Buddhist gaze and power in a post-war destination: case study of Jaffna, Sri Lanka

ABSTRACT

This study explores how Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalism is constructed in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, a post-war reunified state, through post-war travels. Sri Lankan government and the military forces have recreated Buddhist temples and monuments that were destroyed in the war and have re-introduced Buddhist signs and symbols. Thus, Sinhalese Buddhists visiting Jaffna gaze upon the region with a sense of ownership fueled by the triumphalism. This study adopts Michel Foucault’s discourse on power to reach its objectives and employs discourse analysis and ethnographic analysis to analyze the descriptive data. The study finds that the Sinhalese Buddhist Gaze in Jaffna is abstracted as omnipresent in a tripartite system extracted from ancient Sinhalese Buddhist notions: Rata (country), Jathiya (ethnicity), and Aagama (religion).

KEYWORDS:

• Buddhist gaze
• Foucault
• post-war tourism
• Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalism
• Sri Lanka tourism
• tourist gaze

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the National Social Science Fund of China [grant number 18FGL015], Innovation Spark Project of Sichuan University [grant numbers 2018hhf-65, 2018hhs-57], Sichuan University Cluster for Regional History and Frontier Studies [grant number 2018-0332], Major Projects of the National Social Science Foundation [grant number 17ZDA044], Interdisciplinary Research and Innovation Project of Sichuan University [grant number XKQKXK04], Rajarata University of Sri Lanka Research Grant [grant number RJT/R&PC/2018/FMGT/R/04], and Department of Tourism & Hospitality Management. The study was also supported by the Faculty of Management Studies, Rajarata University of Sri Lanka, Rajarata University of Sri Lanka.

Notes on contributors

W. H. M. S. Samarathunga

W. H. M. S. Samarathunga, PhD, is based at Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Faculty of Management Studies, Rajarata University of Sri Lanka. His research interests are tourist gaze, tourism planning, tourism anthropology and reconciliation (E-mail: [email protected]).

Li Cheng

Li Cheng, PhD, is a Professor at Tourism School, Sichuan University, P.R. China. His research interests include tourism anthropology, heritage development & protection, and research methodology (E-mail: [email protected]).

Prageeth Weerathunga

P. R. Weerathunga, PhD, is based at Department of Accountancy and Finance, Faculty of Management Studies, Rajarata University of Sri Lanka. His main research interests are tourists' behavior and economic development (E-mail: [email protected]).