Bénédicte Brac de la Perrière is a research director at the Centre Asie du Sud-Est (EHESS/CNRS). She received her PhD in social anthropology at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, Paris, in 1984. She is presently based at Yangon for IRASEC, Bangkok. Address: Centre Asie du Sud-Est, CNRS-EHESS, 190 av de France, 75013 Paris, France. E-mail:
關鍵詞
Preaching; Burmese; Monks; Social Action; Sermon (Literary Form)
摘要
This paper focuses on the career of a Burmese preaching monk and on what happened to him in November 2011, following a particularly successful series of sermons on the ‘ten duties of a Buddhist king’. Belonging to the lineage of the Mogok abbot, this monk was known as the ‘Frying pan’ abbot and had gained a considerable influence through the combination of systematic preaching and of humanitarian aid and social action. The turn to mass preaching was aimed, in his case, to implement moral reform and located him in the monastic lineages that contest established powers to such an extent that, eventually, he was banned from large public preaching in the region of Rangoon by the religious body administrating the Sangha. This case is examined from the point of view of renunciation that defines the position occupied by monks in Theravadin societies as opposed to that of the laity, and as representative of a specific moment in the articulation of religion and politics in Myanmar.
目次
The Kyaikkasan field sermon 167 Landmarks in the recent history of power and Buddhism in Myanmar 169 A monk in the local context 170 The career of a preaching monk 171 A specific method of preaching 173 The ambiguity of preaching as a religious deed 174 An outstanding figure at the edge of the religious order (Sangha) 177 Mass preaching and underground circulation 178 The fall of the ‘Frying pan’ abbot 180 The place of Buddhist monks in transitional Myanmar 182 Notes 183 References 185
