Powerful Learning: Buddhist Literati and the Throne in Burma's Last Dynasty, 1752-1885
Subtitle: Buddhist Literati And the Throne in Burma's Last Dynasty, 1752-1885
Publisher: CSSEAS University of Michigan Press
Published: 2006
Place of publication: Ann Arbor
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 297
ISBN-13: 9780891480938
Subjects: Asian / Middle Eastern history: c 1500 to c 1900; c 1700 to c 1800; c 1800 to c 1900; History; Ethnic Issues; History: World; Myanmar (Burma); Asia - Southeast Asia; Ethnic Studies - Asian American Studies; Asia - General; 19th century; Buddhism and state; Buddhists; Burma; Intellectual life
First sentence: "In late March 2003, the author traveled to Monywa on the lower course of the Chindwin River to learn more about the area, read the local literature, visit the local monasteries, and gain the kind of perspective that one can only get with one's own eyes, ears, and nose."
Description: "Powerful Learning is the first intellectual history of one of the great Buddhist empires of Southeast Asia, Konbaung Burma, before the British conquest. The book challenges the notion of the court and the monastic order as static institutions by examining how competition within and between them prompted major rethinking about the intellectual foundations of indigenous society and culture.

The catalyst for this reformation of indigenous thought was the rise of a small clique of Buddhist monks and lay people from the frontier to commanding positions in the state and monastic order over the course of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. This clique had a major influence on the creation of state myths, the ways in which the throne ruled and presented itself, and, ultimately, the relationship between the throne and the state.

The new state and monastic orthodoxy, however, was challenged by other Burmese literati, who, over the course of the nineteenth century, sought in Western science, technology, and political theory other ways in which to shape Burmese perspectives on state and society. In the process, the Burmese underwent a difficult transition from premodern to modern intellectual thought, one that helped usher in British rule." from publisher
Table of contents: title: List of Figures IX; title: Acknowledgments xi; title: Introduction 1; title: chapter one The Rise of a Regional Monastic Community 18; title: chapter two The Social, Demographic, and Political Context 50; title: chapter three Royal Ancestors 70; title: chapter four Monastic Reform 89; title: chapter five History 108; title: chapter six Burman-ness 125; title: chapter seven European Learning 146; title: chapter eight The New Information Technology 181; title: chapter nine Sangha and Dhammaraja 201; title: chapter ten The Mandalay-ket-thas 220; title: chapter eleven The State 241; title: Epilogue and Conclusion 260; title: Bibliography 271; title: Index 287