D. Christian Lammerts, ed. Buddhist Dynamics in Premodern and Early Modern Southeast Asia. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2015. 452 pp. $59.85, paper, ISBN 978-981-4519-06-9.

Reviewed by Justin T. McDaniel (University of Pennsylvania)

Published on H- (July, 2016)

Commissioned by Thomas Borchert (University of Vermont)

Christian Lammerts’s new edited volume, Bud‐ the number of qualified teachers and teaching po‐ dhist Dynamics in Premodern and Early Modern sitions for these languages has not grown in rela‐ Southeast Asia, is something that should not exist. tion to the discovery of materials through digs, However, thank goodness it does. The study of landmine removal, and leadership from institu‐ epigraphy, archaeology, and classical languages in tions like the Center for Khmer Studies, the Digital Southeast Asia has been dying for several decades. Library of Lao Manuscripts and the Digital Library The collected volume is also an endangered of Northern Thai Manuscripts, the Thailand Re‐ species. At a board of directors meeting of the As‐ search Fund, the British Library, the Henry Luce sociation of Asian Studies in 2013, archaeology and Foundation, the Empowering Network for Interna‐ epigraphy were deemed disciplines that needed to tional Thai Studies, and the École français be saved and so we decided to boost their presence d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO), among others. The in‐ in the field by creating a special panel. The number creasing rise in anthropological, political science, of publications in these disciplines has dropped and economic studies of modern Southeast Asia dramatically in the last ten years. Many of the has been a great boon to the field, but Lammerts’s most prominent archaeologists in Southeast Asia book offers some renewed balance and a healthy are nearing retirement. Old Javanese has been return to the study of the premodern and even an‐ dropped by the well-known SEASSI Southeast cient in the region. Asian language training program for lack of inter‐ Lammerts has brought together a diverse set est and is hardly taught at major research centers. of scholars, many of whom do not work in tradi‐ textual studies have declined dramatically tional teaching positions at university research in‐ and there are less than a handful of Pali specialists stitutions in the West. For example, Peter Skilling is teaching at major research institutions in , a researcher and writer extraordinaire, but like the Europe, Australia, and South and Southeast Asia. Arakanese and Burmese historian Jacques Leider, They have few students. There has been a renewed works with the EFEO, which is based in Southeast interest in in Southeast Asia and Old Asia. Andrea Acri, one of the most exciting young Khmer has been seen as increasingly important to scholars in the study of pre-Islamic Hindu and study with easier access to the study of Angkorian Buddhist Java, is a fellow at the Institute for South‐ sites in Laos, Thailand, and Cambodia. However, H-Net Reviews east Asian Studies in Singapore and does not teach dents through the teaching of large undergraduate regularly. E. Edwards McKinnon is also at the Na‐ courses or regular graduate seminars. If not for a landa-Srivijaya Centre, Institute of Southeast Asian volume like this, there is little way young students Studies in Singapore and serves as an honorary re‐ or scholars in comparative fields (archaeology, search associate. Stephen Murphy is a dynamic codicology, linguistics, etc. in South Asia, East Asia, young scholar in archaeology who does not teach. Africa, Europe, etc.) would be introduced to their He is the new curator at the Asian Civilizations work. Prominent edited volumes become beacons Museum in Singapore. Titi Surti Nastiti is a re‐ in which accessible work is highlighted, and after searcher at the National Research and Develop‐ reading them students can then search for the con‐ ment Centre of Archaeology, Jakarta. John K. Whit‐ tributors’ scholarly work in more field-specific more is one of the most respected historians of journals, exhibition catalogs, and scholarly mono‐ in the world, but although based at a ma‐ graphs. Lammerts has not only produced a high- jor Western research university--the University of quality book, but has done a great service to the Michigan--he is a research associate and senior li‐ field. I hope that this collection is widely used in brarian. Similarly, Hiram Woodward is the doyen courses since many students in the field will never of Southeast Asian art history, but for most of his have a chance to take a course with these contrib‐ career, he did not hold a teaching position and is utors. now curator emeritus of Asian Art at the Walters While I cannot adequately describe every arti‐ Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. Only four of cle in this book in this short review, the range of the contributors, besides Lammerts himself, have topics is as impressive as the scholars assembled. traditional teaching positions: of those, Alexey The book is largely of two minds and could have Kirichenko, a highly respected historian of Burma, easily been two collections. However, I think there teaches at Moscow State University; Nicolas Re‐ is an advantage to bringing these two fields togeth‐ vire, an emerging expert in mainland Southeast er. First, this is the best recent collection of studies Asian art history, teaches at Thammasat Universi‐ on art historical/textual/epigraphical studies in ty in Bangkok, and Santi Pakdeekham is an expert Southeast Asia (Acri, Revire, McKinnon, Murphy, in religion, language, and art at Srinakharinwirot Nastiti, Pakdeekham, Skilling, Woodward). Second, University in Bangkok. And only Anne Blackburn, it is an equally excellent source for studies of pre- Lammerts’s own teacher, regularly trains graduate modern religious institutions and epistemes students in the Western academy. She is a Pali and (Blackburn, Kirichenko, Lammerts, Leider, Whit‐ Sinhala scholar at Cornell who is an expert in Sri more). However, in a way, both groups do the same Lankan Buddhist history, but has offered fresh per‐ thing, with different emphases. The former simply spectives on the intellectual and social history of talks more about the sources as reflecting the so‐ relations between Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. I cio-historical context in which they were created explain all this to both stress the importance of and the latter describes the institutions and move‐ this collection of essays and to emphasize the need ments that we only know by a close examination for new students in the field. Woodward, Skilling, of the sources. Lammerts, in his short but helpful Leider, Whitmore, McKinnon, and Nastiti regularly introduction, highlights the reasons he brought to‐ and selflessly advise, edit, and mentor students gether these topics under one title. He emphasizes and young scholars in the field (often serving as that the field of Southeast Asian studies needs to readers on dissertation committees, including strike a balance between transregional studies of Skilling on my own). They are living bibliographies Buddhism and “a parallel commitment to micro‐ and encyclopedias for the study of Southeast Asian historical studies of , practices, and pasts. However, they are not recruiting young stu‐ lives focused determinately on the locale.” He con‐

