Join us via Zoom for the next Jun Zhou Lecture in Theravada Buddhism, delivered by Alastair Gornall: Towards a History of Theravada Eco-Cosmological Literature” 

The lecture will be February 22 at 5pm EST and will be delivered via Zoom. Please register to receive the Zoom link: http://ow.ly/ByEa50HL3zb 

In introductory works on Theravada Buddhism it is often noted with regret that so far there has been no systematic study or history of Theravada cosmology. Accounts of Theravada cosmology are often based on only a narrow reading of the tradition’s canon and earliest commentaries. This is particularly remarkable since monastic intellectuals in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia have produced a considerable body of traditional cosmological and ecological thought over the last two thousand years. We can speak of cosmology and ecology together as a single field since in Theravada thought the two overlap considerably within its analysis of the loka or ‘world’. In this talk, I will offer some suggestions and observations about how we might begin to historicize this literature about the loka. In the first part, I assess previous approaches to traditional cosmology and explore why it has been so neglected. In part two, I present a hypothetical periodization of Theravada writings about the loka from the time of the composition of the Pali canon up until today. Finally, I explore the development of an influential but neglected eco-cosmological model in the Theravada tradition to underscore how incomplete our current understanding is of traditional monastic views of the world.

Alastair Gornall gained his Ph.D. in Asian Studies from the University of Cambridge in 2013. He is currently Assistant Professor in History and Religion at the Singapore University of Technology and Design and a Research Associate in the Department of the Languages and Cultures of South Asia at SOAS. His research focuses on the intellectual and cultural history of Buddhism in South and Southeast Asia.