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Worshipping Relics and Animating Statues. Transformations of Buddhist statecraft in contemporary Laos*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 July 2014

PATRICE LADWIG
PATRICE LADWIG*
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle (Saale), Germany; and Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Zurich, Switzerland Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

In Laos—one of the few remaining ‘officially’ socialist countries—Buddhism was abolished as a state religion after the revolution in 1975. However, since the 1990s the communist government has been increasingly using its patronage of Buddhism to gain legitimacy. With reference to the divine sources of power in Theravāda Buddhism, this article explores the extent to which modern Lao state socialism is still imbued with pre-revolutionary patterns of Buddhist kingship and statecraft. The analysis will focus especially on ritual patronage of a Buddhist relic shrine and on the recent inauguration of statues of deceased kings in the Lao capital, Vientiane. With reference to the ritual animation of ‘opening the eyes’ of the statues, and with regard to theories exploring the agency of objects, I argue that the Lao palladium has to be understood as being made up of ‘living’ entities. Finally, the article explores to what extent the control, worship, and creation of statues and relics today are still essential for the legitimacy of rule in the Lao People's Democratic Republic.

Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 49 , Issue 6 , November 2015 , pp. 1875 - 1902
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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Footnotes

*

Research on which this article is based was carried out in Vientiane and several provinces of Laos from 2003 to 2005 and during several visits between 2007 and 2012. Research was funded by the German Academic Exchange Service, the University of Cambridge, the University of Bristol, and recently by the Max-Planck-Institute for Social Anthropology. Thanks to the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions and work on the article. Also thanks to my numerous colleagues at the various institutions I have worked at over the years—they all helped me to think through the topics of this article. Finally, thanks to Michel Lorrillard and Yves Goudineau and all others at the École Française d’Extrême-Orient in Vientiane for hosting me during my multiple stays in Laos in the last few years.

References

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5 Laos is ethnically very heterogeneous. My observations are valid largely only for the ethnic Lao in the Vientiane region. Non-Buddhist ethnic minorities (comprising about 40 per cent of the population) who have not been socialized in a Buddhist context often do not hold such beliefs in relics and statues. However, the increasing return to Buddhism is spread via the media in Laos and also through state institutions such as schools.

6 Evans, G., The politics of ritual and remembrance. Laos since 1975, Hawai‘i University Press, Honolulu, 1998, p. 67Google Scholar.

7 The language is indicated in brackets with Pāli or Sanskrit. Terms in Lao are given in brackets without signifying the language. There is no official and widely recognized system of transcription for Lao. Most terms, however, should be easily recognizable.

8 Stūpa (Sanskrit; Pāli: thūpa) originally referred to a grave hill (or ‘heap’), but then began to be used throughout the Buddhist world to refer to monuments that house the relics of the Buddha or of other holy figures. The Lao that (as in That Luang) derives from Pāli dhātu (element, core) and also connotes ‘relic’. Also widespread in Laos and Thailand is the term chedi, from Pāli cetiya (reminders, memorials) that, in relation to the classifications of relics, is understood as a piece of the body of the Buddha (Sankrit: śarīraka). For the ritual uses of cetiya in some Lao rites, see L. Gabaude, Les cetiya de sable au Laos et en Thailande, EFEO, Paris, 1979. For further connotations and words relating to relics, see the next section of this article.

9 Palladium originally signifies a statue of Athena in Troy which safeguarded the city. I employ it here to refer to Buddhist statues and relics that are believed to provide protection, safety, fertility, and prosperity.

