Converting Kings: Kongo, Thailand, Japan and Hawaii Compared 1450-1850
August 2023
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Book
Religion and war: a synthesis
October 2022
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Journal article
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History and Anthropology
This chapter draws on the papers in this volume to help develop a global comparative
perspective on religion and war. It proceeds by establishing two forms of religiosity:
immanentism, versions of which may be found in every society; and transcendentalism, which
captures what is distinctive about salvific, expansionary religions such as Christianity, Islam,
and Buddhism. This chapter does not suggest that either immanentism or transcendentalism
enhance the likelihood of collective violence in themselves. It does, however, argue that these
types of religiosity are distinctive in how they drive war, allow enemies to be identified, and
rationalize or legitimize collective violence. Some of the paths by which societies may become
more bellicose (prone to war) or martial (heavily shaped by a military ethos) are sketched out
and certain elective affinities between imperial expansion and transcendentalist systems are
proposed. The place of Confucianism in this interpretative schema is discussed towards the
end. Many scales of comparison are considered throughout, especially whether the categories
of ‘transcendentalism’, ‘monotheism’ or ‘Christianity’’/Islam’ afford the most comparative
insight in understanding patterns of violence.
FFR
The emergence of MSP vs the spread of transcendentalist religion
June 2022
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Journal article
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Religion, Brain and Behavior
FFR
Sacred Kingship in World History Between Immanence and Transcendence
January 2022
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Book
After an essay by Marshall Sahlins that ranges from the Pacific to the Arctic, the book contains chapters on religion and kingship in settings as far-flung as ancient Egypt, classical Greece, medieval Islam, Mughal India, modern European ...
Sacred Kingship in World History: Between Immanence and Transcendence
January 2022
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Chapter
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Sacred Kingship in World History Between Immanence and Transcendence
Sacred Kingship in World History Between Immanence and Transcendence
Thailand’s first revolution? The role of religious mobilisation and ‘the people’ in the Ayutthaya rebellion of 1688
July 2021
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Journal article
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Modern Asian Studies
In the 1680s, King Narai, ruler of the cosmopolitan kingdom of Ayutthaya, was the subject of competing French and Persian attempts to convert him to monotheism. These attempts were not only embarrassing failures; they also helped to precipitate a coup in 1688, in which Phetracha forcefully intervened to place himself on the throne and eject French influence from the realm. But to what extent did the execution of the coup depend on popular involvement? And what ideals and emotions seem to have animated this participation? After pondering the role of ethnicity and xenophobic sentiment, this article considers the construction of powerful discourses of Buddhist intellectual opposition to Christianity, the role of the sangha in the orchestration of the coup itself, and then considers in more detail the extent to which ‘the people’ demonstrated some kind of autonomous political agency. Lastly, it considers whether the events of the coup and its immediate aftermath were shaped by anti-Christian emotion. As a movement with conservative and restorative aims, 1688 was not a ‘revolution’ in the modern sense, but it may have ushered in an enlarged sense of popular investment in the legitimation of royal contenders associated with the defence of Buddhism.
Ayutthaya, Buddhism, FFR, Siam, religious conversion, Narai
Immanent power and empirical religiosity conversion of the Daimyo of Kyushu, 1560–1580
December 2020
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Journal article
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Japanese Journal of Religious Studies
The baptisms of the lords of the Ōmura, Arima and Ōtomo families formed the breakthrough for Christianity in Kyushu. These conversions are analysed here in the light of the relevance of ‘empirical religiosity’: the tendency to alter religious commitments and ritual practices according to their perceived efficacy in bringing about this-worldly outcomes. This article arises out of a larger project of comparative global history, which establishes a three-fold model of ruler conversions. The revelation of ‘immanent power’ forms the second element of this model. Close analysis of the sources reveals that in Sengoku Japan, just as elsewhere, the daimyo in question were driven to experiment with and then commit to the new cult due to its capacity to bestow military success, healing, exorcism and fertility. In particular, this is shown through a detailed account of the changing religious affiliations of Ōtomo Sorin and his son Yoshimune. Since the bulk of the sources relating to these conversions are European, the article also considers how far these themes are simply missionary projections. Some Japanese evidence is brought in to assist the argument that both pro- and anti-Christian parties came to frame their arguments in terms of a shared empiricist epistemology
empirical religiosity, conversion, Luis Frois, daimyo, FFR, Otomo Sorin
The many meanings of iconoclasm: Warrior and Christian temple-shrine destruction in late sixteenth century Japan
November 2020
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Journal article
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Journal of Early Modern History
The conversion of certain warlords in Kyushu, Japan, (1560–1580 CE) represents one of the most important breakthroughs for Christianity in the early modern world, and it was accompanied by striking acts of destruction of the local sacred sites and objects. Yet shrine and temple destruction had already become a relatively commonplace feature of warfare in this period of internecine struggle, exemplified by the activities of Oda Nobunaga. How was the iconoclasm of Christian converts interpreted in this context? This article is particularly concerned with the implications of iconoclasm for a raging struggle of “empirical religiosity” – in which Christians and their opponents argued about the immanent power of the gods and their capacity to take revenge on iconoclasts. It also suggests that prevailing Buddhist and Confucian discourses presented important limits to how damaging such empirical arguments were to local religion. These issues are also explored in relation to the case of the Christianizing Ōtomo house, and their relations with the important Usa Hachiman shrine.
