From Riches to Rags
How new clothes for the dead become old robes for monks
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9277151 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Rita Langer, Rita E M Langer (0000-0001-5239-6287, University of Bristol, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2014 |
| Volume | 24 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 125-144 |
| Publication date | 2014-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0035-869X • E-ISSN: 2051-2066 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s1356186313000345 |
| OpenAlex | W2124767703 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 20 |
The process whereby existing rituals are taken up and re-envisaged is a well known phenomenon in ritual studies. The offering of a piece of white of cloth to the officiating monks during the Theravāda Buddhist funeral ceremony provides a particularly good example. This custom originates in pre-Buddhist funerary rituals, which included the symbolic covering of the dead body with a new, uncut piece of white cloth intended as a new garment for the deceased, but which was afterwards donated to the officiating priests. The present article examines how in the Buddhist funeral the donation of the cloth came to be associated with the monks’ ascetic practice of making their robes from discarded rags ( paṃsukūla ). A comparison of the lists of “rags” in the Theravāda and Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinayas and in the Visuddhimagga and Vimuttimagga , alongside a historical exploration of the attitude of the Buddhist laity towards monks who adopted ascetic practices, sheds new light on the significance of the paṃsukūla offering. Further, the manner in which an old pre-existing ritual is accommodated within a different conceptual framework provides a clear instance of the primacy of ritual continuity over ritual meaning
Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Asceticism · Buddhism · Ceremony · Clothing · Epistemology · Meaning (existential) · White (mutation) · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Chinese history and philosophy · History · Indian and Buddhist Studies · Philosophy
Robe and plough
Asceticism and its Critics
Weaving life out of death
Corpses and cloth
A Well-Sanitized Shroud
The Buddhist Saints of the Forest and the Cult of Amulets
The Buddhist saints of the forest and the cult of amulets
Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies
Between the Empires
Buddhist Funeral Cultures of Southeast Asia and China
Buddhist Saints in India
Assisting the Dead by Venerating the Living
Constituting Communities
Visuddhimagga of Buddhaghosacariya
Monks and Magic
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,14 |
| Citation span | 2019 - 2019 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |