“Buddhism in Extremis: The Fate of the Buddhist Order Under Pol Pot”
Presented by Professor Ian Harris, Professor of Buddhist Studies, University of Cumbria.
Date: Wednesday February 27, 2008
Time: 12:30 – 2:05 PM
Place: Centre for Southeast Asia Research, C.K. Choi Building Room 120, 1855 West Mall
The Buddhist monastic sector (sangha) was virtually extinguished during Democratic Kampuchea (1975-79). Yet the number of monks who met their doom under the Khmer Rouge regime may have been significantly less than has formerly been claimed. This paper reassesses previous calculations, investigates their ideological underpinnings, and offers a historical overview of the gradual liquidation of institutional Buddhism in Cambodia.
Ian Harris was Senior Scholar at the Becket Institute, University of Oxford (2001-4) and is currently Professor of Buddhist Studies, University of Cumbria and Tung Lin Kok Yuen Canada Foundation Visiting Professor on Buddhism and Contemporary Society at UBC. He is the author of Cambodian Buddhism: History and Practice (2005) and Buddhism Under Pol Pot (2007) as well as of many articles on the political and ethical aspects of Theravada Buddhism. Co-founder of the UK Association for Buddhist Studies (UKABS), Research Fellow at the Documentary Centre of Cambodia (DC Cam), and editor of Buddhism and Politics in Twentieth Century Asia (1999) and Buddhism, Power and Political Order (2007), he is currently engaged in research on Buddhism and politics in pre-Pol Pot Cambodia.
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