Oda Nobunaga, conversion, iconoclasm, Japan, FFR, Hachiman, Ōtomo Sōrin, christianity
Tensions and experimentations of Kingship: King Narai and his response to missionary overtures in the 1680s
November 2019
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Journal article
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Journal of the Siam Society
Following a piece published in the previous issue of this journal analysing the nature of sacred kingship in 17th century Ayutthaya, this article proceeds to show how these tensions in the performance of royal office shaped King Narai’s response to Christian proselytism in the 1680s. This involves a consideration of his increasing residence in Lopburi; his fractious relationship with the Buddhist monastic order; his desire to innovate in the field of astrology and chronicle writing; the appeal of French culture and monarchical grandeur; and the possibility that his metaphysical worldview underwent a significant shift towards deism. With the exception of the latter, for which the evidence is dubious, all these themes helped stimulate hopes among the French that his conversion was indeed a real possibility. This was largely an illusion: while Narai chafed within the confines of his role, and remained curious and cosmopolitan in his tastes, there was no great structural crisis which the French could take advantage of, and nor were they able to precipitate one.
FFR
Unearthly Powers Religious and Political Change in World History
May 2019
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Book
Drawing on sociology and anthropology, as well as a huge range of historical literature from all regions and periods of world history, Alan Strathern sets out a new way of thinking about transformations in the fundamental nature of religion ...
History
Sacred Kingship under King Narai of Ayutthaya (1656-88): Divinisation and Righteousness
May 2019
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Journal article
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Journal of the Siam Society
This article analyses the system of sacred monarchy that maintained during the reign of King Narai of Ayutthaya (r. 1656-1688) in terms of a set of concepts designed to elucidate the relationship between religion and politics more generally in the pre-modern world. It argues that Ayutthayan kingship was unusually intensively sacralised in terms of two quite different modes simultaneously, the divinised and the righteous. These modes, both in themselves and in conjunction, produced somewhat paradoxical effects as well as forms of authority. The article thereby adopts a global perspective on Ayutthaya kingship while also offering some thoughts as to how and why it developed in the way it did and how Narai strove to manage the consequences.
FFR
Global early modernity and the problem of what came before
December 2018
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Journal article
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Past and Present
Catholic missions and local rulers in subSaharan Africa
January 2018
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Chapter
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A Companion to the Early Modern Catholic Global Missions (Brill's Companions to the Christian Tradition)
Sri Lanka at the Crossroads of History
June 2017
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Book
This interdisciplinary volume sets out to draw Sri Lanka into the field of Asian and Global History by showing how the latest wave of scholarship has explored the island as a ‘crossroads’, a place defined by its openness to movement ...
History
The digestion of the foreign in Lankan history, c. 500– 1818
June 2017
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Chapter
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Sri Lanka at the Crossroads of History
Sri Lanka, Ethnicity, cosmopolitanism, religion
Global Patterns of Ruler Conversion to Islam and the Logic of Empirical Religiosity
March 2017
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Chapter
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Islamisation: Comparative Perspectives from History
Introduction: Querying the cosmopolitan in Sri Lankan andIndian Ocean history
January 2017
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Chapter
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Sri Lanka at the Crossroads of History
'Thailand’s first revolution? The Ayutthaya rebellion of 1688 and global patterns of ruler conversion to monotheism'
January 2017
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Other
Religion and Empire
January 2016
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Chapter
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Encyclopedia of Empire
Political elites have always looked to religion in order to access ideological, social, magical, or administrative power. But imperial expansion often generates acute dilemmas regarding the management of this relationship. Religion can be used to preserve important distinctions between the ruling group and their various subject populations (differentiation), or to unite them as a shared moral community (integration). Each strategy presents both opportunities and risks, and imperial elites such as the Mexica, Ottomans, Mughals, Ming and Qing dynasties, Portuguese, Spanish, and British have deployed variants of them both. Meanwhile emperors such as Ashoka, Alexander, or Akbar have sought spectacular ways of establishing sacred authority among diverse religious groups at the same time. While religion was the most powerful means of acquiring legitimacy in the premodern world, the “world religions” in particular also presented norms by which imperial powers could be judged and found wanting. Empires were therefore vulnerable to the sting of righteous rebuke and the threat of religious rebellion.
