ISSN : 2092-738X
In 2010, nearly thirteen hundred Buddhist monks from all over the world converged on to the small Indonesian resort town of Berastagi to celebrate the inauguration of the Taman AlamLumbini, a replica of Myanmar’s most iconic Theravada Buddhist temple, the ShwedagonPaya. Nestled on Christian lands within a predominantly Muslim country, the building of the Taman AlamLumbini marked several years of negotiation amongst various religious communities, local government mediators, and patrons. This study makes a preliminary assessment of the ways in which cultural and historical discourses were used by participants to evoke a sense of transnational connectedness outside the realm of formal bilateral diplomacy. Through particular Buddhist ceremonies, rituals, and imagery, Myanmar sponsors and Indonesian patrons promoted a sense of broad pan‐Asianism that linked monks, state officials, and local lay practitioners into a single community. A brief examination of the key speeches during the opening ceremony reveals that national interest and identity were still very much in play.
This study explores the concept of postmodernism in literature. There are many ideas which have conflicted with each other, but now postmodernism is real concept. We cannot deny. By researching papers of Jean‐François Lyotard, Jean Baudrillard, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Julia Kristeva, Roland Barthes, Ihab Hassan etc. we find out many characteristics of postmodernism. From that, we propose a conceptual understanding of postmodern literature as follows: Starting from the late 1910s with the poetry of Dadaism (1916), Franz Kafka’s prose (Metamorphosis 1915) and drama by Samuel Beckett (Waiting for Godot 1953), postmodern literature coexists with modern literature and is a thriving form from 1960 on. Postmodernism is opposed to modernism in nature in that it accepts nothingness, chaos, games and intertextuality. It tries to solve some difficult problems of modernism making use of science to free people from a life of darkness and dogma. Postmodernism is associated with the information technology revolution, an economic, scientific and technological boom and rapid urbanization.
This article uncovers the beginning of the Sudhamma Buddhist order tracing its background history. After ascending the throne, being interested in trying to bring back Buddhism to its ancient strength and prosperity, King Mindon paid fully attention in all the religious affairs like King Asoka. Therefore, the different Sangha associations had emerged in his time. It had grown wider and wider and that brought about many adverse effects. During the time of King Thibaw, to reorganize the Sangha associations, he appointed two Supreme Leaders; one for Sudhamma and one for the Rhwekyan Buddhist Order of Monks. Thus the rise of the term of Sudhamma Buddhist Order of Monks became the most popular among the Theravada Buddhist monks. This article, tracing its history, will answer the question that what about any difference between the Sudhamma Buddhist Order and others especially?