Sinhalese monks frame Buddhism’s status through territorial threat perception
Evidence
Monks justify Buddhism’s privileged status by arguing that Hindus control India, Muslims the Middle East, and Christians the West, whereas Buddhists have only tiny Sri Lanka. The National Sangha Council also has encouraged the armed forces to disobey civilian leadership if the main political parties pursue negotiations with the LTTE. Indeed, some monks have threatened to go house to house to prevent devolution from being instituted, and some have even defrocked themselves to serve in the army as foot soldiers. With President Rajapakse equating service to the sangha with service in the military (Bandara 2007), it would not be surprising if more monks took to the gun. — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 153
Categorization
- QUESTION: The monks’ argument that Buddhist exceptionalism is justified by being a tiny majority religion in a Hindu/Christian/Muslim sea is worth probing — does this minority-psyche rhetoric operate similarly for Hindu nationalists or Christian nationalists, who are also anxious majorities?
- XREF: Connects to the reading purpose on manufactured external enemies sustaining group solidarity — the sangha’s territorial-threat framing provides the hostile other that binds Sinhalese Buddhist identity. — connects to: Ethnoreligious violence stems from human social psychology, not Buddhism’s tenets — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 86; Modern challenges to the sangha, not primordial identity, explain monks’ political engagement. — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 94; Sinhalese Buddhist nationalist ideology commands broad popular support in Sri Lanka (+8 more)
Broader Connections
- Rebel attacks on Buddhist sacred sites hardened Sinhalese enmity
#expands(0.85) - Perceived out-group threat amplifies ritual-driven sacralization of values.
#corroborates(0.80) — Hammad Sheikh and Jeremy Ginges and Alin Coman and Scott Atran, Religion, group threat and sacred values, 45