Buddhist gaze and power in a post-war destination

Case study of Jaffna, Sri Lanka

Bibliographic Data

ID12724181
AuthorsW H M S Samarathunga (0000-0001-9533-3884, Rajarata University of Sri Lanka), Cheng Li (0000-0003-3970-2424, Sichuan University, corresponding author), Li Cheng (0009-0002-2002-466X, Tourism School, Sichuan University, Chengdu, People’s Republic of China), P R Weerathunga (0000-0001-6417-442X, Rajarata University of Sri Lanka)
Year2020
Volume19
Issue5
Pages654-680
Publication date2020-11-29
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Tourism and Cultural Change (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1476-6825 • E-ISSN: 1747-7654
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14766825.2020.1849241
OpenAlexW3107471557
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited36

This study explores how Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalism is constructed in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, a post-war reunified state, through post-war travels. Sri Lankan government and the military forces have recreated Buddhist temples and monuments that were destroyed in the war and have re-introduced Buddhist signs and symbols. Thus, Sinhalese Buddhists visiting Jaffna gaze upon the region with a sense of ownership fueled by the triumphalism. This study adopts Michel Foucault’s discourse on power to reach its objectives and employs discourse analysis and ethnographic analysis to analyze the descriptive data. The study finds that the Sinhalese Buddhist Gaze in Jaffna is abstracted as omnipresent in a tripartite system extracted from ancient Sinhalese Buddhist notions: Rata (country), Jathiya (ethnicity), and Aagama (religion)

Ancient history · Archaeology · Buddhism · Ethnic group · Ethnography · Gaze · Nationalism · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · South asia · Spanish Civil War · Sri lanka · Anthropology · Foucault, Power, and Ethics · Global Security and Public Health · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics · History · Law · Psychology