Spirits of the place: Buddhism and Lao religious culture

367 Pages·2016·44.396 MB·English

by  Holt, John

B U D D H I S M / A N T H R O P O L O G Y JOHN CLIFFORD HOLT
{ Continued from front flap }
H Spirits of the Place
and transformation by Buddhist political “John Holt’s study of Lao Buddhism makes a unique contribution to our is a rare
O SPIRITS
and ecclesiastical powers. understanding of the understudied religious culture of Laos. Of special value and timely contribution to our under-
L
Rather than reduce Buddhist religious are the comparisons Holt draws between Lao and Sinhala religious culture, and standing of religious culture in Laos and
T
culture to a set of simple commonalities, the insight achieved when Buddhist conceptuality, symbol, and ritual are seen Southeast Asia. Most often studied as a
Holt takes a comparative approach, using through the lens of the indigenous Lao religious substratum rather than vice part of Thai, Vietnamese, or Khmer histo-
his nearly thirty years’ experience with Sri versa.” ry, Laos remains a terra incognita to most

Lanka to elucidate what is unique about Westerners—and to many of the people
—Donald K. Swearer, Director, Center for the Study of World Religions, of the
Lao Buddhism. This stimulating book living throughout Asia as well. John Holt’s
Harvard Divinity School
invites students in the fields of the history new book brings this fascinating nation
of religion and Buddhist and Southeast into focus. With its overview of Lao Bud-
Asian studies to take a fresh look at pre- “Laos is commonly called a ‘Theravada Buddhist society,’ and visitors to the coun- S dhism and analysis of how shifting politi-
PLACE
vailing assumptions and perhaps recon- try dutifully make their rounds of the major temples, especially in the old royal P cal power—from royalty to democracy to
sider the place of Buddhism in Laos and capital of Luang Phrabang where they are invariably ‘enchanted.’ But for John I communism—has impacted Lao religious
Southeast Asia. Holt, coming from many years’ study of Sri Lanka, another ‘Theravada Buddhist R culture, the book offers an integrated
society,’ what stood out were the differences between the two countries’ reli- I account of the entwined political and reli-
gious traditions. In this book he sets out to elucidate just what these differences T gious history of Laos from the fourteenth
are, and he finds them in the pervasiveness of spirits of place that are woven into S century to the contemporary era.
Lao Theravada practice. This is the first book dedicated to Lao religion in almost BUDDHISM AND LAO RELIGIOUS CULTURE Holt advances the provocative argu-
o
forty years and it has all the freshness that new eyes bring to an old subject. This f ment that common Lao knowledge of

is a superb contribution to Lao studies. t important aspects of Theravada Buddhist
h
thought and practice has been heavily
—Grant Evans, Fellow, Centre of Asian Studies, Hong Kong University e
conditioned by an indigenous religious
P
culture dominated by the veneration of
L
“Holt approaches Lao Buddhism from a new angle, one influenced by his previ-
phi, spirits whose powers are thought
ous scholarly work on the Buddhism of Sri Lanka. What interests him about A
to prevail over and within specific social
Laos is the persistence of spirit worship despite over six centuries of Buddhist C
and geographical domains. The enduring
influence, a situation that contrasts markedly with Sri Lanka. The comparative
E influence of traditional spirit cults in Lao
dimension that Holt adopts is one of the strengths of his book. Another is the
culture and society has brought about
way it brings together the work of a cross section of scholars (historians, sociolo-
major changes in how the figure of the
gists, anthropologists, students of religion) to show how the continuing coexis-
Buddha and the powers associated with
tence yet separation between spirit worship and Buddhism that Holt finds in
Buddhist temples and reliquaries—indeed
present-day Laos has persisted throughout Lao history.
how all ritual spaces and times—have
—Martin Stuart-Fox, author of A History of Laos been understood by the Lao. Despite
vigorous attempts by Buddhist royalty,
French rationalists, and most recently by
JOHN CLIFFORD HOLT is William communist ideologues to eliminate the
R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of Humanities in Jacket art: Vat Xieng Thong, sixteenth century, Luang Phrabang. worship of phi, spirit cults have not been
Religion and Asian Studies at Bowdoin Jacket design: Julie Matsuo-Chun displaced; they continue to persist and
ISBN 978-0-8248-3327-5
College in Brunswick, Maine. show no signs of abating. Not only have
90000
UNIVERSITY of the spirits resisted eradication, but they
have withstood synthesis, subordination,
HAWAI‘I PRESS
9 780824 833275
www.uhpress.hawaii.edu
Honolulu, Hawai‘i 96822-1888
{ Continued on back flap }
Spirits of the Place