Vijaya and Romulus: Interpreting the Origin Myths of Sri Lanka and Rome
August 2014
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Journal article
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Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society
The story of Vijaya, has long been central to the Sinhalese idea of themselves as a distinct ethnic group of Aryan origin with ancient roots in the island of Lanka. The ‘national’ chronicle of the Sinhalese, the Mahāvaṃsa (circa fifth century ce) presents Vijaya, an exiled prince from India descended from a lion, as the founder hero of Sinhala civilisation. In a companion article to this, I argued that the narrative of Vijaya and other founder-heroes in the Mahāvaṃsa revolves around the theme of transgression, and that this puzzling fact can only be explained by a consideration of the symbolic logic of the ‘stranger-king’ in origin stories and kingship rituals worldwide. In the present article, I look at other ways of explaining the narrative of Sīhabāhu, Vijaya, and Paṇḍukābhaya. First I break down the narrative into four different origin stories and consider their distribution in a range of texts from South Asia in order to reflect on possible textual inspirations for them (and even consider parallels with the Greek tale of Odysseus and Circe). Second, I consider the possibility that the narrative concerning relations with Pāṇḍu royalty reflects immediate political imperatives of the fifth century ce. Do such interpretations negate the assumption that an organic communal process of mythogenesis has been at work? In the final section this methodological dilemma is approached through comparisons with the way in which scholars have looked at the origin myths of ancient Greek and particularly Roman society. Lastly, these reflections add further weight to the global comparative model of the stranger king, for the stories of Romulus and Vijaya share an emphasis on alien and transgressive beginnings.
In 2009 the Sri Lankan government finally destroyed the conventional forces of the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) as the civil war that had afflicted the island since 1983 was brought to a violent denouement in the north-east of the Vanni region. From some of the subsequent celebrations by the Sinhalese majority, it seemed that the President Mahinda Rajapaksa was hailed not only for having rid Sri Lanka of a violent menace, but for having, in one sense, re-created the island. The country could now attain the kind of genuine independence and wholeness that had been lacking for much of the period following decolonisation in 1948. After the victory, Rajapaksa was hailed as a ‘great king’ and his admirers were not slow to draw historical analogies with kings and founder-heroes of the past. Such heroes typically have to wade through blood to obtain political mastery; the Lankan chronicles imply that such is the price that must be paid for the re-establishment of society or civilisation itself.
Drawing the veil of sovereignty: early modern Islamic empires and understanding sacred kingship
February 2014
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Journal article
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History and Theory: studies in the philosophy of history
This article considers A. Azfar Moin, The Millennial Sovereign: Sacred Kingship and Sainthood in Islam, in the light of theories of sacred kingship and religious change. Although Muslim kingship has tended to be presented as an essentially secular institution, Moin is able to show how deeply divine images and understandings shaped kingship in both the Safavid and Mughal empires, which were bound together by mutual influence and competition. The divine matrix of kingship was facilitated by the influence of preeminent Sufism, Mongol universalism, millenarian technologies and dreams, and Persian tradition. The article suggests that the methodological approach adopted here, resembling l'histoire des mentalités, shows how our analyses of sacred kingship can be obscured by a focus on canonical and prescriptive texts. Taking up the theme of transgression, it compares Moin's work with recent anthropological reflections on the symbolism of the stranger-king. The article also uses Moin's work to indicate the problems with the critical dismissal of “legitimacy” as an indispensable (though insufficient) analytical tool. The subject matter is further placed within an overarching conceptualization of global religious diversity based on the tension between transcendentalist vs. immanentist impulses. In that light the reassertion of “transcendentalist” religiosity in the guise of an orthodox push-back against the enchanted cultural world re-imagined by Moin only appears in greater need of explanation. Avenues of comparative reflection are also opened up with Christian monarchy, which was both less profoundly “immanentized” in the early modern era and less successful at exporting itself in areas outside of imperial influence. The article concludes by considering the implications for theories of a global early modernity, and a comparison with Andre Wink's quite different characterization of Akbar as a secular-minded rationalist.
