A study of Buddhist art and architecture in Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam in a historical and functional perspective.

The course examines how the earliest community of Buddhist monks emerged as a highly organized monastic order with a code of ecclesiastical rules of its own.

The course focuses on the following aspects: Buddhist attitude to life in the world, both man and beast; the family as a basis of social unit; an integration of the family and the extra familial units in society into a whole; the laity and the clergy relationship; a study of the satta aparihānīya-dhamma; a comprehensive study of the concept of the Buddhist governance of the land.

The course is a study of the ‘religion of art’ in Buddhism. The study has two main components, theoretical and practical. The theoretical study will focus on the doctrinal and philosophical issues behind the Buddhist attitude to aesthetics. In addition to a study of all the important canonical references to various forms of art, a key theme that will be studied is how an appreciation of aesthetics could go along with the noble truth of suffering.

The course aims to clarify and evaluate the place of the imaginative realm and its expression through symbol and myth in Buddhist practice. Selected theories eg. metaphors and similes in the canonical literature, buddhakśetra, inūdra, images of Buddhas/Bodhisattvas, celestial assemblies etc - will be explored in their respective cultural contexts as well as on the background of anthropological and psychological approaches (J. Campbell, C.G. Jung, K. Kerenyi etc).

The course is meant to provide the participants with a familiarity of the vast and variegated array of rituals and ceremonies spread all over the Buddhist world. In spite of the popularly held view to the opposite of Buddhism, wherever it has found home, has encouraged colorful rituals and ceremonies throughout ages.

A study of essential Thai Language as well as the origins and traditions of Thai culture and the values which undergird Thai cultural, socio – economic, political and religious structure. Consideration is also given to the impact of foreign cultures on Thailand in the past and the present.

The course will introduce the student to the elementary rules of descriptive grammar: declension, conjugation, sandhi, samāsa (nominal compounds) and rules relating to the basic grammatical structure of a sentence.

A continuous survey of Pāli Grammar covering all forms of declension, conjugation, sandhi, samāsa (nominal compounds) and taddhita (secondary derivation). The extension of sentences with adjectives, adverbs and indeclinables with the correct observance of syntax. Simple extracts, both prose and verse, from Pāli texts will be used for further clarification of syntax and for comprehension.

The course will focus on enabling the student to understand simple Pāli passages and verses selected from the Dhammapada, the Udānapāli and the Jātaka. Extracts from these texts will be set as exercises in comprehension and for translation into English.