Abstract

Throughout its existence, members of DORISEA constantly debated configurations of religion and modernity in Southeast Asia. In these debates, it quickly became clear that any attempt to form a new ‘master narrative’ or ‘key’ that collectively and comprehensively ‘explained’ the dynamics of religion in Southeast Asia would be a pointless, doomed endeavour. From the different theoretical models and analytical accents (e.g. state, city, village, upland-lowland, world religion-local religion, nature-culture, text, ritual, mass-media, gender, economy, politics, multiple modernities, multiple secularities) the researchers employ, different images of and perspectives on the relationship between religion and modernity emerges. While we initially found the multiplicity of viewpoints and models challenging, we came to increasingly understand these various perspectives as a profound strength of the network’s research. In light of these developments, multi-perspectivism or the ‘kaleidoscopic perspective’ became an increasingly useful and appropriate analytical tool. In carefully and systematically adopting the ‘kaleidoscopic perspective’, we thereby avoided the dangers—and potential allegations—of simply using it as an arbitrary tool when nothing more suitable could be found. The Configurations of Religion project is thus an attempt to use such a multi-perspectivism to inspire fruitful debate.

As such, Configurations of Religion, a debate opened by Boike Rehbein and Guido Sprenger is not to be understood as the 'end product' or as a final or complete summary of the DORISEA's research findings, but rather as a perspective on—or an excerpt from—debates within the network. In ma king this ‘work in process’ available, we invite other members of the academic community to take part. Configurations of Religion is therefore intended to make this on-going process transparent, and to stimulate ideas and discussion.

The sheer volume of research carried out by DORISEA researchers on the dynamics of the religious and modernity in Laos made the logical basis for comparative discussion. In this paper then, Laos serves as a kind of laboratory for new theory on these interactions.

Through the dialogical format employed in this volume, we aim to document and make visible the different disciplinary, theoretical and empirical perspectives, as well as the methodical approaches of the researchers involved. The diversity of perspectives is not only evident in the comments or Rehbein and Sprenger’s answers to these commentaries, but also in the different positions the co-authors layout in the working paper itself. As I stated above, the paper, and the responses to it, do not and are not intended to create a coherent and complete whole, rather these differences in perspective and opinion are here to invite and stimulate further discussion.

ISSN 2196-6893

DOI 10.3249/2196-6893-dwp-24

Download Peter J. Bräunlein, Michael Dickhardt and Andrea Lauser (eds.): Configurations of Religion - A Debate. A DORISEA network discussion opened by Boike Rehbein and Guido Sprenger (Special Issue)

Abstract

Malaysia’s multiethnic ideology is premised upon an ideal of hospitality that simultaneously announces its own impossibility through the marking of legal ethnonationalist rights and privileges. The performativity of the Law has been increasingly revealed to Malaysian Tamils through a series of recent events that have left them questioning the civility of their country. Specifically, the demolitions of temples and the acquisitions of land by the State, forced conversions, and the dispossession of Tamil plantation workers have precipitated doubts. I argue that the force of law within the ethno-nationalist state is haunted by a fragmentation of memory and experience among Tamils. This is wrought by a sense of 'betrayal' by the State upon an increasingly sacralized landscape. Among Tamil Hindus, notions of divine justice have become fused with possessive and sometimes violent imaginaries. Tamil notions of divine justice are revealed to be a form of compensation, albeit one grounded in a growing victim's narrative. Through my interlocutors and collaborators, I have come to critique the Law, as mutually understood through the ethnographic encounter. At the same time, I have strategically utilized empathy in the face of great hospitality, whilst recoiling, at times, from the implications that accompany calls of justice. I conclude with a meditation upon the ethics of critique by suggesting the ethnographic betrayal is both painful and necessary.

ISSN 2196-6893

DOI 10.3249/2196-6893-dwp-22

Download Andrew Willford: Betrayal, Sacred Landscapes, and Stories of Justice among Tamils in Malaysia

Abstract

Yên Tử, a well-known "Sacred Mountain" in northeastern Vietnam, is surrounded by primeval forest with plentiful and diverse flora. The attribution of sacred or mystical qualities to Yên Tử has a long tradition, with the mountain providing a symbol of cosmic order in Vietnamese Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism. Since Vietnam's government launched its open-door policy in the late1980s, the pilgrimage centre has been given official recognition by the Ministry of Culture as a national cultural heritage site. Recently, through the construction of a cable-car system carrying pilgrims—and tourists—to the top, Yên Tử has also become one of the 'must do' things for local and global "pilgrim-tourists", attracting over one million visitors since 2009. Looking at the pilgrimage site as a multidimensional arena, this paper focuses on the negotiation of agendas between wealth, merit-making, 'touristification' and political certification of national culture and heritage in contemporary Vietnam (and beyond).

