Evolution of the Theravāda Buddhist Idea of ‘Merittransference’ to the Dead, and its Role in Sri Lankan Buddhist Culture
Issued Date: 7 Oct 2013
Abstract
The practice of merit-transference in Sri Lankan Theravāda Buddhism has evolved over three important stages of development, namely, assigning of dakkhiṇā, giving of patti, and direct transferring of merit. These stages are generally understood as similar practices but are significantly different from each other. It is not the merit but the meritorious act that is dedicated to, or shared with the departed ones in first two stages. Pattidāna, in this context, does not strictly mean giving merit or giving what is obtained or achieved, as it has so far been interpreted, but giving a share of or stake in the ownership of a meritorious act. It is in the third stage that the idea of merit-transference appeared in Buddhist practice in Sri Lanka. Understanding this historical development is important for interpreting Buddhist texts in their historical contexts as well as for realizing the larger role assigned to the living in the contemporary practice of merit-transference (puṇyānumodanā/ pin anumodan-/ pin dīma) and its influence on other arena of social and cultural life in Sri Lanka. This idea of merit-transference transformed mourning and sorrowful funerals into merit-making events. Practices related to this idea of merit-transference also successfully fulfill the psychological needs of the living to assist departed relatives and to maintain some form of relationship with them. It also allowed local beliefs to be assimilated into the Buddhist fold and shaped the social structure of the living, particularly the lay-monastic relationship.
Download Media
PDF
References
Barua, D.K. 2003. ‘Funeral Rituals of Buddhist in Bangladesh: A Study on Barua Community’. Journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies (Indogaku Bukkyogaku Kenkyu), 51(2): 12–16. http://dx.doi.org/10.4259/ibk.51.1021
Bechert, H 1992. ‘Buddha-Field and Transfer of Merit in a Theravada Source’. Indo-Iranian Journal 35: 95–108.
Bodhi, Bhikkhu. 2012. The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Aṅguttara Nikāya. Boston, MA: Wisdom.
Chandawimala, Rangama. 2008. ‘Bodhisattva Practice in Sri Lankan Buddhism with Special Reference to the Abhayagiri Fraternity’. The Indian International Journal of Buddhist Studies 9: 23–43.
Chen, Gang. 2005. ‘Death Rituals’. Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Sage Publications.
Cole, Alan. 1996. ‘Upside down/Right Side up: A Revisionist History of Buddhist Funerals in China’. History of Religions 35(4): 307–338. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/463435
Cousins, L.S.. 1996. ‘Good or Skilful? Kusala in Canon and Commentary’, Journal of Buddhist Ethics 3: 136–64: http://blogs.dickinson.edu/buddhistethics/files/2010/04/cousins12.pdf
Covell, Stephen G. 2005. Japanese Temple Buddhism: Worldliness in a Religion of Renunciation. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
Covell, Stephen G. 2008. ‘The Price of Naming the Dead: Posthumous Precept Names and Critiques of Contemporary Japanese Buddhism’. In Death and the Afterlife in Japanese Buddhism, edited by Jacqueline I. Stone and Mariko Namba Walter, 293–324. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
Dharmadasa, K. N. O. 2003. ‘Bandāra Cults’. In South Asian Folklore: An Encyclopedia, edited by Margaret A. Mills et al., 45–46. New York: Routledge.
Fujimoto, Akira. 2003. ‘Meanings of Patti and Pattidāna — They mean neither merit (puñña) nor transference (parināmanā)’. Buddhist Studies (Bukkyō Kenkyū) 31: 123–154.
Gombrich, Richard. 1971a. Precept and Practice: Traditional Buddhism in the Rural Highland of Ceylon. Oxford. Clarendon Press
Gombrich, Richard. 1971b. ‘“Merit Transference” in Sinhalese Buddhism: A Case Study of the Interaction between Doctrine and Practice’. History of Religions 11(2): 203–219. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/462651
Gouin, Margaret E. 2010. Tibetan Rituals of Death: Buddhist Funerary Practices. New York: Routledge.
Harvey, Peter, 2000, An Introduction to Buddhist Ethics: Foundations, Values and Issues, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511800801
Holt, John C. 1981. ‘Assisting the Dead by Venerating the Living: Merit Transfer in the Early Buddhist Tradition’. Numen 28: 1–28.
Holt, John C. 2007. ‘Gone but Not Departed: The Dead among the Living in Contemporary Buddhist Sri Lanka’. In The Buddhist Dead: Practices, Discourses, Representations, edited by Bryan J. Cuevas and Jacqueline I. Stone, 326–344. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
Horner, I.B., 1963 and 1964. Milinda’s Questions, 2 vols., London: Pali Text Society.
