Abstract:Burma's nats have formed part of that country's spiritual and material culture for centuries, and first came to the attention of the West via traveler and colonial memoirs. The most notable of these such accounts is undoubtedly Sir Richard Carnac Temple's The Thirty-Seven Nats: A Phase of Spirit-Worship Prevailing in Burma, published in 1906 and still cited by scholars today.This article argues that the reliance by Western (and some Burmese) authors on Temple's book has led to several misconceptions concerning the nats. These include, for example, that the pantheon known in the West as "The Thirty-Seven Nats" is a royal pantheon constituted by Anawrahta in the 11th century, under the leadership of Thakya Min (Sakka), in order to enfold the nats into Buddhism. Yet primary sources, including Burmese court documents, paint a much fuller picture of the nats, detailing three separate pantheons of 37. Each pantheon contains very different types of nat, each of which played a specific role throughout Burma's history.Following a clarification of these pantheons, this paper draws on extant primary sources to suggest a different interpretation of the "Thirty-Seven Nats" and their role vis-à-vis Burma's kings. The source material available to R.C. Temple is also considered, which reveals significant information which Temple overlooked when writing his book. This led, in turn, to wrongly identified illustrations included in his book, which obscured the identity of a "Thirty-Eighth Nat." These errors have also had an impact on how one of the most prominent nats is depicted in more recent publications.
{"title":"Counting to 37: Sir Richard Carnac Temple and the Thirty-Eighth Nat","authors":"Sally Bamford","doi":"10.1353/jbs.2019.0010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jbs.2019.0010","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Burma's nats have formed part of that country's spiritual and material culture for centuries, and first came to the attention of the West via traveler and colonial memoirs. The most notable of these such accounts is undoubtedly Sir Richard Carnac Temple's The Thirty-Seven Nats: A Phase of Spirit-Worship Prevailing in Burma, published in 1906 and still cited by scholars today.This article argues that the reliance by Western (and some Burmese) authors on Temple's book has led to several misconceptions concerning the nats. These include, for example, that the pantheon known in the West as \"The Thirty-Seven Nats\" is a royal pantheon constituted by Anawrahta in the 11th century, under the leadership of Thakya Min (Sakka), in order to enfold the nats into Buddhism. Yet primary sources, including Burmese court documents, paint a much fuller picture of the nats, detailing three separate pantheons of 37. Each pantheon contains very different types of nat, each of which played a specific role throughout Burma's history.Following a clarification of these pantheons, this paper draws on extant primary sources to suggest a different interpretation of the \"Thirty-Seven Nats\" and their role vis-à-vis Burma's kings. The source material available to R.C. Temple is also considered, which reveals significant information which Temple overlooked when writing his book. This led, in turn, to wrongly identified illustrations included in his book, which obscured the identity of a \"Thirty-Eighth Nat.\" These errors have also had an impact on how one of the most prominent nats is depicted in more recent publications.","PeriodicalId":53638,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Burma Studies","volume":"23 1","pages":"163 - 252"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/jbs.2019.0010","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43495620","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:Anchored in an ethnic-state structure since the 1947 Panglong Agreement, ethnic politics and ethnic determinism in Burma have become imprescriptible in the eyes of various actors, especially ethnic and religious elites, the military junta, civilian authorities, civil society, academics and international bodies. Based on years of field surveys devoted to the study of multiethnic crossroads and the de facto landscapes of hybridity in the highlands of Burma, the anthropological perspective of this paper invites us to leave the identity trap. An essentialist notion of ethnicity is not only at the root of the country's ongoing civil war, but also continues to dictate parliamentary politics in the country. This paper will also consider how the democratic transition is itself caught up in this identity trap.