10 Oft-cited studies in this field in Thailand are Tambiah, World conqueror; and Ishi, Y., Sangha, state and society. Thai Buddhism in history, Hawai‘i University Press, Honolulu, 1996Google Scholar; and Mendelson, M., Sangha and state in Burma. A study of monastic sectarianism and leadership, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 1975Google Scholar. Two recent volumes attest to the continuing relevance of the topic in modern nation-states. See Harris, I. (ed.), Buddhism, power and political order, Routledge, London, 2008Google Scholar; and Perrière, B. Brac de la and Reiniche, M. (eds), Les apparences du monde: Royautés hindoues et bouddhiques de l’Asie du Sud et du Sud-Est, École Française d’Extrême-Orient, Paris, 2007Google Scholar. For the latest work on Laos, see Holt, J., Spirits of the place. Buddhism and Lao religious culture, University of Hawai‘i Press, Honolulu, p. 76 ffGoogle Scholar.

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14 See the excellent chapter by Swearer, D. and Premchit, S., ‘The relationship between the religious and political orders in northern Thailand (14th–16th centuries)’, in Smith, B. (ed.), Religion and legitimation of power in Thailand, Laos and Burma, Anima Books, Chambersburg, 1978, pp. 20–33Google Scholar.

15 See Liebermann, Strange parallels, pp. 36–41, for the limited, but still significant, cultural integration though Buddhism in mainland Southeast Asia. Until today, Laos remains the country with the lowest population quota (about 60 per cent) of Buddhists in mainland Southeast Asia. Historical research has shown that the expansion of Lao kingdoms was mainly limited to the valleys of the Mekong and other rivers, and hardly ever reached into the mountains. See Lorrillard, M., ‘Pour une géographie historique du bouddhisme au Laos’ in Goudineau, Y. and Lorrillard, M. (eds), Recherches nouvelles sur le Laos, École Française d’Extrême-Orient, Bangkok, 2008, pp. 113–181Google Scholar.

16 Some researchers suggest, with reference to Thailand, that the picture presented above is much more complicated and involves a multitude of actors from different religious traditions. See Skilling, P., ‘King, sangha, and Brahmans: ideology, ritual, and power in pre-modern Siam’ in Harris, I. (ed.), Buddhism, power and political order, Routledge, London, 2008Google Scholar. Moreover, there are also subtle distinctions between the king as cakkavatti (universal monarch), dhammarāja (righteous ruler), and even devarāja (god-king). For the textual backgrounds of these conceptions as depicted, for example, in the Cakkavatti Sīhanāda-Sutta, see Collins, S., Nirvana and other Buddhist felicities. Utopias of the Pali imaginaire, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1998, p. 414ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar. and especially pp. 480–496. More important, however, than these discussions in my opinion is the localizations of political concepts in Laos beyond general references to Buddhist kingship. See Reynolds, F., ‘Ritual and social hierarchy: an aspect of traditional religion in Buddhist Laos’, History of Religions, Vol. 9/1, 1969, pp. 81–101CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Archaimbault, C., Structures religieuses lao (rites et mythes), Vithagna, Vientiane, 1973, pp. 77–97Google Scholar.

17 Tambiah, taking his inspiration from Wolters, understands mandala (Sanskrit for ‘circle’) as a ‘galactic polity’. See Tambiah, S., ‘The galactic polity: the structure of traditional kingdoms in Southeast Asia’, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Vol. 293, 1977, pp. 69–97CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Wolters, O.W., History, culture and region in Southeast Asian perspectives, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, 1999, p. 126fGoogle Scholar. Although a useful concept, the term mandala hardly ever features in Lao chronicles and instead, localized and pre-Buddhist concepts of political and social organization such as baan-mueang (‘village-principality’) are invoked. See J. Raendchen, ‘The socio-political and administrative organisation of müang in the light of Lao historical manuscripts’, Paper presented at the conference ‘The Literary Heritage of Laos’, Vientiane, 2004.

18 Tambiah, S., ‘Famous Buddha images and the legitimation of kings: the case of the Sinhala Buddha (Phra Singh) in Thailand’, Res, Vol. 4, 1982, p. 5Google Scholar.