Kelly, John, Sawyer, Sue and Victoria Yareham. 2005. ‘Sigalovada Sutta: The Buddha’s Advice to Sigalaka’: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/dn/dn.31.0.ksw0.html).
Keyes, Charles F. 1983. ‘Merit-Transference in the Kammic Theory of Popular Theravada Buddhism.’ In Karma: An Anthropological Inquiry, edited by Charles F. Keyes, E. Valentine Daniel, 261–286. Berkeley: University of California Press.
LaFleur, William R. 1983. Karma of Words: Buddhism and the Literary Arts in Medieval Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Langer, Rita. 2007. Buddhist Rituals of Death and Rebirth: Contemporary Sri Lankan Practices and its Origin. London: Routledge.
Malalasekera, G. P. 1967. ‘Transference of Merit in Ceylonese Buddhism’. Philosophy East and West 17: 85–90. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1397047
Marasinghe, M.M.J. 1974. Gods in Early Buddhism. Colombo: Vidyalankara Campus Publication Board.
Masefield, Peter. 1980. Elucidation of the Intrinsic Meaning: So Named the Commentary on the Peta-stories (Paramatthadipani nama Petavatthu-atthakatha) by Dhammapala. London: Pali Text Society.
McDermott, James P. 1974. ‘Sādhīna Jātaka: A Case against the Transfer of Merit’. Journal of the American Oriental Society 94(3): 385–387. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/600073
McDermott, James P. 1975. ‘The Kathāvatthu Kamma Debates’. Journal of the American Oriental Society 95(3): 424–433. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/599354
Narada Thera. 1996. ‘Sigalovada Sutta: The Discourse to Sigala — The Layperson’s Code of Discipline’: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/dn/dn.31.0.nara.html)
Nyanatiloka, Mahathera. 1959. Karma and Rebirth. Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society.
Obeysekere, Gananath. 1963. ‘The Great Tradition and the Little in the Perspective of Sinhalese Religious Systems’. Journal of Asian Studies 22: 139–153. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2050008
Obeysekere, Gananath. 1966. ‘The Buddhist Pantheon in Ceylon and its Extensions’. In Anthropological Studies in Theravada Buddhism, edited by Manning Nash, 16–21. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Obeysekere, Gananath. 1979. ‘Popular Religions (of Sri Lanka)’. In Modern Sri Lanka: A Society in Transition, edited by Tissa Fernando and Robert N. Kearney, 201–225. Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University.
Samuels, Jeffrey. 2010. Attracting the Heart: Social Relations and the Aesthetics of Emotion in Sri Lankan Monastic Culture. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.
Schmithausen, Lambert. 1986. ‘Critical Response’. In Karma and Rebirth: Post Classical Development, edited by Ronald W. Neufeldt, 203–230. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Schopen, Gregory. 1995. ‘Death, Funerals, and the Division of Property in a Monastic Code’. In Buddhism in Practice, edited by Donald S. Lopez, Jr., 473–502. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Siri Rahula, Attudawe. 2000. Bauddha Aedahilla (Buddhist Devotions). Dehiwala: Buddhist Cultural Center.
Steadman, Lyle B., Palmer, Craig T., Tilley, Christopher F. 1996. ‘The Universality of Ancestor Worship’. Ethnology 35(1): 63–76. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3774025
Stevenson, Daniel B.1995. ‘Pure Land Buddhist Worship and Meditation in China’. In Buddhism in Practice, edited by Lopez, Donald S. Jr., 359–379. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Stone, Jacqueline I. 2004. ‘By the Power of One’s Last Nenbutsu: Deathbed Practices in Early Medieval Japan’ In Approaching the Land of Bliss: Religious Praxis in the Cult of Amitabha, edited by Richard K. Payne and Kenneth K. Tanaka, 77–119.Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press
Stone, Jacqueline I.2008. ‘“With the Help of ‘Good Friends”: Deathbed Ritual Practices in Early Medieval Japan’. In Death and the Afterlife in Japanese Buddhism, edited by Jacqueline I Stone and Mariko Namba Walter, 61–99. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press
Stone, Jacqueline I. and Mariko Namba Walter. 2008. ‘Introduction’. In Death and the Afterlife in Japanese Buddhism, edited by Jacqueline I. Stone and Mariko Namba Walter, 1–25. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
Tanabe Jr , George J. 2008. ‘The Orthodox Heresy of Buddhist Funerals’. In Death and the Afterlife in Japanese Buddhism, edited by Jacqueline I. Stone and Mariko Namba Walter, 325–348. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
Tillakaratne, M.P. 1986. Manners, Customs and Ceremonies of Sri Lanka. Delhi: Sri Satguru Publication.
