The Buddha's Tooth: Western Tales of a Sri Lankan Relic Strong John S.
John S. Strong unravels the storm of influences shaping the received narratives of two iconic sacred objects.Bodily relics such as hairs, teeth, fingernails, pieces of bone--supposedly from the Buddha…
Specifikacia The Buddha's Tooth: Western Tales of a Sri Lankan Relic Strong John S.
John S. Strong unravels the storm of influences shaping the received narratives of two iconic sacred objects.Bodily relics such as hairs, teeth, fingernails, pieces of bone--supposedly from the Buddha himself--have long served as objects of veneration for many Buddhists. Unsurprisingly, when Western colonial powers subjugated populations in South Asia, they used, manipulated, redefined, and even destroyed these objects in an effort to exert control.In The Buddha's Tooth, John S. Strong examines Western stories, from the sixteenth to the twentieth century, surrounding two significant Sri Lankan sacred objects, in order to illuminate and concretize colonial attitudes towards Asian religions. First, he analyzes a tale about the Portuguese capture of a tooth identified as a relic of the Buddha in the mid-sixteenth century and its subsequent public destruction in