Faith Communities and the Sense of Place: South Asian Buddhist Viharas translated to Leicester in the 21st century
Guest Speaker: Dr Ruth Young (University of Leicester)
While South Asia is the birthplace of Buddhism with key sites associated with the life of the Buddha – monasteries, temples and urban centres - charting the early development and spread of Buddhism, Buddhism is now a major world religion. In this age of globalisation and homogenisation, what is that makes a Buddhist structure distinct?
| A Department of Archaeology lecture | |
|---|---|
| Date | 3 March 2016 |
| Time | 16:30 |
| Place | Forum Seminar Room 04 |
| Provider | Department of Archaeology |
Event details
This talk is based on fieldwork for a project in Leicester, analysing buildings used for faiths of South Asian origin. This work is exploring ideas and issues around the particular elements of buildings that are considered sacred, and also just how followers use a building and what value the building itself has in terms of ritual and religion; findings which link to wider issues of identity and belonging in diaspora populations.
The case study of the Leicester Buddhist Vihara will be presented and the results of fieldwork analysed and discussed. Emphasis will be placed on comparisons of traditional South Asian viharas and the vihara in modern-day UK.
| Attachments | |
|---|---|
 Ruth_Young_Poster_web_poster.pdf | Ruth Young Lecture Poster (386K) |
Location:
Forum Seminar Room 04
