The Sacred Geography of Dawei: Buddhism in peninsular Myanmar (Burma)

The paper opens by recounting the beginnings of Buddhism in Dawei as preserved in local chronicles and sustained in stupas marking the episodes of the chronicle narrative. The chronicles start with a visit of the Buddha whose arrival triggers a series of events bringing together pre-existing tutelary figures, weiza, a hermit and offspring born of a golden fish, culminating in the establishment of the first Buddhist kingdom circa the eighth to tenth century CE. The enshrinement of sacred hairs gifted by the Buddha also includes patronage by a king of the ‘Suvannbhumi’ lineage. Associated with the monks Sona and Uttara from Sri Lanka sent by King Asoka’s son Mahinda, ‘Suvannbhumi’ literally can refer to the archaeology of Thaton, a walled site in the present day Mon State, or, as is the case here, more widely to the missionary tradition associated with Asoka (Sao Saimong Mengrai 1976). The third story in the establishment of the Buddhist king at Thagara is the longest of the chronicle, the tale of a royal hunter who failed to capture a golden peacock for the queen. The hunter became a hermit living by a pond with a golden fish and as he urinated in the pond, two children were born from the fish. The boy becomes the first Buddhist king of Thagara, 11 km north of Dawei, where artefacts from survey and excavation confirm the chronology of the chronicle, with the closest archaeological parallels found not at the ancient sites of the Mon State but to the first millennium CE Buddhist ‘Pyu’ heritage of Upper Myanmar which is notably absent in the chronicle compilation

Paths to Liberation in Burmese Buddhism

Dr. Patrick Pranke from University of Louisville spoke about “Paths to Liberation in Burmese Buddhism” for Far Away Places Series on October 18, 2012 at Barnes & Noble Booksellers. Dr. Pranke is the assistant professor of Religious Studies in the Department of Humanities where he teaches Asian religions with a focus on Theravada Buddhism and Burma. He is a native of Minnesota and grew up in a farming family. He was influenced by stories of far away places and far away times and wanted to be an archaeologist. He attended schools in Forest Lake, Minnesota. After high school he attended the University of Minnesota and the University of Wisconsin where he studied anthropology and South Asian Studies. Pranke received his doctorate in Buddhist Studies from the University of Michigan in 2004. He has conducted research and worked in Burma and northern India for a number of years and is affiliated with the Buddhist academy, Thitagu Kaba Buddha Takkathol, in Sagaing, Burma, where he has served as an instructor and translator. His research interests include Burmese Buddhist monastic history and historiography, Sangha-state relations, Buddhist scholasticism, and Burmese popular religion. His interests in north India include village Hinduism, pilgrimage and the geography of sacred sites. In the United States he examines immigrant Buddhism and the dynamics of integration. Pranke’s articles have appeared in Buddhism in Practice, the Encyclopedia of Buddhism, and the Journal of Burma Studies

The Treatise on the Lineage of Elders (Vamsadipani): Monastic reform and the writing of Buddhist history in eighteenth-century Burma.

This dissertation is a critical study and annotated translation of the Vam&dotbelow;sadipani (Treatise on the Lineage of Elders), a Burmese Buddhist chronicle written in the late eighteenth century during a reform of the Burmese Theravada Sam&dotbelow;gha known as the Sudhamma Reformation. In explicating this text, I explore the assumptions concerning Burmese Buddhist historiography and the dynamics of Buddhist reform that inform our understanding of Burmese Buddhism in the pre-modern period. The introduction begins with a discussion of the authorship, date and provenance of the text. The Vam&dotbelow;sadipani was written ca. 1799 by the Vinaya jurist, Mehti Sayadaw, while he resided in the city of Taungoo. The author was sent to the city by the Sudhamma Ecclesiastical Council to reform the local Sam&dotbelow;gha and bring it under Sudhamma control. The Vam&dotbelow;sadipani documents the implementation of the reform within the broad context of Buddhist history as conceived by the Theravada, citing historical and legal precedents stretching back to the lifetime of the Buddha to justify the Sudhamma agenda. In my analysis of the Vam&dotbelow;sadipani I show that it belongs to a genre of juridical and historical writing called sasana-katikavata and as such represents a continuation of a Buddhist literary tradition traceable to the 12th- and 13th-century reforms of Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka when the first of such texts were written. I further show that the Sudhamma Reformation was the culmination of a historical trend that began in the same period; namely, the ascendancy in Burma of Sinhalese style reformed Theravada, which was first introduced into the Burmese kingdom ca. 1181. The introduction concludes with a comparison of the Vam&dotbelow;sadipani with three subsequent Buddhist chronicles composed in Burma during the 19th century, all written from the Sudhamma point of view but reflecting shifts in belief and historical perspective that anticipate 20th-century Burmese Buddhism. The annotated translation of the Vam&dotbelow;sadipani that follows is accompanied by notes and appendices describing in detail the sources and narrative strategies used by Mehti Sayadaw to render the Vam&dotbelow;sadipani an instrument of Buddhist monastic reform.Ph.D.Asian historyAsian literatureLanguage, Literature and LinguisticsPhilosophy, Religion and TheologyReligious historySocial SciencesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/124163/2/3122027.pd

Airway surface liquid acidification initiates host defense abnormalities in Cystic Fibrosis

Abstract Cystic fibrosis (CF) is caused by defective Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator (CFTR) protein. Morbidity is mainly due to early airway infection. We hypothesized that S. aureus clearance during the first hours of infection was impaired in CF human Airway Surface Liquid (ASL) because of a lowered pH. The ASL pH of human bronchial epithelial cell lines and primary respiratory cells from healthy controls (WT) and patients with CF was measured with a pH microelectrode. The antimicrobial capacity of airway cells was studied after S. aureus apical infection by counting surviving bacteria. ASL was significantly more acidic in CF than in WT respiratory cells. This was consistent with a defect in bicarbonate secretion involving CFTR and SLC26A4 (pendrin) and a persistent proton secretion by ATP12A. ASL demonstrated a defect in S. aureus clearance which was improved by pH normalization. Pendrin inhibition in WT airways recapitulated the CF airway defect and increased S. aureus proliferation. ATP12A inhibition by ouabain decreased bacterial proliferation. Antimicrobial peptides LL-37 and hBD1 demonstrated a pH-dependent activity. Normalizing ASL pH might improve innate airway defense in newborns with CF during onset of S. aureus infection. Pendrin activation and ATP12A inhibition could represent novel therapeutic strategies to normalize pH in CF airways