ISSN 2196-6893

Download Andrea Lauser: Traveling to Yên Tử (North Vietnam). Religious Resurgence, Cultural Nationalism and Touristic Heritage in the Shaping of a Pilgrimage Landscape

Abstract

Since the fall of the Soeharto regime in 1998, socio-political conditions for ethnic Chinese in Indonesia have drastically improved, while the governmental supervision of religious institutions has been weakening. This article focuses on the relatively inconspicuous yet significant on-going changes regarding 'Chinese Religion (Agama Tionghoa)’ in Post-Soeharto Indonesia. In the early 20th century, Peranakan Chinese (ethnic Chinese who had become localized both in a cultural sense and in terms of descent) intellectuals in the Dutch East Indies discovered Confucianism and developed 'Three-teaching (Sam Kauw)’ in their effort to seek for 'a spiritual pillar for Chinese'. This move was stimulated by the Chinese nationalist movement, and the Christianization of ethnic Chinese. 'Three-teaching', or 'Tridharma’ in Indonesian, was conceptualized as a holistic 'Chinese traditional religion' encompassing Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism as well as ancestral worship and folk religious practices in Chinese temples. From the mid-1960s under the Soeharto regime, however, the organizations holding up Tridharma functioned merely as protectors of Chinese temples, and carried out few 'religious activities'. In the Post-Soeharto era, following the changes in the landscape of 'Chinese Religion' caused by, among others, the re-acknowledgement of Confucianism as an officially recognized religion, the Tridharma organizations have started reasserting their raison d’etre by establishing doctrines and standardizing ritual. In this article, I offer an overview of these historical processes, before reviewing the recent substantial attempts of religious systematization made by three Tridharma organizations; one in West Java (Majelis Agama Buddha Tridharma Indonesia), one in East Java (Perhimpunan Tempat Ibadat Tri Dharma se- Indonesia), and the latter’s branch in Central Java. Further, I analyze the sources of religious knowledge drawn on to support these systematizing efforts.

ISSN 2196-6893

Download Tsuda Koji: Systematizing ‘Chinese Religion’. The Challenges of ‘Three-Teaching’ Organizations in Contemporary Indonesia

Abstract

In this paper I focus on Baan Hadnaleng, a multi-ethnic village in northwest Laos which consists of two Mon-Khmer speaking groups, namely Khmu and Samtao. The village is unique in offering the possibility to trace processes of transcultural communication which are in other multi-ethnic villages in the region. Khmu, the more numerous and socially privileged group, are associated with Animism, while Samtao, the adapting and more disadvantaged group is associated with the religion of the state. Possibly partly due to this status-confusion Khmu and Samtao have established a communal social order in which they can benefit from impulses from each other and the outside, especially the state. I am thus concerned with three central, interwoven questions. Firstly, how are identities shaped in a multi-ethnic village, and which modes of transcultural communication are used? And what kind of structures do these strategies create? Secondly, what kinds of religious dynamics are to be seen? Thirdly, in which ways do processes like ‘modernization’, ‘globalization’ or ‘mechanization’ come into play and influence the structure of the multi-ethnic village?

ISSN 2196-6893

Download Eva Sevenig: Social Mobility in Baan Hadnaleng: When the Valuation of Communality Allows for a Demarcation Line in a Multi-ethnic Village in Northwest Laos

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Abstract For Laos, like for other countries of Buddhist Southeast Asia, manuscripts can be considered as an important primary source for the reconstruction of the intellectual history of this culturally rich region. Manuscripts with texts pertaining to Buddhist teachings have been stored in monastic libraries or in the abodes of eminent abbots for centuries. One of the most influential abbots who took a very personal interest in manuscripts was Venerable Phra Khamchan Virachitto (Sathu Nyai Khamchan) (1920–2007). After his death, a variety of manuscripts were found in his abode (Pāli: kuti). A great number of these manuscripts state that he had written or scribed them himself to commemorate important events in his life. He kept some of these manuscripts for his private use.

These manuscripts also reflect the relationship between Lao Buddhism and manuscripts. First of all, a monastery functions as a centre of knowledge, which is recorded in various types of manuscripts. Monks, novices and unordained Buddhist scholars have access to these manuscripts. In various religious ceremonies, monks and novices read the Buddhist texts (Lao: thet – ເທດ), written as manuscripts, to laypeople. Thus, manuscripts are one of the main components of a monastery.

