Table Of ContentB , M ,
UDDHISM ODERNITY AND
S A
THE TATE IN SIA
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B , M ,
UDDHISM ODERNITY AND
S A
THE TATE IN SIA
F E
ORMS OF NGAGEMENT
Edited by
John Whalen-Bridge and
Pattana Kitiarsa
ISBN 978-1-349-46200-1 ISBN 978-1-137-32617-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-137-32617-1
BUDDHISM, MODERNITY, AND THE STATE IN ASIA
Copyright © John Whalen-Bridge and Pattana Kitiarsa, 2013.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978-1-137-33294-3
All rights reserved.
First published in 2013 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States— a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
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Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
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ISBN: 978–1–137–33294–3
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the
Library of Congress.
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Knowledge Works (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: July 2013
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Dedicated to Pattana Kitiarsa, 1968–2013
Pattana Kitiarsa, who has died at 45, was an exceptional,
inspiring yet humble scholar. Born in Nong Khai, a northeastern
province in Thailand, Pattana joined the Department of
Southeast Asian Studies, National University of Singapore, in
2007. He was an exemplary colleague who selflessly gave of
himself to students and coworkers. During his life he worked
tirelessly to produce an enormous number of works, in Thai and
English, and established himself as a respected scholar of popular
Buddhism and transnational migration. His publications helped
propel the cultural lifeworlds of Thai magical monks, migrant
workers, and Muay Thai boxers into prominence in
international academic debates. Battling illness he completed his
last book, Medium, Monks, & Amulets, which came out less
than three months before his death. What is even more spectacular
is how Pattana was devoted to community service for the benefit
of Thai migrant workers in Singapore. Even his deteriorating
health by late 2012 did not stop him from his volunteerism, a
reason why the Thai migrant community turned out in full force
to pay their respects during his wake. Pattana will be greatly
missed but his life, deeds, and scholarship will live on in our
hearts and minds. He is survived by wife, Rungnapa, daughter,
Nanrawee, and son, Tantham, aged 15 and 13 respectively.
—Goh Beng Lan
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CO NTENTS
Introduction: “Buddhist Politics” as Emptiness: History
and the Forms of Engagement in Asia 1
John Whalen-Bridge and Pattana Kitiarsa
Part I Dependent Originations and
Changing Destinations
1 Buddhists Confront the State 1 7
Charles F. Keyes
2 “Foremost among Religions”: Theravada Buddhism’s
Affairs with the Modern Sri Lankan State 4 1
Mahinda Deegalle
3 Schools, Ritual Economies, and the Expanding State:
The Changing Roles of Lao Buddhist Monks
as “Traditional Intellectuals” 6 3
Patrice Ladwig
Part II The Political Role of Sacred Things
4 Post–Pol Pot Cambodia and the Building of a New Stupa 9 5
John Amos Marston
5 The Relic and the Rule of Righteousness: Reflections
on U Nu’s D hammavijaya 1 15
Tilman Frasch
6 Sacred Site or Public Space? The Shwedagon
Pagoda in Colonial Rangoon 1 39
Donald M. Seekins
viii CONTENTS
Part III Monks, Nuns, and . . . Trees
7 Angry Monk Syndrome on the World Stage: Tibet,
Engaged Buddhism, and the Weapons of the Weak 1 63
John Whalen-Bridge
8 Rebirth Control: Contemporary Inner Mongolian
Buddhism and the Religious Authority of the
Chinese State 209
Jonathan Mair
9 Do Buddhist “Nuns” Need the Thai Sangha? 2 29
Monica Lindberg Falk
10 Sacred Protests and Buddhist Environmental Knowledge 2 45
Susan M. Darlington
Notes on Contributors 263
Index 269
I NTRODUCTION : “BU DDHIST P OLITICS ”
AS EM PTINESS : H ISTORY AND THE F ORMS
OF EN GAGEMENT IN A SIA
John Whalen-Bridge and Pattana Kitiarsa
I
n an essay from 1962 entitled “Buddhism and Asian Politics,”
Joseph M. Kitagawa wrote, “in any part of the world, the relation of
religion to politics defies simple interpretation” (Kitagawa, 1962, p.
10), and this claim stands strong 50 years later. The particular ways of
relating Buddhism and politics have, however, been debated through-
out this half-century, and the notion that Buddhism is inherently qui-
etist about the individual’s responsibility regarding the social causes
of pain, a point also made by Kitagawa, has been debated by scholars
associated with Engaged Buddhism. Perhaps, the turning point in
how twentieth-century scholars thought about Buddhism in relation
to the state would come a year later, with Vietnamese monk Thich
Quang Duc’s self-immolation.
From Kitagawa’s vantage point in 1962, Buddhism and political
activity were not very likely to be caught in the “strange bedfellows”
position, and Kitagawa saw this separation as the natural consequence
of Buddhism’s supposedly apolitical development: “Buddhism as
such has never articulated what might be termed a Buddhist social or
political philosophy” (1). As Kitagawa’s Buddha did not attempt to
change the social order significantly, “the transformation of society
would come only as a by-product of the religious transformation of
individuals who constitute the social group” (1). And yet, the scholars
in this volume insist that Buddhism has been intimately involved in
Asian political history, sometimes as the source for socially progres-
sive values that have been used to put pressure on governments to
respect human rights, sometimes as an institutional force committed
primarily to the enhancement of its own prestige, and at other times
as a partner in ethnocentric repression. To refer to “Buddhism” and