Walshe, Maurice. 1996. Long Discourses of the Buddha, 2nd revised edition. Boston, MA: Wisdom.
Walters, Jonathan S. 2003. ‘Deanimating and Reanimating the Dead in Rural Sri Lanka’. In The Living and the Dead: Social Dimensions of Death in South Asian Religion, edited by Liz Wilson, 113–126. New York: State University of New York Press.
Wirz, Paul.1954. Exorcism and the Art of Healing in Ceylon. Leiden: E.J. Brill
Witanachchi, C. 2004. ‘Pattidāna’. Encyclopedia of Buddhism 7(2): 382–392. Colombo: Department of Buddhist Affairs.
Bechert, H 1992. ‘Buddha-Field and Transfer of Merit in a Theravada Source’. Indo-Iranian Journal 35: 95–108.
Bodhi, Bhikkhu. 2012. The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Aṅguttara Nikāya. Boston, MA: Wisdom.
Chandawimala, Rangama. 2008. ‘Bodhisattva Practice in Sri Lankan Buddhism with Special Reference to the Abhayagiri Fraternity’. The Indian International Journal of Buddhist Studies 9: 23–43.
Chen, Gang. 2005. ‘Death Rituals’. Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Sage Publications.
Cole, Alan. 1996. ‘Upside down/Right Side up: A Revisionist History of Buddhist Funerals in China’. History of Religions 35(4): 307–338. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/463435
Cousins, L.S.. 1996. ‘Good or Skilful? Kusala in Canon and Commentary’, Journal of Buddhist Ethics 3: 136–64: http://blogs.dickinson.edu/buddhistethics/files/2010/04/cousins12.pdf
Covell, Stephen G. 2005. Japanese Temple Buddhism: Worldliness in a Religion of Renunciation. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
Covell, Stephen G. 2008. ‘The Price of Naming the Dead: Posthumous Precept Names and Critiques of Contemporary Japanese Buddhism’. In Death and the Afterlife in Japanese Buddhism, edited by Jacqueline I. Stone and Mariko Namba Walter, 293–324. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
Dharmadasa, K. N. O. 2003. ‘Bandāra Cults’. In South Asian Folklore: An Encyclopedia, edited by Margaret A. Mills et al., 45–46. New York: Routledge.
Fujimoto, Akira. 2003. ‘Meanings of Patti and Pattidāna — They mean neither merit (puñña) nor transference (parināmanā)’. Buddhist Studies (Bukkyō Kenkyū) 31: 123–154.
Gombrich, Richard. 1971a. Precept and Practice: Traditional Buddhism in the Rural Highland of Ceylon. Oxford. Clarendon Press
Gombrich, Richard. 1971b. ‘“Merit Transference” in Sinhalese Buddhism: A Case Study of the Interaction between Doctrine and Practice’. History of Religions 11(2): 203–219. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/462651
Gouin, Margaret E. 2010. Tibetan Rituals of Death: Buddhist Funerary Practices. New York: Routledge.
Harvey, Peter, 2000, An Introduction to Buddhist Ethics: Foundations, Values and Issues, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511800801
Holt, John C. 1981. ‘Assisting the Dead by Venerating the Living: Merit Transfer in the Early Buddhist Tradition’. Numen 28: 1–28.
Holt, John C. 2007. ‘Gone but Not Departed: The Dead among the Living in Contemporary Buddhist Sri Lanka’. In The Buddhist Dead: Practices, Discourses, Representations, edited by Bryan J. Cuevas and Jacqueline I. Stone, 326–344. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
Horner, I.B., 1963 and 1964. Milinda’s Questions, 2 vols., London: Pali Text Society.
Kelly, John, Sawyer, Sue and Victoria Yareham. 2005. ‘Sigalovada Sutta: The Buddha’s Advice to Sigalaka’: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/dn/dn.31.0.ksw0.html).
Keyes, Charles F. 1983. ‘Merit-Transference in the Kammic Theory of Popular Theravada Buddhism.’ In Karma: An Anthropological Inquiry, edited by Charles F. Keyes, E. Valentine Daniel, 261–286. Berkeley: University of California Press.
LaFleur, William R. 1983. Karma of Words: Buddhism and the Literary Arts in Medieval Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Langer, Rita. 2007. Buddhist Rituals of Death and Rebirth: Contemporary Sri Lankan Practices and its Origin. London: Routledge.
