Iselin Frydenlund, University of Oslo

Iselin Frydenlund, Dept. of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages (IKOS), University of Oslo, defended her doctoral dissertation entitled ”Canonical Ambiguity and Differential Practices: Buddhist Monks in Wartime Sri Lanka” on Wednesday 15 June 2011. This study analyses the relationship between Buddhism, war and nationalism, focusing on the Sri Lankan civil war (1983–2009). Based on a combination of historical analysis and field data, it explores the ambiguities and flexibility of Buddhism in relation to war. Theravada Buddhism provides space for competing discourses about the state and violence, but it does not have a systematic just-war tradition similar to those of Christianity or Islam. During Sri Lanka‘s civil war, Buddhist monks were in favour of a military solution to the conflict, and this dominant militarist position co-existed with a normative discourse on nonviolence. Thus, the Buddhist concept of nonviolence should not be confused with pacifism. A pacifist discourse does exist, but it represents a minority position. In her thesis, Iselin Frydenlund argues that understanding monastic views on war, nationalism and inter-ethnic relations requires taking specific local contexts into account. Her field data show that discourses of peace and inter-ethnic harmony were more predominant among monks in the war zones compared to the dominant nationalist discourses among monks at the political centre, but also that monks in the war areas were closely linked to nationalism and state activity. Thus, the rapidly shifting social realities of Sri Lanka make it impossible to reduce monks‘ views and practices to a single grand theory of Buddhism or nationalism.

The evaluation committee consisted of Professor John C. Holt, Bowdoin College, USA; Professor Jonathan Spencer, University of Edinburgh, UK; and Professor Anne Stensvold, University of Oslo. More information about the thesis.