Religiousness in Sri Lanka

The book is structured as a multi-tradition study of Sri Lankan religious life. It opens with John Ross Carter’s framing of Sri Lanka as a religiously plural society shaped by Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic, and Christian traditions, then proceeds through major essays on Buddhist belief and practice, pilgrimage into Dharma as Buddhist religiousness, literature in Buddhist religious life, the significance of the Saṅgha for laypeople, “reaching out” as an expression of renunciation, the need to review and refine Theravāda interpretation, and the place of Dhamma in contemporary and future Sri Lankan society. The volume then turns to Hindu religious and social change, Śaiva village religiousness, Muslim belief and practice, Muslim ritual practices in manifestation and meaning, Catholic presence through history, belief, and faith, and Christian community within communities. Overall, the work presents religiousness as an integrated field of doctrine, ritual, ethical orientation, communal identity, education, cultural memory, and interreligious coexistence in Sri Lanka.