Spirits of the Place
◆
Buddhism and Lao Religious Culture
John Clifford Holt
University of Hawai‘i Press
Honolulu
© 2009 University of Hawai‘i Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
14 13 12 11 10 09 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Holt, John.
Spirits of the place : Buddhism and Lao religious culture
/ John Clifford Holt.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8248-3327-5 (hard cover : alk. paper)
1. Laos—Religion. 2. Buddhism—Laos. 3. Spirits
—Laos. 4. Religion and sociology—Laos. I. Title.
BL2067.H66 2009
294.3'35—dc22
2009014399
University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on acid-free
paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and
durability of the Council on Library Resources.
Designed by the University of Hawai‘i Press production staff
Printed by The Maple-Vail Book Manufacturing Group
For My Teachers
Frank Reynolds
Joseph Kitagawa
Stanley Tambiah
Paul Claspers

Contents
Preface
ix
Introduction
Laos and Its Religious Culture
1
1. Powers of the Place
Buddhism and the Spirit Cults of Muang Lao
15
2. Interventions from Afar
Nonspiritual Powers in Place
76
3. Questions of Place
Religious Culture in a Post-revolutionary Space
129
4. Commodities of the Place
Ritual Expressions and the Marketing of Religious Culture
186
5. The Spirit(s) of the Place
Buddhists and Contemporary Lao Religion Reconsidered
232
Appendix 1. Transformations of the Ramayana
259
vii
viii Contents
Appendix 2. The Cult of Khwan
271
Notes
275
Bibliography
321
Index
331
(Plates follow page 194)
Preface
F
or thirty years my research and writing, as well as a good deal of my teach-
ing, has focused on understanding Theravada Buddhists within the context of Sri
Lanka’s religious culture. For that reason many of my reflections throughout this
study of Buddhism and religious culture in Laos are comparative.
Laos and Sri Lanka are important venues for Theravada’s persistence in the
contemporary world, but their historical experiences, of course, have been quite
varied, and so the manner in which aspects of the sasana (Buddhist tradition) have
been cultivated in each has varied significantly as well. Buddhism was first intro-
duced to Sri Lanka from India in the third century BCE, more than a millennium
before any form of Buddhism reached the geographic area in Southeast Asia that
is now Laos and more than a millennium and a half before Sri Lanka’s distinc-
tive lineages of Theravada tradition were cultivated among the Lao. Moreover, the
wider religious cultures within which Theravada has been domesticated in Laos
and Sri Lanka respectively are also definitively unique when compared. Sri Lanka’s
proximity to India has resulted in more sustained Hindu influence. Though Hin-
du influence is notable in Laos, it is not nearly so emphatic, especially at the level
of common lay religious culture. Instead, in Laos indigenous cults of phi (spirits)
and khwan (vital essence) have predominated, while Hindu influence has been
limited, though not exclusively, to royal elite circles. In any case the comparative
comments interspersed throughout this book are aimed at determining what may
be distinctive about Lao religious culture and its articulation of Buddhism, not
to overly emphasize its historical dependence upon Sri Lanka, though Sri Lanka,
while not very familiar to contemporary Lao people, has been sometimes lionized
in Laos as the mother load of Theravada’s origins and purity.
Over these past thirty years most of my travel itineraries to Sri Lanka, for
extended or brief stays, were simply a combination of marathon flights between
New England, where I make my home and teach, and South Asia, where I do my
research and writing, without any stopovers in between. About ten years ago Sree
Padma (my wife) and I decided that we no longer wanted to endure the travails
of “airplane asceticism.” We began to break our journeys in either Europe or
ix