Description
Technology permeates different locations of the world at different paces and in disparate dimensions, not always leaving clear answers in its wake to questions about ultimate beneficiaries (Taylor & Broeders, 2015; Kwet, 2019). There are justifiable reasons for individuals, communities, and societies to be circumspect about adoption of various technologies and to desire the moderation of their usage (Agar, 2015). Few human-inhabited places can be deemed as generally resistant to the advancement of technology as the remote forest monasteries of Sri Lanka, home to Buddhist monastics who have renounced the world in favour of a supposedly absolute commitment to an ancient, aloof, and ascetic way of life in solitude. Numerically insignificant when compared to the greater Buddhist populace in the country yet wielding remarkable cultural and religious authority due to the perceived authenticity and “ultra-orthodoxy” (Silber, 1981, p. 183) of their practice, these forest monastics could be seen as the closest living embodiments of Buddhist ideals one could find today (Sirisena, 2024), including those pertaining to hospitality. Their role as ‘hosts’ is unexpected but inevitable, for even such isolated settings as forest monasteries are not immune to two influences that seem to go hand-in-hand: visitors, many of whom are international, and technology, some of which is cutting-edge. Hospitality takes an atypical form in the liminal space of these contemporary forest monasteries, where no money changes hands, as the hosts have renounced all forms of it (Sirisena, 2021), and the accommodation and services that are offered often elude conventional giver-receiver and host-guest dichotomies.
Anthropologists deem that “hospitality is magic” (Candea & Da Col, 2012). If so, what old spells are waiting to be discovered in these remote forest monasteries? In this article, the author, in his capacity as a native anthropologist, employs autoethnography to explore the characteristics of hospitality that emerges from this unique monastic context. Drawing from what has transpired to be the first major research about Buddhist asceticism in Sri Lanka in almost half a century—the only other such study being that of Carrithers (1983) who conducted fieldwork in the 1970s—the present work aims to discuss the symbiotic relationships between modern ascetics and their lay visitors, both local and foreign, with a particular focus on how technology is influencing the way these relationships are being formed and evolve. The foundation for this pre-industrial, monastic hospitality lies in early Buddhist teachings, codified in the Theravada Buddhist Tipitaka and its commentaries. Many Buddhists can claim to have faith in these texts, but very few have tried to put the textual ideal into practice—and it is precisely the commitment to realising the textual ideal that sets the forest monastics apart. The hospitality we find in their midst is one marked by love (mettā) and compassion (karuṇā), but also tinged with dispassion (nibbidā) and detachment (virāga): an eclectic mix.
This study benefits from the author’s distinctive positionality as a former forest monk and a practicing Buddhist, which affords an unprecedented level of access to these ascetic communities. This has allowed a more accurate and complete understanding of the ancient form of hospitality that is still being enacted in the present day, which stands in stark contrast to commercial hospitality that is more commonly discussed in contemporary research. The very survival of this lesser-known form against overwhelming odds points at alternative directions in which post-capitalist hospitality can develop: a challenge that increasingly appears relevant and important in the Anthropocene.
References
Agar, N. (2015) The sceptical optimist: Why technology isn't the answer to everything. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Candea, M., & Da Col, G. (2012) The return to hospitality. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 18, S1–S19.
Carrithers, M. (1983) Forest Monks of Sri Lanka. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Kwet, M. (2019) Digital colonialism: US empire and the new imperialism in the Global South. Race & Class 60(4), 3–26.
Silber, I. F. (1981) Dissent through holiness: The case of the radical renouncer in Theravada Buddhist countries. Numen 28(2), 164–193.
Sirisena, P. (2021) Wealthy Mendicants: The Balancing Act of Sri Lankan Forest Monks. In: C. Brumann, S. Abrahms-Kavunenko & B. Switek (Eds.) Monks, Money, and Morality: The Balancing Act of Contemporary Buddhism, (pp.141–157). London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Sirisena, P. (2024, Forthcoming) Theravada Buddhism in the Anthropocene: The role of the radical virtuosi. Journal of Global Buddhism, 25(1).
Taylor, L., & Broeders, D. (2015) In the name of development: Power, profit and the datafication of the global south. Geoforum, 64, 229–237.