19 Ruppert, B., ‘Relics and relic cults’ in Buswell, Robert (ed.), Macmillan Encyclopedia of Buddhism, Macmillan Reference, New York, 2005, p. 717Google Scholar. For a complete translation of the Sanskrit text, see Strong, J., The legend of king Aśoka. A study and translation of the Aśokāvadāna, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1984Google Scholar.

20 Blackburn, A.. ‘Buddha-relics in the lives of South Asian polities’, Numen, Vol. 57/3–4, 2010, p. 319CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

21 For an excellent overview of the local literature and some chronicles on relics and statues in a neighbouring region, see Lagirarde, F., ‘Temps et lieux d’histoires bouddhiques: à propos de quelques chroniques inédites du Lanna’, Bulletin de l’Ecole Francaise d’Extreme-Orient, Vol. 94, 2007, pp. 59–94CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Research on northern Thailand and the role of relics and statues in ‘Buddhicizing’ the landscape has been most extensive in this regard. See Swearer, D., ‘Signs of the Buddha in northern Thai chronicles’, in Germano, D. and Trainor, K. (eds), Embodying dharma. Buddhist relic veneration in Asia, State University of New York Press, Albany, 2004, pp. 145–162Google Scholar.

22 Anderson, B., ‘The idea of power in Javanese culture’ in Holt, C. (ed.), Culture and politics in Indonesia, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 1972, pp. 1–70Google Scholar. For an overview of the critiques of this cosmological model, see Hall, K. R., A history of early Southeast Asia: maritime trade and societal development, Lexington Press, Littlefield, 2011, p. 14ffGoogle Scholar.

23 Tambiah, ‘Famous Buddha images’, p. 18.

24 For this continuity, see Seneviratne, H. L., Rituals of the Kandyan state, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1978, p. 167ffGoogle Scholar.

25 For an overview of this phase of Lao history, see Stuart-Fox, M., A history of Laos, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p. 168ffGoogle Scholar.; Evans, G., A short history of Laos. The land in-between, Allen and Unwin, Crow's Nest, 2003, p. 150ffGoogle Scholar.

26 One has to remark that the revitalization of Buddhism outlined above happens under the relatively strict and successful surveillance of the state. For the genealogy of this relationship, see Ladwig, P., ‘Prediger der Revolution: Der buddhistische Klerus und seine Verbindungen zur Kommunistischen Bewegung in Laos (1957–1975)’, Jahrbuch für Historische Kommunismusforschung, Vol. 15, 2009, pp. 181–197Google Scholar. For the contemporary position of Buddhism, see Pholsena, V., Post-war Laos. The politics of culture, history and identity, Cornell University Press, New York, 2006, p. 70CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

27 Evans, The politics of ritual and remembrance, p. 41.

28 For an overview of the iconographic changes under reformed socialism, see Tappe, O., ‘A new banknote in the people's republic. The iconography of the Kip as a representation of ideological transformations in Laos (1957–2006)’, Internationales Asienforum, Vol. 38/1–2, 2007, pp. 87–108Google Scholar.

29 For the socialist period, see Long, C., ‘The Pathet Lao capital’, in Askew, M., Logan, W. and Long, C. (eds), Vientiane. Transformations of a Lao landscape, Routledge, London, 2007, p. 156Google Scholar. For the continuity of the sacred spatial layout around the That Luang and the construction of revolutionary monuments in the traditional style, see Martinez, R., ‘Remembering within a sacred space in Vientiane’, The Journal of Lao Studies, Vol. 2/2, 2011, pp. 75–103Google Scholar.

30 See Lorrillard, M., ‘Les inscriptions du That Luang de Vientiane: données nouvelles sur l’histoire d’un stupa lao’, Bulletin de l’Ecole Francaise d’Extreme-Orient, Vol. 90–91, 2003–04, pp. 317–318Google Scholar.

31 Askew, M., ‘From glory to ruins’, in Askew, Marc, Logan, William and Long, Colin (eds), Vientiane. Transformations of a Lao landscape, London, Routledge, 2007, p. 52Google Scholar.