Sri Lanka in the Missionary Conjuncture of the 1540s
August 2012
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Journal article
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Anais de História de Além-mar
Immanence and Tolerance: Ruler Conversions to Islam and Christianity in Archipelagic Southeast Asia
May 2012
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Chapter
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Intercultural Exchange in Southeast Asia: History and Society in the Early Modern World
At the dawn of European colonialism, the Southeast Asian region encompassed some of the most diverse and influential cultures in early modern history. The circulation of people, commodities, ideas and beliefs along the key trading routes, from the Eastern edge of the Mughal empire to the Southern Chinese border, stimulated some of the great cultural and political achievements of the age. Here, Tara Alberts and D.R.M. Irving draw together accounts of early modern religious conversions, diplomatic history and scientific explorations across the regions many societies, along with histories of slavery and urban development. Throughout, the authors engage with some of the neglected subjects of the period - slaves, rebels and women in particular - in order to understand the multiple levels of exchange and interactions which occurred between these disparate ethnic and religious states. This will be essential reading for those interested in the cultural and political origins of modern Asia.
Strange parallels: Southeast Asia in global context, c. 800–1830. Volume 2: mainland mirrors: Europe, Japan, China, South Asia, and the islands
March 2012
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Journal article
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Journal of Global History
Treachery and Ethnicity in Portuguese Representations of Sri Lanka
January 2012
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Chapter
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Engaging Colonial Knowledge: Reading European Archives in World History
Writing from the imperial capital of Goa in the 1630s, the official chronicler of the Portuguese East, António Bocarro, turned his attention southwards to ‘the enemy that we have in this island of Ceylon’. This bountiful island was the only place in Asia where the Portuguese had launched a successful project of extensive territorial conquest. They were now directly ruling the lowlands and engaged in a ceaseless attempt to defeat the island’s last independent kingdom, the highland bastion of Kandy. Bocarro’s verdict was not flattering: ‘all the Sinhalese are by their nature treacherous and inconstant and for any advantage they would kill their own father’. He was not only referring to the recalcitrant inhabitants of Kandy but also the lowland people who were considered vassals of the king in Lisbon. He lamented the ease with which these vassals would ‘cross from us to the enemy, and return from the enemy to us’. He went on to say,
History
The Role of Sinhala Group identity in the ‘Sinhala Rebellion’ against Bhuvanekabahu VI (1469-77)
January 2010
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Chapter
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The Portuguese in Sri Lanka and Goa
Sri Lanka in the Long Early Modern Period: Its Place in a Comparative Theory of Second Millennium Eurasian History
July 2009
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Journal article
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Modern Asian Studies
This paper explores how Sri Lanka might fit into Victor Lieberman's theory of Eurasian history. Lieberman's work to date has focused on the ‘protected rimlands’ which he sees as sharing the same historical path from a milieu of warring little kingdoms to increasingly large, solid states. But what happens in a land, such as Sri Lanka, which can be considered ‘protected’ before 1500, and ‘unprotected’ thereafter? Political integration and boundaries are first discussed, followed by ethnic and historical awareness before 1500. The third section sketches the chronological development of Buddhism before 1500, while the fourth considers the impact of the European interruption, and the fifth briefly looks at the results for 1600–1800. Along the way, some problems with applying the notion of ‘early modernity’ to Sri Lanka are disclosed.
The Vijaya Origin Myth of Sri Lanka and the Strangeness of Kingship
May 2009
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Journal article
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Past and Present: A Journal of Historical Studies
KAREN ARMSTRONG'S AXIAL AGE: ORIGINS AND ETHICS
March 2009
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Journal article
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The Heythrop Journal
5003 Philosophy, 5004 Religious Studies, 5005 Theology, 50 Philosophy and Religious Studies
Towards the Source-Criticism of Sitavakan Heroic Literature. Part 2: The Sitavaka Hatana: Notes on a Grounded Text
August 2008
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Journal article
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Sri Lanka Journal of the Humanities
Kingship and Conversion in Sixteenth-Century Sri Lanka Portuguese Imperialism in a Buddhist Land
December 2007
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Book
When the Portuguese arrived on the shores of Sri Lanka in 1506, they opened an era in which religious identity became central to struggles for power on the island. During the reign of King Bhuvanekabahu VII (1521–51), they became the first European empire to dominate Lankan politics. This book sets out to explain the behaviour of the Portuguese and the Sinhalese as their relationship evolved over the century. Topics covered include the nature of Portuguese imperialism and indigenous state power in the earlier decades, the impact of Catholic mission on this Buddhist society and how this was shaped by local principles of caste, land tenure and religious thought, and the issue of identity. It reveals how indigenist, dynastic, and religious loyalties shaped the increasingly violent conflicts of the later decades. The principal concern is the sacred legitimization of kingship: why was Christian monarchy never truly established in Sri Lanka?
