Burma's mass lay meditation movement : Buddhism and the cultural construction of power / Ingrid Jordt.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jordt, Ingrid.

Series:

Research in international studies. Southeast Asia series ; no. 115.

Ohio University research in international studies. Southeast Asia series ; no. 115

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Buddhism--Social aspects--Burma.

Buddhism.

Buddhist laymen--Burma.

Buddhist laymen.

Buddhism and politics--Burma.

Buddhism and politics.

Human rights movements--Burma.

Human rights movements.

Buddhism--Social aspects.

Burma.

Physical Description:

xxii, 265 pages, 14 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 22 cm.

Place of Publication:

Athens : Ohio University Press, [2007]

Summary:

Burma's Mass Lay Meditation Movement: Buddhism and the Cultural Construction of Power describes a transformation in Buddhist practice in contemporary Burma. This revitalization movement has had real consequences for how the oppressive military junta, in power since the early 1960s, governs the country.

Drawing on more than ten years of extensive fieldwork in Burma, Ingrid Jordt explains how vipassana meditation has brought about a change of worldview for millions of individuals, enabling them to think and act independently of the totalitarian regime. She addresses human rights as well as the relationship between politics and religion in a country in which neither the government nor the people clearly separates the two. Jordt explains how the movement has been successful in its challenge to the Burmese military dictatorship where democratically inspired resistance movements have failed.

Jordt's unsurpassed access to the centers of political and religious power in Burma enables the reader to witness the political workings of one of the world's most secretive and tyrannically ruled countries. Burma's Mass Lay Meditation Movement is a valuable contribution to Buddhist studies as well as to anthropology, religious studies, and political science.

Contents:

1 Rise of the New Laity and the Restitution of the Ternary Order 15

2 The Phenomenology of Satipatthana Vipassnna Meditation 56

3 Sacred Giving and the Politics of Sincerity 96

4 The Double Order of Law Monks, Gender, and Resistance 139

5 From Relations of Power to Relations of Authority The Dynamics of Symbolic Legitimacy 170.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [251]-257) and index.

ISBN:

9780896802551

0896802558

OCLC:

156817276

Online:

Contributor biographical information

Publisher description