1999 Meeting Abstracts A40: Buddhist Concepts of History

A40 Gyonen's Model of Buddhist History
Mark L. Blum, State University of New York, Albany

        Narrating Buddhist history from a Japanese point of view begins in the Kamakura period (1185-1333), and it is the historical paradigm created by Gyonen (1240-1321), abbot of the Kaidan'in at Todaiji in Nara, that became normative in Japan for 800 years thereafter. I consider his motivations and methods, and discuss Gyonen's views on the implications of three themes of historical consequence that figure prominently in religious writings of this period: mappo, a Buddhist "doctrine" that prescribes precise blocks of time over which both Buddhism and secular culture as a whole decline in quality; sangoku, which represents the particular cultural spheres of India, China and Japan; and shu as an expression of sectarianism. I argue that Gyonen was trying to reassert an 8th century model of Buddhist truth in which the passage of time did not imply decline and the traditional Dharmagupta precepts still held authority.

A40 Emotions and Ethics in the Sinhala Thupavamsa
Stephen C. Berkwitz, University of California, Santa Barbara

        The Buddhist chronicles of Sri Lanka are usually read as mytho-historical documents to reconstruct the pastor as ideological charters for Buddhist statehood. I will instead argue that history-writing, as exemplified by die narrative in the thirteenth-century Sinhala Thupavamsa, reflects the expectation that history transforms an audience into virtuous persons who are compelled to act morally. Through the use of rhetoric and aesthetics in its narrative, the Sinhala Thupavamsa attempts to generate ethically productive emotions and a moral subjectivity that implicates the reader or listener in a relationship of intimacy with and dependence on the Buddha. By making people feel grateful for what was done for them in the past, this text instills a reciprocal obligation to worship the Buddha's relics. Finally, history-writing also evokes an ethical vision of community wherein moral agency is realized through one's relationships and responsibilities to others.

A40 Historiography and Ethics in later Theravada Buddhism
Charles Hallisey, Harvard University

        The Theravada Buddhist traditions of Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia are well-known for their deep and diverse heritage of historiography, the best-known example of which is the Mahavamsa, a chronicle composed in Sri Lanka in about the fourth century of the Common Era. Many other examples of historical writing were produced in Theravadin communities over the next fifteen centuries. They had many purposes: some were political than others, some devotional, some didactic, some literary. In this paper, I will look at one particular text, the Sarigitiyavamsa, which was produced in Bangkok in 1789, as an in- stance of historiography serving as a site of ethical reflection. I am particularly interested in how historical awareness in the Sarigitiyavamsa allows for individuals to become aware of themselves as the beneficiaries of the freely-given aid of people in the past, an awareness which in turn encourages individuals to contribute themselves to large-scale human projects which endure over many generations, and which are key components in the Theravada Buddhist vision of a good human life.

A40 Stylized Symmetries in Tibetan Historical Narratives
Zeff Bjerken, University of Michigan