History
Transcendentalist Intransigence: Why Rulers Rejected Monotheism in Early Modern Southeast Asia and Beyond
April 2007
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Journal article
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Comparative Studies in Society and History: an international quarterly
Two rulers, one in Africa, one in Asia, are about to undergo the ceremony of baptism following first contact with the Portuguese maritime expansion—but they insist that the rite be conducted in secret. The African ruler is a regional governor (the Mani Soyo) of the Congo King Nzinga Nkuwu who has just converted in 1491. The high king's diplomatic exchanges with the sea captain Diogo Cão had not elicited any real sensation of vulnerability to Portuguese imperial designs, yet he had been happy to convert nonetheless. Now the Mani Soyo is about to follow suit, but he will not have any of his subordinates witnessing the ritual because he does not want them benefiting from the enhanced status and power that the ritual could bestow. In the highlands of Sri Lanka some fifty years later, the King of Kandy is equally intent on keeping his baptismal rites hidden from public view. But his reasons are strikingly different. He does this “lest his people should kill him.” When news of the baptism did leak out rioting followed, and the king had to spread the story that it had all been a ploy to deceive the Portuguese.
The Conversion of Rulers in Portuguese-Era Sri Lanka
January 2007
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Chapter
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Re-exploring the Links History and Constructed Histories Between Portugal and Sri Lanka
History and Constructed Histories Between Portugal and Sri Lanka Jorge Manuel
Flores. The Conversion of Rulers in Portuguese-Era Sri Lanka Alan Strathern*
Throughout the sixteenth century, the Portuguese attempted to wield power in Sri
...
Political Science
Towards the Source-Criticism of Sitavakan Heroic Literature. Part One: The Alakesvara Yuddhaya: Notes on a Floating Text
August 2006
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Journal article
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Sri Lanka Journal of the Humanities
The Royal ‘We’: Sinhala Identity in the Dynastic State
August 2006
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Other
This review article explores the nature of the Sinhala identity in the Kandyan Kingdom through a critical reading of Michael Roberts' recent book, Sinhala Consciousness. It situates Roberts' work in the context of the heated intellectual debates on this subject and compares the treatment of these issues in Sri Lankan studies with recent scholarship on Southeast Asia..
Fernão de Queirós: History and Theology
August 2005
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Journal article
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Anais de História de Além-mar
Os Piedosos’ and the Mission in India and Sri Lanka in the 1540s
August 2004
|
Chapter
Theoretical Approaches to Sri Lankan History and the Early Portuguese Period
February 2004
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Journal article
|
Modern Asian Studies
In the past twenty years or so the history of Sri Lanka has become a site of vibrant controversy, largely because the current ethnic conflict has loaded any kind of reflection on the historical boundaries of political, ethnic or religious identity with an immediate emotional charge. The intellectual reverberations of post-colonialism and the vigorous contributions of anthropologists have added rich strata of theoretical thinking. However, despite one or two calls to the contrary, the periods of Portuguese (1505-1658) and Dutch influence (1658-1796) in the island have tended to moulder on the periphery of these debates. The purpose of this article is to bring some of this thinking to bear on the evidence from the sixteenth century in order to stimulate fresh perspectives on both the events of that time and the models themselves. With the arrival of the Portuguese and their increasing involvement in the affairs of the island during the long reign of Bhuvanekabahu VII (1521-51), the darkness of the Kotte period is suddenly illuminated by wonderfully detailed flashes of events. The flurry of letters written by contemporary Portuguese settlers, officials and missionaries, and the attentions of Portuguese chroniclers such as João de Barros, Diogo do Couto, Gaspar Correia and Fernão de Queirós bring quite new forms of evidence into the historian's purview.
Controversies in Sri Lankan History
January 2004
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Journal article
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History Compass
This Viewpoint gives a brief introduction to the ongoing controversies of Sri Lankan historiography, which the current ethnic conflict has served to intensify and politicize. Scholars of many different disciplines, indeed all manner of commentators, have been arguing about how much continuity can be seen in the nature of the state, ethnic identity and religious identity as these have developed over the last 2000 years of history.
Representing Eastern Religion: Queirós and Gonzaga on the first Christian-Buddhist debate in Sri Lanka, 1543
August 2000
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Journal article
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Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka
Re-reading Queirós: Some Neglected Aspects of the Conquista