32 Lorrillard, ‘Les inscriptions’, pp. 316–317.

33 See Ladwig, P., ‘Relics, “representation” and power. Some remarks on stupas containing relics of the Buddha in Laos’, Tai Culture, Vol. 5/1, 2000, pp. 70–84Google Scholar. For a wider contextualization of the link between Aśoka, relics, and political centralization, see the excellent study by Strong, J., The relics of the Buddha, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2004, p. 124ffGoogle Scholar.

34 For the living qualities of relics in early Indian Buddhism, see Schopen, G., ‘Burial ad sanctos and the physical presence of the Buddha in early Indian Buddhism. A study in the archaeology of religions’, Religion, Vol. 17/3, 1987, pp. 193–225CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For a theoretically informed and comparative study of Buddhist relics through time, see the introduction to the excellent volume by Germano and Trainor (eds), Embodying dharma, pp. 1–27.

35 For relics that bring the Buddha and the dhamma to life again and thereby reactualize the Sri Lankan Theravāda Buddhist tradition, see Trainor, K., Relics, ritual, and representation in Buddhism. Rematerializing the Sri Lankan Theravāda tradition, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1997Google Scholar. Although Sri Lanka is obviously a different case from Laos, I think that a comparison that is limited to Theravāda Buddhism (which in itself is already quite heterogeneous) allows for the discovery of certain shared features in Buddhist conceptions of relics.

36 Archaimbault, C. and Coedès, G., Les trois mondes (Traibhûmi Brah Rvan), École Française d’Extrême-Orient, Paris, 1973, p. 184Google Scholar.

37 According to Anderson, ‘power in traditional Javanese political thought is seen as an intangible, mysterious, and divine energy that animates the universe’ (‘The idea of power’, p. 7). Power is also a force that cannot be simply destroyed or created, but can be accumulated in the centre and then flow to the periphery. Relics and statues in Thai and Lao conceptions, described as saksit, derive from Sanskrit shakti (strength, source of empowerment) and sitthi (denoting supernatural powers). The term is often simply translated as ‘holy’, but it has the characteristics of an energy that can be stored or distributed.

38 For the concept of ming, see Granet, M., La pensée chinoise, Editions Albin Michel, Paris, 1968, p. 376Google Scholar.

39 For an account of the pre-revolutionary beliefs in the powers of the That Luang relic, see Zago, M., Rites et cérémonies en milieu bouddhiste lao, Universita Gregoriana, Rome, 1972, p. 328Google Scholar.

40 Premchit, S. and Amphay, D., The Lan Na twelve months traditions, Chiang Mai University Press, Chiang Mai, 1992, p. 128Google Scholar.

41 Strong, J. ‘Relics’ in Eliade, M. (ed.), Encyclopedia of religion, Macmillan, New York, 1987, Vol. 12, p. 280Google Scholar.

42 The last king of Laos was Savang Vatthana (1907–1984?) who resided in Luang Prabang, north of Laos. After the communist takeover, the Pathet Lao sent him and other members of his family to a ‘re-education camp’ from where he never returned. Revolutionary leader and long-term president of Laos Kaysone Phomvihane admitted during a visit to France that the king passed away in 1984 at the age of 77. See Evans, G., The last century of Lao royalty. A documentary history, Silkworm Books, Chiang Mai, 2009Google Scholar, for further details on the Lao royal family and its fate.

43 These were primarily related to the absence of symbols of royalty, the committee character of the organization, and the ‘commercialization’ of the rites at the cost of religious serenity. There is unfortunately no space here to look at the ethnography of the rite in detail, but for the discontinuities and contradictions caused through the absence of the king, see Evans, G., ‘Revolution and royal style: Problems of post-socialist legitimacy in Laos’ in Shore, C. and Nugent, S. (eds), Elite cultures: anthropological perspectives, Routledge, London, 2002, pp. 189–207Google Scholar.

