Stephen C. Berkwitz is Professor and Head of the Department of Religious Studies, Missouri State University, USA. His research is focused on the literature and cultural history of Sri Lankan Buddhism. He has published South Asian Buddhism: A Survey (Routledge 2009) and is the editor of the Routledge Critical Studies in Buddhism series.

Ashley Thompson is Hiram W. Woodward Chair in Southeast Asian Art at SOAS, University of London, UK. She is a specialist in Southeast Asian Cultural Histories, with particular expertise on premodern Cambodian arts. Her most recent monograph is Engendering the Buddhist State: Territory, Sovereignty and Sexual Difference in the Inventions of Angkor (Routledge 2016).

Introduction PART I - Ideas/Ideals 1. "THERAVDA": Sectarianism and Diversity in Mahvihra Historiography 2. PLI: Its Place in the Theravda Buddhist Tradition 3. CIRCULATIONS: Linked Spaces and Divergent Temporalities in the Pli World 4. STATECRAFT: From Buddhist Kingship to Modern States 5. REFORM: Ideas and Events in Modern Theravda Reformism 6. TRADITION: Nuns and "Theravda" in Sri Lanka PART II - Practices/Persons 7. MERIT: Ritual Giving and Its Cultural Meditations 8. MEDITATION: Techniques and Processes of Transformation 9. REPETITION: Pli Iterations of Ritual Commitment, Commentarial Refrain, and Assiduous Practice 10. FILIAL PIETY: Shades of Difference across Theravdin traditions 11. LAITY: Status, Role and Practice in Theravda 12. DISCIPLINE: Beyond the Vinaya 13. FUNERALS: Changing Funerary Practices PART III - Texts/Teachings 14. CANONS: Authoritative Texts of the Theraväsa 15. ABHIDHAMMA: Theravda Thought in Relation to Sarvstivda Thought 16. VASA: History and Lineage in the Theravda 17. MERIT: Ten Ways of Making Merit in Theravda Exegetical Literature and Contemporary Sri Lanka 18. BILINGUALISM: Theravda Bitexts across South and Southeast Asia PART IV - Images/Imaginations 19. VISUAL NARRATIVES: Buddha Life Stories in the 'Medieval Theravda' of Southeast Asia 20. ICONS: Standing out from the Narrative in Theravdin Art 21. AFFECT: Notes from Contemporary Southeast Asian Visual Culture 22. DEITIES: Supernatural Forces in Theravda Buddhist Religious Cultures 23. MONS: Creating a Narrative of the Origins of Theravda