using the human-scale example of one promi-nnent Buddhist figure, she opens a window on the network of intellectual, social,nand institutional processes that characterized Sri Lankan Buddhism at this time.