"Comparative anthropology of Buddhism" Workshop (2017-18) Buddhist Ritualities

Bénédicte Brac de la Perrière (CASE-EHESS-CNRS), Nicolas Sihlé (CNRS-CEH)

Programme

Time and place: 54 bd Raspail, Paris (room 651 from January onwards), 9.30 a.m. - 12.30 p.m. Summaries of papers: cf. infra, on page 2

13/10. Introductory session: comparing Buddhist rituals - John Holt (Bowdoin College, Maine, USA): the example of kathina (Sri Lanka / Myanmar) [in English].

10/11. Typologies of Buddhist rituals: vernacular categories, analytic categories - Session for discussions based on set readings (cf. Dropbox file for the workshop, below). With the participation of Florence Galmiche (Uni. Paris-7 Diderot) and Claire Vidal (LESC / CEIB).

22/12. Rituals to celebrate or honour masters - Alexander Horstmann (Uni. of Tallinn, Estonia): The prosperous ascetic: Staging authority in northern Thai/Burmese Buddhists saints’ birthday ceremonies. - Elizabeth Williams-Oerberg (Uni. of Copenhagen): “The Rockstar Monk with a mission”: The millennial celebration of Naropa and his modern reincarnation (Ladakh, northern India).

12/1. Rituals of worship of great Buddhist deities - Nicolas Sihlé (CNRS-CEH): Ritual gatherings and community of religious specialists: the case of the great rituals of the Tantrists of Repkong (northeastern Tibet).

2/2. State / renewal rituals of a cosmic and social order - Alexandra de Mersan (IRASEC): New Year rituals in Arakan (Myanmar).

16/3. Collective donation rituals - Hiroko Kawanami (Uni. de Lancaster): Religious gifts, social transactions and merit-making occasions in Myanmar.

23/3 (2–5 p.m., room 737). Round table: "State of play in anthropology of Buddhism" Round table (in English) organised on the occasion of "Printemps du CEIB" (Centre d’Études Interdisciplinaires du Bouddhisme). With Bénédicte Brac de la Perrière (CNRS/EHESS), Patrice Ladwig (MPI for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity), Nicolas Sihlé (CNRS/CEH), Erick White (Michigan U.).

6/4. Collective rituals of reading canonical texts - Roger Casas (Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna): The secular ramifications of the Tan Tham / Vessantara ritual and festival in Sipsong Panna.

4/5. Funeral rituals with a collective dimension - Erik Davis (Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota) : The Perfect Funeral of King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia.

1/6. Life-cycle rituals - Gustaaf Houtman (School of Oriental and African Studies, London): Life-cycle rituals (beitheik) in Burma and Buddhist identity.

Dropbox file with bibliographic resources, programmes, etc. : http://bit.ly/RitualitesBouddhiques (2017-18) / http://bit.ly/AnthroComparBouddhisme Summaries of papers

13/10. Introductory session: comparing Buddhist rituals

- John Holt (Bowdoin College, Maine, USA): Rituals across Buddhist cultures

My paper begins with a discussion about how and why we can compare ritual expressions across a number of historically related religious cultures, especially the value of comparison within the context of Theravada Buddhist inflected religious cultures in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. To illustrate my point, I will note how kathina, the Buddhist monastic rite of robe investiture, has been imagined within the canonical Vinayapitaka, before comparing the nature of its performance in Sinhala contexts, in juxtaposition to a contemporary urban Burmese performance. The further interpretive pay off of this particular comparative exercise yields an understanding not limited to the ritual context of kathina per se, but also allows us to advance an empirically- based observation about the defining importance of dana (giving) for Burmese religious culture.

22/12. Rituals to celebrate or honour masters

- Alexander Horstmann (Uni. de Tallinn, Estonia): The prosperous ascetic: Staging authority in northern Thai/Burmese Buddhists saints’ birthday ceremonies

