Justin Mcdaniel on Buddhist Dynamics in Premodern

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-Buddhism (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‐ Pali 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 Japan, 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 Sanskrit 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‐ Vietnam 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 Buddhist texts, 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.

Load more