Séminaire « Anthropologie comparée du bouddhisme » (2017-18) Ritualités bouddhiques Bénédicte Brac de la Perrière (CASE), Nicolas Sihlé (CEH) Programme Lieu et heure : 54 bd Raspail (salle 651 à partir de janvier), de 9h30 à 12h30 Résumés des interventions : cf. infra, en page 2. 13/10. Séance d’introduction : comparer des rituels bouddhiques - John Holt (Bowdoin College, Maine, USA) : l’exemple du kathina (Sri Lanka / Birmanie) [en anglais]. 10/11. Typologies des rituels bouddhiques : catégories vernaculaires, catégories analytiques - Séance de discussion à partir de lectures (cf. dossier Dropbox du séminaire, ci-dessous). Avec la participation de Florence Galmiche (U. Paris-7 Diderot) et de Claire Vidal (LESC / CEIB). 22/12. Rituels pour célébrer ou honorer des maîtres - Alexander Horstmann (U. de Tallinn, Estonie) : The prosperous ascetic: Staging authority in northern Thai/Burmese Buddhists saints’ birthday ceremonies. - Elizabeth Williams-Oerberg (U. de Copenhague) : “The Rockstar Monk with a mission”: The millennial celebration of Naropa and his modern reincarnation (Ladakh, northern India). 12/1. Rituels de culte de grandes divinités bouddhiques - Nicolas Sihlé (CNRS) : Rassemblements rituels et collectivité de spécialistes religieux : le cas des grands rituels des tantristes du Repkong (nord-est tibétain). 2/2. Rituels d’Etat / de renouvellement de l’ordre cosmique et social - Alexandra de Mersan (IRASEC) : Rituels de Nouvel An en Arakan (Birmanie). 16/3. Rituels collectifs de donation - Hiroko Kawanami (U. de Lancaster) : Religious gifts, social transactions and merit-making occasions in Myanmar. 23/3 (14h–17h, salle 737). Table ronde : « État des lieux en anthropologie du bouddhisme » Table ronde (en anglais) organisée à l’occasion du « Printemps du CEIB » (Centre d’Études Interdisciplinaires du Bouddhisme). Avec Bénédicte Brac de la Perrière (CNRS/EHESS), Patrice Ladwig (MPI for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity), Nicolas Sihlé (CNRS), Erick White (Michigan U.). 6/4. Rituels collectifs de lecture de textes canoniques - Roger Casas (Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna) : The secular ramifications of the Tan Tham / Vessantara ritual and festival in Sipsong Panna. 4/5. Rituels funéraires à dimension collective - Erik Davis (Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota) : The Perfect Funeral of King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia. 1/6. Rituels du cycle de vie - Gustaaf Houtman (School of Oriental and African Studies, London) : Life-cycle rituals (beitheik) in Burma and Buddhist identity. Dossiers Dropbox avec ressources bibliographiques, programmes, etc. : http://bit.ly/RitualitesBouddhiques (2017-18) / http://bit.ly/AnthroComparBouddhisme Résumés des interventions 13/10. Séance d’introduction : comparer des rituels bouddhiques - 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. Rituels pour célébrer ou honorer des maîtres - Alexander Horstmann (U. de Tallinn, Estonie) : 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 (U. de Copenhague) : “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. Rituels de culte de grandes divinités bouddhiques - Nicolas Sihlé (CNRS) : 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