Embodied Constellations of Behavior: Buddhist Weizzā Devotees and Lived Religion in Myanmar

Thomas Patton (Cornell University)

My paper explores the relationships that develop between men and women of Myanmar with sorcerer-saints (Burmese: weizzā) and the consequences of such connections for the everyday lives of these people. My ethnographic and textual research seeks to uncover the beliefs and practices that have developed around saints, whose cults, visible throughout the country, attract large numbers of devotees from all walks of life. The economic, medical, and political changes that have been taking place in Myanmar over the past fifty years are reflected in the relationships Burmese Buddhists form with sorcerer-saints and in the content found in popular Burmese Buddhist magazines and devotional literature. This paper specifically explores how Burmese women understand these saints to be working in their lives for purposes of healing and increasing their social and economic prestige during this prolonged period of instability in the country.

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