The Buddhist Revival in Sri Lanka: Religious Tradition, Reinterpretation and Response

The book is organized into seven chapters. Chapter One studies the Theravāda tradition and the background of the Buddhist revival, placing the revival within the wider problem of modernization, colonial disruption, Western education, missionary critique, and the reinterpretation of traditional Buddhism. Chapter Two examines the early revival and Protestant Buddhism, especially the reaction against Christianity and the emergence of new Buddhist apologetics, institutions, and lay activism. Chapter Three discusses the Buddha Jayanti and the post-Jayanti period, showing how the 1956 celebration became a turning point for Buddhist renewal and public consciousness. Chapter Four analyzes the Insight Meditation or Vipassanā Bhāvanā movement as a reinterpretation and resurgence of meditation among the laity. Chapter Five studies individual lay meditators and the diversity of vipassanā practice. Chapter Six focuses on lay Buddhist meditation societies and their role in institutionalizing meditation outside strictly monastic settings. Chapter Seven examines the reinterpretation of the Dhamma for social action through the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement. Overall, the volume presents the Buddhist revival in Sri Lanka as a dynamic process of religious renewal, identity formation, doctrinal reinterpretation, lay empowerment, meditation reform, and socially engaged Buddhist response to modernity.