Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T00:46:23.916Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Pagodas and Prophets: Contesting Sacred Space and Power among Buddhist Karen in Karen State

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2011

Yoko Hayami
Get access

Abstract

This paper analyzes multi-layered religious practices among local Buddhist Karen on the plains of Karen State in Burma, within the context of the larger socio-political dynamics of Burmese Buddhism. The purpose is threefold: first, to give ethnographic details of the hybrid nature of religious practices among Buddhist Pwo Karen, thereby demonstrating how sacred space and power are contested, despite the strong hand of the state; second, to challenge the assumed equation between non-Buddhist minorities on the one hand, and Buddhists as a lowland majority aligned to the state on the other; and third, to raise an alternative understanding to predominantly state-centered perspectives on Theravada Buddhism. Field-based observations on the young charismatic Phu Taki and his community, as well as on the practice of pagoda worship called Duwae that has hitherto been undocumented are presented. These are examined in relation to the changing religious policies of the regime, especially since the policies of “Myanmafication” of Buddhism by the reformist council began in 1980.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 70 , Issue 4 , November 2011 , pp. 1083 - 1105
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, B. 1998. The Spectre of Comparisons: Nationalism, Southeast Asia and the World. London and New York: Verso.Google Scholar
Anonymous (circa 1973). Duwae Pagoda: The Maintenance Record of Duwae Pagoda.(in Burmese) Compiled by the Duwae maintenance committee.Google Scholar
Borchert, Thomas. 2008. “Worry for the Dai Nation: Sipsongpanna, Chinese Modernity, and the Problems of Buddhist Modernism.” Journal of Asian Studies 67:1:107–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cady, J. 1958. A History of Modern Burma. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Carpenter, C. H. 1873. “A Tour among the Karens of Siam.” Baptist Missionary Magazine, 53:9–16.Google Scholar
Goh, Daniel P.S. 2009 “Chinese Religion and the Challenge of Modernity in Malaysia and Singapore: Syncretism, Hybridisation and Transfiguration.” Asian Journal of Social Science 37:107–137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gravers, M. 2001 “Cosmology, Prophets, and Rebellion among the Buddhist Karen in Burma and Thailand.” Moussons 4: 3–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayami, Y. 2004. Between Hills and Plains: Power and Practice in Socio-Religious Dynamics among Karen. Kyoto: Trans-Pacific Press and Kyoto University Press.Google Scholar
Hayashi, Yukio, ed. 2009. Kyouiki no Jissen Shukyo: Tairikubu Tounan Ajia Chiiki to Shukyo no Toporojii. (The Practical Religion of “Boundaries”). Kyoto: Kyoto University Press.Google Scholar
Hayashi, Yukio. 2009. “Jobun: Tairikubu Tounan Ajia Chiiki no Shukyo to Shakai Hen-yo” (Introduction: Religious and Social Changes in Mainland Southeast Asia.) In edited by Hayashi, 1–23 Kyoto: Kyoto University Press.Google Scholar
Bhabha, Homi K.. 1994. The Location of Culture. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Houtman, G. 1999. Mental Culture in Burmese Crisis Politics: Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy. Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Monograph Series No. 33. Tokyo: Tokyo University of Foreign Studies Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa.Google Scholar
Ishii, Yoneo. 1986. Sangha, State, and Society: Thai Buddhism in History. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.Google Scholar
Jordt, Ingrid. 2007. Burma's Mass Lay Meditation Movement: Buddhism and the Cultural Construction of Power. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press & Swallow Press.Google Scholar
