Våldets väg : inställningar till våld och konflikt bland singalesiska buddhister

Sammanfattning: During the course of history, the world have come to see powerful nations rise and fall, religions spread and diminish – and all too often there have been violent struggles between religious groups and secular forces, a fact that we still see in our world today. In the West, we often hear about the violent and fundamental dimensions of Islam. Buddhism is rarely a part of the equation in a western context, regarding violence. A common perception is the picture of Buddhism as a guardian of non-violent principles and values. The central theme of this essay circuits around views on violence and warfare in the Sri Lankan context, where religion and violence have come to be intertwined, often with political overtones. With different theoretical frameworks and angles I have illustrated and analyzed how the historical development can be linked to classical buddhist sources and how some singalease buddhists make use of a mythical glorious past to justify violence and warfare against the tamil minority population. But like all religious traditions there are also counterforces and exceptions that diverge from the mainstream, which I have found importnant to illuminate. Religious phenomena can be a complex matter to investigate and trying to see the variations within a religious tradition can be difficult but one way to adress theese issues (when it comes to religion and violence in Sri Lanka) is to give diverse and multifaceted pictures of the conflict for when it comes to religion, there are never one-sided answers.