2 H-Net Reviews tinues: “Such projects untangle local intricacies Singapore and that, I imagine, was the overarching and question individual motives, laying the foun‐ reason for these scholars contributing. However, dation upon which broader historical-comparative the work is presented in a manner of preserving projects on the meaning and effects of macropro‐ the past versus signaling news ways of bringing in‐ cesses can be built. The goal of such work is not the novation to the field. I think Lammerts does not construction and defence of some chimerical na‐ give himself enough credit here. These articles do tional, sub-national, or regional identity (‘Thai not simply fill in the gaps or save a field, but reveal Buddhism,’ ‘Arakanese Buddhism,’ ‘Southeast the ways scholars are asking bold new questions Asian Buddhism’), but rather an attempt to grasp from newly discovered or exposed material. how the ideas, products, and practices of Buddhists The material exposed is much more than tex‐ in historical Southeast Asia are inexorably ground‐ tual. I am thrilled that art historians, textualists, ed in the ‘particular times and terrains where they archaeologists, and historians can be read in the dwelled and in the material and cultural ex‐ same volume. Certain scholars, like Acri, Revire, changes available in those times and terrains.’ The Pakdeekham, Skilling, Whitmore, and Woodward ‘dynamics’ of our title is meant to suggest this addi‐ incorporate evidence from all of these fields. For tional sense of the constant interplay between example, Woodward, in the humbly titled “Aspects these local and global forces in history” (pp. 2-3). of Buddhism in Tenth-Century Cambodia” and He also makes an urgent call for scholars to Skilling in the seemingly narrow “An Untraced take advantage of the thousands of manuscripts Buddhist Verse Inscription from (Pen)insular being exposed to a wider public through digitiza‐ Southeast Asia” employ the deceptively simple tion and preservation efforts. These manuscripts method that should be used by all scholars--find (including ones in vernacular languages), especial‐ every source available and see what they tell us ly newly exposed collections in Burma, Java, Laos, about the past. No muss, no fuss. Only seasoned Thailand, and Vietnam, are helping scholars scholars with years spent in archives and the field reevaluate the history of the region, as well as the can do this. It is not a revolutionary idea, but it study of poetics, law, medicine, astrology, and oth‐ simply takes time, patience, and persistence to as‐ er fields largely ignored in the past. I particularly semble every available inscription, image, relief, appreciate that he calls for increased attention to and manuscript. Only then can the big picture the study of vernacular poetry, which he correctly emerge. It also helps when scholars like Skilling mentions “remains terra incognita in Western and Woodward write so clearly and explain this scholarship, despite the fact that it was one of the mass of information in a very accessible way. most popular forms of Buddhist textual produc‐ McKinnon, Nastiti, and Revire pay the most at‐ tion between the fifteenth and nineteenth cen‐ tention to nontextual sources. McKinnon, in his “A turies” (p. 4). Attention to these subjects breaks Bronze Hoard from Muara Kaman, Kutei” and down the separation between the artificial cate‐ Nastiti in his “Miniature Stūpas and a Buddhist gories of secular and religious subjects. Lammerts Sealing from Candi Gentong, Trowulan, Mojoker‐ also provides a very useful list of manuscript cata‐ to, East Java” offer a rare look at Brahmanism and logs and resources available now. Although I found Buddhism in Java. They also, like Acri, Skilling, every article in this collection erudite and useful, I Whitmore, and Woodward, expand this collection wish Lammerts had more clearly explained why away from . They are he chose to bring these particular articles together narrow studies, to be sure, but their inclusion here in the order he did (which is largely chronological), motivates scholars of Buddhism in mainland but he does offer a good basic description of each Southeast Asia to expand their horizons and in‐ piece. This volume emerged from a conference in

