Traditional and Modern Meditation Practices in Shan Buddhist Communities

What is it about?

This article explores how meditation is inculcated throughout the life of Shan Buddhists using poetic phrasing and texts, culminating in several forms of meditation as part of the practice of temple-sleeping undertaken by lay Buddhist seniors from the age of 40 upwards. I also look at the development of vipassanā in lowland Burma in reaction to the threat colonialism posed to Buddhism, and the rise of separate vipassanā meditation centres in Shan regions from the 1930s.

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Why is it important?

It has focus on the traditional way of Shan meditation practices mainly along with the ritual of temple-sleeping practices, in comparison and contrast with the intensive modern vipassana meditation practices at specialised meditation centres.