44 For the semantic field of vaddhana, see Rhys-Davids, T. and Stede, W., Pāli-English dictionary, Minisharam Publishers, Dehli, 2001, p. 595Google Scholar.

45 The authenticity of this inscription has been heavily contested. See Wyatt, D., Thailand. A short history, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1984, p. 54ffGoogle Scholar.

46 For the cult of the present Thai king and that of Chulalongkorn, see Strengs, I., Worshipping the great moderniser: King Chulalongkorn, patron saint of the Thai middle class, NUS Press, Singapore, 2009Google Scholar. Although there have been significant adaptations of these modern forms of kingship, there are nevertheless also crucial continuities to be found. For King Mongkut (1805–1868), the alleged ‘science and technology modernizer’ of Siam, and predecessor of Chulalongkorn, see C. Wilson, ‘State and society in the reign of King Mongkut, 1851–1868: Thailand on the eve of modernization’, PhD thesis, Cornell University, 1970.

47 See the translation of the Luang Phabang chronicle by Phinit, S., Contribution à l’histoire du Royaume de Luang Prabang, École Française d’Extrême-Orient, Paris, 1987, p. 52Google Scholar.

48 For the Phabang and another important statue called Pha Keo (to be discussed later), see Lingat, R., ‘Le culte du Bouddha d’émeraude’, Journal of the Siam Society, Vol. 27/1, 1934, pp. 9–38Google Scholar. There are also many popular Lao books on the statues to be found in the market in Vientiane. See Vannacid, C., phavad phrabang [History of the Phabang], Thavisay Publishing, Vientiane, 2005Google Scholar; and Luangphasi, D., tamnan phra keo moradok[Chronicle of the Pha Keo statue], Mitkhanpim Publishers, Vientiane, 2006Google Scholar.

49 For the procession, see Evans, ‘Revolution and royal style’, p. 201. The discontinuities of this replacement process are more obvious in Luang Prabang than in Vientiane because the last Buddhist king resided there, whereas Vientiane—which was an independent kingdom before the colonial era—has had no resident king since the nineteenth century. Consequently, memories of the king and the associated rituals are much more alive in Luang Phabang. The discontinuity is also visible in the worship of the Sridhamma Aśoka stūpa in Luang Prabang. Before the revolution the king meditated close by the stupa in order to load himself with Buddhist dhamma and identify with King Aśoka. See Reynolds, ‘Ritual and social hierarchy’, p. 82. Lao politicians do not meditate any more, but participate in the ritual worship of the relic. Platenkamp's analysis suggests, however, that these discrepancies only had a marginal impact upon the cosmology in Luang Phabang. See Platenkamp, J., ‘Political change and ritual tenacity. The New Year's ritual of Luang Prabang (Laos)’ in Iteanu, A. (ed.), La cohérence en anthropologie sociale. Mélanges en hommage à Daniel de Coppet, Editions de la maison des sciences de l’homme, Paris, 2010, pp. 193–234Google Scholar. See also John Holt's (Spirits of the place, pp. 221–231) recent analysis of the interaction between Buddhism and spirit cults in the New Year celebrations.

50 See Tappe, O., Geschichte, Nationsbildung und Legitimationspolitik in Laos. Untersuchungen zur laotischen nationalen Historiographie und Ikonographie, LIT, Muenster, 2008, pp. 242–253Google Scholar.

51 Evans, G., ‘Immobile memories: statues in Thailand and Laos’ in Tanabe, S. and Keyes, C. (eds), Cultural crisis and social memory in Thailand and Laos, Routledge, London, 2002, p. 158Google Scholar.

52 See the recent study of this cult of kings and its significance for Lao nationalism: Grabowsky, V. and Tappe, O., ‘Important kings of Laos: translation and analysis of a Lao cartoon pamphlet’, The Journal of Lao Studies, Vol. 2/1, 2011, pp. 2–8Google Scholar.