In the borderland of Thailand, Myanmar, China and Laos, there is a new generation of Buddhist saints who are in the center of the revitalization of Theravada Buddhism or a type of it, that I like to call charismatic capitalism. Branding themselves as Buddhist savior-kings, bodhisattva and monument builders, thousands of devotees from the region as well as from the Bangkok metropolis attend the birthday ceremony of these saints. In such a ceremony, the saintliness is sanctified by the Khuba’s alleged redistribution of the acquired wealth to Buddhism. Basing itself on the cases of Khuba Saengla in Tachileik, Khuba Boonchum in Muang Pong, and Khuba Ariyachart in Northern Thailand, this talk will focus on the strategies and aspirations in the reproduction of charisma (in Thai: baramee) and authority (also: authenticity). It will explore the deep ties, exchanges, activities and transactions of the Buddhist saints with their diverse faith communities—other influential monks, wealthy urban business and political elite, the Bangkok middle class as well as impoverished highland communities—to mobilize donations and people’s faith (in Thai: sattha) to construct monumental religious buildings. The talk offers a comprehensive and thick description of the public ritual staged to celebrate the master on the day of his birthday—including the place of mass mediated images. The ritual is part of a cyclical ritualization and ritual celebration of monks, including the Offering of the new robes to the monk and the bathing of the monk during the New Year. The birthday ceremony is part of the cosmology of Theravada Buddhism in the Tai-speaking Mekong region, but has been transformed into spectacular consumption of ordinary Buddhist ritual. The birthday ceremony of the saint also has connections and similarities to a pilgrimage and raises expectations of healing and prosperity from the saint’s followers. The talk will also discuss tensions arising from the proximity or distance of different saints to the Sangha as well as to centers of political power.

- Elizabeth Williams-Oerberg (Uni. of Copenhagen): “The Rockstar Monk with a mission”: The millennial celebration of Naropa and his modern reincarnation (Ladakh, northern India).

In September 2016, the Northwest Indian Himalayan region of Ladakh witnessed Naropa 2016: the ‘Kumbh Mela of the Himalayas’ and the largest Buddhist festival in the history of Ladakh. The Naropa festival, held every 12 years, is centered around a ritual of revealing six bone ornaments said to have been worn upon the moment of enlightenment by the Mahasiddha Naropa, an 11th century Indian scholar-saint. The Gyalwang Drukpa Rinpoche, head of the Drukpa Kagyu sect of Tibetan Buddhism and revered as a reincarnation of Naropa, dons these ornaments in an elaborate ritual, a ritual said to cause “liberation upon sight”. The Naropa 2016 festival, while still centered on this ritual, was also transformed into “a carnival of spirituality, beauty, culture, sights and sounds” with “a touch of sportsmanship, tradition, modernization and compassion” according to the Naropa festival website (www.naropafestival.org). Additional entertainment elements were included in the festival, such as an archery competition, fashion show, world class magic show, a 3D video projection in the Himalayas (first of its kind in the world), a debate on the modernization of Buddhism, local cultural performances, performances by the Kung Fu nuns, and rock concerts by renowned Bollywood celebrities. At the center of the entire 8-day festival was Drukpa Rinpoche, heralded as a Buddhist leader of the modern world- a “rockstar monk with a mission” as one Indian news agency reports. This presentation takes a closer look at the transformation of the Naropa festival into spectacle and celebration of this charismatic and modern-day leader of Drukpa Kagyu followers worldwide. The global influence of Drukpa Rinpoche and his efforts to revitalize Buddhism, while lauded by many, are not unambiguously welcomed. Throughout the presentation we take a closer look at how this “rockstar monk” attempts to enact these transformations, as well as how they are perceived by Ladakhis, revealing a complex web of influence, networks and visions for Buddhism in 21st century Ladakh.

12/1. Rituals of worship of great Buddhist deities

- Nicolas Sihlé (CNRS/CEH): Rassemblements rituels et collectivité de spécialistes religieux : le cas des grands rituels des tantristes du Repkong (nord-est tibétain).

Cette séance étant consacrée aux rituels collectifs de culte de grandes divinités bouddhiques, il s’agira d’abord de situer l’objet : l’expression « divinité bouddhique » va de soi surtout dans un contexte Mahayana, mais n’est pas entièrement dépourvue de pertinence dans le monde du Theravada. La catégorie même de « rituel de culte » d’une telle divinité désigne une finalité rituelle assez générique (très courante dans le bouddhisme tantrique), qui peut se présenter sous des modalités variées et s’accommoder d’objectifs additionnels et d’instrumentalisations fort divers. Le cœur de cette présentation sera dédié à l’examen de l’importance cruciale que revêtent de tels cultes pour une grande collectivité de spécialistes tantriques tibétains dans le district de Repkong (province du Qinghai), collectivité devenue célèbre depuis deux siècles dans le nord-est tibétain sous le nom de « collectivité de tantristes de Repkong, les 1900 porteurs de dague rituelle ». Il s’agit d’une collectivité de spécialistes non monastiques, vivant dans plusieurs dizaines de villages, pour lesquels les rassemblements rituels en question sont la principale manifestation de leur collectivité. Ces rituels complexes se prêtent à une analyse sous tout un ensemble d’angles théoriques – leur place dans un champ religieux disputé ; leur caractère de phénomène de masse aux déterminismes multiples, sociaux, matériels et autres ; les dynamiques d’autorité facilitées par le rituel collectif, etc. Ils permettent enfin d’aborder sous un angle nouveau, celui d’une collectivité territorialement diffuse de spécialistes religieux, la question des rapports entre rituel collectif et collectivité.