3 H-Net Reviews clude the Javanese-Malay world into their curricu‐ really interrogate the way religions interact in‐ lum. While art historians often compare evidence tensely, which is one of the great defining charac‐ across the island and mainland regions (although teristics of Buddhism in Southeast Asia. Murphy the Philippines is regularly ignored, unfortunate‐ takes a more geographical approach. By looking at ly), this is rarely done by Buddhist studies scholars, a large number of sema (boundary) stones in who largely remain firmly textually and linguisti‐ northeast Thailand, he has shown that we can get cally ensconced in either the Theravada/Mainland a good estimate of the number of monks living in world or the /Island and Vietnam world. the region in the Dvāravatī period (approximately Revire’s “Re-exploring the Buddhist ‘Foundation the sixth through eleventh centuries). Through this Deposits’ at Chedi Chula Prathon, Nakhon Pathom” analysis of a large data set, he shows also that takes its cue from the comparative impulse of art monks generally coalesced around urban centers history, bringing the Theravada and Mahayana near rivers. He also questions the very use of the worlds together in this article and a won‐ term Dvāravatī when he writes: “By using the term derfully detailed study of the ruins of what was a Dvāravatī, it should be emphasized, however, that massive in sixth-century Thailand. Looking this paper does not support the idea that there was at the history of the study of this stupa by Boisseli‐ a central Dvāravatī political entity that held sway er, Nandana, Piriya, and others, he shows that the over all of the Chao Phraya Basin or the Khorat foundation deposits in this stupa reveal “Indone‐ Plateau. Instead, it sees the political situation sian or Śrīvijayan influence” (p. 172), and have re‐ somewhat differently. The evidence to date from liefs that seem to draw on Sanskrit avadānas settlement patterns and the archaeological record rather than Pali jatakas. These are “narrative tra‐ points more to the emergence of urban centres lo‐ ditions different from those transmitted in Pali by cated at moated sites along the major river sys‐ the Mahāvihāra Theravādins of Sri Lanka… Some tems or close to the coast. These sites may have ex‐ of these traditions may have been Mūlasarvās‐ erted varying degrees of control over their sur‐ tivādin, but they might just as well have belonged rounding hinterlands and perhaps smaller sites in to other schools or nikāyas using Sanskrit, Bud‐ their direct vicinity. However, it is unlikely that at dhist Hybrid Sanskrit, or different Prakrits” (p. any stage they controlled large areas of the region. 175). He does not just find the translocal in this lo‐ The view of largely independent urban centres cal Thai stupa; he also looks closely at the well-pre‐ also raises the possibility of local rulers actively served khakkhara finial (a ringed staff) now dis‐ engaged in the patronage of Buddhism in return played at the National Museum in Bangkok to re‐ for the legitimization of their positions by high- veal aspects of a particular local Buddhist culture ranking Buddhist monks” (p. 83). in central Thailand at that time. Taking an extremely different approach to the Acri and Murphy, like the aforementioned study of Buddhism in the region are Leider, Skilling and Woodward, move away from close Pakdeekham, and Kirichenko. They all move us studies of singular archaeological sites and materi‐ ahead in time to the seventeenth through nine‐ al objects to take a broad view of religious cultures teenth centuries in Burma and Thailand. across large regions--Acri in Java and Bali and Kirchenko looks at Burmese historical texts (a sub‐ Murphy in northeastern Thailand and Laos. Acri ject that he has mastered over the last fifteen years looks closely at Javanese and Sanskrit kakawin of sustained research), as well as Abhidhamma, (narrative poems) texts and other sources and add , and nissaya texts to offer the reader in‐ nuance to the very idea of a Śaivite-Buddhist syn‐ sights into major issues of class and ethnicity in cretism in Java and Bali. It is exactly this type of Burma, as well as the constant struggle in the his‐ close analysis of texts that will allow scholars to tory of Burma between integration and indepen‐