53 New historical evidence suggests otherwise. See Lorrillard, M., ‘D’Angkor au Lån Xång: une révision des judgements’, Aséanie, Vol. 7/1, 2001, pp. 19–33CrossRefGoogle Scholar. However, the omnipresent references to King Fa Ngoum in conversations about the ‘origin’ of Lao Buddhism seems to confirm the success of these cultural politics that present the king as the ‘spiritual father of the Lao nation’.

54 Ministry of Information and Culture, Phu nampha sathapana anacak lan sang ekaphap phanya fa ngum laenglathòlani khophòp 650 pi [The leader and builder of the united kingdom of Lan Xang. Phanya Fa Ngoum. 650th anniversary],Vientiane, 2002, p. 13.

55 Ibid.

56 Gombrich, R., ‘Consecration of a Buddha image’, Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 26/1, 1966. p. 26CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

57 Swearer, D., Becoming the Buddha: the ritual of image consecration in Thailand, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2004, pp. 164–172Google Scholar.

58 Ibid, p. 211.

59 Tambiah, S., The Buddhist saints of the forest and the cult of amulets, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1984, p. 251CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

60 Bizot, F., ‘La consécration des statues et le culte des morts’, in Bizot, François (ed.), Recherches nouvelles sur le Cambodge, École Française d’Extrême-Orient, Paris, 1994, pp. 125–127Google Scholar.

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62 Ortner, S., ‘God's bodies, God's food. A symbolic analysis of a Sherpa ritual’, in Willis, R. (ed.), The interpretation of symbols, Wiley, New York, 1975, pp. 133–169Google Scholar.

63 The spirits living in these statues can embody themselves in human form through a medium. Close to the That Luang one finds a statue of King Setthathirath (1534–1572) that is also regularly worshipped by people. In 2005, when I attended the yearly rite for this entity, the spirit was appeased with a buffalo sacrifice and took possession of female spirit mediums (nang tiam) who then answered the questions of the numerous devotees attending the rite.

64 See Giesey, R., ‘The effigy as king alive’ in Giesey, R., The royal funeral ceremony in Renaissance France, Librairie Droz, Paris, p. 145ffGoogle Scholar. See also footnote 69 for further elaborations on the concept of a substitute body.

65 Tappe, ‘Geschichte, Nationsbildung’, pp. 85–87.

66 Lided translates from Sanskrit rddhi (‘supernatural power’) and teja (‘radiant energy, transcendent power’). See Reinhorn, M., Dictionnaire Laotien—Français, Éditions du Centre national de la Recherche scientifique, Paris, 2001, p. 1750Google Scholar. Pāli iddhi also denotes ‘supernatural power’.

67 Vientiane Times, 3 January 2003, p. 3.

68 Tambiah, The Buddhist saints, p. 253.

69 See Reynolds, F., ‘The several bodies of Buddha: reflections on a neglected aspect of the Theravāda tradition’, History of Religions, Vol. 16/4, 1977, p. 378CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Here one could also invoke Kantorowicz's study on the king's two bodies in medieval theology. Whereas the king's natural, mortal body (corpus naturale) would pass away with his death, he was also thought to have an enduring, supernatural (corpus mysticum) body that could not be destroyed. In this sense statues could be understood as a corpus mysticum. See Kantorowicz, E., The king's two bodies. A study in medieval political theology, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1957Google Scholar. For an excellent elaboration of Kantorowicz's analysis, and an application of his concepts to India and Africa, see Schnepel, B., Twinned beings: kings and effigies in southern Sudan, east India and Renaissance France, Institute for Advanced Studies in Social Anthropology, Gothenburg, 1995Google Scholar.

70 Vientiane Times, 3 January 2003, p. 4.

71 See the seminal study of Brown, P., The cult of the saints. Its rise and function in Latin Christianity, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1981, p. 106ffGoogle Scholar. Brown also paved the way for research on relics in Buddhism. However, one also has to point to the limitations of such wide-ranging comparisons. See J. Strong, ‘Buddhist relics in comparative perspective. Beyond the parallels’, in Germano and Trainor (eds), Embodying dharma, p. 43.

