The modernization of Buddhism in Sri Lanka since the late nineteenth century has been interpreted as imitating a Western model, particularly one similar to Protestant Christianity. This interpretation presents an incomplete narrative of Buddhist modernization because it ignores indigenous adaptive changes that served to modernize Buddhism. In particular, it marginalizes rituals and devotional practices as residuals of traditional Buddhism and fails to recognize the role of ritual practices in the modernization process. udThis dissertation attempts to enrich our understanding of modern and contemporary Buddhism in Sri Lanka by showing how the indigenous devotional ritual of venerating the Buddha known as Buddha-vandanā has been utilized by Buddhist groups in innovative ways to modernize their religion. Based on archival research of printed materials of the British colonial era (1815–1948) and ethnographic research of Buddha-vandanā in various venues, the dissertation shows that this traditional ritual was simplified, formalized, and promoted among laypeople through printed liturgical booklets during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Then later it was promoted in homes, schools, workplaces, and public spaces moving it beyond its traditional context in temples. In these new contexts, the ritual was utilized to enhance lay religious engagement, to train children in Buddhist behavioral forms, to reassert Buddhist identity of local communities, and to deal with mental stress. udThese novel utilizations of this ritual reveal that efforts of Sri Lankan Buddhists to modernize their religion were not limited to simply imitating or appropriating Western models. Moreover, these strategic uses of Buddha-vandanā show how rituals can be part of the process of modernization. By revealing unacknowledged methods for promoting Buddhism in modern times, this dissertation reveals that Sri Lankan Buddhists found their own distinctive ways of modernizing Buddhism that went beyond the Westernization paradigm.
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