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Buddhist Salvation Armies as Vanguards of the Sāsana: Sorcerer Societies in Twentieth-Century Burma

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 December 2016

Thomas Patton
Thomas Patton*
Affiliation:
Thomas Patton ([email protected]) is Assistant Professor in the Department of Asian and International Studies at the City University of Hong Kong.
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Abstract

Since the early twentieth century, groups of Burmese Buddhist sorcerers and their followers have taken on the duty of guarding the Buddha's sāsana from colonial, ideological, and Islamic threats. Sāsana (broadly, the teachings of the Buddha and the institutions and practices that support them) and how it should be sustained in the face of its inevitable demise have been central concerns of these societies, expressed in both their textual and oral representations. To illustrate this tension between endurance and change, this article explores ideas of the life cycle of the sāsana and how ideas about its responsibility to wider communities of Burmese Buddhists became expressed through the intersection of sāsana and sorcery. Examining the ways these associations understood themselves to be protecting and propagating the sāsana through various means demonstrates how sāsana vitality gave their beliefs and actions a distinct collective and collectively ethical tone.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 75 , Issue 4 , November 2016 , pp. 1083 - 1104
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 2016 

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References

List of References

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Patton, Thomas. 2016. “The Wizard King's Granddaughters: Burmese Buddhist Female Mediums, Healers, and Dreamers.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 84(2):430–65.Google Scholar
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Rozenberg, Guillaume. 2010. Les immortels: Visages de l'incroyable en Birmanie [The immortals: Faces of incredible Burma]. Vannes: Editions Sully.Google Scholar
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Schober, Juliane. 2012. “The Longevity of Weikza and Their Practices.” Journal of Burma Studies 16(2):283–307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Donald E. 1965. Religion and Politics in Burma. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, Martin J. 1991. Burma: Insurgency and the Politics of Ethnicity. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Tosa, Keiko. 1996. “Biruma niokeru Weikza shinko no ichikosatsu: Gaing nitotteno Lawki to Lawkoktara” [A consideration of Weikza belief in Burma: The meaning of Lawki and Lawkoktara for the Gaing]. Japanese Journal of Ethnology (Japanese Journal of Cultural Anthropology) 61(2):215–42.Google Scholar
Turner, Alicia. 2009. “Buddhism, Colonialism, and the Boundaries of Religion: Theravada Buddhism in Burma, 1885–1920.” PhD diss., University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Turner, Alicia. 2014. Saving Buddhism: Moral Community and the Impermanence of Colonial Religion. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.Google Scholar
Zöllner, Hans-Bernd, ed. 2010. Material on Four Books about Germany. Working Paper no. 10:15. University of Passau, Department of Southeast Asian Studies.Google Scholar
Mrat’ pan” ra guṃ [Noble forest of flowers]. 2008. 198.Google Scholar
Pathamam taya maggajaṅ'ʺ [Foremost dharma magazine]. 1948. 1(2).Google Scholar
Pathamam taya maggajaṅ'ʺ [Foremost dharma magazine]. 1949a. 1(8):15–18.Google Scholar
Pathamam taya maggajaṅ'ʺ [Foremost dharma magazine]. 1949b. 1(9):12–14.Google Scholar
Pathamam taya maggajaṅ'ʺ [Foremost dharma magazine]. 1949c. 1(9):15–17.Google Scholar
Vijjā Rasa Con’ maggajaṅ'ʺ [Weizzā Essence Magazine]. 2009. 2(4).Google Scholar
Jotipala, ʾA Rhaṅ. 1952. Bhui” To e* atthuppatti hmat’ tan’” ʾOṅʻ Maṅʻ ̋Khoṅʻ Krī” Vijjā Van’ Samuiṅ’” [The sacred biography of the great Aung Min Gaung]. Mandalay: Myousay Press.Google Scholar