4 H-Net Reviews dence of various ethnic groups. More specifically ed as a campaign to spread or restore the Buddhist he demonstrates the rise of “non-central” monas‐ sāsana” (p. 402). tic networks that “functioned as a viable and Pakdeekham also looks closely at royal corre‐ thriving alternative to court monasticism” (p. 334). spondence. He studies the letters between the He argues that in “the seventeenth and eighteenth courts of King Mongkut (Rama IV) in Bangkok and centuries Burmese monasticism did not have a the Cambodian royal court under King Ang Duong large-scale integrated ecclesiastical organization, in the mid-nineteenth century. It has long been even at the court. The presence of a certain formal known that Siamese/Thai royal symbols, rituals, structure (such as functional ranks and particular ornament, and lexicon have been strongly influ‐ divisions of court monks) did not affect the nature enced by Cambodian/Khmer royal culture. Howev‐ of Burmese saṅgha as a loose aggregate of differ‐ er, this paper shows that the Cambodian court was ent groupings, communities, and lineages in the as influenced, especially in terms of literary pro‐ state of constant fux” (p. 339). duction, by the Siamese/Thai court as the Thai Leider also looks closely at textual sources, in court was influenced by the symbolism and ritual this case royal letters, to offer us a big picture of accoutrement of the Cambodian court. King Ang Burmese Buddhist history. He examines the letters Duong, for example, had Siamese cosmological, that the Burmese king, Alaungmintaya, sent to hagiographical, historical, and narrative texts Pegu in the mid-eighteenth century and argues translated into Khmer. Siamese Dhammayut that “read against the background of the political monks also ordained Cambodian monks at this record as drawn out in Burmese historiography, an time. Ritually, Buddhist public ceremonies, like the examination of the letters offers an exceptional in‐ Visakhabucha celebration, celebrating the birth, sight into diplomatic practice carved out of the awakening, and of the historical Bud‐ ethical and cosmological stuff of Burma’s Buddhist dha, in Cambodia were also influenced by Siamese environment” (p. 373). He shows how Buddhist practices. Pakdeekham does not present this mate‐ concepts were “instrumentalized in diplomatic rial in an antagonistic way, but merely to show the language” and how these concepts could be em‐ relations between Siam and Cambodia were not as ployed by kings to justify political oppression and fraught and characterized by resentment and sus‐ violence. The rhetorical style of these letters thus picion as we see today. “exploited the wealth of commonly held popular Finally, Whitmore and Blackburn examine beliefs, doctrines and moral certainties. Educated Vietnam and Sri Lanka. Like Kirichenko, Leider, members of the élite were able to interpret without and Pakdeekham they look at the development of any hesitation the bits of Pali citations and the Buddhist monastic, literary, and political cultures hints at Buddhist tenets constantly spotted in the through the close examination of primary histori‐ letters. Quoting, repeating and emphasizing what cal sources. While their chapters might seem like everybody believed and adhered to in a shared unnecessary additions, because they are well out‐ Buddhist cultural environment was the ABC of this side the geographical range we normally associate Buddhist rhetoric at the service of diplomatic in‐ with the Theravada world, this is one of the best teraction and public relations. To be socially ac‐ choices that Lammerts made, as they expand the cepted as a holder of royal power, a king or a king- study of Buddhism in Southeast Asia. This is an im‐ to-be had to win battles, but he was lent moral au‐ portant corrective to the field. Whitmore looks at a thority only by establishing credible claims that he rarely examined period in Vietnamese history, the enjoyed a supernatural mandate. War was not le‐ reign of Lý Nhân-tông in the eleventh and twelfth gitimized by historical claims, dynastic rights or centuries. The study of the in the right of the conqueror, but constantly present‐

