Front Cover:

Unidentified narrative recounting a previous life of the Buddha Gotama—MaU Village, Upper Burma—shrine now called Shwemuhtaw, likely decorated in 1762.

Image courtesy of Lilian Handlin.

Cover design: Sophia Varcados, Northern Illinois University

The subject of the current Journal cover is an unknown story purporting to narratea previous life of the Buddha Gotama, when he was a thief, according to one sliverof the inscription located below the image. The narrative is part of a broader programmaticdecor comprising what by the middle of the eighteenth century werestandard components of the visual information provided by the shrine’s donors. Theinformation surrounded the statue of the Buddha that served as the shrine’s focalritual point. Most of these components derive from—to us—identifiable canonical,commentarial, and post commentarial texts, but some reflect hitherto undiscoveredcompilations that circulated at the time and whose prestige was sufficiently elevatedto place their content on par with the Pali Daw. The unknown story was also“sourced”—to what the inscription simply labels as “Theravada Zat.” Since this isthe first hitherto found, and dated, reference to the contentious term “Theravada”—one of this issue’s articles speculates on its possible meanings at an early date—asdistinguished from the heavy-duty tasks the term fulfilled when it became theaccepted label for a major religion, now known to us as Theravada Buddhism, apaired tag that would have been unfamiliar to the eighteenth-century donors of theShwemuhtaw.

—Lilian Handlin, Harvard University

Journal of Burma Studies

In this Issue

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Editors’ Note
Lilian Handlin, Alicia Turner
pp. 1-5
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/jbs.2017.0000
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The Role of Pāli Grammar in Burmese Buddhism
Aleix Ruiz Falqués
pp. 1-96
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/jbs.2017.0001
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Hedging against Lives’ Uncertainties and the “Theravada” Label
Lilian Handlin
pp. 97-132
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/jbs.2017.0002
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The Other Bayonet: A New Source to Frame the Second Anglo–Burmese War
A. A. Bastian
pp. 171-213
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/jbs.2017.0004
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Prayer of the Seven Stations (Sattaṭhāna)
Ledi Sayadaw, Erik Braun, Tin Tin Aye
pp. 215-221
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/jbs.2017.0005
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Prayer of the Seven Stations
pp. 222-226
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/jbs.2017.0007
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Drones and Phones: A Note on Linguistic Adaptation to a Changing World
Julian Wheatley
pp. 227-231
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/jbs.2017.0006
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