Monastic Lineages and Succession

Taking a comparative cross-cultural approach with case studies from South, Southeast, Inner and East Asia, this 90-minute roundtable centers on the question: How has monastic succession been implemented in Buddhist institutions and/or socially-constructed in Buddhist literatures? The diverse group of presenters (across a range of criteria: gender, nationality, professional experience, and institutional affiliation) includes four scholars in Pali Buddhist traditions and four experts in Tibetan Buddhist traditions. Prior to the AAR, each participant will pre-circulate papers on their respective case study from Sri Lanka, Burma, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Central Tibet, or China, ranging from the seventeenth century to the contemporary period. During the session, each presenter will limit their remarks to eight minutes to illuminate the central question on monastic succession and will distribute a handout to contextualize the form/s of succession and/or its imaginings socially, historically, and politically. The remaining fifteen minutes will be used for discussion.