Ñāṇa, Ūʺ. 1939. Bhui Bhui Oṅ’ hnaṅ’ Has’ Ta Lā [Bo Bo Aung and Hitler]. Ran' kun': Toke-pe-ye-tana.Google Scholar
Poʻ Ūʺ, Ūʺ. 1949. Buddha rājā Maṅʻʺ Cakrā Suikʻ ʾa Phre Nhaṅ'ʹ Ūʺ Kyoʻ Lha Saṃ Khyui ʾa Phre [The prophecies of the Buddha Rājā and Cakkavattin]. Ran' kun': Mranʻ māʹ Sippaṃ Cā puṃ nhipʻ tuikʻ.Google Scholar
Poʻ Ūʺ, Ūʺ. 1952. Vijjādhuirʻ ʾOṅʻ Maṅʻ ̋Khoṅʻ e* thvak’ rap’ pok’ raja van’ ‘atthuppatti [The biography of the wizard-saint Aung Min Gaung: Chronicle of attaining sainthood]. Ran’ kun’: Mibamettā puṃ nhipʻ tuikʻ.Google Scholar
Mrat’ pan” ra guṃ [Noble forest of flowers]. 2008. 198.Google Scholar
Pathamam taya maggajaṅ'ʺ [Foremost dharma magazine]. 1948. 1(2).Google Scholar
Pathamam taya maggajaṅ'ʺ [Foremost dharma magazine]. 1949a. 1(8):15–18.Google Scholar
Pathamam taya maggajaṅ'ʺ [Foremost dharma magazine]. 1949b. 1(9):12–14.Google Scholar
Pathamam taya maggajaṅ'ʺ [Foremost dharma magazine]. 1949c. 1(9):15–17.Google Scholar
Vijjā Rasa Con’ maggajaṅ'ʺ [Weizzā Essence Magazine]. 2009. 2(4).Google Scholar
Jotipala, ʾA Rhaṅ. 1952. Bhui” To e* atthuppatti hmat’ tan’” ʾOṅʻ Maṅʻ ̋Khoṅʻ Krī” Vijjā Van’ Samuiṅ’” [The sacred biography of the great Aung Min Gaung]. Mandalay: Myousay Press.Google Scholar
Ñāṇa, Ūʺ. 1939. Bhui Bhui Oṅ’ hnaṅ’ Has’ Ta Lā [Bo Bo Aung and Hitler]. Ran' kun': Toke-pe-ye-tana.Google Scholar
Poʻ Ūʺ, Ūʺ. 1949. Buddha rājā Maṅʻʺ Cakrā Suikʻ ʾa Phre Nhaṅ'ʹ Ūʺ Kyoʻ Lha Saṃ Khyui ʾa Phre [The prophecies of the Buddha Rājā and Cakkavattin]. Ran' kun': Mranʻ māʹ Sippaṃ Cā puṃ nhipʻ tuikʻ.Google Scholar
Poʻ Ūʺ, Ūʺ. 1952. Vijjādhuirʻ ʾOṅʻ Maṅʻ ̋Khoṅʻ e* thvak’ rap’ pok’ raja van’ ‘atthuppatti [The biography of the wizard-saint Aung Min Gaung: Chronicle of attaining sainthood]. Ran’ kun’: Mibamettā puṃ nhipʻ tuikʻ.Google Scholar
Aung-Thwin, Maitrii. 2011. The Return of the Galon King: History, Law, and Rebellion in Colonial Burma. Athens: Ohio University Press.Google Scholar
Blackburn, Anne. 2010. “Buddha-Relics in the Lives of Southern Asian Polities.” Numen 57(3):317–40.Google Scholar
Bond, George Doherty. 1988. The Buddhist Revival in Sri Lanka: Religious Tradition, Reinterpretation, and Response. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Braun, Erik. 2013. The Birth of Insight: Meditation, Modern Buddhism, and the Burmese Monk Ledi Sayadaw. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Brohm, John Frank. 1957. “Burmese Religion and the Burmese Religious Revival.” PhD diss., Cornell University.Google Scholar
Buddhaghosa. 1956. Manoratha-Pūranī: Commentary on the Aṅguttara Nikāya. Vol. 5. London: Luzac.Google Scholar
Bullock, Steven C. 1996. Revolutionary Brotherhood: Freemasonry and the Transformation of the American Social Order, 1730–1840. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Cady, John F. 1958. A History of Modern Burma. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Carbine, Jason A. 2011. Sons of the Buddha: Continuities and Ruptures in a Burmese Monastic Tradition. New York: Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Foxeus, Niklas. 2011. “The Buddhist World Emperor's Mission: Millenarian Buddhism in Postcolonial Burma.” PhD diss., Stockholm University.Google Scholar
Foxeus, Niklas. 2016. “Mimicking the State in Burma/Myanmar: Royal, Nationalist, and Militant Ideology in a New Buddhist Movement.” Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 172:197–224.Google Scholar
Frasch, Tilman. 2013. “Buddhist Councils in a Time of Transition: Globalism, Modernity and the Preservation of Textual Traditions.” Contemporary Buddhism 14(1):38–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, Ian. 2012. “Buddhism, Politics, and Nationalism.” In Buddhism in the Modern World, ed. McMahan, David L., 177–94. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Houtman, Gustaaf. 1990. “Traditions of Buddhist Practice in Burma.” PhD diss., School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.Google Scholar
