Abstract
Theravada Buddhist sermons in palm-leaf manuscript collections in South and Southeast Asia are frequently bilingual, including portions in the classical language of Pali and a local vernacular, such as Burmese, Sinhala, or Thai. These bilingual sermons prove to be ideal subjects for exploring how Buddhist scriptures function as kinetic, interactive processes of performance and reception. This paper draws on three examples of Pali-Khmer sermons composed in Cambodia between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. The three bilingual texts or “bitexts” analyzed in this article each follow a different format: rearranged phrasal gloss, selective sentence gloss, and vernacular expansion. These formats draw on the pan-Theravada technology of the bitext to create a dynamic oscillation between Pali and Khmer passages, amplifying patterns established by differential practices of listening and recitation. The key medium in this process is language, which serves as a fluid intermediary that makes the relational activity of scripture possible.
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Acknowledgements
Research for this paper was made possible by support from the Ho Center for Buddhist Studies at Stanford, the Buddhist Digital Resource Center, and A Khmer Buddhist Foundation. My gratitude goes to Eviatar Shulman and Chenxing Han for their feedback.
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Walker, T. Liquid Language: The Art of Bitextual Sermons in Middle Cambodia. J Indian Philos 50, 705–723 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10781-022-09516-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10781-022-09516-2