2/2. State / renewal rituals of a cosmic and social order

- Alexandra de Mersan (IRASEC): Rituels de Nouvel An en Arakan (Birmanie), rituels de renouvellement de l’ordre social et cosmique.

La période du Nouvel an (sangrain) en Arakan se caractérise pour les laïcs arakanais par diverses et intenses activités déployées en deux pôles contrastés : jeux d’eau (organisés en cour ritualisée), festivités et réjouissances jusqu’à l’excès, saturation de l’expérience sensible dans l’espace du village d’une part ; méditation, abstinence, contrôle de soi, observance des préceptes, purifications spirituelles dans les monastères d’autre part. Expériences du mondain et de son détachement : comment ces deux pôles s’articulent-ils, se répondent-ils en termes bouddhiques ? Cette période qui mobilise toutes les composantes de la société locale (jati) – distinguées en rôles sexués et différents âges de la vie – est analysée comme la réaffirmation de l’ordre social qui la caractérise. Bien que cette période à part (de transition ?) de quelques jours ne soit pas fixée par le calendrier lunaire, elle est toutefois encadrée dans une ritualité bouddhique, un espace/temps bouddhique. Les jeux d’eau ne peuvent commencer avant une visite au monastère (caractérisée par une donation collective et le lavage des statues du Bouddha) et la période est close par la récitation par les moines du kammavaca dans chaque village. Ces rituels eux-mêmes coïncident avec la venue et le départ d’Indra chez les humains dont le moment exact est déterminé par des calculs astrologiques, qui invitent à s’interroger de manière plus générale sur la place qu’occupent la cosmologie et les configurations astrales dans la ritualité et la temporalité bouddhique de l'Arakan contemporain.

16/3. Collective donation rituals

- Hiroko Kawanami (Uni. de Lancaster): Religious gifts, social transactions and merit-making occasions in Myanmar

In anthropological literature, the concept of ‘reciprocity’ is normally discussed in a person-to-person transaction; and dāna offering is seen to be conducted in a one-way flow from a lay donor to a monastic recipient. This talk challenges such a premise and examines religious offerings in a wider context of social transactions and attempts to understand them through the medium of religious gifts. Generosity is regarded as one of the most important socio-religious values in a Buddhist society, which not only makes one feel ‘good’ about oneself, but it also impacts on one’s social standing and reputation. I hope to reveal the intricacies of reciprocal relationships that exist between the laity and monastic community, as well as among the monastic members themselves, to describe how offerings made in ceremonies can instigate a circulation of goods and symbolic value both within and outside the monastic community. In doing so, I focus on the social dimension of merit-making activities in kathina (robe offering to the sangha), shinbyu (noviciation of boys), and the mother’s day, as these occasions bring people together and have a major impact on social cohesion. I also examine donation items offered to the sangha since the contents of religious offering can show either the distance or closeness of the relationship between a benefactor and his/her beneficiary. Traditional dāna offering to monks include ‘eight prerequisites’ and other necessities used in their daily monastic life. However, since the majority of Myanmar donors are based in agricultural communities, farm products are also commonly offered. People also donate mats, baskets, pots and handicraft, and items invested with their time and energy, which is known to reaffirm the special bond between the giver and the receiver in a traditional society. Meanwhile, socio-religious ceremonies in urban centers have increasingly become an expensive affair and religious offerings are now commonly given in cash. The meritorious outcome is increasingly quantified, which raises the question as to whether the modern-day criteria for merit-making are changing.

Suggestions de lectures (N. Sihlé) : - Sur les catégories mêmes du « don » et de la « réciprocité » : Sihlé, Nicolas. 2015. Towards a Comparative Anthropology of the Buddhist Gift (and Other Transfers). Religion Compass 9 (11 - special issue “Comparative anthropology of Buddhist transactions: moving beyond the Maussian terminology of the ‘gift’”, ed. N. Sihlé & B. Brac de la Perrière): 352-385. http://bit.ly/Sihle_BuddhistGift - Sur des modalités clés du don en contexte birman : Brac de la Perrière, Bénédicte. 2015. Religious Donations, Ritual Offerings, and Humanitarian Aid: Fields of Practice According to Forms of Giving in Burma. Religion Compass 9 (11 - special issue “Comparative anthropology of Buddhist transactions: moving beyond the Maussian terminology of the ‘gift’”, ed. N. Sihlé & B. Brac de la Perrière): 386-403. Cf. http://bit.ly/RitualitesBouddhiques Holt, John C. 2017. Chap. 4, Kathina: Making Merit in Modern Myanmar. In Theravada Traditions: Buddhist Ritual Cultures in Contemporary Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, pp. 189-238. 23/3. Round table: "State of play in anthropology of Buddhism"

Round table (in English) organised on the occasion of "Printemps du CEIB" (Centre d’Études Interdisciplinaires du Bouddhisme). With: - Bénédicte Brac de la Perrière (CNRS/EHESS), - Patrice Ladwig (MPI for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity), - Nicolas Sihlé (CNRS/CEH), - Erick White (Michigan Uni.).