ISSN 2196-6893

Download Bounleuth Sengsoulin: Manuscripts Found in the Abode of the Venerable Abbot Phra Khamchan Virachitto Vat Saen Sukharam, Luang Prabang, Laos

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Abstract Pha Khamchan Virachitta Maha Thela, the late abbot of Vat Saen Sukharam and chairman of the Buddhist Fellowship Organization of the province of Luang Prabang, was one of the most outstanding Lao intellectuals of the 20th century. The Venerable Abbot was a charismatic monk who served as a model for many monks and novices in Luang Prabang, who tried to emulate him. He was highly respected by the people of the old royal capital of Luang Prabang, which has been the spiritual centre of Lao Buddhism since ancient times and the seat of the Supreme Patriarch until 1975. Pha Khamchan Virachitta Maha Thela’s outstanding works include the constructions and reconstructions of Vat Saen Sukharam and many other monasteries in the style of modern Lao Lan Xang architecture. Moreover, the Venerable Abbot led numerous Buddhist ceremonies, rituals and other festivals in accordance with the rules of the Sangha. Finally, he was the decisive figure to set up the Buddhist Archive of Photography in Luang Prabang (2007) and the Museum of Buddhist Art at Vat Saen Sukharam. Based on a large corpus of historic photographs, manuscripts, documents, personal letters, as well as Buddhist art objects which the Venerable Abbot kept at his monastery over a period of more than fifty years, this paper aims at studying monastic life in Luang Prabang by focusing on the intellectual biography of Pha Khamchan Virachitta Maha Thela.

ISSN 2196-6893

Download Khamvone Boulyaphonh: Phra Khamchan Virachitta Maha Thera and the Preservation of the Lao Cultural Heritage in Luang Prabang

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Abstract This paper enquires into the relation between capitalism, religion and the philosophy of science. We would tend to suppose that there are only superficial and accidental links between them. A closer analysis reveals,  however, that the epistemology of contemporary science is still based on a certain interpretation of Christianity and linked to a particular type of capitalism. Science developed after Galileo and Descartes aims at  universal truth but was founded on the notion of the Christian God and associated with a technological perspective on the world, which was most effectively exploited by Western capitalist societies. This gave rise to a particular concept of religion as opposed to the technological perspective, even though the latter was founded on the former. While other types of science and capitalism have existed, all forms of the religious have been subsumed under the concept of religion developed by Western science. This paper argues that it is impossible to understand any other form of the religious than recent Christianity from this perspective.

ISSN 2196-6893

Download Boike Rehbein: Religion, Science and Capitalisms

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Abstract  In the 1980s I drew attention to the relatively balanced gender pattern of precolonial Southeast Asia, and the economic autonomy of its women, as one of the then most distinctive social characteristics of the region. I believe that this position is now accepted, at least by historians. It does however raise another question I have hitherto ducked ‐ what happened in colonial and high modernity, to allow western feminists to think they could help ‘liberate’ their Southeast Asian sisters? This paper asks two central questions: 1) Was the indigenous Southeast Asian response to colonial modernity ineffective (yielding economic innovation to Chinese and others) because of the very poor fit between Southeast Asian balanced gender patterns, with women largely in charge of business, and the exceptional maleness of colonial modernity. 2) If so, was it simply a case of Southeast Asia being a century behind Europe in adjusting to the only kind of capitalist, industrial, urban modernity we know, which was necessarily male‐led? Or could we imagine different modernities, with Southeast Asian gender patterns being able to challenge and change the male‐dominant model we know from Europe?

ISSN 2196-6893

Download Anthony Reid: Patriarchy and Puritanism in Southeast Asian Modernity

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Abstract  In contemporary Southeast Asia the fields of religious practice and adherence present the apparent paradox of a parallel efflorescence of radically opposing trends. Syncretistic, ritual-based magic and spirit mediumship are flourishing in many localities, while anti-supernatural doctrinal accounts of Buddhism and Islam are also influential in the societies in which these respective religions are influential. Despite claims by some of their respective proponents to adhere to historical tradition, these contrasting trends are both intimately associated with the modern world of commodified, market-based media and scientific technologies. Reflecting on a range of studies of post-Cold War religious expression, I present initial hypotheses on how orthopractic ritual and syncretism, on the one hand, and doctrinally orthodox fundamentalism, on the other, both emerge from the same matrix of techno-scientific, capitalist modernity. I argue that 20th century social theory fails to account for contemporary forms of religious expression and that contemporary religious diversification in Southeast Asia reflects a broader cultural logic of paradox and polarisation pervading early 21st century global modernity. I consider the diverse impacts of neoliberal capitalism, mass media and modernising state power as concrete forces underpinning religious efflorescence and divergence in both magical and fundamentalist directions. I conclude that in developing frameworks of analysis that adequately account for the multiple directions of religious change visible in this century we need “to be cognizant of the complexity of the world, to be accountable to its paradoxes”(Comaroff & Kim 2011, 176).

ISSN2196-6893

Download Peter Jackson: Ascendant Doctrine and Resurgent Magic in Capitalist Southeast Asia. Paradox and Polarisation as 21st Century Cultural Logic  

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