Malalasekera, G. P. 1967. ‘Transference of Merit in Ceylonese Buddhism’. Philosophy East and West 17: 85–90. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1397047
Marasinghe, M.M.J. 1974. Gods in Early Buddhism. Colombo: Vidyalankara Campus Publication Board.
Masefield, Peter. 1980. Elucidation of the Intrinsic Meaning: So Named the Commentary on the Peta-stories (Paramatthadipani nama Petavatthu-atthakatha) by Dhammapala. London: Pali Text Society.
McDermott, James P. 1974. ‘Sādhīna Jātaka: A Case against the Transfer of Merit’. Journal of the American Oriental Society 94(3): 385–387. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/600073
McDermott, James P. 1975. ‘The Kathāvatthu Kamma Debates’. Journal of the American Oriental Society 95(3): 424–433. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/599354
Narada Thera. 1996. ‘Sigalovada Sutta: The Discourse to Sigala — The Layperson’s Code of Discipline’: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/dn/dn.31.0.nara.html)
Nyanatiloka, Mahathera. 1959. Karma and Rebirth. Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society.
Obeysekere, Gananath. 1963. ‘The Great Tradition and the Little in the Perspective of Sinhalese Religious Systems’. Journal of Asian Studies 22: 139–153. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2050008
Obeysekere, Gananath. 1966. ‘The Buddhist Pantheon in Ceylon and its Extensions’. In Anthropological Studies in Theravada Buddhism, edited by Manning Nash, 16–21. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Obeysekere, Gananath. 1979. ‘Popular Religions (of Sri Lanka)’. In Modern Sri Lanka: A Society in Transition, edited by Tissa Fernando and Robert N. Kearney, 201–225. Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University.
Samuels, Jeffrey. 2010. Attracting the Heart: Social Relations and the Aesthetics of Emotion in Sri Lankan Monastic Culture. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.
Schmithausen, Lambert. 1986. ‘Critical Response’. In Karma and Rebirth: Post Classical Development, edited by Ronald W. Neufeldt, 203–230. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Schopen, Gregory. 1995. ‘Death, Funerals, and the Division of Property in a Monastic Code’. In Buddhism in Practice, edited by Donald S. Lopez, Jr., 473–502. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Siri Rahula, Attudawe. 2000. Bauddha Aedahilla (Buddhist Devotions). Dehiwala: Buddhist Cultural Center.
Steadman, Lyle B., Palmer, Craig T., Tilley, Christopher F. 1996. ‘The Universality of Ancestor Worship’. Ethnology 35(1): 63–76. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3774025
Stevenson, Daniel B.1995. ‘Pure Land Buddhist Worship and Meditation in China’. In Buddhism in Practice, edited by Lopez, Donald S. Jr., 359–379. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Stone, Jacqueline I. 2004. ‘By the Power of One’s Last Nenbutsu: Deathbed Practices in Early Medieval Japan’ In Approaching the Land of Bliss: Religious Praxis in the Cult of Amitabha, edited by Richard K. Payne and Kenneth K. Tanaka, 77–119.Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press
Stone, Jacqueline I.2008. ‘“With the Help of ‘Good Friends”: Deathbed Ritual Practices in Early Medieval Japan’. In Death and the Afterlife in Japanese Buddhism, edited by Jacqueline I Stone and Mariko Namba Walter, 61–99. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press
Stone, Jacqueline I. and Mariko Namba Walter. 2008. ‘Introduction’. In Death and the Afterlife in Japanese Buddhism, edited by Jacqueline I. Stone and Mariko Namba Walter, 1–25. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
Tanabe Jr , George J. 2008. ‘The Orthodox Heresy of Buddhist Funerals’. In Death and the Afterlife in Japanese Buddhism, edited by Jacqueline I. Stone and Mariko Namba Walter, 325–348. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
Tillakaratne, M.P. 1986. Manners, Customs and Ceremonies of Sri Lanka. Delhi: Sri Satguru Publication.
Walshe, Maurice. 1996. Long Discourses of the Buddha, 2nd revised edition. Boston, MA: Wisdom.
Walters, Jonathan S. 2003. ‘Deanimating and Reanimating the Dead in Rural Sri Lanka’. In The Living and the Dead: Social Dimensions of Death in South Asian Religion, edited by Liz Wilson, 113–126. New York: State University of New York Press.
Wirz, Paul.1954. Exorcism and the Art of Healing in Ceylon. Leiden: E.J. Brill
Witanachchi, C. 2004. ‘Pattidāna’. Encyclopedia of Buddhism 7(2): 382–392. Colombo: Department of Buddhist Affairs.
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.