72 See, for example, Manning, P. and Meneley, A., ‘Material objects in cosmological worlds: an introduction’, Ethnos, Vol. 73/3, 2008, p. 289–90CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

73 Sharff, R., ‘On the allure of Buddhist relics’, Representations, Vol. 66/1, 1999, p. 81Google Scholar. For a theoretical elaboration of the problem of reference, trace, and representation of the immaterial, see Ladwig, P., ‘Ontology, materiality and spectral traces. Methodological thoughts on studying Lao Buddhist festivals for ghosts and ancestral spirits’, Anthropological Theory, Vol. 12/4, 2012, p. 431CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

74 Tambiah, ‘Famous Buddha images’, p. 18, my emphasis.

75 See Henare, A., Holbraad, M. and Wastell, S. (eds), Thinking through things: theorising artefacts ethnographically, Routledge, London, 2007Google Scholar. For a critical, in-depth assessment of the ontological turn in anthropology, see the Manchester round table discussion in anthropology: ‘Ontology is just another word for culture’, Critique of Anthropology, Vol. 30/2, pp. 152–200.

76 Henare et al., Thinking through things, p. 3.

77 Ibid. p. 2. For further theoretical elaboration of the implications of theories of materiality and the status of objects see, for example, Keane, W., ‘Subject and object’ in Tilley, C., Keane, W., Küchler, S., Rowlands, M. and Spyer, P. (eds), Handbook of material culture, Sage Press, New York, 2006, pp. 197–202Google Scholar. For the point that objects can embody complex intentionalities and mediate social agency, see Gell, A., Art and agency. An anthropological theory, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1998Google Scholar.

78 Focusing ‘on the agency of the things themselves’, he gives several examples of how specific ‘objects’ (relics, statues, murals, and other images) can be conceptualized beyond art history and iconography. See McDaniel, J., The lovelorn ghost and the magical monk. Practicing Buddhism in modern Thailand, Columbia University Press, New York, 2011, p. 164CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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80 Obviously, there are various possible explanations for this. These might be related to the missing ancestor lineages in the Lao kinship system and its cosmology, and the lack of charisma of the depicted figure. See Evans, ‘The politics of ritual and remembrance’, p. 24f. However, I think this is also grounded in the fact that these statues were produced in North Korea and were never ritually brought to life. Some Lao friends mentioned that these statues are just for ‘remembering the revolution’ and attributed no other qualities to them.

81 Wyatt, D., ‘Relics, oaths and politics in thirteenth-century Siam’, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 32/1, 2001, p. 31CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

82 Evans, ‘Immobile memories’, p. 195.

83 However, this could also be read the other way around: the new communist power holders took the Phabang to the revolutionary capital Vientiane in order to secure its power and have control over it.

84 See Narula, K. S., Voyage of the Emerald Buddha, Oxford University Press, Kuala Lumpur, 1994Google Scholar; and Notton, C., The chronicle of the Emerald Buddha, Bangkok Times Press, Bangkok, 1933Google Scholar.

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86 Davis, S., Song and silence. Ethnic revival on China's southwest borders, Columbia University Press, New York, 2005, pp. 163–166CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

87 Leach, E., ‘Buddhism in the post-colonial political order in Burma and Ceylon’, Daedalus, Vol. 102/1, 1973, p. 40Google Scholar.

88 The secular and religious are now widely recognized as having specific historical genealogies. See Asad, T., Formations of the secular: Christianity, Islam, modernity, Stanford University Press, Stanford, 2003Google Scholar. For a tentative application of some of these insights to the case of Lao Buddhism, see Ladwig, P., ‘The genesis and demarcation of the religious field: monasteries, state schools, and the secular sphere in Lao Buddhism (1893–1975)’, Sojourn. Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia, Vol. 26/2, 2011, pp. 210ffGoogle Scholar.