- Theravada Traditions: Buddhist Ritual Cultures in Contemporary Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press (2017)
- Buddhist Extremists and Muslim Minorities: Religious Conflict in Contemporary Sri Lanka (NY: Oxford U. Press, 2016)
- The Sri Lanka Reader: History, Culture, Politics (NC: Duke University Press Books, 2011)
- Spirits of the Place: Buddhism and Lao Religious Culture (HI: University of Hawaii Press, 2009)
- The Buddhist Visnu (NY: Columbia U. Press, 2004).
- Constituting Communities: Theravada Buddhism and the Religious Cultures of South and Southeast Asia (Albany: SUNY Press, 2003) Editor
- The Religious World of Kirti Sri: Buddhism, Art and Politics in Late Medieval Sri Lanka (NY: Oxford U. Press, 1996)
- The Anagatavamsa Desana (Dehli: Motilal Banarsidass, 1993)
- Buddha in the Crown (NY: Oxford U. Press, 1991) American Academic Book Award for Excellence in 1992
- Discipline: the Canonical Buddhism of the Vinayapitaka (Dehli: Motilal Banarsidass, 1981)
- A Guide to the Buddhist Religion (Boston: G.K. Hall, 1981)
John Holt
William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of the Humanities in Religion and Asian Studies Emeritus
John Clifford Holt joined the Bowdoin faculty in 1978. He taught courses about Asian religious traditions, especially Hinduism and Buddhism, as well as courses on theoretical approaches to the study of religion. In 1982, he organized and founded the Inter-collegiate Sri Lanka Education (ISLE) Program for a consortium of private liberal arts colleges, and in 1986 he became the first chair of Bowdoin's Asian Studies Program.
Education
- PhD, History of Religions, University of Chicago
- AM, History and Phenomenology of Religions with Distinction, Graduate Theological Union, University of California-Berkeley
- AB (cum laude), History, Gustavus Adolphus College