Protective charms and bracelets (Isuru Abeysekara)

Title: Protective charms and bracelets

General Information about Item:

Informant Data:

Isuru Abeysekara was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka on May 17th, 1998. He grew up in Sri Lanka before he moved to the United States for his undergraduate education. He is a senior at Dartmouth College, majoring in Computer Science modified with Quantitative Social Science.

Contextual Data:

Cultural Context: Sri Lankans believe that entities from the underworld often roam the world of the living in the night. The cultural belief is that demons have the power to cause harm to humans; it could be minute, in the form of an illness, or even death in more extreme cases. As a result, Sri Lankans devised a preventive method that involves wearing bracelets. The act of receiving a bracelet is ritualistic since Buddhist monks chant protective prayers while tying it around the recipient’s hand.
Social Context: Sri Lanka’s primary religion is Indian Buddhism. As a Buddhist himself, Isuru has witnessed the importance of Buddhism in every aspect of Sri Lankan culture. There exists Buddhist prayers to protect one against demons, but Sri Lankans innovated by using the bracelets as a physical manifestation of the prayers so that they would be protected against demons at all times. Since it is such a common practice, he learned about the use and background of the bracelet when he questioned his mother.

Item:

When the Buddha was alive he mentioned that there were several of his sermons that were so powerful that the mere reciting of them could bring protection to our lives.

Associated file:

Collector’s Name: Isuru Abeysekara

Tags/Keywords:

Dartmouth Folklore Archive