The discussions set out to offer a critical look at the state of play of anthropology of Buddhism, and will be based on some recent milestones.

- Series of 12 workshops "Comparative anthropology of Buddhism" organied in Paris from 2012 to 2016 by B. Brac de la Perrière and N. Sihlé: https://himalayas.hypotheses.org/2246 - Two joint publications: Sihlé, Nicolas and Bénédicte Brac de la Perrière (eds.). 2015. Special Issue “Comparative Anthropology of Buddhist Transactions: Moving Beyond the Maussian Terminology of the ‘gift’”. Religion Compass 9 (11): 347–482. Ladwig, Patrice and Nicolas Sihlé (eds.). 2017. Special section “Toward a Comparative Anthropology of Buddhism”. Religion and Society—Advances in Research 8: 109–209. The introduction, by the editors, can be freely accessed here: https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/religion-and-society/8/1/arrs080107.xml

6/4. Collective rituals of reading canonical texts

Roger Casas (Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna) : The secular ramifications of the Tan Tham / Vessantara ritual and festival in Sipsong Panna.

The rituals and festivities associated with the Vessantara Jataka are among the most widespread and best- known in all of Theravada Southeast Asia, featuring in most major academic studies of Buddhist traditions in the region. According to the most accepted interpretations, the celebration of the figure of Prince Vessantara reflects communal aspirations and values of renunciation and generosity. In this presentation I will focus on a less-known version of the ritual, the tan tham (in Tai, ‘the ritual of the scriptures’) celebrated among the Tai Lue of Sipsong Panna, usually identified as the largest community of Theravada Buddhists in China. Held during the rains retreat or Buddhist Lent (wassa in Tai Lue), this important ritual cum festival lasts for several days and includes different ceremonies and activities involving all households. I will pay especial attention to one of these ‘minor’ rituals, the yoan su, in which the main actors are the village’s male and female teenagers, exploring its connections both to the textual sources and to the secular aspects of village life. Beyond the mentioned tropes of generosity and renunciation informing the textual sources of the ritual, the ethnographic focus is intended to highlight the deep imbrications of the tan tham as a whole across different village institutions, including its reflection of gender and age hierarchies among the Tai Lue, and highlighting the appropriation of translocal ‘Buddhist’ traditions and lore by villagers in order to legitimate and promote secular values connected to the ideal of the ‘morally tempered householder’ (Keyes 1986).

Suggested reading: Keyes, Charles. 1986. Ambiguous Gender: Male Initiation in a Buddhist Society. In Gender and Religion: On the Complexity of Symbols. Ed. Caroline W. Bynum, Stevan Harrell, and Paula Richman. Boston: Beacon Press, pp. 66–96. McDaniel, Justin T. 2016. Blissfully Buddhist and Betrothed: Marriage in the Vessantara Jataka and Other South and Southeast Asian Buddhist Narratives. In Readings of the Vessantara Jataka. Ed. Steven Collins. New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 126–153. 4/5. Funeral rituals with a collective dimension

- Erik Davis (Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota) : The Perfect Funeral of King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia.

When King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia died in 2012, it marked the beginning of the end of an era, and a period in which the preparations surrounding the impending royal funeral became a site of deep piety and national emotion, run of the mill corruption, and political maneuver. In this presentation, the Cambodian funerary process is introduced, the royal details given specific attention, and attention paid specifically to the ways in which traditional ritual performance and political maneuver intersected, and the ways in which the spectacle occasionally threatened to breakdown.

Suggested reading: Bizot, François. 1981. Le don de soi-même : recherches sur le bouddhisme Khmer III. Paris : École française d'Extrême-Orient. Bloch, Maurice and Jonathan P. Parry. 1982. Introduction: Death and the regeneration of life. In Death and the Regeneration of Life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Thompson, Ashley. 2004. The Suffering of Kings: Substitute Bodies, Healing, and Justice in Cambodia. In History, Buddhism and New Religious Movements in Cambodia. Ed. John A. Marston and Elizabeth Guthrie. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press.

1/6. Life-cycle rituals

- Gustaaf Houtman (School of Oriental and African Studies, London) : Life-cycle rituals (beitheik) in Burma and Buddhist identity.

[Summary forthcoming]