Mothers of buddhas, mothers of nations: Kumaranatunga and her meteoric rise to power in Sri Lanka

Feminist Studies

Volumn 25, Issue 1, 1999, Pages 211-225

  Bartholomeusz, Tessa ^a  

^a NONE

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[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0038211469     PISSN: 00463663     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3216684     Document Type: Article

References (41)

1. The Apadana, the commentaries to the poems attributed to monks and nuns, is one of the fifteen works included in the canonical Khuddaka Nikaya. For the complete text, see "Mahapajapatigotamitheriapadanam," in Apadana Buddhavamsa-Cariyapitaka, ed. Bhikku Jagadisakassapo (Bihar, India: Pali Publication Board, 1959), 200-215. For more on this commentary, see Jonathan Walters, "A Voice from the Silence: The Buddha's Mother's Story," History of Religions 33 (May 1994): 358-79.
2. The Apadana, the commentaries to the poems attributed to monks and nuns, is one of the fifteen works included in the canonical Khuddaka Nikaya. For the complete text, see "Mahapajapatigotamitheriapadanam," in Apadana Buddhavamsa-Cariyapitaka, ed. Bhikku Jagadisakassapo (Bihar, India: Pali Publication Board, 1959), 200-215. For more on this commentary, see Jonathan Walters, "A Voice from the Silence: The Buddha's Mother's Story," History of Religions 33 (May 1994): 358-79.
3. Lorna Devaraja, in a paper delivered to the Department of History, Indiana State University, Terre Haute, March 1993.
4. Rajeswari Sunder Rajan, Real and Imagined Women: Gender, Culture, and Postcolonialism (London: Routledge, 1993), 105. See below.
5. This theory of causality, related to ethical concerns, was proposed in opposition to such essentialist positions as brahman (neuter principle) as the ultimate cause.
6. Richard Gombrich, "Feminine Elements in Sinhalese Buddhism," Wiener Zeitschrift fur die Kunde Sudasiens (Leiden, the Netherlands: E.J. Brill, 1972), 67.
7. Tessa Bartholomeusz, Women under the Bo Tree: Buddhist Nuns in Sri Lanka (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994).
8. See H.L. Seneviratne, Rituals of the Kandyan State (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978), 32.
9. From the Metta Sutta, quoted in Piyadassi Thera, Buddhist Meditation (Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society, 1979), 84.
10. Richard Gombrich and Gananath Obeyesekere, Buddhism Transformed (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989), 387.
11. Gombrich, 71, 74, 77.
12. Gunapala Dharmasiri, Fundamentals of Buddhist Ethics (Antioch, Calif.: Golden Leaves, 1989), 71. I would like to thank Charles Hallisey for reminding me of this passage.
13. Gombrich and Obeyesekere, 162.
14. See also Mrs. Rhys Davids, "Similes in the Nikayas," Journal of the Pali Text Society (London: Oxford University Press, 1907), 122, for similes in Pali canonical literature that use the mother to demonstrate positive virtues.
15. See, for instance, Piyadassi Thera, Dependent Origination (Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society, 1981). See also Joanna Macy, Mutual Causality in Buddhism and General Systems Theory (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991).
16. See, for instance, Piyadassi Thera, Dependent Origination (Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society, 1981). See also Joanna Macy, Mutual Causality in Buddhism and General Systems Theory (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991).
17. Mrs. Rhys Davids, ed., The Book of Kindred Sayings (London: Luzac & Co., 1952), 21.
18. Ibid., 65.
19. Among the women interviewed, two-thirds held jobs in service occupations and one-third were professionals. Of the men, 25 percent were professionals, including jewelers, bankers, and tour guides, and 75 percent had service-oriented jobs, including driving, cooking, and laundry.
20. Interview, 24 Sept. 1994, in Kandy, Sri Lanka.
21. Interview, 30 July 1994, in Kandy, Sri Lanka.
22. Interview, 19 Oct. 1994, in Galle, Sri Lanka.
23. Sunil Bastian, "Political Economy of Ethnic Violence in Sri Lanka: The July 1983 Riots," in Mirrors of Violence: Communities, Riots, and Survivors in South Asia, ed. Veena Das (London: Oxford University Press, 1990).
24. Tessa J. Bartholomeusz and Chandra R. de Silva, Buddhist Fundamentalism and Minority Identities in Sri Lanka (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998).
25. What I say here about Kumaranatunga in her campaign for the presidency applies to her bid to become the prime minister of Sri Lanka. She became prime minister earlier in 1994 and, when she was elected president, handed her former duties to her mother.
26. "The Economist's Red Alert," The Island, 16 Oct. 1994.
27. "Buddhist Peace Making Necessary," The Island, 20 Nov. 1994.
28. "Peace at Any Cost Means Something Else," The Island, 16 Oct. 1994.
29. My reading was confined to English-language newspapers. Yet, one can assume that, given the tradition of parallel discussions in the English and Sinhala media newspapers, the Sinhala papers carried the same feature articles.
30. "PA Committed to Protect All Ethnic Groups," The Island, 6 Nov. 1994.
31. For instance, Stanley Tambiah, in his Buddhism Betrayed? Religion, Politics, and Violence in Sri Lanka (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992), explains that since the late 1800s, "the program dedicated to restoring the rights of the religion and language of the majority" has divided the country, 65 (italics mine).
32. In Buddhist Fundamentalism and Minority Identities in Sri Lanka, my coeditor, C.R. de Silva, and I have analyzed the effects of these "rights" on other ethnic minorities in Sri Lanka. See, in particular, 1-35.
33. "Vote for People's Alliance," political advertisement, The Island, 6 Nov. 1994.
34. Particularly noteworthy of this theme in the newspaper articles of the period are "The Economist's Red Alert," in which Kumaranatunga's "sacrifices" are discussed; and "Women Leaders and Male Chauvinism," The Island, 27 Nov. 1994.
35. "Much Empathy between Benazir and Chandrika," The Island, 25 Sept. 1994.
36. "A Triumph of Guts, Sincerity, and Commitment," The Island, 13 Nov. 1994.
37. Interview, 31 Oct. 1994, Kandy, Sri Lanka.
38. Michael Roberts, "Filial Devotion in Tamil Culture and the Tiger Cult of Martyrdom," Contributions to Indian Sociology, n.s., 30, no. 2 (1996): 253.
39. Kumaranatunga was faced with a real challenge when the widow of Gamini Dissanayake stepped into the race, pitting one sacrificing widow/mother against another.
40. I have explored Kumaranatunga's relationship to Buddhism in "First among Equals: Buddhism and the Sri Lankan State," The New Face of Buddha, ed. Ian Harris (Cassells, forthcoming, 1999).
41. Rajan, 105. The parenthetical remarks are hers.