{"title":"Thinking Through Heterogeneity: An Anthropological Look at Contemporary Myanmar","authors":"F. Robinne","doi":"10.1353/jbs.2019.0012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jbs.2019.0012","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Anchored in an ethnic-state structure since the 1947 Panglong Agreement, ethnic politics and ethnic determinism in Burma have become imprescriptible in the eyes of various actors, especially ethnic and religious elites, the military junta, civilian authorities, civil society, academics and international bodies. Based on years of field surveys devoted to the study of multiethnic crossroads and the de facto landscapes of hybridity in the highlands of Burma, the anthropological perspective of this paper invites us to leave the identity trap. An essentialist notion of ethnicity is not only at the root of the country's ongoing civil war, but also continues to dictate parliamentary politics in the country. This paper will also consider how the democratic transition is itself caught up in this identity trap.","PeriodicalId":53638,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Burma Studies","volume":"23 1","pages":"285 - 322"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/jbs.2019.0012","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44084256","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:The Arakanese monk Sangharaja Saramedha (1801–82) received titles from the British colonial government in 1846, Chittagong's Chakma court in 1857, and the Burmese kingdom in 1868. Highlighting Sangharaja Saramedha's importance in understanding the cross-border history of Buddhism in the Arakan-Chittagong region, this paper lays out the politics of these state titles to the same monk. It argues that the British colonial and the Burmese counter-colonial states invoked the image of or even projected themselves as, the mahādhammarāja (great righteous ruler) to advance their colonial and anti-colonial political agendas. In between these expanding and contracting empires, the colonized ruler Rani Kalindi of the Chittagong Hill Tracts employed the same Arakanese monk to avert the most consequential of all colonial interventions for the Chakma court: the colonial hill-plain separation of Chittagong and dividing the hills into three regions. Rani Kalindi's title to the monk stood as a response to the colonial Bengali-Arakanese ethnic discourse, the underlying force of the colonial hill-plain separation. Rani Kalindi could not forestall the 1860 hill-plain separation nor the resulting emergence of the Arakanese Buddhists as a distinct hill people who extracted the place, people, and properties that the Chakma court had hitherto enjoyed. Nevertheless, she contributed tremendously to the mid-nineteenth century Buddhist reformation in Chittagong that still reverberates in Chittagong and wider Bengal as the legacy of Sangharaja Saramedha.
{"title":"Thrice-Honored Sangharaja Saramedha (1801-1882): Arakan-Chittagong Buddhism across Colonial and Counter-Colonial Power","authors":"D. Barua","doi":"10.1353/jbs.2019.0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jbs.2019.0002","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:The Arakanese monk Sangharaja Saramedha (1801–82) received titles from the British colonial government in 1846, Chittagong's Chakma court in 1857, and the Burmese kingdom in 1868. Highlighting Sangharaja Saramedha's importance in understanding the cross-border history of Buddhism in the Arakan-Chittagong region, this paper lays out the politics of these state titles to the same monk. It argues that the British colonial and the Burmese counter-colonial states invoked the image of or even projected themselves as, the mahādhammarāja (great righteous ruler) to advance their colonial and anti-colonial political agendas. In between these expanding and contracting empires, the colonized ruler Rani Kalindi of the Chittagong Hill Tracts employed the same Arakanese monk to avert the most consequential of all colonial interventions for the Chakma court: the colonial hill-plain separation of Chittagong and dividing the hills into three regions. Rani Kalindi's title to the monk stood as a response to the colonial Bengali-Arakanese ethnic discourse, the underlying force of the colonial hill-plain separation. Rani Kalindi could not forestall the 1860 hill-plain separation nor the resulting emergence of the Arakanese Buddhists as a distinct hill people who extracted the place, people, and properties that the Chakma court had hitherto enjoyed. Nevertheless, she contributed tremendously to the mid-nineteenth century Buddhist reformation in Chittagong that still reverberates in Chittagong and wider Bengal as the legacy of Sangharaja Saramedha.","PeriodicalId":53638,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Burma Studies","volume":"23 1","pages":"37 - 85"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/jbs.2019.0002","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44626990","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
