Browsing by Author "Dhammananda Thero, Galkande"

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Acceptance and Rejection in Buddhist Monasticism; Spatial Organization in Nalanda Monasteries in Bihar
(Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2013) Dhammananda Thero, Galkande
When we reconstruct the history of relationships and hierarchies among people and groups the study of spatial organization provides much information. The „space‟ is a production that narrates the nature of relationships, hierarchies, organizational structures, rejection and acceptance of certain people and groups who live or interact with that particular space. Perhaps the story narrated by the spatial studies differs considerably from the story narrated by the literature. Such relationships, hierarchies and organizational structures that maintained in monasteries are reconstructed mainly considering the literary sources which have their own limitations and biases. Therefore, there is a vacuum in studies of the spatial organization of Buddhist monasteries. In this paper the spatial organization of Nalanda monasteries of Bihar (4th century to 13th century) is analyzed. Objectives of this paper are to explore and reconstruct the above mentioned different relationships, hierarchies and organizational structures that have been maintained among inmates and between lay and clergy of Nalanda, a Buddhist monastery that represents a mature level of the development of the idea of “monastery”. In exploring this, archaeological and architectural remains of ritual and residential spaces will be analyzed in detail horizontally and vertically. The way of the ritual and residential spaces are organized, their orientations, centrality and different levels of restrictive methods adopted through spatial organization will be analyzed here. Several levels of hierarchies among monks and between lay and clergy are seen. While attempting to keep lay people away from the spaces of the monks the effort is seen to welcome them with certain restrictions and limitations.
Vidyalankara Pirivena of 1940s; is it an alternative monastic model?
(Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Kelaniya, 2015) Dhammananda Thero, Galkande
Vidyalankara Pirivena was founded in 1875 and subsequently it developed into one of the two leading monastic education centers in Sri Lanka. The zenith of its development as an education center was marked by its promotion into a full pledged university in 1959. Apart from the contribution made for the development of education in Sri Lanka this particular monastic institution was engaged in direct ‗political activities‘ particularly after 1940s. This very ‗unconventional political engagement‘ of the monks of this institution has been interpreted by researchers either as a ‗deviation from the original role of the monks‘ or as ‗doing justice to the historical nationalist role of the monks‘. However, in this present research the above intervention by the monks of Vidyalankara is looked at afresh in a different angle. All the available literature produced by the Vidyalankara monks and their opponent schools and groups, biographies of the relevant people, literature produced by the leftist political parties, relevant reports and proceedings of State Council and the newspaper articles are the major sources used in this research. Apart from that certain audio and visual material would also be utilized. The vision and the mission proposed through all the engagements of the Vidyalankara monks in 1940 are tested against different Buddhist monastic models that have been inferred through historical researches and deduced the conclusion that it is not just a mere ‗political engagement only' but a profound monastic modal that can be understood as an alternative to the monastic systems existed at the time.