Description
Book SynopsisExamines modern and pre-modern Buddhist monastic education traditions in Laos and Thailand. Through five centuries of adaptation and reinterpretation of sacred texts and commentaries, this work traces curricular variations in Buddhist oral and written education that reflect a wide array of community goals and values.
Trade Review"The book reads very fluidly as McDaniel writes in an unusually clear and straightforward manner. . . . The book will no doubt become essential reading for anyone studying the social history of Thailand and Laos or Theravada Buddhism."
-- Daniel Veidlinger * History of Religions *
"Gathering Leaves and Lifting Words is a rich and often fascinating treatment of Buddhist monastic textual culture and bilingual commentary in the Siamese/Thai/Lao region, reflecting the author's long personal acquaintance with Lao/Thai monastic institutions and educational practices."
* H-ASIA *
"With this book, McDaniel, a gifted textual scholar, has produced the first systemic study of how monks have been educated in Southeast Asia over the last five hundred years."
* Buddhadharma *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Note on Transcription
Introduction
Part One | Structural Mechanisms: The Institutional History of Monastic Education
1. From the Sala Vat to the Institut Bouddhique
2. Wandering Librarians
3. Kings and Universities
Part Two | Proximate Mechanisms: Toward a Curricular History of Monastic Education
4. Genres, Modes, and Idiosyncratic Articulations
5. The Culture of Translation
6. Canons and Curricula
Part Three | Vernacular Landscapes: Teaching Buddhism in Laos and Thailand
7. From Manuscript to Television
8. Philosophical Embryology
Conclusion
Notes
Note on Manuscripts, Archives, Monastic Libraries, and Catalogs
Bibliography
Index