Kojima, T. 2009. “Gendai-Myanma-ni-okeru-bukkyo-no-seidoka-to-kyouiki-no-jissen” (Institutionalization of Buddhism and Practices in the Border Regions of Myanmar Today). In edited by Hayashi, Kyoto: Kyoto University Press. 67–130.Google Scholar
Kwanchewan, Buadaeng. 2007. “Chumchon Talaku thi Letawngkhu: Kaan Prapsaang Manoophaap lae Kaan Pathibat.” In Khaam Khawp Faa: 60 Pii Shigeharu Tanabe, edited by Kwanchewan, Buadaeng and Phuangphuusakul, Apinnya, 147–174. Bangkok: Sirinthorn Anthropology Center.Google Scholar
San, Man Ne. 2005. Thit-Sa-Taing Duwae (Duwae Vows). Yangon: Yone-Kyi-Chet Sar-pe.Google Scholar
Naung, Man Thint. 2006a. Thit-sa Taing-Ti Thone-su-thau Duwae Zedi (The Three Duwae Pagodas for Making Vows). Yangon: Yone-Kyi-Chat Sar-Pe.Google Scholar
Naung, Man Thint. 2006b. Thit-sa Man-Daing Duwae Zedi, Kyain-longkaing, Thonese-thonesu, Kaukpalut, Kyone-pine, Mya-pa-taing (Duwae Pagoda for Making Vows). Yangon: Yone Kyi Chat Sar-pe.Google Scholar
McMahan, David. 2008. The Making of Buddhist Modernism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Matthews, B. 1993. “Buddhism Under a Military Regime: the Iron Heel in Burma”. Asian Survey 33:408–423.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mendelson, M. E. 1961a. “The King of the Weaving Mountain.” Royal Central Asian Journal 48:229–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mendelson, M. E. 1961b. “A Messianic Buddhist Association in Upper Burma” Bulletin of School of Oriental and African Studies 24:560–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mendelson, M. E. 1975. Sangha and State in Burma: A Study of Monastic Sectarianism and Leadership. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Pattana, Kitiarsa. 2005. “Beyond Syncretism: Hybridization of Popular Religion in Contemporary Thailand.” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 36(3):461–487.Google Scholar
Rozenberg, G. 2010. Renunciation and Power : the Quest for Sainthood in Contemporary Burma. Translated by Hackett, Jessica. Monograph 59. New Haven : Yale Southeast Asia Studies.Google Scholar
Schober, J. 1988. “The Path to Buddhahood: The Spiritual Mission and Social Organization of Mysticism in Contemporary Burma.” Crossroads 4(1):13–30.Google Scholar
Schober, J. 1997. “Buddhist Just Rule and Burmese National Culture: State Patronage of the Chinese Tooth Relic in Myanmar.” In History of Religions 36(3):218–243.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scott, James C. 2009. The Art of Not Being Governed: an Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
South, A. 2003. Mon Nationalism and Civil War in Burma: the Golden Sheldrake. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Stern, T. 1968. “Ariya and the Golden Book: A Millenarian Buddhist Sect among the Karen.” Journal of Asian Studies 27(2):297–328.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stern, T. and Dodge n.d., P. “Telakhon, A Millenary Buddhist Sect among the Karen” MS. 19pp. Payap University Archives.Google Scholar
Tadaw, Saw Hanson. 1959. “The Karens of Burma.” Journal of the British Royal Society, 62(2).Google Scholar
Tambiah, S. J. 1996. World Conqueror and World Renouncer: a Study of Buddhism and Polity in Thailand against a Historical Background. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tin Maung Maung Than. 1993. “Sangha Reforms and Renewal of Sasana in Myanmar: Historical Trends and Contemporary Practice” In Buddhist Trends in Southeast Asia, edited by Ling, T., 6–63. Singapore: ISEAS.Google Scholar
Tosa, K. 2000. Biruma-no-Weiza-Shinko (The Weikza Beliefs in Burma) Tokyo: Keiso-shobo.Google Scholar
Tosa, K. 2009. “The Cult of Thamanya Sayadaw: The Social Dynamism of a Formulating Pilgrimage Site.” Asian Ethnology 68:2:239–264.Google Scholar
Womack, W. B. 2005. “Literate Networks and the Production of Sgaw and Pwo Karen Writing in Burma, c.1830–1930.” PhD diss., School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.Google Scholar