A posting on Facebook provides an unexpected addition to the publication of “A Buddha Image for Exorcism,” The Journal of Burma Studies 20, no. 2 (2016): 335–372. The journal article established the identity and manner in which a noncanonical Buddha image was most likely created and used by Buddhist wizards (weikza). These conclusions are now corroborated and expanded by photographs, a video clip, and a note posted by Hla Than Aung (www.facebook.com/ aung.hlathan/posts/1754717078153948; Posted: 9 September 2017; Accessed: 18 February 2019). The image on Facebook, reportedly used especially for exorcism, is clearly akin to that in the Burma Art Collection, Northern Illinois University (NIU), although it is more recently and crudely cast in a silver-colored metal rather than bronze. The iconography and dress are alike: the standing image holds a myrobalan fruit in each hand, the left hand extended forward; the right, not left, shoulder is covered by the robe (the sanghati robe is not indicated); there are four (instead of nine) sa, da, ba, wa “in” or cabalistic squares on the chest and back and on both palms; bits along the inner margin of the middle finger on the right hand are missing (deliberately removed?); the hair of both figures resembles a cap, and on the internet image there may be an addition to the original; a wide belt girds the figure and there is a “relic” or “philosopher stone” pellet inside. Hla Than Aung notes:
Facebook上的一条帖子为《缅甸研究杂志》第20期第2期（2016）：335–372期的“驱魔佛像”出版物提供了一个意想不到的补充。这篇期刊文章确定了佛教巫师（weikza）最有可能创造和使用非经典佛像的身份和方式。这些结论现在通过照片、视频剪辑和Hla Than Aung发布的笔记得到了证实和扩展（www.facebook.com/Aung.hlatan/posts/1754717078153948；发布时间：2017年9月9日；访问时间：2019年2月18日）。据报道，脸书上的这张图片是专门用于驱魔的，显然与北伊利诺伊大学缅甸艺术收藏馆的图片相似，尽管它是最近用银色金属而不是青铜铸造的。肖像画和服装都很相似：站立的图像每只手拿着一个月桂果，左手向前伸出；右边，而不是左边，肩膀被长袍覆盖（桑提长袍没有显示）；胸部、背部和双手手掌上有四个（而不是九个）sa、da、ba、wa“in”或cabalistic方块；右手中指内缘的碎屑缺失（故意去除？）；这两个人物的头发都像一顶帽子，在互联网上的图片可能是在原来的基础上添加的；一条宽腰带将雕像围起来，里面有一块“遗迹”或“哲人石”。Hla Than Aung指出：
{"title":"Smoke, No Fire","authors":"Richard M. Cooler","doi":"10.1353/jbs.2019.0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jbs.2019.0005","url":null,"abstract":"A posting on Facebook provides an unexpected addition to the publication of “A Buddha Image for Exorcism,” The Journal of Burma Studies 20, no. 2 (2016): 335–372. The journal article established the identity and manner in which a noncanonical Buddha image was most likely created and used by Buddhist wizards (weikza). These conclusions are now corroborated and expanded by photographs, a video clip, and a note posted by Hla Than Aung (www.facebook.com/ aung.hlathan/posts/1754717078153948; Posted: 9 September 2017; Accessed: 18 February 2019). The image on Facebook, reportedly used especially for exorcism, is clearly akin to that in the Burma Art Collection, Northern Illinois University (NIU), although it is more recently and crudely cast in a silver-colored metal rather than bronze. The iconography and dress are alike: the standing image holds a myrobalan fruit in each hand, the left hand extended forward; the right, not left, shoulder is covered by the robe (the sanghati robe is not indicated); there are four (instead of nine) sa, da, ba, wa “in” or cabalistic squares on the chest and back and on both palms; bits along the inner margin of the middle finger on the right hand are missing (deliberately removed?); the hair of both figures resembles a cap, and on the internet image there may be an addition to the original; a wide belt girds the figure and there is a “relic” or “philosopher stone” pellet inside. Hla Than Aung notes:","PeriodicalId":53638,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Burma Studies","volume":"23 1","pages":"143 - 146"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/jbs.2019.0005","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43407189","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:The Name (2008-) is an on-going sound and image installation by Burmese artist couple Wah Nu and Tun Win Aung, featuring 33 portraits of important Burmese figures from the colonial era. Based on a systematic process of work that resembles the methodology of work of historians, the artists aim at correcting the way colonial history has been told and taught in the country. However, rather than being a mere post-colonial discourse and far from a didactic artwork, the installation plunges the viewer into an immersive experience that re-actualizes a myth of resistance and freedom, challenging both past and present productions of historical narratives. This article examines the artists' innovative engagement in research, which seems to be as much a means to gather information and facts about history as a strategy aiming at legitimizing a renewed historical perspective. It sheds light on the artists' potential position in society as initiators of emancipatory modes of knowledge production and as creators of alternative historical narratives.
