The Journal

253 Summer 2023/4

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Dženana Vucic on the subtle and not-so-subtle Marxist symbolism in Sailor Moon, John Docker, a "non-theatre person" by his own admission on The New Theatre, Sarah Schwartz on prison healthcare as punishment and the killing of Veronica Nelson, a poignant short story on memory and displacement from Nasrin Mahoutchi-Hosaini, Jeanine Leane's prize-winning poem, "Water under the bridge", and more.

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Overland literary journal > Articles by: James Stewart

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James Stewart

James Stewart is a Research Associate at the University of Tasmania. He recently completed his PhD in Buddhist Studies and Philosophy. His main area of research is Sinhala Buddhism, especially animal ethics in Sri Lanka and the effect it has on food and dietary practices. He has previously lived in Sri Lanka and makes frequent visits there to conduct fieldwork. His website is http://srilankaobserver.org/.

Articles by James Stewart:

2 August 20137 August 2013 · Main Posts

Self-immolation and the cow protection movement

James Stewart

On 24 May, a young Buddhist monk set himself on fire near the main entrance to the Temple of the Sacred Tooth in Kandy, Sri Lanka. The burns he suffered were so severe that he soon died in hospital. His name was Bowatte Indaratana Thera, and his suicide was an act of protest against what he believed to be the oppression of Buddhism in Sri Lanka. More specifically, he intended to draw attention to the immorality of cattle slaughter.

3 July 201315 July 2013 · Main Posts

The Dalai Lama, secularism and the west

James Stewart

Are Buddhism and secular society really as compatible as the Dalai Lama and many other Buddhists would have us believe?

18 June 201316 March 2018 · Main Posts

War tourism in the north of Sri Lanka

James Stewart

If you follow the A9 road long enough, you will end up in former Tamil Tiger territory. I say ‘former,’ because the Tamil Tigers were soundly defeated by the Sri Lankan military in 2009. As many know, the Tigers maintained a de facto state in the North with its own military, police force, political infrastructure and even postal service. The Tamil Tiger state, however, now lies in ruins.

15 May 201316 March 2018 · Politics

The new ultranationalism of Sri Lanka

James Stewart

There is a problem of ethnic persecution in Sri Lanka. The civil war, which began in 1983, was forged by the persecution of Tamil communities, and when the civil war ended in 2010, it was terminated in violent acts that targeted the ethnic Tamil minority.