Houtman, Gustaaf. 1999. Mental Culture in Burmese Crisis Politics: Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy. Tokyo: Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.Google Scholar
Ikeya, Chie. 2011. Refiguring Women, Colonialism, and Modernity in Burma. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.Google Scholar
Jordt, Ingrid. 2007. Burma's Mass Lay Meditation Movement: Buddhism and the Cultural Construction of Power. Athens: Ohio University Press.Google Scholar
Kirichenko, Alexey. 2009. “From Thathanadaw to Theravada Buddhism: Construction of Religion and Religious Identity in Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Myanmar.” In Casting Faiths: Imperialism and the Transformation of Religion in East and Southeast Asia, ed. DuBois, Thomas, 23–45. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maung Maung, U. 1980. From Sangha to Laity: Nationalist Movements of Burma 1920–1940. Australian National University Monographs on South Asia no. 4. New Delhi: Manohar.Google Scholar
McDaniel, Justin. 2011. The Lovelorn Ghost and the Magical Monk: Practicing Buddhism in Modern Thailand. New York: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mendelson, Michael. 1975. Sangha and State in Burma: A Study of Monastic Sectarianism and Leadership. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Nattier, Jan. 1991. Once Upon a Future Time: Studies in a Buddhist Prophecy of Decline. Berkeley, Calif.: Asian Humanities Press.Google Scholar
Okell, John. 1971. A Guide to the Romanization of Burmese. London: Luzac [for] The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland.Google Scholar
Patton, Thomas. 2012. “In Pursuit of the Sorcerer's Power: Sacred Diagrams as Technologies of Potency.” Contemporary Buddhism: An Interdisciplinary Journal 13(2):213–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patton, Thomas. 2016. “The Wizard King's Granddaughters: Burmese Buddhist Female Mediums, Healers, and Dreamers.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 84(2):430–65.Google Scholar
Pranke, Patrick. 1995. “On Becoming a Buddhist Wizard.” In Buddhism in Practice, ed. Lopez, Donald S. Jr., 343–47. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Pranke, Patrick. 2010. “On Saints and Wizards: Ideals of Human Perfection and Power in Contemporary Burmese Buddhism.” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 33(1–2):453–88.Google Scholar
Rozenberg, Guillaume. 2010. Les immortels: Visages de l'incroyable en Birmanie [The immortals: Faces of incredible Burma]. Vannes: Editions Sully.Google Scholar
Sarkisyanz, Manuel. 1961. “On the Place of U Nu's Buddhist Socialism in Burma's History of Ideas.” In Studies on Asia, ed. Sakai, Robert K., 53–62. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.Google Scholar
Schober, Juliane. 2012. “The Longevity of Weikza and Their Practices.” Journal of Burma Studies 16(2):283–307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Donald E. 1965. Religion and Politics in Burma. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, Martin J. 1991. Burma: Insurgency and the Politics of Ethnicity. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Tosa, Keiko. 1996. “Biruma niokeru Weikza shinko no ichikosatsu: Gaing nitotteno Lawki to Lawkoktara” [A consideration of Weikza belief in Burma: The meaning of Lawki and Lawkoktara for the Gaing]. Japanese Journal of Ethnology (Japanese Journal of Cultural Anthropology) 61(2):215–42.Google Scholar
Turner, Alicia. 2009. “Buddhism, Colonialism, and the Boundaries of Religion: Theravada Buddhism in Burma, 1885–1920.” PhD diss., University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Turner, Alicia. 2014. Saving Buddhism: Moral Community and the Impermanence of Colonial Religion. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.Google Scholar
Zöllner, Hans-Bernd, ed. 2010. Material on Four Books about Germany. Working Paper no. 10:15. University of Passau, Department of Southeast Asian Studies.Google Scholar