{"title":"Research as Strategy: Reactivating Mythologies and Building a Collective Memory in Wah Nu and Tun Win Aung's The Name (2008-)","authors":"Caroline Ha Thuc","doi":"10.1353/jbs.2019.0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jbs.2019.0003","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:The Name (2008-) is an on-going sound and image installation by Burmese artist couple Wah Nu and Tun Win Aung, featuring 33 portraits of important Burmese figures from the colonial era. Based on a systematic process of work that resembles the methodology of work of historians, the artists aim at correcting the way colonial history has been told and taught in the country. However, rather than being a mere post-colonial discourse and far from a didactic artwork, the installation plunges the viewer into an immersive experience that re-actualizes a myth of resistance and freedom, challenging both past and present productions of historical narratives. This article examines the artists' innovative engagement in research, which seems to be as much a means to gather information and facts about history as a strategy aiming at legitimizing a renewed historical perspective. It sheds light on the artists' potential position in society as initiators of emancipatory modes of knowledge production and as creators of alternative historical narratives.","PeriodicalId":53638,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Burma Studies","volume":"23 1","pages":"124 - 87"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/jbs.2019.0003","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46067905","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Constitutionalism and Legal Change in Myanmar ed. by Andrew Harding (review)","authors":"Elliott Prasse-Freeman","doi":"10.1353/jbs.2019.0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jbs.2019.0007","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":53638,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Burma Studies","volume":"23 1","pages":"150 - 154"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/jbs.2019.0007","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47132932","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Imperial Intoxication: Alcohol and the Making of Colonial Indochina by Gerard Sasges (review)","authors":"Luke Corbin","doi":"10.1353/jbs.2019.0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jbs.2019.0006","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":53638,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Burma Studies","volume":"23 1","pages":"147 - 150"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/jbs.2019.0006","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44239500","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:This article examines the role of Free Funeral Service Societies in informing ongoing changes in Burmese society in two aspects: economy of merit and civil society. This article shows how Free Funeral Service Societies supersede existing neighborhood mutual-aid associations in providing funeral services, thus creating an emerging civil society space in which to imagine social goodness through charitable giving and voluntary social work, as a form of merit-making practice, intended to alleviate suffering. This article argues that Free Funeral Service Societies have created and provided institutionalized access to a laicized economy of merit. This laicized economy of merit focuses on the role of laypersons in social welfare provision for the general public, rather than the ritual exchange between lay donors and monastic recipients central to the conventional practice of merit-making. As Free Funeral Service Societies have upheld and promoted a non-exclusive approach to social welfare provision that does not discriminate on the basis of race and religion, a socially-inclusive ethos has been growing. Free Funeral Service Societies have become a location for interfaith collaboration where individuals and organizations both with Buddhist and non-Buddhist affiliations can engage in moral cultivation and liberation through provision of social welfare for the public. This article argues that Free Funeral Service Societies are creating a civil society in the making that transcends and encompasses long-existing ethnic and religious divisions in Myanmar.
{"title":"Making Merit, Making Civil Society: Free Funeral Service Societies and Merit-Making in Contemporary Myanmar","authors":"Mu‐Lung Hsu","doi":"10.1353/jbs.2019.0001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jbs.2019.0001","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This article examines the role of Free Funeral Service Societies in informing ongoing changes in Burmese society in two aspects: economy of merit and civil society. This article shows how Free Funeral Service Societies supersede existing neighborhood mutual-aid associations in providing funeral services, thus creating an emerging civil society space in which to imagine social goodness through charitable giving and voluntary social work, as a form of merit-making practice, intended to alleviate suffering. This article argues that Free Funeral Service Societies have created and provided institutionalized access to a laicized economy of merit. This laicized economy of merit focuses on the role of laypersons in social welfare provision for the general public, rather than the ritual exchange between lay donors and monastic recipients central to the conventional practice of merit-making. As Free Funeral Service Societies have upheld and promoted a non-exclusive approach to social welfare provision that does not discriminate on the basis of race and religion, a socially-inclusive ethos has been growing. Free Funeral Service Societies have become a location for interfaith collaboration where individuals and organizations both with Buddhist and non-Buddhist affiliations can engage in moral cultivation and liberation through provision of social welfare for the public. This article argues that Free Funeral Service Societies are creating a civil society in the making that transcends and encompasses long-existing ethnic and religious divisions in Myanmar.","PeriodicalId":53638,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Burma Studies","volume":"23 1","pages":"1 - 36"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/jbs.2019.0001","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66395172","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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