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Vietnam, especially detailed study of the way poli‐ tween Buddhist kingdoms and intellectuals in the tics and religion informed each other, is extremely sixteenth through nineteenth centuries. She is ex‐ lacking. Whitmore does not lament the lack of posing new material drawn from chronicles, in‐ sources or studies, but creatively looks at Chinese scriptions, letters, and commentaries. In this arti‐ sources. In this way, he offers a rare look into the cles she focuses on Pali chronicles like the Ji‐ sectarian divisions and recombinations taking nakālamālī and two versions of the Tamnān place in the Lý Nhân-tông court, especially be‐ Mūlasāsanā Pā Däng. “Reading such works,” tween Thiên (Chan) Buddhism and older forms of she argues, “is beneficial to investigate the affilia‐ Pure Land, , and Huayan schools. What I tive terms used to describe monks brought into particularly liked about Whitmore’s article is that contact and connection through the travel of he not only provides a detailed study of the period, monks who visited Laṅkā and then returned to but also offers a comparative study of Buddhist Lān Nā [Northern Thailand]. Are they said to be‐ kingdoms at the same time in Burma and Thai‐ come participants in something ‘theravādin’, land. For example, he writes: “In Đai Viêt, Lý Nhân- ‘mahāvihārin’, a ‘Sīhaḷa Saṅgha’, or some other col‐ tông established a Buddhist system that, to all ap‐ lective(s)? Why is Laṅkā seen as a desirable focus pearances, resembled Jayavarman VII’s at Angkor for their pilgrimage and ordination? Finally, these in his effort to spread his beliefs across the coun‐ texts--while obviously not transparent windows tryside and bind the localities to his capital, though onto the social realities of mid-millennium Lān Nā without such a strong central monument. Nhân- and Laṅkā … depict intra-monastic and monastic- tông’s system of belief too was glorious, but seem‐ courtly interactions in the context of transregion‐ ingly without lasting impact on later reigns, which al Buddhist movement. These depictions are some‐ in Đai Viêt became increasingly more Sinic classi‐ times at odds with conventional scholarly under‐ cal. The realm of Đai Viêt, like that of Angkor, standings of the causality and patronage that changed greatly in the surge of internationalcom‐ characterized travelling monks and importations merce during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. of monastic across the borders of polity” Eventually, under the succeeding Trấn dynasty, the (p. 309). To Blackburn, Sri Lanka was not simply monarchy of Đai Viêt attempted to build on what an ancient influence on Buddhism in mainland Lý Nhân-tông had established in its early four‐ Southeast Asia, but an ongoing conversation part‐ teenth century effort to create an integrated Thiên ner in the mutual fashioning of these two regions. orthodoxy. Like Jayavarman’s effort at Angkor, Lammerts’s efforts have not only provided the this orthodoxy, the Bamboo Grove (Trúc-Lâm) field with a return to high-quality historical studies, school, was meant to hold together a realm under‐ but also have exposed new historical materials, going increasing internal and external stresses” pointed to new avenues of research, and brought (p. 301). Whitmore points to an oft-missed opportu‐ together a diverse group of scholars from different nity to compare Angkor to its eastern neighbors disciplines. I highly recommend this volume. instead of its Siamese rivals to the west. Blackburn’s work over the last decade has been a model for others in the field of premodern Buddhist history. She has been reinserting Sri Lankan Buddhism into the study of Southeast Asian history, not through the typical fifth-twelfth century “influence” of Pali literature and Therava‐ da ordination lineages, as seen in early studies, but through an examination of the interchange be‐

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Citation: Justin T. McDaniel. Review of Lammerts, D. Christian; ed. Buddhist Dynamics in Premodern and Early Modern Southeast Asia. H-Buddhism, H-Net Reviews. July, 2016.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=47060

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