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Militant Buddhism

The Rise of Religious Violence in Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand

  • Book
  • © 2019

Overview

Authors:
  1. Peter Lehr

    1. School of International Relations, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK

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  • Offers a comprehensive, comparative discussion of militant Buddhism in the three leading Theravadin countries Sri Lanka, Myanmar/Burma and Thailand
  • Explores how a notionally non-violent religion explains and defends the recourse to violence
  • Argues that militancy and (defensive) Buddhist violence is not a novel development or even a ‘modern distortion of the true religion’, but played a role ever since the first Buddhist kingdoms were established

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Table of contents (9 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-vi
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  2. Introduction: Between Dhamma-Ghosa and Bheri-Ghosa

    • Peter Lehr
    Pages 1-11

  3. The Sound of War Drums: Political Theology and the Return of Religion

    • Peter Lehr
    Pages 13-44

  4. The Age of Suffering: Buddhist Discourses on Non-violence in Theory and Practice

    • Peter Lehr
    Pages 45-79

  5. Monks in the Age of Suffering: World Renouncers and World Conquerors

    • Peter Lehr
    Pages 81-113

  6. Sri Lanka: “This Is the Country of Us Sinhala People”

    • Peter Lehr
    Pages 115-155

  7. Burma: “You Cannot Sleep Next to a Mad Dog”

    • Peter Lehr
    Pages 157-191

  8. Thailand: “It Is Time to Arm Thai Buddhists”

    • Peter Lehr
    Pages 193-230

  9. Comparative Analysis: “Buddhism Is Not a Suicidal Utopianism”

    • Peter Lehr
    Pages 231-260

  10. Outlook: How to Deal with War Monks?

    • Peter Lehr
    Pages 261-269

  11. Back Matter

    Pages 271-306
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Keywords

About this book

Against the backdrop of the ongoing Rohingya crisis, this book takes a close and detailed look at the rise of militant Buddhism in Sri Lanka, Burma and Thailand, and especially at the issues of ‘why’ and ‘how’ around it. We are well aware of Christian fundamentalism, militant Judaism and Islamist Salafism-Jihadism. Extremist and violent Buddhism however features only rarely in book-length studies on religion and political violence. Somehow, the very idea of Buddhist monks as the archetypical ‘world renouncers’ exhorting frenzied mobs to commit acts of violence against perceived ‘enemies of the religion’ seems to be outright ludicrous. Recent events in Myanmar/Burma, but also in Thailand and Sri Lanka, however indicate that a militant strand of Theravada Buddhism is on the rise. How can this rise be explained, and what role do monks play in that regard? These are the two broad questions that this book explores.

Authors and Affiliations

  • School of International Relations, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK

    Peter Lehr

About the author

Peter Lehr is Lecturer in Terrorism Studies at the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence (CSTPV), University of St. Andrews, UK. An area specialist on South and Southeast Asia, Dr Lehr has published on a wide range of topics, including religion and (political) violence.

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